What if my school doesn't offer AP classes? What "advanced" classes should I take ?Answered
Right now, I'm a freshman with a GPA of 4.33 mainly because I only take college classes or BC classes.
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Colleges look at strength of schedule based on your school so a college will see that your school doesn't offer AP and you won't be penalized for not having any. Just take the most advanced classes your school offers and keep going with those college classes. Also look for classes related to you major so colleges can see you're taking steps towards your major. You can also make up for a lack of AP with good ECs. Look for good clubs and try to get leadership positions. Another option, although it isn't good for everyone, is to take AP courses online. Look at what your state offers as far as online education. For example, I live in Florida and Florida offers FLVS for students to take classes online. You need guidance counselor approval but other than that it's easy to register. In fact, in the state of Florida an online course is a graduation requirement. FLVS offers a ton of AP options and then for the test they send you to the nearest "AP testing site" which in your case would be another school since your school has no AP classes. If you can learn well online, I recommend it. I did it since my school only offers like 4 AP classes but I wanted more. If your state doesn't have an online option, you can do self-study and buy the textbook for the AP class and then just register for the test through CollegeBoard and take it at the closest high school with AP. If you don't want to/can't do any of those options then just keep taking the highest level classes you can and have good ECs. A 4.33 is really good considering what you have available to you and colleges will see that.
Colleges will weigh your schedule with what courses your school offers, however if you want to be a more competitive applicant you can still sign up for an AP test even if your school doesn't offer the class. My school didn't offer any math classes beyond AP Calc AB. When I finished that I still wanted to continue to take a math class so bought the Princeton Review book for Calc BC, did a ton of Khan Academy, and signed up for the AP test. When testing time came around all I had to do was go to the school that was administrating the test. In the end, I got a 4. If you want to know more on how to take an AP test if your school doesn't offer AP courses just google "AP test (whatever subject) homeschool" and you'll be able to find how to sign up and study for an AP test without ever taking the class.
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Thank you so much for a well-written response!