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Difference in Honors, AP, College Prep??


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What's going to be the huge difference in Honors, Advanced Placement or College Prep courses?

 

Is one going to look better over the other on a transcript?

 

BTW, these would be outsourced classes, so it's not me putting the label on the course, it's the school/instructor.

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In my experience, colleges prefer to see AP. The big differences is that AP goes more in depth, moves more quickly, and is capped at the end (in May) by an AP test which covers material from the whole year. These courses are good for those who are up to the challenge, but not so good if a student isn't ready for them.

 

Many schools (but not all) will give college credit for most courses if a student scores a 4 or 5 on the exam. State schools we've come across also give credit for a 3. (Highest score is a 5.)

 

Since these are considered college level classes, colleges like to see them for competitive entry even if they don't offer credit for the courses. Their content is standardized and they know what is covered on the tests. This is not always true about other routes.

 

When visiting one top university this past summer an admissions rep told me they like to see at least a couple of AP test scores as those correlate better than GPA or ACT/SAT to how a student will do in their college. When we visited another top school this past Friday they told us their typical accepted applicant has between 2 and 7 AP courses.

 

For homeschoolers aiming toward higher colleges they aren't an absolute requirement, but if I had it to do over again, I'd have had my top academic guy do more than the one he did. He did still make it into the second school, but it might have affected the merit aid he'll receive as I look at all the courses his "competition" did. I don't know yet if he'll make it into the first school. I have my doubts. The competition is far stiffer there.

 

For colleges lower than top tier or state school there isn't quite as much competition and Honors Classes or general College Prep classes would be perfectly fine. Many students also take a "normal" class prior to taking the AP class (regular Bio before AP Bio).

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What's going to be the huge difference in Honors, Advanced Placement or College Prep courses?

 

Is one going to look better over the other on a transcript?

 

BTW, these would be outsourced classes, so it's not me putting the label on the course, it's the school/instructor.

 

The advantage of the AP test is that it is a known quantity to colleges. "Honors", "College Prep", or even Community College classes have no standards, so it is hard for a college to tell what's really going on there, especially if the college doesn't have much experience with that particular course.

 

However, I would say that AP classes without the corresponding AP test look suspicious.

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