Admission without honors or AP courses

[Anonymous]

Is it conceivable that you could be admitted to a top school without any honors courses but otherwise excellent grades, good SAT scores, and coming from an excellent private school? By top school that can include Ivy schools but NOT exclusive.

For instance, geometry but not honors, chemistry but not honors, etc, etc.

[Anonymous]

It is possible if you have one area of excellence (Olympics hockey player; top 10 policy debate team in the nation; extraordinary public service) that accounts for your use of time and talents that might otherwise have been spent on those AP courses.

[Anonymous]

Excellent not good SAT scores will help, 2300+. Admission Committees at elite colleges and universities will expect that top students from excellent private schools will have excellent grades in the most challenging classes offered (APs & honors), excellent SAT scores, and meaningful participation in ECs. They also want to read dynamic essays.

[Anonymous]

I think you could get in around 45+ ranked schools by USNWR. GW comes to mind as a good example.

[Anonymous]

Not top 25, but top 100. So American University, GW, BU, Bucknell, those sort of schools. Not ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is possible if you have one area of excellence (Olympics hockey player; top 10 policy debate team in the nation; extraordinary public service) that accounts for your use of time and talents that might otherwise have been spent on those AP courses.

Or just something that's off-the-wall different. Don't know what that would be, but I do know that every year I receive letters about the kids that were admitted that year to my Ivy and how "diverse" they are. It's often a list of very random attributes and actually embarrasses me a bit.

[Anonymous]

Depends if your private school offered AP and/or honors versions of the classes your kid took. Maret doesn't offer APs, if I remember correctly.

The most selective colleges want you to take the hardest courses available to you. But if the private school has an excellent reputation, colleges won't penalize you for AP/honors courses you couldn't take because they weren't offered.

And yes, just taking APs isn't enough to get you into an Ivy in any case. You may not need to be an Olympian, but you do need something special (in their eyes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is possible if you have one area of excellence (Olympics hockey player; top 10 policy debate team in the nation; extraordinary public service) that accounts for your use of time and talents that might otherwise have been spent on those AP courses.

Or just something that's off-the-wall different. Don't know what that would be, but I do know that every year I receive letters about the kids that were admitted that year to my Ivy and how "diverse" they are. It's often a list of very random attributes and actually embarrasses me a bit.

Is that suppose to be code for something or am I overreaching?

[Anonymous]

It depends on the school's familiarity with your child's high school. Discuss with the college counselor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is possible if you have one area of excellence (Olympics hockey player; top 10 policy debate team in the nation; extraordinary public service) that accounts for your use of time and talents that might otherwise have been spent on those AP courses.

Or just something that's off-the-wall different. Don't know what that would be, but I do know that every year I receive letters about the kids that were admitted that year to my Ivy and how "diverse" they are. It's often a list of very random attributes and actually embarrasses me a bit.

Is that suppose to be code for something or am I overreaching?

We'll have to let PP come back and answer that question, but as a new reader I simply took that to mean they're a mixed bunch in terms of talents and things that make them unique--race not being one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Excellent not good SAT scores will help, 2300+. Admission Committees at elite colleges and universities will expect that top students from excellent private schools will have excellent grades in the most challenging classes offered (APs & honors), excellent SAT scores, and meaningful participation in ECs. They also want to read dynamic essays.

There are some non-AP/honors courses that are equally recognized with accelerated courses. My daughter elected to take astrophysics instead of honors physics because that's the course that was most appealing. She chose statistics instead of AB calc. She had Algebra 2 instead of accelerated Math 2. She did have AP Chinese and a capstone seminar. SAT 2300, 3.85 GPA. No legacy, non-ethnic. She is class of 2017 at Princeton. So, OP, it just depends on what the college is looking for. While colleges do look at curriculums, you certainly should apply. There is much competition, but perfection is no guarantee of college acceptance at the big gun schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Excellent not good SAT scores will help, 2300+. Admission Committees at elite colleges and universities will expect that top students from excellent private schools will have excellent grades in the most challenging classes offered (APs & honors), excellent SAT scores, and meaningful participation in ECs. They also want to read dynamic essays.

There are some non-AP/honors courses that are equally recognized with accelerated courses. My daughter elected to take astrophysics instead of honors physics because that's the course that was most appealing. She chose statistics instead of AB calc. She had Algebra 2 instead of accelerated Math 2. She did have AP Chinese and a capstone seminar. SAT 2300, 3.85 GPA. No legacy, non-ethnic. She is class of 2017 at Princeton. So, OP, it just depends on what the college is looking for. While colleges do look at curriculums, you certainly should apply. There is much competition, but perfection is no guarantee of college acceptance at the big gun schools

Did she go to private or public school? Do you think it made a difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Excellent not good SAT scores will help, 2300+. Admission Committees at elite colleges and universities will expect that top students from excellent private schools will have excellent grades in the most challenging classes offered (APs & honors), excellent SAT scores, and meaningful participation in ECs. They also want to read dynamic essays.

There are some non-AP/honors courses that are equally recognized with accelerated courses. My daughter elected to take astrophysics instead of honors physics because that's the course that was most appealing. She chose statistics instead of AB calc. She had Algebra 2 instead of accelerated Math 2. She did have AP Chinese and a capstone seminar. SAT 2300, 3.85 GPA. No legacy, non-ethnic. She is class of 2017 at Princeton. So, OP, it just depends on what the college is looking for. While colleges do look at curriculums, you certainly should apply. There is much competition, but perfection is no guarantee of college acceptance at the big gun schools

Did she go to private or public school? Do you think it made a difference?

PP here. She went to a well-known private but does have a music background.

[Anonymous]

Good example above of the Princeton student. A kid doesn't have to be the best in his/her school at everything -- probably especially if coming from a very selective private -- but if he/she isn't close to that level then he/she needs to either be amazing at something (Intel science awards, etc.) or really shine brightly in at least several different ways (which it sounds like the girl above at Princeton did between AP Chinese and music. While she may not have had the most accelerated math program, my guess is that she was probably a very strong students in the most rigorous humanities courses and a 2300 certainly doesn't hurt!). Schools also build classes -- they want a certain mix of athletes, musicians, artists, STEM kids, Humanities kids, etc. so the more blocks one kid can check the better. I would note, however, that at the most selective universities they tend to fill much of their entering class with a high number of kids who graduate No. 1 or 2 in their HS classes, so being one of those kids certainly makes it easier than being number 15 or 20 in the class (or appearing to be in that position based on the transcript in schools that don't rank)

[Anonymous]

Not top 25, but top 100. So American University, GW, BU, Bucknell, those sort of schools. Not ivies.

PP here who posted this. This also of course depends on the school. If the school is well known for being rigorous, but doesn't offer APs because the curriculum is too strict, but has equally challenging courses, of course (like some elite privates) then there is no disadvantage. But everyone I know who has gone to an ivy has taken all the most challenging track courses that their school offers. I don't mean that if they offer classes past Calc BC that someone is at a horrible disadvantage for stopping at Calc BC senior year. I mean that if there is a choice between honors algebra II and "regular" algebra II, then they are not getting into Yale.

However, they can still get into really good schools, just not the most competitive schools.