What's considered "rigorous" in the W-L IB Program?

[Anonymous]

Probably the wrong forum for me to post this but.... I've been told (by career counselors, college advisors, parent of older kids) that colleges are so overwhelmed with well-qualified applicants, (many) admissions bin and group the applicants into categories (area, SAT, GPA) then essentially use a lottery-like process to select for admissions from those bins. That's why your neighbor's similarly-qualified kid gets into UVA while your does not.

So, I think it is not worth stressing about individual classes.

[Anonymous]

surviving W-L, itself, is rigorous...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what a lot of APS parents don't realize is that colleges are looking at Northern Virginia as a region, and not just APS specifically. So APS kids are competing with each other, but also with kids from Fairfax, FCC, Alexandria, and Loudoun. If you are talking about IB, FCC does a lot better job of infusing the entire 6-12 curriculum with IB instead of just 11th & 12th grade. Similarly, FCPS offers a more accelerated math and computer science track than APS through their AAP program, which opens the door for FCPS kids to take more AP classes in math and comp sci earlier in high school. I do think that makes it harder for a smart APS student to stand out to colleges from among the wider NoVA student community, particularly if they don't have an athletic hook.

Hmmm. I'm not so sure about that. I've listened to an admissions dean talk about it and they said they look at each school individually. In Arlington alone, you can't compare across schools. W-L has IB and students can take an AP in freshman year. YHS doesn't offer AP World until sophomore year and, unless it has changed, restricts and other AP classes (excluding Euro or HUG) until Junior year. I'm not familiar with WLHS, but it has had AP Seminar for years and other schools just recently added it, too late for many graduating this year. They look at each school on its own.

(I assume PP means WHS has AP seminar, not WLHS).
This is more aligned with what I’ve heard as well. Yes, schools want geographic diversity & lump Nova schools together in that way. But they look at the courses a kid took in the context of what was offered at that school. Not saying, “oh they should have moved to Loudoun to get more of X, Y, or Z.”