Rigor Question: Will top50 colleges hold it against my DD that she never took an AP math class (calc at reg level)?
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Anonymous
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DD will be a humanities or social science major. Currently undecided.
She is at a rigorous public school outside DMV. (We are ex-DMV so I am still on this site a lot hehe!) DD's unweighted GPA is 3.9. She has lots of strong ECs and great recommendations (humanities, not STEM). She's taken 8 APs 4 in social studies (history, econ, psychology) 2 in english 1 in science (APES) 1 in language 0 math (but she did take precalc and signed up for calc AB, just not AP level) Will her low STEM APs and no Math AP hurt her? |
Anonymous
| Too hard to answer, if the other stuff is amazing (test score, EC’s, LOR) then they will overlook it. |
Anonymous
DD has strong LOR/ECs but I think will be going test optional for SAT (given lower math score, verbal score extremely high). DD has all 5s on AP Exams in Spanish, English, and History/Social Studies. |
Anonymous
| T10 or so, yes. Lower, no. |
Anonymous
| Does she have a strong math SAT score? If not, I would say look at schools in the 50-75 range. But certainly apply to Top 50’s as you never know. You have to take your shot. |
Anonymous
| 50 is a random nubmer, ther is not difference between 40 and 80. |
Anonymous
| Have to evaluate in the context of your high school. If the humanities kids in your school previously went to Yale and Harvard never took AP cal, more likely than not your DC will be fine. |
Anonymous
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Maybe. Your kid will be compared against other applicants in her school. If they're similar to her, but also doing AP Math, then yes.
Plus there's a big difference between T10 and T50...depends on which range of the spectrum she's really targeting. |
Anonymous
| The answer, OP, is yes. She will have a very one-sided application, particularly if she goes test optional, and she has virtually no chance at a top 25 university. Sorry. |
Anonymous
OP said DD's SAT math score was low so she's going to apply Test Optional. |
Anonymous
Definitely include AP scores on common app if going TO. |
Anonymous
Yes thank you I am planning to! DD has all 5s in non-STEM APs, including Spanish. |
Anonymous
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She will be fine if all her AP scores are 5 and her SAT or ACT scores high
you can't just show one piece of the pie and expect a comprehensive answer |
Anonymous
One other thought, could consider trying ACT if haven’t. My humanities kid terrible in math had perfect reading, English, high science and bad math, but still landed them with strong score overall despite it. |
Anonymous
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First, I want to say that your daughter sounds amazing and I'm sure she will get into a great college and do well. So this is not something to fret about.
Having said that, I do think that her lack of rigor is going to be an uphill battle at most of the T25. I wouldn't completely write off 25-50, but she is definitely going to want to identify some great schools she likes in the 50-100 range too. Not all APs are created equal and she is definitely missing the more rigorous ones, specifically AP Bio or Chem, and an AP level Math. Which histories did she take (hopefully World and/or APUSH) and did she get 5's? Did she get a 5 on her AP foreign language test? I do think strength in these areas can do something to overcome the lack of the other AP's. But it makes her a "pointy" kid rather than well-rounded and I don't think her college counselor will be able to say that she "took the most rigorous course load available." I think she'd have a great chance applying ED to somewhere like William & Mary. |