Distinctive

By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D.

There are a few challenges I expect to face with students year in and year out. First, most students will like their Reach Schools better than their Likely Schools, and some of my seniors will try to apply to zero Likely Schools (trust me, that is a no-no). Second, most students will dislike preparing for the SAT and ACT, and I will have to convince a few of my students to keep going until they’ve given a test a third try. And third, most students will confuse their high school graduation requirements with colleges’ entrance requirements (or recommendations, which are technically requirements unless you physically or financially cannot meet them), and try to get out of taking essential classes. This third issue is the challenge that is hardest to beat. 

So many students believe that they can work around the system or negotiate getting out of a core class. Sadly, I’m just the messenger, so please don’t shoot! The reality is that colleges have their expectations, and if you don’t meet them, you will more likely than not leave yourself with fewer options down the road. What so many students fail to recognize is that what their high schools ask of them to graduate is not the same as what colleges wish to see to admit them. The admissions bar is simply higher, and part of colleges’ weeding out process involves finding those who are willing to do what it takes to surpass that bar, and denying those who are not.

So where is that bar? It’s not universal from school to school, but there are some rules of thumb that you should follow to ensure you’re on the right track. Let’s look at the basic expectations that will make you the most competitive:

Courses in all five academic areas, all four years of high school. Unless you are in an international school system that only allows 3 or 4 classes in your latter two years, colleges will favor students who take English, Social Studies, Math, Science, and Foreign Language (ideally in the same one) throughout the course of high school. This is terrible news for the many students who come to me expressing a desire to drop their foreign language class after they’ve fulfilled their high school’s graduation requirement. While it saddens me to see that foreign languages seem to be most people’s least favorite class (I was an Italian Professor, so my love for languages is probably greater than average), you will also make yourself less competitive if you decide to drop yours. In some cases, you will completely take yourself out of the running for consideration if you don’t cover all of your bases. So keep French, take history, and enroll in chemistry. Colleges are paying attention! 

The most rigorous course load you can handle or that is available to you. When I say the most rigorous course load that you can handle, that varies from student to student and from school to school. A student who can get straight As without much effort needs to increase her rigor. A student who achieves straight As with serious effort is hitting the right spot. A student who is achieving more Bs or Cs than As in rigorous courses, despite studying a lot, probably needs to take his rigor down a notch. With this said, there is no magical number of AP classes that everyone needs to take, in large part because every school system is different. In fact, some schools don’t even offer AP classes. Some offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) which, fortunately, imposes rigor on every student in that program, while the British A-Levels or Indian ISCEs also have their own high expectations. While the D.C. area, where I live, is replete with rigorous public and private high schools, sometimes students find themselves in schools with limited options for rigorous coursework. In such instances, you should exhaust the best options available to you and look for external ways to challenge yourself (or, worst case scenario, maybe even switch schools). 

All 3 lab sciences. Even if you’re not a “science person,” strong candidates take all three lab sciences, namely biology, chemistry, and physics before graduating. Sure, your older brother may not have done well in one of those classes, but that doesn’t mean that you will do poorly in it, too. Having an understanding of how life, substances, processes, matter, and energy work is fundamental to our evolution as human beings (and I’m saying this as a trained humanist). We all depend on biological, chemical, and physical phenomena and innovations every day, and the better we understand them, the better decisions we make for ourselves. If your school offers an integrated science course that blends all three core lab sciences for a couple of years, just make sure that your counselor provides a note about that in the school report and mention it yourself in the Additional Information section of your applications, just in case a reader is unsure of what to make of this emerging curricular trend.

Calculus. Once considered the pinnacle of high school math, calculus is now taken by 800,000 public high school students in the U.S. every year. That’s an astounding number, and I believe it proves the necessity of taking this class if you wish to be competitive in the college admissions process. Even if you’re a future humanities or social science major, reaching a class like Honors Calculus or AP Calculus AB is important. If you’re interested in a Business or STEM field, AP Calculus AB should be the bare minimum. In fact, I’ve had several students take Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and beyond, though these classes aren’t available everywhere. If you take an integrated math class, just make sure that it covers calculus and your curriculum gets spelled out to admissions representatives by you and your counselor. We don’t want any confusion from new readers.

Traditional academic courses over vocational courses. Not everyone was meant to go to college. Some of us have interests and talents in areas that don’t require a college degree. In response to these students, high schools have recently and correctly created an array of vocational course options, like emergency medical technician (EMT), carpenter, or cosmetologist training. For students who wish to attend selective colleges, however, vocational training courses are not your best options. They may actually weaken your applications, if you choose those classes over the core five subject areas. Strong college applicants save their information technology pursuits for a group like CyberPatriots, or their culinary development for Top Chef Junior. Skill development forms a piece of their extracurricular backgrounds, which give depth to these students’ personalities, because they recognize that non-academic endeavors should be out-of-classroom pursuits. So, if you plan to throw your hat into the ring with selective colleges, it’s better not to sacrifice traditional academic courses to non-traditional studies. 

AP/IB English. Again, unless you are in a system that restricts you to 3-4 classes per year, I, colleges, and American high schools expect you to take English all four years of high school. Which English classes you take, however, depend on the type of curriculum you’re in. Private schools often offer their own seminar-style options. The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme offers Higher Level or Standard Level, both of which will work depending on which major you’re choosing to apply to. For students in an AP curriculum, however, it’s pretty clear that colleges expect serious applicants to take AP English. There are, of course, two of these courses, and most public school students take AP English Language as juniors, and AP English Literature as seniors. While there are variations on this theme among schools or school districts, keep in mind that, if your school offers AP English and you wish to attend a selective college, you better take one or both classes. 

The information is out there! All of the above expectations frequently cause consternation among the college bound, especially because there are so many conflicting messages out there. Perhaps your dad’s barber’s neighbor got into Georgetown without taking Calculus, so now you think that it’s acceptable to skip that class. The reality is we’re missing a lot of context here. That neighbor could be the child of a big donor, a highly coveted recruited athlete, or a top student at a low-income school. Never take gossip at face value. So how do you see these rules of thumb for yourself and avoid making irreversible mistakes? Well, there are three tried and true ways. 

First, read the admissions websites of as many colleges as you can. While not all will be explicit about their high school course expectations, many will be. Second, have a conversation with admissions reps at the schools you wish to apply to. Most will be forthcoming with this information, though some will be cagey and claim they can’t advise you. Third and finally, every U.S. college reports its expectations every year in the Common Data Set. While I do not recommend trying to read through the entire report, you can simply google the name of schools that interest you along with “Common Data Set,” and you’ll have access to a wealth of information in writing about individual college’s admissions practices, including their course expectations. 

Of course, individual course selection does require some strategy and an eye to what you plan to study in college. With that said, however, if you follow these guidelines, no matter what you wish to major in, you’ll ensure that you’ll give yourself some great options.