My school doesn’t offer AP/IB classes. How do I specify that so it doesn’t look like I’m just missing a ton of credits?
You can always take ap exams by self-studying the content by yourself, and taking the exam at the end of the year. Also, not to worry, since your school counselor will send a school report to all the colleges that you are applying to, informing you that AP courses were not offered at your school.
Something that I would recommend you to do is to take a couple of courses at your local community college so that colleges see that you took the initiative to study outside of the boundaries of your school, as compensation for not having access to ap exams.
Most colleges only want to see that you took advantage of the classes that you were offered. If your school didn't offer AP/IB then that's totally fine, however if they offer honors courses you should take those. If you can, submit your school report make sure Admissions officers know your school didn't offer these classes but that you did take advantage of the high level classes you were offered. FYI you can self study for an AP course. Go onto College Boards website to find out more about this.
I would state this in my additional comments and maybe talk about classes you have taken that have been impactful to you and your learning. I would also talk about since you didn't have the opportunity to take the classes, at high school, you plan on taking classes at college because they'll love to see you talk about how you could potentially fit in their community. Also, many of your application readers will probably know that your school didn't offer AP/IB classes beforehand, and if you did good in your regular classes I wouldn't worry because they review cases like yours differently than those of kids who had the opportunity to take AP/IB classes.
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I 100% agree with all of that.