Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

i feel like this is a stupid question but...

say Honors & AP are weighted equally in your school (never mind that AP is harder). Therefore you can choose the easy or hard route to a nice GPA. And GPA determines class rank (well in my school it does). So you have all these AP kids who are barely in the top 10% versus all the honor kids who are securely in the top 10%.

What is better?

A. To have a lower GPA and class rank but a ton of AP classes (very decent grades though for coursework taken).

or

B. To have a higher GPA and class rank but next to none APs (good grades, straight As).

and assuming everything else in on par, say test scores, activities, work...

My high school is extremely competitive so I'm just wondering if I should have taken the easy route out (and therefore have gotten better grades)...

By Almondjoy (Almondjoy) on Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - 01:15 am: Edit

personally i would rather see an applicant who took a bunch of AP's. its not like the adcoms gonna be like, "oh man, his GPA and rank are high so we must accept him". they check strength and schedule and stuff

By Mazzo (Mazzo) on Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - 03:32 pm: Edit

no go with all APs. Adcoms want to see the hardest possible classes taken.

By Serene (Serene) on Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Be confident? =) Take hard classes and get A's in them!

By Hbdesi (Hbdesi) on Thursday, August 21, 2003 - 03:30 am: Edit

no question is stupid unless u intend for it to be so

By Lethalfang (Lethalfang) on Thursday, August 21, 2003 - 03:54 am: Edit

If you think all the college admission officials are stupid, who never look at your transcript but only your GPA at end of your transcript, then skip AP classes and take honor ones.
Otherwise, take the AP classes.