APS HS Intensified Classes?

[Anonymous]

Yes colleges notice if you take honors/intensified classes. They are comparing kids from the same school for admission.

Better peer group in general. (Still sometimes kids who are a distraction but better.)

Marginally more work but then better preparation for APs.

What’s the upside of a kid who can handle intensified taking regular classes other than trying to do the minimal amount possible? And is that an upside?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our APS HS counselor told us that colleges do not see the difference unless they are AP classes- meaning- think of the 10000s of applications they get- they are not looking through them 1 by 1 to see if someone is in honors vs intensified vs whatever word that particular school system uses. And how would you compare an honors class in rural MS vs one in APS? They don't have time for that. I'm not going to name the counselor but they said they let the parents think it makes a difference b/c the APS parents are nuts and want to feel like their kid is on the most intense path possible. That being said - they counselors DO put a note in the application that says if your kid is taking the "most advanced path" but since that is subjective, they write that for many kids even if every possible class isn't intensified/AP.

And to be transparent- my kids do take AP and intensified classes. One kid dropped an intensified class freshman year and that's why we had this discussion with the counselor.

I don’t think that APS counselor gave very good advice. Have you ever looked at a transcript? It says “intensified.” And admission officers’ jobs is to know the school systems in their assigned area. They know the difference.

Do you think they’re looking at thousands of applications and tallying up on a piece of paper how many have seven intensified classes versus eight?

You don’t understand how college admissions work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our APS HS counselor told us that colleges do not see the difference unless they are AP classes- meaning- think of the 10000s of applications they get- they are not looking through them 1 by 1 to see if someone is in honors vs intensified vs whatever word that particular school system uses. And how would you compare an honors class in rural MS vs one in APS? They don't have time for that. I'm not going to name the counselor but they said they let the parents think it makes a difference b/c the APS parents are nuts and want to feel like their kid is on the most intense path possible. That being said - they counselors DO put a note in the application that says if your kid is taking the "most advanced path" but since that is subjective, they write that for many kids even if every possible class isn't intensified/AP.

And to be transparent- my kids do take AP and intensified classes. One kid dropped an intensified class freshman year and that's why we had this discussion with the counselor.

I don’t think that APS counselor gave very good advice. Have you ever looked at a transcript? It says “intensified.” And admission officers’ jobs is to know the school systems in their assigned area. They know the difference.

Do you think they’re looking at thousands of applications and tallying up on a piece of paper how many have seven intensified classes versus eight?

You don’t understand how college admissions work.

Not that PP, but I think she’s right… of course they care about rigor, but intensified classes aren’t even weighted in APS, and it’s my understanding that admissions folks care more about an overall trend of rigor vs whether a kid took one particular intensified class in 9th grade.

A friend whose kid just went through the college application/acceptance phase told me the same— it’s the bigger picture, not the minutiae of one class here or there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our APS HS counselor told us that colleges do not see the difference unless they are AP classes- meaning- think of the 10000s of applications they get- they are not looking through them 1 by 1 to see if someone is in honors vs intensified vs whatever word that particular school system uses. And how would you compare an honors class in rural MS vs one in APS? They don't have time for that. I'm not going to name the counselor but they said they let the parents think it makes a difference b/c the APS parents are nuts and want to feel like their kid is on the most intense path possible. That being said - they counselors DO put a note in the application that says if your kid is taking the "most advanced path" but since that is subjective, they write that for many kids even if every possible class isn't intensified/AP.

And to be transparent- my kids do take AP and intensified classes. One kid dropped an intensified class freshman year and that's why we had this discussion with the counselor.

I don’t think that APS counselor gave very good advice. Have you ever looked at a transcript? It says “intensified.” And admission officers’ jobs is to know the school systems in their assigned area. They know the difference.

Do you think they’re looking at thousands of applications and tallying up on a piece of paper how many have seven intensified classes versus eight?

You don’t understand how college admissions work.

Not that PP, but I think she’s right… of course they care about rigor, but intensified classes aren’t even weighted in APS, and it’s my understanding that admissions folks care more about an overall trend of rigor vs whether a kid took one particular intensified class in 9th grade.

A friend whose kid just went through the college application/acceptance phase told me the same— it’s the bigger picture, not the minutiae of one class here or there.

I also understand that it's important for kids to take the more challenging course "track" so they are ready for AP classes, IB, and other more difficult classes. I wouldn't encourage my kid to plan to jump from a regular English track to AP English Lit. Intensified classes help students be ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our APS HS counselor told us that colleges do not see the difference unless they are AP classes- meaning- think of the 10000s of applications they get- they are not looking through them 1 by 1 to see if someone is in honors vs intensified vs whatever word that particular school system uses. And how would you compare an honors class in rural MS vs one in APS? They don't have time for that. I'm not going to name the counselor but they said they let the parents think it makes a difference b/c the APS parents are nuts and want to feel like their kid is on the most intense path possible. That being said - they counselors DO put a note in the application that says if your kid is taking the "most advanced path" but since that is subjective, they write that for many kids even if every possible class isn't intensified/AP.

And to be transparent- my kids do take AP and intensified classes. One kid dropped an intensified class freshman year and that's why we had this discussion with the counselor.

I don’t think that APS counselor gave very good advice. Have you ever looked at a transcript? It says “intensified.” And admission officers’ jobs is to know the school systems in their assigned area. They know the difference.

Do you think they’re looking at thousands of applications and tallying up on a piece of paper how many have seven intensified classes versus eight?

You don’t understand how college admissions work.

Not that PP, but I think she’s right… of course they care about rigor, but intensified classes aren’t even weighted in APS, and it’s my understanding that admissions folks care more about an overall trend of rigor vs whether a kid took one particular intensified class in 9th grade.

