Admission without honors or AP courses

[Anonymous]

I agree that taking the hardest available courses (and getting As in them (and 5s on the AP test if applicable) is key to getting into the most selective colleges.

But, you don't have to take AP in every class that has an AP alternative. My kid got into one of those schools that takes 7% of kids with honors bio and physics, but AP Calc and several AP English/History classes. For a prospective science or math major, of course, this would be reversed.