Are my high school's classes considered honors or APs?Answered
My high school doesn't "officially" offer APs, but the spring final for most of our honors classes is the corresponding AP exam. For example, if you take Honors Statistics, at the end of the spring you would take the AP Stats test, and the curriculum closely follows that of AP Statistics (we even use the same textbook). Does this make it an AP class or an Honors class? Additionally, most of our senior classes are college level courses and grant honors credits, even if they aren't called "honors classes". Would colleges consider these honors level courses?
Earn karma by helping others:
1 answer
The short, simple and correct answer is that your Honors classes are not AP Curriculum and it would be incorrect to state you took these as proxies for AP classes. The AP curriculum is a specific set of topics and coursework that the teacher must follow that is sanctioned by CollegeBoard.
I do not know the actual reason why your HS doesn't offer official AP courses but since they cost money that must be paid directly from your school district to CollegeBoard, I would surmise it has something to do with your school budget and nothing political.
Therefore, when you fill out the Common App or Coalition App, write down exactly what the course name is in your school catalog which will correspond to the transcript your HS counselor will submit. Otherwise, it will cause confusion to the application reader and they may earmark your application as a "yellow" or "red" flag for falsifying coursework. And that is never good.
So let's say you take 10 Honors courses, it's perfectly acceptable to also state you sat for 10 AP tests and took them and report the AP Test scores on your college application.
This is quite a normal practice for many high-achieving students who are in the same predicament as you or if they attend Private Schools where the curriculum is generally more difficult than AP or IB coursework. While AP or IB coursework is generally seen as a proxy for Freshman College level work, I know for a fact that some top Private schools have 600 and 700-level courses that are equivalent to 1st and 2nd-year courses at top colleges.
Good luck.
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!
Thank you so much for that detailed, helpful answer! Really cleared up my confusion.