No AP courses

[ariana01]

Hi, can a student who would like to go to a good college have to take AP classes or is it not necessary?

[Nicole M]

Helpful, but not necessary, no.

 

 

Although, we found that outside courses (at the community college) were helpful in the admission process, because those are evaluated by someone other than Mommy.

[ariana01]

and what if you hire a tutor for a subject can you call that honors or not? Lol if I am not making sense, Im totally new to high school homeschool

[regentrude]

and what if you hire a tutor for a subject can you call that honors or not?

 

 

I doubt colleges put much value on honors designations for homeschool courses.

And just because there is a tutor does not mean the course is any more rigorous than average. Some people hire a tutor for remedial courses.

[ariana01]

Ok! :huh: So, should it make a big difference if my student doesn't do any AP courses for colleges?

[regentrude]

Ok! :huh: So, should it make a big difference if my student doesn't do any AP courses for colleges?

 

It all depends on WHAT college. highly selective schools - yes, it will make a difference (but you could also do dual enrollment).

But for less selective schools- no, it won't.

 

read the sticky thread on top of the board about AP, dual enrollment etc.

[ariana01]

Any other opinions?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

What colleges or type of colleges are you aiming for? You can sometimes find stats on the average number of AP courses taken by the incoming freshmen at a particular school.

 

Though there are many students with no AP. Some schools don't offer courses that high and others offer IB courses instead of AP. What you need to decide is the colleges you're aiming for expect AP scores or if AP will quantify what you are doing anyway.

[ariana01]

My daughter would like to get a history degree.

[Trilliums]

Students can definitely get into good schools without any AP classes.

 

I would take a look at admission pages for colleges your kids are interested in. Many college web site have a section detailing admissions process for homeschool students.

 

AP classes and AP test scores do help show potential colleges that the student has completed college level work. Students can gain college credit for AP classes in some schools (this is highly variable though). So much depends on the student's goals and what you really mean by a good college. Are you talking about public state universities? Private schools? We don't have enough info to go on.

 

If you have more specific goals for your students, you can post and get plenty of feedback. :)

 

GL!

[ariana01]

Likely a private school, and she enjoys history and art. She isn't a very mathy/sciency person.

Oh, and will just taking the AP exam instead of also taking an AP class. She is a very independent person and isn't too fond of classes

[Trilliums]

Doing well on the AP exams without officially taking the AP approved class is probably fine. If she does well on the exam, she is showing her mastery of the material.

 

There have been some threads in the past addressing self studying for AP exams. You might be able to tag this thread *AP* and see if you can then search through other threads tagged that way. I am not entirely sure how the tagging and related thread functions work on the new message boards.

[regentrude]

There have been some threads in the past addressing self studying for AP exams. You might be able to tag this thread *AP* and see if you can then search through other threads tagged that way. I am not entirely sure how the tagging and related thread functions work on the new message boards.

 

The OP should read the sticky thread on top of the board. LOTS of links to AP related threads.

[snowbeltmom]

Students can definitely get into good schools without any AP classes.

 

AP classes and AP test scores do help show potential colleges that the student has completed college level work.

:iagree:

 

While students can get into good schools without any AP classes, I am having my kids take some AP exams in order to demonstrate the rigor of our homeschooled classes and to validate the class . For example, my oldest is studying calculus this year. Even though he is planning on beginning the sequence again in college, he is taking the AP exam to prove that he mastered the standard calculus topics.

 

While I would personally much prefer to skip the AP exam because I find this time of year extremely stressful, I don't want an admissions officer to look at his transcript and wonder why, if he studied calculus, he didn't take the AP test.

 

Some of our classes don't follow the AP topics. For example, my kids will not take any of the AP history exams. However, the topics covered in the math and sciences are, imo, pretty universal, so my kids will be taking those tests.

[SkateLeft]

My daughter was accepted at every school to which she applied, including two highly selective schools, and received merit aid offers from all of them.

 

She did not complete any AP courses. She did, however, have over 50 units of dual enrollment credit with a 4.0 GPA and a very high ACT score.

 

Personally, we've found that if a child has a robust transcript, good test scores and solid (and in our case, unusual) extra-curriculars, then AP classes are unnecessary.

[8filltheheart]

For non-competitive schools, no APs and avg. test scores are generally going to be completely acceptable.

[AngieW in Texas]

APs are not necessary, but they can be helpful to show that your coursework was rigorous. You don't need to do AP classes. The exam by itself is really all that matters. My oldest didn't do any APs. My middle dd did one AP. My youngest won't be doing any.

 

Dual credit classes at a community college or university can also be quite helpful. Good grades in those classes show that your student can actually handle the classroom setting. A nice side benefit is that most semester-long classes at community college will count for a full year of high school credit, so you can get more credits in less time that way. In my cc district, students who have completed 10th grade can take up to 2 classes every semester at no charge at the cc. Not all districts do this.

 

SAT subject tests can be useful to take as well. The school where my oldest is (and where my middle dd will go also) doesn't require subject tests, but some schools do. The schools that require subject tests usually want to see two of them. My oldest didn't take any subject tests. My middle dd took US history and chemistry subject tests.