Not taking APUSH and chances for W&M?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4.1 weighted GPA seems the cut off for W&M from our private. Doesn’t seem to me you need AP in every subject with that bar.

My kids say APUSH was easier than AP Euro

Yes, it's too low. SCHEV has the 75th percentile of last fall's incoming class as a 4.51: median 4.34, and bottom 25th percentile is a 4.16. She needs those AP classes to boost her GPA. IT may be that W&M is not going to happen for her but there are many amazing SLACs out there to look at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to create a junior year schedule that is rigorous but also balanced enough that she would excel in her classes. A friend's son didn't take APUSH and was accepted into Stanford. I think it's the overall application. Focus on her strengths. If she thinks she can put in the time and do well in APUSH, then take APUSH. If she's taking other rigorous APs, then considering dropping down to honors USH.

Yes that is the plan - to take honors USH because we’ve heard AP Chem is really hard. We want to focus on the AP math and science classes. She will be getting an A in AP World and will be able to show rigor this way. I just don’t think it’s necessary to put the time in into a course she has no interest in.

I'd say to go with what interests her and let the college admissions fall where they may. Kid stopped a foreign lang after soph year even though we and he knew that would probably hurt him with UVA, then his top choice. He really disliked it and wasn't good at it. He took a very rigorous AP courseload in every other area, it just didn't include foreign languages. This turned out well for him. He was happy with his classes, he did better in the classes he took than he would have in foreign lang. He also moved on from UVA, ED'ed to a different school (highly selective) and got in. So it all worked out.