Applying without AP cource certification Answered
Greetings everyone,
I wanted to know that want impact an AP course certification has on my application and is it absolutely necessary? The normal school curriculum that I have is equivalent to that of AP courses. Do I still need to take up AP classes? Or can I simply inform universities about my course difficulty? Will they be fine with it or will I have some disadvantage?
The only real exception to the rule is if you attend a private day or boarding school similar to Phillips Exeter, Deerfield, Choate Hotchkiss, or Andover. While many of these schools offer APs like Deerfield, the majority of upper curricula are based on their own course design. So level 500 courses are considered freshman college courses level 600 courses are considered 2nd-year college courses and there are even level 700 courses which are even more advanced.
So unless your school is a top-rated high school that has a high matriculation rate into Ivys, Elites, and Top Liberal Arts colleges, I wouldn't assume that such colleges would put your normal school curriculum on equal par with APs and IBs or 500/600/700 level courses at top private high schools.
I get you're saying. I came to know that my school course is equivalent to Honors course...so any views on that?
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2 answers
AP courses are definitely preferential for colleges as they are standard courses and colleges are sure about their rigor. Colleges don't know about how rigorous your schools courses are and don't have resources to look into every schools course rigor. Especially if your school does offer several AP's, it will be a disadvantage to your application.
Hello! The fact that you took AP classes at all is beneficial on your college application(s). Taking any AP test is not necessary though, unless you would like to get college credit. It won't hurt you if you don't take the AP tests though.
This was deemed very helpful for me though, because passing AP tests gave me college credit, so I didn't have to take some of the required classes at my college, making college cheaper and and more manageable.
I hope this helps!
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Since your high school does not offer any AP courses, I have to also assume that it doesn't offer any IB courses either.
Both APs and IBs serve college admissions as a proxy that you can thrive at the college level and get good grades and test scores in such courses. Why is this important? It's important because they are trying to act as risk managers and mitigate any doubt that the students they accept will not perform well on campus.