Does it put me at a disadvantage that my school does not offer AP classes, honors classes, etc?Answered
In my country, high schools do not offer AP classes, honors classes, or anything similar. However, we have a 13th year instead of just 12 as you have in the US. Will this put me at a disadvantage, or are admissions officers aware that this is the case in many countries? And if it puts me at a disadvantage, how big?
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3 answers
College admissions officers care most of all that you have taken the most rigorous course load possible. If your school only offers honors classes, for example, colleges will expect you to take as many as you can. If your school offers lots of AP options, they will want to see that you took at least 8 AP classes your junior and senior years.
In your case, college admissions officers will want to see that you challenged yourself to the best of your ability and received good grades. They will understand the context behind your academics because your guidance counselor will send them a report explaining what class options your high school offers. I would say that you will not be at a disadvantage so long as your unweighted GPA is high. Scoring well on the SAT or ACT would be beneficial for you too - it would demonstrate that you are on par with students who do take AP classes. Hope this helps!
I believe you don't need to worry about that as much as you explain it well to the admission officers about your situation. The admission officers always would like to see how many opportunities are you given and how much you utilize them wisely. If your countries' curriculum isn't AP, then you can't do anything about that. But show them also how much you are striving to earn additional opportunities and to develop yourself with the existed ones also.
Universities look to see that you are challenging yourself as much as possible within your school context and based on what is available to you. So students who have AP classes available will be evaluated based on whether or not they took advantage of AP classes. If you don't have AP classes available at your school, you won't be disadvantaged. However, there might be other ways to show that you are taking the most challenging classes at your high school.
If you are able to do so, you can also demonstrate your academic ambition outside of your school's curriculum by taking an online class in an area that interests you (EdX, Coursera, online summer class through a university, etc.)
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