The idea that AOs defer to the counselors on what is "most demanding" is DCUM myth perpetuated for a while by this one really prolific poster and others have decided they know what they're talking about.

The counselors have a scale they can use to describe the program. Not all complete that question and MANY schools forbid their counselors from completing it.

It doesn't matter anyway. AOs are trained to compare the transcripts to the profiles and make the judgement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Different poster but mine also took 16. They took:

AP USH - grade 9
AP US Gov - 10
AP Comp Sci Princ - 10
AP Physics 1 - 10
AP World History - 11
AP Comparative Politics - 11
AP Psych - 11
AP Calc BC - 11
AP English Lang - 11
AP Spanish Lang - 11
AP Physics C - 12
AP English Lit - 12
AP Stat - 12
AP Econ - 12
AP Human Geo - 12
AP Spanish Lit - 12

I am curious where this was. Our high school does not offer any AP for ninth graders, and most only take one during sophomore year (euro, world, history, or human geo)..

MCPS - a “W” high school

(and to the poster who asked how I remember, most of these are progressive or at least “typical” to take in a certain grade at our HS, and I have another kid still in HS. i may have mixed up some of the elective ones like psych and econ)

FCPS parent here. Don't you think the counselors, as a group, decide on "who" gets "rigorous" checked. I do. It seems like they are making the first cut.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Env Sci, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Spanish, AP World. 4 years of foreign language. I would call that most rigorous at our HS.

DD took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Psych, AP Lit, AP Lang, AP World plus DE Abnormal Psych. I would call that rigorous.


Very few students are going to get into the Ivys, Stanford etc. Merely “Rigorous” is going to be enough to get into many fine universities. You have to have balance.

How could you consider your DS to be "most rigorous"? It looks like he chose to not take AP Lit and AP Lang and instead (I presume) take Honors English 11 and Honors English 12. That is a clear cut case of not the most rigorous, right?

Engineering student. They look for different things.

Yes, but the counselor (in FCPS at least) would not check the most rigorous box because your son clearly took a step down in difficulty for English. He certainly took hard, appropriate classes for someone interested in pursuing Engineering, but he did not take AP classes in a core subject.

MCPS here. Not sure we have a “most rigorous box”? Actually, this is the first I’ve heard of such a box. Seems like a terrible idea for many reasons.

It really is stupid. They can see what classes are on the transcript, and they know the types of classes that are offered in FCPS. They do not need a "rigorous" box.

MCPS doesn't use one.

Yes, they do. They all do to help the colleges.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Env Sci, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Spanish, AP World. 4 years of foreign language. I would call that most rigorous at our HS.

DD took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Psych, AP Lit, AP Lang, AP World plus DE Abnormal Psych. I would call that rigorous.


Very few students are going to get into the Ivys, Stanford etc. Merely “Rigorous” is going to be enough to get into many fine universities. You have to have balance.

How could you consider your DS to be "most rigorous"? It looks like he chose to not take AP Lit and AP Lang and instead (I presume) take Honors English 11 and Honors English 12. That is a clear cut case of not the most rigorous, right?

Engineering student. They look for different things.

Yes, but the counselor (in FCPS at least) would not check the most rigorous box because your son clearly took a step down in difficulty for English. He certainly took hard, appropriate classes for someone interested in pursuing Engineering, but he did not take AP classes in a core subject.

MCPS here. Not sure we have a “most rigorous box”? Actually, this is the first I’ve heard of such a box. Seems like a terrible idea for many reasons.

It really is stupid. They can see what classes are on the transcript, and they know the types of classes that are offered in FCPS. They do not need a "rigorous" box.

Actually, they don't. There are 23,499 public high schools in the U.S.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Env Sci, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Spanish, AP World. 4 years of foreign language. I would call that most rigorous at our HS.

DD took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Psych, AP Lit, AP Lang, AP World plus DE Abnormal Psych. I would call that rigorous.


Very few students are going to get into the Ivys, Stanford etc. Merely “Rigorous” is going to be enough to get into many fine universities. You have to have balance.

How could you consider your DS to be "most rigorous"? It looks like he chose to not take AP Lit and AP Lang and instead (I presume) take Honors English 11 and Honors English 12. That is a clear cut case of not the most rigorous, right?

Engineering student. They look for different things.

Yes, but the counselor (in FCPS at least) would not check the most rigorous box because your son clearly took a step down in difficulty for English. He certainly took hard, appropriate classes for someone interested in pursuing Engineering, but he did not take AP classes in a core subject.

MCPS here. Not sure we have a “most rigorous box”? Actually, this is the first I’ve heard of such a box. Seems like a terrible idea for many reasons.

It really is stupid. They can see what classes are on the transcript, and they know the types of classes that are offered in FCPS. They do not need a "rigorous" box.

MCPS doesn't use one.

It’s on all the common app counselors’ rec forms, rt? Do you mean it’s MCPS policy to not check any of the boxes for how rigorous the curriculum is?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Env Sci, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Spanish, AP World. 4 years of foreign language. I would call that most rigorous at our HS.

DD took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Psych, AP Lit, AP Lang, AP World plus DE Abnormal Psych. I would call that rigorous.


Very few students are going to get into the Ivys, Stanford etc. Merely “Rigorous” is going to be enough to get into many fine universities. You have to have balance.

How could you consider your DS to be "most rigorous"? It looks like he chose to not take AP Lit and AP Lang and instead (I presume) take Honors English 11 and Honors English 12. That is a clear cut case of not the most rigorous, right?

Engineering student. They look for different things.

Yes, but the counselor (in FCPS at least) would not check the most rigorous box because your son clearly took a step down in difficulty for English. He certainly took hard, appropriate classes for someone interested in pursuing Engineering, but he did not take AP classes in a core subject.

MCPS here. Not sure we have a “most rigorous box”? Actually, this is the first I’ve heard of such a box. Seems like a terrible idea for many reasons.

It really is stupid. They can see what classes are on the transcript, and they know the types of classes that are offered in FCPS. They do not need a "rigorous" box.

MCPS doesn't use one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Env Sci, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Spanish, AP World. 4 years of foreign language. I would call that most rigorous at our HS.

DD took AP NSL, APUSH, AP Psych, AP Lit, AP Lang, AP World plus DE Abnormal Psych. I would call that rigorous.


Very few students are going to get into the Ivys, Stanford etc. Merely “Rigorous” is going to be enough to get into many fine universities. You have to have balance.

How could you consider your DS to be "most rigorous"? It looks like he chose to not take AP Lit and AP Lang and instead (I presume) take Honors English 11 and Honors English 12. That is a clear cut case of not the most rigorous, right?

Engineering student. They look for different things.

Yes, but the counselor (in FCPS at least) would not check the most rigorous box because your son clearly took a step down in difficulty for English. He certainly took hard, appropriate classes for someone interested in pursuing Engineering, but he did not take AP classes in a core subject.

MCPS here. Not sure we have a “most rigorous box”? Actually, this is the first I’ve heard of such a box. Seems like a terrible idea for many reasons.

It really is stupid. They can see what classes are on the transcript, and they know the types of classes that are offered in FCPS. They do not need a "rigorous" box.