"How many APs"?

[Anonymous]

I think it will probably depend on who her readers are. They get so many applications and hire temp readers a lot of the time. Someone lazy might just look at the classes labeled AP. Others might recognize the post-AP courses as advanced.

But to answer your question, I would say her AP courses are the number with AP in the course name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the perspectives. FWIW, this was a college counselor from FCPS talking about UVA. My DD wants to go to UVA or VA Tech. I found it interesting that this particular person thought that my DD did not have enough AP classes to be in the running for admission to UVA. Whatever. She's still going to apply and will just wait and see what happens!

So your kid is in FCPS and competing with kids who will have maybe 14 APs including those in social sciences. Depending on the major your kid wants, this is going to have an impact on her making her mark at UVA against these other in-state FCPS kids. You should talk again to the counselor at your school or another one. I suspect they are not completely off the mark.

OP here. Perhaps they are not off the mark. But my DD has a 1520 SAT and is a highly accomplished athlete. I think she has a lot going for her and would definitely have a shot at getting admitted to UVA. I'm going to support her decision to apply (and be irrationally annoyed at the counselor ).

That's fine. But you should have mentioned this in your OP. If you only give us the very basics, that she will have 8 APs by the end of 12th, without mention of any grades or scores, of course we can only judge on the information at hand.

Really you're not doing yourself any favors and you're now sounding defensive, when the problem lies with your inability to be forthcoming with the information on which to base our judgments.

+1. If she's unhooked, she should be aiming for that 4.53, which she cannot hit because she has only 8 APs at time of graduation. The applicant, is, after all, compared to the other applicants' applications from the same school. If there are kids with a 4.6 from 12 APs with As, then, yes, she's behind

You might not be aware, but OPs daughter gets a +1 GPA bump from the post-AP classes as well. So for the purpose, I suppose she should count it as 10 "APs."

Still not 14 APs though is it?

True, but she would have a 4.51 GPA if she continued to get all A's in her classes (or a 4.50 if she gets the A- in AP Lang). That seems legit enough for UVA, no? Not enough to guarantee admission, of course... but surely enough to be a contender?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it will probably depend on who her readers are. They get so many applications and hire temp readers a lot of the time. Someone lazy might just look at the classes labeled AP. Others might recognize the post-AP courses as advanced.

But to answer your question, I would say her AP courses are the number with AP in the course name.

This is not true because the readers have the profile sent in by the high school and they are carefully comparing the number of AP courses offered as well as comparing your child’s number of APs against the class profile which shows exactly how many seniors took advantage of which AP courses. This is how the readers determine class rank while allowing the high schools to claim “oh, we don’t rank”. One of the facts that Dean J. at UVA says over and over is that they want to see if your kid took as many AP courses (the “most rigorous curriculum” ) as they could. They can tell within seconds if 8 APs snd a GPA ox X puts then in the top 2% of the class, top 5 % or top 20%. Also bear in mind that after the readers are done the files go to the local AO for your particular school. That’s also where the number of APs gets reviewed because the local AO is familiar with the high school and the number of APs that applicants who usually get in have.

[Anonymous]

Sorry ^^ should read “ a GPA of X”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the perspectives. FWIW, this was a college counselor from FCPS talking about UVA. My DD wants to go to UVA or VA Tech. I found it interesting that this particular person thought that my DD did not have enough AP classes to be in the running for admission to UVA. Whatever. She's still going to apply and will just wait and see what happens!

So your kid is in FCPS and competing with kids who will have maybe 14 APs including those in social sciences. Depending on the major your kid wants, this is going to have an impact on her making her mark at UVA against these other in-state FCPS kids. You should talk again to the counselor at your school or another one. I suspect they are not completely off the mark.

OP here. Perhaps they are not off the mark. But my DD has a 1520 SAT and is a highly accomplished athlete. I think she has a lot going for her and would definitely have a shot at getting admitted to UVA. I'm going to support her decision to apply (and be irrationally annoyed at the counselor ).

That's fine. But you should have mentioned this in your OP. If you only give us the very basics, that she will have 8 APs by the end of 12th, without mention of any grades or scores, of course we can only judge on the information at hand.

Really you're not doing yourself any favors and you're now sounding defensive, when the problem lies with your inability to be forthcoming with the information on which to base our judgments.

+1. If she's unhooked, she should be aiming for that 4.53, which she cannot hit because she has only 8 APs at time of graduation. The applicant, is, after all, compared to the other applicants' applications from the same school. If there are kids with a 4.6 from 12 APs with As, then, yes, she's behind

You might not be aware, but OPs daughter gets a +1 GPA bump from the post-AP classes as well. So for the purpose, I suppose she should count it as 10 "APs."

Still not 14 APs though is it?

