Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3.8 is not high at all

Oh do shut up

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you asking a hypothetical?
Also, why not just ask whether it is necessary to take APs? Everyone is saying, yes it is.

I'm just wondering if a kid chose to ditch out on the craziness of AP classes and took the tier below - be that honors or general classes, and did extremely well, what kind of outcome could be expected? Why not ask hypothetically? It's probably highly unusual that kids who skip out on AP's would make straight A's and have high SAT scores, but it would be interesting to see what the outcome for such a kid would be.

Colleges compare your child to the other children from your child's HS. Your child is in competition with the other students in his school. Colleges look at the rigor of the classes your child takes as they compare to the rigor of classes offered by your child's HS. They also want to see that your child challenged himself-so if your child get almost all A's in the nonAP classes, then they would think that your child took an easier route and did not challenge himself. So, if your child attends a HS where many students take AP/IBs and offers many APs/IB classes (as i the case in most of the HS in NOVA), then your child will be at a disadvantage compared to his peers in his HS that are applying to the same schools. The harder it is to gain admittance to the school, the harder it will be for your child to gain admittance.

In NOVA, the average GPA for UVA/W&M and VaTech re usually above a 4.0. WHen my child was applying toVaTech a few years ago, accept/reject line was around 3.8. Most of the students who get in in the lowest quartile have another thing going for them ( e.g. Athlete, URM, history of large family donations....).

true but UVAs has jumped to 4.36-4.45. For Tech engineering they want to see more than a 4.0. and concomitant ACT/SAT scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ it's a dumb question because anybody who knows anything about college admission process would tell you adcom looks for evidence that your kid challenged himself/herself. taking an easy way is not viewed favorably. whether you like it or now, that's the way the admission game is played.

yall are morons you realize that nearly 40% of people are going to college now

JMU and GMU would easily take this person

Not so fast On average, GMU high school GPA was 3.65.

If op's kid has a 90-percentile or better SAT score & good ECs it's likely UVA and W&M admissions officers won't even notice the lack of APs.

And old dominion
Honesty, there are tons of options, but doubtful for significant merit unless the test scores are good

Anonymous wrote:What are some colleges that might accept a kid who has a 3.8 or higher GPA but has never taken an AP class? I would especially be interested in hearing about VA colleges

Longwood, Marymount, Mary Washington, Shenandoah

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you asking a hypothetical?
Also, why not just ask whether it is necessary to take APs? Everyone is saying, yes it is.

I'm just wondering if a kid chose to ditch out on the craziness of AP classes and took the tier below - be that honors or general classes, and did extremely well, what kind of outcome could be expected? Why not ask hypothetically? It's probably highly unusual that kids who skip out on AP's would make straight A's and have high SAT scores, but it would be interesting to see what the outcome for such a kid would be.

Colleges compare your child to the other children from your child's HS. Your child is in competition with the other students in his school. Colleges look at the rigor of the classes your child takes as they compare to the rigor of classes offered by your child's HS. They also want to see that your child challenged himself-so if your child get almost all A's in the nonAP classes, then they would think that your child took an easier route and did not challenge himself. So, if your child attends a HS where many students take AP/IBs and offers many APs/IB classes (as i the case in most of the HS in NOVA), then your child will be at a disadvantage compared to his peers in his HS that are applying to the same schools. The harder it is to gain admittance to the school, the harder it will be for your child to gain admittance.

In NOVA, the average GPA for UVA/W&M and VaTech re usually above a 4.0. WHen my child was applying toVaTech a few years ago, accept/reject line was around 3.8. Most of the students who get in in the lowest quartile have another thing going for them ( e.g. Athlete, URM, history of large family donations....).

The issue will be how the student without any Honors or AP classes will hold up during the competitive application reading process.

College admission representatives will tell you that they would rather see lower scores in an AP class than a higher score in a non-AP class. The rationale is that taking an AP means that a student is willing to challenge herself and is up for tackling a college level course.

While the craziness of the college admission process is beyond the pale, the reality is that the process works in favor of those students who have found ways to rise above the competition. In 2017, taking an AP class fulfills one basic requirement for any remotely competitive college.

Anonymous wrote:^ it's a dumb question because anybody who knows anything about college admission process would tell you adcom looks for evidence that your kid challenged himself/herself. taking an easy way is not viewed favorably. whether you like it or now, that's the way the admission game is played.

yall are morons you realize that nearly 40% of people are going to college now

JMU and GMU would easily take this person

^ it's a dumb question because anybody who knows anything about college admission process would tell you adcom looks for evidence that your kid challenged himself/herself. taking an easy way is not viewed favorably. whether you like it or now, that's the way the admission game is played.

Anonymous[b wrote:]Is it necessary to take APs/Honors to go to college? No. Ordinary college-prep, standard-diploma-level classes will still give the student many college choices. [/b]But to have the best choice of colleges in Va and Md/and several other states known for strong AP programs, yes, it's needed for the better colleges. Other states? There are many states, and their publics, would be fine accepting students who, though they had the opportunity, did not take AP or Honors.

This is what I'm getting at. Some posters are making it sound like APs are absolute necessities. If a student took the college prep track, without taking APs (which are not required for the college track), and got all A's, great SAT's, etc. what colleges would this student stand a decent shot of getting into?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you asking a hypothetical?
Also, why not just ask whether it is necessary to take APs? Everyone is saying, yes it is.

I'm just wondering if a kid chose to ditch out on the craziness of AP classes and took the tier below - be that honors or general classes, and did extremely well, what kind of outcome could be expected? Why not ask hypothetically? It's probably highly unusual that kids who skip out on AP's would make straight A's and have high SAT scores, but it would be interesting to see what the outcome for such a kid would be.

The outcome would be bad. This is such a dumb question even as a hypothetical question.

Why in the world is this a dumb question? I think a lot of parents would be interested in knowing what kind of outcome they would be looking at if their kid didn't take APs.

Is it necessary to take APs/Honors to go to college? No. Ordinary college-prep, standard-diploma-level classes will still give the student many college choices. But to have the best choice of colleges in Va and Md/and several other states known for strong AP programs, yes, it's needed for the better colleges. Other states? There are many states, and their publics, would be fine accepting students who, though they had the opportunity, did not take AP or Honors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[youtube]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are people serious here?

No honors whatsoever (ie. a joke of a schedule) and even with that, only a 3.8/4.0?

No, Washington and Lee and Richmond will not admit this student. Get a grip before passing on awful advice.

Wouldn't a 3.8/4.0 amount to maybe making 2 B's throughout all of high school?

Yes.but 2 Bs taking a courseload full of home ec and consumer math classes is very different from 2 Bs taking the advanced math track, several APs, etc or even a lot of honors classes plus difficult electives.

NO

Not taking AP's does not mean taking consumer math, which I don't think is even offered in Virginia anymore. Let's say kid started taking algebra I in 8th grade and followed the normal course for math, without choosing the AP options, and took all other core subjects at the level below AP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you asking a hypothetical?
Also, why not just ask whether it is necessary to take APs? Everyone is saying, yes it is.

I'm just wondering if a kid chose to ditch out on the craziness of AP classes and took the tier below - be that honors or general classes, and did extremely well, what kind of outcome could be expected? Why not ask hypothetically? It's probably highly unusual that kids who skip out on AP's would make straight A's and have high SAT scores, but it would be interesting to see what the outcome for such a kid would be.

The outcome would be bad. This is such a dumb question even as a hypothetical question.