What You Must Know When Planning Your High School Curriculum
Although students around the country are just starting their second semester, it is now time to start thinking about planning their courses for the next school year. If your high school hasn’t yet started this discussion with you, we know it will be coming up very soon, and it is essential to have a plan in place.
We have already been getting a lot of questions about course selection from our Admissions Key VIP families, so we decided to share our advice with our blog readers.
The North Shore College Consulting counselors are most frequently asked about the number of honors or AP classes a student needs to take and if A’s in regular level courses are better than B’s in honors or AP courses. To be honest, there is no one exact answer. The answer will depend on the individual student and the colleges they are applying to. We can tell you that all A’s with no rigor won't help a student get admitted into a highly selective school, and all honors with B’s and C’s won’t help a student's admissions chances for a highly selective school either. Most importantly, a student needs to find the right balance of challenge for themself. A student should not take too many rigorous courses if doing so prevents them from keeping up with all of them. Check out our previous blogs, Rigor in the High School Curriculum - AP or No AP? and Everything You Need to Know About Advanced Placement, for more information on choosing AP courses.
The ideal rule of thumb is to aim for four years of all five core academic courses (English, math, science, social studies, foreign language). Once we begin the discussion of course selection and this goal, students quickly realize that what we recommend often exceeds what the high school requires for graduation. We promise that we are not trying to make you work harder for no reason. The high school requirements are often less than what colleges require or recommend. For example, many high schools do not require students to take a foreign language to graduate. However, many colleges expect applicants to have taken at least two to three years of the same foreign language. Most colleges will list their minimum requirements and recommendations for high school coursework on their web pages. It is important to check this information for each school a student will be applying to since some colleges have requirements you wouldn’t expect. For instance, the University of California universities require a full year of fine art. In contrast, most high schools outside of the State of California only require one semester, and some don’t even require any. Remember, other applicants will meet and often exceed a college’s requirements, so you should keep yourself competitive.
Besides just taking the basic classes that are required or recommended, students should also consider the level of rigor they can include in their course load—colleges like students to challenge themselves within what is available to them. If a student’s high school only offers a few honors or AP courses, colleges won’t compare that student directly to someone whose school offered 20 honors and AP options.
If you are considering applying to a very selective college or university, you need to take the highest level of classes offered at your high school. Highly selective colleges and universities will place much more weight on what courses you choose to take during high school. Ivy League and similarly selective colleges will expect the highest level of coursework offered at a high school in all academic areas regardless of what major that student is applying to.
The transcript review is less objective than one may think due to the differences in courses offered at each school. Most colleges will have regional admissions officers assigned to particular areas who are experts in the graduation requirements at high schools within their regions. These regional admissions officers understand which classes are more challenging and which are easier. For example, taking a science elective like Astronomy is viewed differently than taking a lab course like physics, chemistry, or biology. The regional admissions officer usually will also know if a course with the same name is more difficult at one school in the area vs. another.
Even if a school doesn’t have a regional admissions officer assigned to your area, a school profile providing academic context is available. Most high schools will have the school profile somewhere on their website, and it is common practice that the high school sends the school profile along with the transcript to colleges. Here is an example of a high school profile to help you understand what the colleges are seeing about your high school.
It is important to note that when a college reviews a student’s transcript, they are not simply looking at the number of A’s or overall GPA. There are usually two types of GPA: unweighted and weighted. An unweighted GPA includes all coursework taken during high school and does not give additional weight to honors or AP classes. On the other hand, a weighted GPA considers the rigor of AP, IB, and honors courses, and AP, IB, and honors courses receive an additional point when calculating the GPA.
If a high school does not weight GPAs, do not worry. Colleges will understand and will review an applicant based on their particular situation. Since each high school may have a different method for calculating GPA, many colleges recalculate GPA according to their own formula anyway.
Beyond the requirements to graduate and the college’s requirements and recommendations, students should also determine where there is room to try out new electives or take classes that align with their interests or career goals. A student does not need to know exactly what they want to major in, but if there are some areas of interest in mind, they should use high school electives to learn more about these areas and demonstrate a passion for exploring them. For instance, a student considering a major in graphic design should look for design or art classes. Taking electives can show admissions committees that you are thinking ahead and preparing for your collegiate life as a particular major. Keep in mind that filling your schedule with electives that are honors classes, however, will not replace core academic classes at the honors level, so don’t just take an elective because you think it will boost your GPA.
When senior year rolls around, most high school students are exhausted. While planning a relaxed course load for senior year is tempting, now is not the time to take it easy. Admissions committees want to see continued or increased rigor in a senior year class schedule. When reviewing applications, colleges will look at the classes a student takes as a senior even if they don’t see grades yet. With this in mind, a student should look back at the last three years of high school and assess if they are on pace to meet or exceed the goal of four years of all five core academic courses.
For instance, some students may max out their foreign language or math after junior year. If this is the case, a student should work with their high school counselor to see if a community college or online school can provide the next level. Another option may be to double up on another core subject. For instance, if a student is interested in a science major and has finished the foreign language options offered at their high school, they can take AP Chemistry and AP Biology or AP Biology and Anatomy & Physiology. Remember that even though most applications are submitted before any senior year grades are available, a college may ask for first term (quarter or semester) grades before making a final admissions decision. So while it may seem wise to take all very rigorous classes senior year, a student will still have to balance the coursework to ensure they can be successful and proud to share those senior year grades with a college.
We encourage you to share this advice with your high school student. If your student has additional questions and needs assistance selecting classes for the next school year, please contact us at info@nscollegeconsulting.net or (847) 780-3181 to see how we can help.
If you are looking for support to help your child conquer the admissions process in a stress-free and productive way, contact North Shore College Consulting today to learn more about our one-on-one, individual college consulting packages.