True, but she would have a 4.51 GPA if she continued to get all A's in her classes (or a 4.50 if she gets the A- in AP Lang). That seems legit enough for UVA, no? Not enough to guarantee admission, of course... but surely enough to be a contender?

Your school's college counselor is the best one to assess this - and it sounds like they have already given you a negative response in light of the competition your DD has at her own school. A 4.50 is not all that special for UVA - the 75th percentile last year incoming had a 4.53. And an ACT of 35, SAT of 1520, etc., and national honors, etc. A good way to get a handle on this is to go to College Confidential and Reddit and read the threads about ED, EA and RD and read the incredible bios that the kids who were rejected post. It's mind-boggling, but again, she is competing for attemtion against her own high school friends. What GPAs are they pulling down? How many APs are they taking? What are their ECs and ACT or SAT scores? It's a total package of course. Best of luck but go back to the counselor and ask these questions and ask if your DD has been taking the most rigorous curriculum possible? If not, then that is what the counselor is trying to convey to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are no grades mentioned in terms of grades for these classes and grades for the exams

the list is fairly pointless without them
also if she got C grades in the honors social sciences then that won't help but if she got A's then obviously that's a bonus

This feels like I'm stating the obvious here.

She's a junior, so she has only received 1 AP score so far... it was a 5. She is expecting more 5's this July. She has all As so far except for 1 A- (and might get another A- in AP Lang this year -- she's got a 91.8% right now).

But I'm really just curious about "the number." Would you say 8 APs or 10?

If she could get five 5’s in core subjects, that would help with Oxford and Cambridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the perspectives. FWIW, this was a college counselor from FCPS talking about UVA. My DD wants to go to UVA or VA Tech. I found it interesting that this particular person thought that my DD did not have enough AP classes to be in the running for admission to UVA. Whatever. She's still going to apply and will just wait and see what happens!

So your kid is in FCPS and competing with kids who will have maybe 14 APs including those in social sciences. Depending on the major your kid wants, this is going to have an impact on her making her mark at UVA against these other in-state FCPS kids. You should talk again to the counselor at your school or another one. I suspect they are not completely off the mark.

OP here. Perhaps they are not off the mark. But my DD has a 1520 SAT and is a highly accomplished athlete. I think she has a lot going for her and would definitely have a shot at getting admitted to UVA. I'm going to support her decision to apply (and be irrationally annoyed at the counselor ).

That's fine. But you should have mentioned this in your OP. If you only give us the very basics, that she will have 8 APs by the end of 12th, without mention of any grades or scores, of course we can only judge on the information at hand.

Really you're not doing yourself any favors and you're now sounding defensive, when the problem lies with your inability to be forthcoming with the information on which to base our judgments.

+1. If she's unhooked, she should be aiming for that 4.53, which she cannot hit because she has only 8 APs at time of graduation. The applicant, is, after all, compared to the other applicants' applications from the same school. If there are kids with a 4.6 from 12 APs with As, then, yes, she's behind

You might not be aware, but OPs daughter gets a +1 GPA bump from the post-AP classes as well. So for the purpose, I suppose she should count it as 10 "APs."

Still not 14 APs though is it?

True, but she would have a 4.51 GPA if she continued to get all A's in her classes (or a 4.50 if she gets the A- in AP Lang). That seems legit enough for UVA, no? Not enough to guarantee admission, of course... but surely enough to be a contender?

Your school's college counselor is the best one to assess this - and it sounds like they have already given you a negative response in light of the competition your DD has at her own school. A 4.50 is not all that special for UVA - the 75th percentile last year incoming had a 4.53. And an ACT of 35, SAT of 1520, etc., and national honors, etc. A good way to get a handle on this is to go to College Confidential and Reddit and read the threads about ED, EA and RD and read the incredible bios that the kids who were rejected post. It's mind-boggling, but again, she is competing for attemtion against her own high school friends. What GPAs are they pulling down? How many APs are they taking? What are their ECs and ACT or SAT scores? It's a total package of course. Best of luck but go back to the counselor and ask these questions and ask if your DD has been taking the most rigorous curriculum possible? If not, then that is what the counselor is trying to convey to you.

Here, for example, is a poster from here who said their DS was rejected with a 4.6. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1126072.page

[Anonymous]

OP, your daughter sounds like she would be competitive at a lot of top colleges.

Hearing more and more about how UVA admissions works makes it less and less appealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the perspectives. FWIW, this was a college counselor from FCPS talking about UVA. My DD wants to go to UVA or VA Tech. I found it interesting that this particular person thought that my DD did not have enough AP classes to be in the running for admission to UVA. Whatever. She's still going to apply and will just wait and see what happens!

