APs count more in first 3 years of high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the school. If in an MCPS public, yes, your DC will need to take lots of APS by junior year in order to be competitive for college applications. That is because the school offers so many APs starting in freshman year. My son's public school friends were all taking APs starting freshman year and by end of junior year had six or more APs completed. If in a private school that offers limited APs, then no. It really all depends on what the school offers.

Like the PP, my son who attended a Catholic HS only took 2 APs prior to senior year. He got into his first choice school, a top 20, and many others.

I thought the College Board determined when AP classed could be offered? At our school the only AP offered prior to JR year is AP World History.

This is entirely incorrect. There is one AP class offered to freshman (NSL), sophomore year they can take APush, AP Stats and maybe AP Psych. That is it. You can no longer take AP English as a sophomore.

PP- To clarify, we are at a W school and this is a county wide rule. Don't stress out kids and parents unnecessarily with incorrect information.

OK, so let's count now. Freshman year: 1 AP, Sophomore year, 3 APs, Junior year unlimited APs, Senior year, unlimited APs.

Assuming PP is accurate, by the beginning of junior year, a W school student has potential of taking 4 APs, vs. other schools (like my son's) which offer no APs until junior year.

I still think there is an immense amount of pressure for kids to "load up" on APs in these pathetic public schools with horrifying grade inflation. SAD.

[Anonymous]

Do Catholic schools give a gpa bump for honors and AP courses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do Catholic schools give a gpa bump for honors and AP courses?

Depends on the school. My DD's catholic school gives the same bump for both honors and AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do Catholic schools give a gpa bump for honors and AP courses?

Depends on the school. My DD's catholic school gives the same bump for both honors and AP.

At my son's catholic school ALL classes in HS are weighted exactly the same.

[Anonymous]

My son's Catholic school weights honors 4.5 and AP 5. But it doesn't matter because the colleges really don't care about weighted GPA. That's why when I hear people talk about 4.5 GPA, I know it really means nothing because many schools weight honors and AP 5, while others don't weight at all. You cannot compare GPAs accurately between different schools for a number of reasons, including the weighting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son's Catholic school weights honors 4.5 and AP 5. But it doesn't matter because the colleges really don't care about weighted GPA. That's why when I hear people talk about 4.5 GPA, I know it really means nothing because many schools weight honors and AP 5, while others don't weight at all. You cannot compare GPAs accurately between different schools for a number of reasons, including the weighting.

Sorry but when you say ‘the colleges’ it sounds like you’re saying all. That’s just not true. Yes they have to deconstruct weighting in their own way due to differences in how high schools calculate, but they do weigh rigor, which for purposes here is most easily represented by weighted GPA. That’s my experience anyway. Also, class rank matters to many schools and many high schools rank by weighted GPA, so it’s baked into that metric.

[Anonymous]

I posted about Catholic schools. So if my son’s school doesn’t give a bump for these classes, his gpa will be lower than his public school friends. So do colleges remove the weight given to public school students in order to compare students? And I know his school doesn’t do class rank. Neither did my Catholic high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior’s counselor stressed her out this week by saying the classes she was planning on taking next year weren’t rigorous enough so now she’s trying to find a way to cram more APs in. So mad — we don’t play the AP collecting here and her the counselor had no issues with the rigor of her first three years.

That is annoying. It would seem that by senior year, the kids have largely made their beds. I would seriously advise your daughter against making senior year extra tough. It won’t be easy to stay focused in the spring.

Part of the application for college is they want to see the classes you are scheduled for in Senior year.

while you don't want to have a super crazy schedule, it is still important to take some challenging courses in your Senior year.

For any kid, take the courses you can handle. My DC took AP's since Freshman year, but mostly the History/English route.

They are not a science math/kid though did take AP Stat this year instead of AP Calc.

They got in to 4 schools including their ED school so it all works out in the end (the other three were early action which is why they heard about all at the same time)

[Anonymous]

My child at a W school took 2 APs sophomore year, 3 junior, and 5 senior (2 of the senior year ones she considered to be really interesting and not too demanding (AP environmental science and psych). She did very well in admissions as an unhooked kid (excellent test scores helped, I'm sure) and is having a great experience at an academically intense top 20 school.

I have the sense that she enjoyed her HS academic experience more than her similarly capable friends who loaded up on APs prior to senior year, because she was a better and more confident student as a senior. She spent much less time on even the tough APs she took senior year (like physics) than I think she would have had she taken the class as a sophomore or junior. She also was on the low end of her cohort for total APs taken--some of her friends had taken 14-16 all together--but did as well as or better in admissions than many of them. I know this is just one anecdote, but I really have not seen any admissions benefit to taking more APs earlier on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child at a W school took 2 APs sophomore year, 3 junior, and 5 senior (2 of the senior year ones she considered to be really interesting and not too demanding (AP environmental science and psych). She did very well in admissions as an unhooked kid (excellent test scores helped, I'm sure) and is having a great experience at an academically intense top 20 school.

I have the sense that she enjoyed her HS academic experience more than her similarly capable friends who loaded up on APs prior to senior year, because she was a better and more confident student as a senior. She spent much less time on even the tough APs she took senior year (like physics) than I think she would have had she taken the class as a sophomore or junior. She also was on the low end of her cohort for total APs taken--some of her friends had taken 14-16 all together--but did as well as or better in admissions than many of them. I know this is just one anecdote, but I really have not seen any admissions benefit to taking more APs earlier on.