A friend whose kid just went through the college application/acceptance phase told me the same— it’s the bigger picture, not the minutiae of one class here or there.

Of course I think a one off regular class is not going to be noticed but a kid who chooses all regular vs a kid doing intensified classes would be noticed for selective schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our APS HS counselor told us that colleges do not see the difference unless they are AP classes- meaning- think of the 10000s of applications they get- they are not looking through them 1 by 1 to see if someone is in honors vs intensified vs whatever word that particular school system uses. And how would you compare an honors class in rural MS vs one in APS? They don't have time for that. I'm not going to name the counselor but they said they let the parents think it makes a difference b/c the APS parents are nuts and want to feel like their kid is on the most intense path possible. That being said - they counselors DO put a note in the application that says if your kid is taking the "most advanced path" but since that is subjective, they write that for many kids even if every possible class isn't intensified/AP.

And to be transparent- my kids do take AP and intensified classes. One kid dropped an intensified class freshman year and that's why we had this discussion with the counselor.

I don’t think that APS counselor gave very good advice. Have you ever looked at a transcript? It says “intensified.” And admission officers’ jobs is to know the school systems in their assigned area. They know the difference.

Do you think they’re looking at thousands of applications and tallying up on a piece of paper how many have seven intensified classes versus eight?

You don’t understand how college admissions work.

Not that PP, but I think she’s right… of course they care about rigor, but intensified classes aren’t even weighted in APS, and it’s my understanding that admissions folks care more about an overall trend of rigor vs whether a kid took one particular intensified class in 9th grade.

A friend whose kid just went through the college application/acceptance phase told me the same— it’s the bigger picture, not the minutiae of one class here or there.

I also understand that it's important for kids to take the more challenging course "track" so they are ready for AP classes, IB, and other more difficult classes. I wouldn't encourage my kid to plan to jump from a regular English track to AP English Lit. Intensified classes help students be ready.

+1. DC is in 10th-- the intensified classes move faster and seem to prepare students better for AP classes. The intensified math classes seem to move *much* faster than the regular ones. If your kid wants to do AP/IB, I would keep them in intensified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real benefit of intensified is the peer group. I do know a lot of kids who skip intensified bio and chem because they don't want to do the science fair.

+1 My son was one who skipped intensified sciences, didn't do any AP sciences either. But took the highest math track, AP English and History classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 10th. I don’t know the real differences… I think officially, intensified students have to do a project, and regular classes don’t. I can say that intensified English 9 and intensified world history were not especially taxing/were not a ton of work. The science classes more so, but I don’t know what the non-intensified ones looked like.

One benefit can be weeding out kids who don’t really want to be at school/don’t care.

This and the sped kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in 10th. I don’t know the real differences… I think officially, intensified students have to do a project, and regular classes don’t. I can say that intensified English 9 and intensified world history were not especially taxing/were not a ton of work. The science classes more so, but I don’t know what the non-intensified ones looked like.

One benefit can be weeding out kids who don’t really want to be at school/don’t care.

This and the sped kids.

Not necessarily… there are more 2E kids out there than you might think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our APS HS counselor told us that colleges do not see the difference unless they are AP classes- meaning- think of the 10000s of applications they get- they are not looking through them 1 by 1 to see if someone is in honors vs intensified vs whatever word that particular school system uses. And how would you compare an honors class in rural MS vs one in APS? They don't have time for that. I'm not going to name the counselor but they said they let the parents think it makes a difference b/c the APS parents are nuts and want to feel like their kid is on the most intense path possible. That being said - they counselors DO put a note in the application that says if your kid is taking the "most advanced path" but since that is subjective, they write that for many kids even if every possible class isn't intensified/AP.

And to be transparent- my kids do take AP and intensified classes. One kid dropped an intensified class freshman year and that's why we had this discussion with the counselor.

I don’t think that APS counselor gave very good advice. Have you ever looked at a transcript? It says “intensified.” And admission officers’ jobs is to know the school systems in their assigned area. They know the difference.

Do you think they’re looking at thousands of applications and tallying up on a piece of paper how many have seven intensified classes versus eight?

Yes colleges absolutely look at the rigor of high school courses.

Rigor of your classes is incredibly important. With grade inflation many many kids will have unweighted 4.0s. How do they distinguish? Who took the harder classes. How many APs. Scores on AP exams.

Yes, but not as much focus on how many “intensified” classes. There’s no standard across schools w/r to what makes a class “honors” or “intensified” UNLIKE APs.

Your competition for college admissions isn’t across schools. It is the kids at your school. And yes, they compare rigor closely.

[Anonymous]

In APS high schools, does intensified have a .5 grade bump?

It seems like that might matter somewhat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In APS high schools, does intensified have a .5 grade bump?

It seems like that might matter somewhat.

No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In APS high schools, does intensified have a .5 grade bump?

It seems like that might matter somewhat.

Nope, no gpa bump for intensified in APS. Just for AP, IB, and DE.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of colleges who recalculate gpa to compare apples to apples between students. They usually do give a bump to Intensified which are noted as honors on the transcript. For example, the UC schools do this. University of Florida. And there is a note your counselor makes in their information noting that your child has done the most rigorous courses. So, it does matter. It may not matter to you or your kid, but it does matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of colleges who recalculate gpa to compare apples to apples between students. They usually do give a bump to Intensified which are noted as honors on the transcript. For example, the UC schools do this. University of Florida. And there is a note your counselor makes in their information noting that your child has done the most rigorous courses. So, it does matter. It may not matter to you or your kid, but it does matter.

Question about the “most rigorous” courses note… does that mean the kid took literally the most rigorous course possible of everything, or more generally? For example, if a kid takes intensified World History instead of AP but has 10+ APs at graduation, do they get the “most rigorous” mark? What if they take tons of advanced classes, but no AP science?