So your kid is in FCPS and competing with kids who will have maybe 14 APs including those in social sciences. Depending on the major your kid wants, this is going to have an impact on her making her mark at UVA against these other in-state FCPS kids. You should talk again to the counselor at your school or another one. I suspect they are not completely off the mark.

OP here. Perhaps they are not off the mark. But my DD has a 1520 SAT and is a highly accomplished athlete. I think she has a lot going for her and would definitely have a shot at getting admitted to UVA. I'm going to support her decision to apply (and be irrationally annoyed at the counselor ).

That's fine. But you should have mentioned this in your OP. If you only give us the very basics, that she will have 8 APs by the end of 12th, without mention of any grades or scores, of course we can only judge on the information at hand.

Really you're not doing yourself any favors and you're now sounding defensive, when the problem lies with your inability to be forthcoming with the information on which to base our judgments.

+1. If she's unhooked, she should be aiming for that 4.53, which she cannot hit because she has only 8 APs at time of graduation. The applicant, is, after all, compared to the other applicants' applications from the same school. If there are kids with a 4.6 from 12 APs with As, then, yes, she's behind

You might not be aware, but OPs daughter gets a +1 GPA bump from the post-AP classes as well. So for the purpose, I suppose she should count it as 10 "APs."

Still not 14 APs though is it?

True, but she would have a 4.51 GPA if she continued to get all A's in her classes (or a 4.50 if she gets the A- in AP Lang). That seems legit enough for UVA, no? Not enough to guarantee admission, of course... but surely enough to be a contender?

There is no way to know this as we don’t know how many will be taken senior year and what those grades will be at the time of admissions.

As for OPs question: I have no idea why she’s annoyed at the HS counselor. It’s an opinion, likely based on what he’s seen. He’s not telling her not to apply and it doesn’t mean the kid will or won’t get in.

[Anonymous]

If you're listing APs on an application, do not include anything but actual College Board approved AP courses.

[Anonymous]

What is a post-AP course?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is a post-AP course?

The two that OP listed are examples. Multi-variable Calculus (usually paired with Linear Algebra) comes after AP Calculus BC. Advanced Computer Science AB (now being called Data Structures in FCPS) comes after AP Computer Science A. They do not have an AP test, but they are very rigorous college-level courses, so the schools give the usual +1 gpa bump.

[Anonymous]

OP - this whole process stinks. If UVA is your DD’s first choice apply ED. Focus on standing out with the essay and highlighting the unique things she has done and why UVA is a great fit for what she wants to do and what she will add to the campus. Some kids with your child’s profile will get in and some will be rejected. I cannot believe that the post APs will be treated as a negative. I can imagine the choice to take non-AP history might but it probably depends on your kids planned major or area of study. I find the arms race of AP classes appalling, but they have to make decisions based on something.

Apply EA to VT as well.

Also, know that the fact that she is female makes it just a tiny bit harder. So many smart hardworking girls.

Have some liklies/safeties she really likes. With her grades, I would think W&M would be a solid likely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are no grades mentioned in terms of grades for these classes and grades for the exams

the list is fairly pointless without them
also if she got C grades in the honors social sciences then that won't help but if she got A's then obviously that's a bonus

This feels like I'm stating the obvious here.

She's a junior, so she has only received 1 AP score so far... it was a 5. She is expecting more 5's this July. She has all As so far except for 1 A- (and might get another A- in AP Lang this year -- she's got a 91.8% right now).

But I'm really just curious about "the number." Would you say 8 APs or 10?

So she took all but one of these Junior year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are no grades mentioned in terms of grades for these classes and grades for the exams

the list is fairly pointless without them
also if she got C grades in the honors social sciences then that won't help but if she got A's then obviously that's a bonus

This feels like I'm stating the obvious here.

She's a junior, so she has only received 1 AP score so far... it was a 5. She is expecting more 5's this July. She has all As so far except for 1 A- (and might get another A- in AP Lang this year -- she's got a 91.8% right now).

But I'm really just curious about "the number." Would you say 8 APs or 10?

So she took all but one of these Junior year?

OP here. No, she took AP CS as a sophomore (got a 5 on the test). She is taking AP Lang, AP Physics, AP Spanish, AP Calc BC as a current junior (will receive test scores in June). She will take AP Lit, AP Bio, AP Stat, CS Data Structures (post-AP), and MV Calc/LA (post-AP) during her senior year.

Thanks for the varied responses. It seems like most people view her schedule as only 8 AP classes and do not count the post-AP in the "how many" total.

That makes sense. But I still will disagree with the counselor and think she has a shot at getting accepted into UVA and/or VA Tech. She will probably end up with a 4.5 GPA, 1520 SAT, 2 varsity sports (one at a very high level outside of school), etc. So she's is applying even though she "only" has 8 APs from FCPS. Hopefully, it will work out!