This is sad. The PP doesn't even realize that this is considered to be a heavy AP coarse load. Again, my DS took only 6 total...2 in junior year and 4 in senior year -- admitted to a top 20 school with merit potential AND nominated for B/K merit scholarship at UMD and has secured merit elsewhere. The PP's DC took a total of 10 -- and this is moderate in DC's school. Think about how stressed kids are trying to keep up with that pace. Sophomores have no business taking 3 APs...sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted about Catholic schools. So if my son’s school doesn’t give a bump for these classes, his gpa will be lower than his public school friends. So do colleges remove the weight given to public school students in order to compare students? And I know his school doesn’t do class rank. Neither did my Catholic high school.

Colleges re-calculate GPAs based on their own internal emphasis and to level playing field across schools. They also have admissions officers that "know" each high school in a region and they know what the schools do and do not offer. Your child is not at a dis-advantage for not taking APs if you school doesn't offer them.

[Anonymous]

<<She also was on the low end of her cohort for total APs taken--some of her friends had taken 14-16 all together--but did as well as or better in admissions than many of them. I know this is just one anecdote, but I really have not seen any admissions benefit to taking more APs earlier on.>>

PP-Your experience is just as valid as those INSISTING that kids who want to attend elite schools HAVE to keep up with their peers in this respect. They have NO evidence to back this up. Yes, you have to take a rigorous course load, but that DOES NOT mean you have to keep up with the # of AP's your friends take. You just have to take SOME of the most rigorous courses your schools offer. Hate to burst the bubble that many parents live in...but this is the reality. No point trying to "prove it" here though, because the impact of peer pressure and (sub)urban legends is so powerful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:<<She also was on the low end of her cohort for total APs taken--some of her friends had taken 14-16 all together--but did as well as or better in admissions than many of them. I know this is just one anecdote, but I really have not seen any admissions benefit to taking more APs earlier on.>>

PP-Your experience is just as valid as those INSISTING that kids who want to attend elite schools HAVE to keep up with their peers in this respect. They have NO evidence to back this up. Yes, you have to take a rigorous course load, but that DOES NOT mean you have to keep up with the # of AP's your friends take. You just have to take SOME of the most rigorous courses your schools offer. Hate to burst the bubble that many parents live in...but this is the reality. No point trying to "prove it" here though, because the impact of peer pressure and (sub)urban legends is so powerful.

Not bursting my bubble. I am the PP who's DS only took total 6 APs through senior year (2 through junior year). The point I am making is that the student who has to take 10 APs to be competitive is in a high pressure environment where everyone feels compelled to take that many...and it is NOT peer pressure, but due to advice from counselors...and one of the downsides is the dumbing down of AP courses so that everyone has access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child at a W school took 2 APs sophomore year, 3 junior, and 5 senior (2 of the senior year ones she considered to be really interesting and not too demanding (AP environmental science and psych). She did very well in admissions as an unhooked kid (excellent test scores helped, I'm sure) and is having a great experience at an academically intense top 20 school.

I have the sense that she enjoyed her HS academic experience more than her similarly capable friends who loaded up on APs prior to senior year, because she was a better and more confident student as a senior. She spent much less time on even the tough APs she took senior year (like physics) than I think she would have had she taken the class as a sophomore or junior. She also was on the low end of her cohort for total APs taken--some of her friends had taken 14-16 all together--but did as well as or better in admissions than many of them. I know this is just one anecdote, but I really have not seen any admissions benefit to taking more APs earlier on.

This is sad. The PP doesn't even realize that this is considered to be a heavy AP coarse load. Again, my DS took only 6 total...2 in junior year and 4 in senior year -- admitted to a top 20 school with merit potential AND nominated for B/K merit scholarship at UMD and has secured merit elsewhere. The PP's DC took a total of 10 -- and this is moderate in DC's school. Think about how stressed kids are trying to keep up with that pace. Sophomores have no business taking 3 APs...sorry.

I'm the PP you are responding too, and I think you are off-base on a number of things. For starters, you are pulling the thread off-topic. OP asked if kids need to front load APs, and I'm sharing our experience with a kid that did the opposite and had good outcomes. We do actually think 10 was a pretty heavy load, but virtually all of them were classes she would have wanted to take anyway. At her school, many of the AP teachers are outstanding, and she enjoyed all but one of the AP classes she took.

And if you are the person up thread who referred to "pathetic public schools," it seems a bit odd that you are so obsessed with this topic. Sounds like your son ended up in the same type of place as my DD and her friends did, but was (in your view) lucky to get there without having to take many APs. Good for him, but we are very happy that our kid had the chance to get an excellent and free public education, and the AP classes were part of what prepared her well for college.

[Anonymous]

My child went to a W public school. The counselors there said only to take an AP course if it was the field of interest to the child OR you had reached the point where there were no other next courses to take (like you had hit the ceiling of honors).

Parents tell each other the max is necessary, more than the counselors, at least at our W public school (in MC). And I am talking about the PTA talk on AP's for all parents, not one rogue counselor's advice. They said that time and again college admissions offices tell them that beyond the first few, they are not impressed with more AP's.

I could see in our own school though, that it was hard to get Type A parents to believe that advice.