Many questions?
So, I am not really a math and science person. If I take APs mostly in history and english, willl top colleges look down on that? I have taken honors science course and plan to take only AP Statistics as an AP math course. Does AP Computer Science count as a science course? If I took up to Spanish 4, will that be good enough(my school offers AP spanish but I don't think I have room for it). I asked my GC about how rigorous my workload was so far but she said it was very rigorous. The common app has 4 options I assume(Most rigorous, Very Rigorous, Average, Below Average).If she checks off the second box, will I still have a good chance at top schools? I have 4 top tier extracurriculars.
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Top colleges including Ivys prefer that you have fully taken advantage of all the available AP opportunities that were presented to you and challenged yourself and took risks outside of your comfort zone. So if your HS offered 20 AP courses, it would look better to them if you had taken 2 Math, 2 Lab Science, 2 History, and 2 English, something like that. If you just take AP humanities and not the other STEM APs, you might be protecting your UWGPA and WPGA but you're not showing evidence of course rigor. If you bail out on Calculus in HS, then you will most likely have to take it during your Freshman year of college. It would be time better spent if you didn't have to take Calculus in College.
If you had a passion for Humanities, then they would expect you to maybe take an extra like AP Psychology. If you were going to be a CS or Engineering Major, then they'd probably expect to see AP Physics, AP CS, and AP Calc BC in there.
"The common app has 4 options I assume(Most rigorous, Very Rigorous, Average, Below Average).If she checks off the second box, will I still have a good chance at top schools? I have 4 top tier extracurriculars."
I have no idea of what you are referring to on the Common App because those 4 categories are nowhere to be found on the Common App. If you take an AP course, you select an AP Course, If you take an Honors course or an IB course you select Honors or IB. Also, what do you mean "if she checks off the second box? There is no second box.
I'm going to be a humanities major, not sure if I'm going to focus on Political Science or Gender/Women's Studies, or English. Nevertheless I took these APs/College courses.
AP Bio, AP Env.Science, AP HumanGeography, AP English Lit, AP English Lang, AP US History, AP Government, AP Statistics, and AP French, College Calculus and College Psychology. So 11 college level courses. And I took 6 dual enrollment language courses.
Top colleges expect you to have well-rounded core curriculum and if you don't you will still may have to take a core once you get to their campus.
So the takeaway should be that yes, colleges want to see evidence that you challenged yourself versus taking a more comfortable path that poses fewer risks.
Good luck.
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I'm asking about the secondary school report the counselor has to sign for me. If there are 5 options to rate my course rigor (Most demanding, very demanding, demanding, average, below average), and she checks off very demanding, will that hurt my application?