I was asked to answer this question on the website Quora.com
*********************************************************************************
Your question will, at least in my case, lead to an answer that
is lot longer than the one you might be looking for. As with many questions
about admission policies, there is rarely a single overarching ‘right’ answer.
Colleges and universities establish their own policies and traditions, and
these sometimes change either through the result of data that has been gathered
through research or because of politics that takes place in the world of
education, especially at many State supported schools.
The first thing I need to do is to parse the phrase
“alongside high school course work”. If you are not already aware of this fact,
most selective colleges and universities expect successful applicants to do two
things in secondary school that are intertwined: take a tough academic program
and earn strong grades. Students who do only one of the two usually will not
end up being admitted. (I am assuming your question applies to selective
schools as those that do not fall into this category will likely be impressed
with most college level work that you present to them,)
As applications to selective schools have soared over the
last decade, the effort to stand out has become much more difficult. One of the most dramatic changes has been the
number of higher-level courses students now take in secondary school. For
schools that offer Advanced Placement classes or the International Baccalaureate diploma the expectation on the part of universities and colleges is that students will
take advantage of these programs. One of the reasons for the emphasis on these
kinds of classes is the remark made by the Dean of Harvard a number of years
ago in The New York Times:
“We have found that
the best predictors at Harvard are Advanced
Placement tests and International
Baccalaureate Exams, closely followed by the College Board subject
tests. High school grades are next in predictive power, followed by the SAT and
ACT.”
A number of other schools have also have data that show the
positive predictive academic outcomes for students who enroll in AP/IB (and A
Level for the UK system schools) and who do well on the tests. I mention this
because if you are currently enrolled in a secondary school that offers a whole
range of APs or the IB, but you opt instead for community college courses
instead, then you may be hurting your chances for admission.
To give a relatively simple example, if you chose to take a
calculus course through the community college rather than taking the AP Calc
class (especially if it is BC Calc), then at least some, if not the majority of
readers at highly selective schools, may perceive you as not taking what they
consider to be the highest level course in that subject. Whether this is
accurate or not is really beside the point (sad to say) with respect to
admission decisions. Perception matters more in this case than what the facts
might actually be (and in lots of other cases in life too).
In addition, students can demonstrate strong skills in AP
course work in 10th and 11th grade by taking the AP exam.
It is not that unusual today to see strong students submit AP results from 5 or
more AP exams from course work prior to the senior year. (In addition, many of
these same students tend to take 5 or more APs in the senior year.) Students who
score well (and this generally means scores of 5 and 4), have demonstrated that
they will do well at places like Harvard. For many admission officers the AP or
IB courses and program are the gold standard for evaluating the strength of the
curriculum and for those who already have lots of scores before the senior
year the strength of academic performance will be a plus factor too.
The reason I have outlined the way schools interpret AP/IB
is to underscore why it may be a disadvantage for you to enroll in community college
courses. But here is where things get complicated or at least murky if not
mucky. But first a little history. Not all that long ago some schools actually
posted on their websites or stated in their application materials that they
would prefer to see AP than community college courses. The reason for this was
the data I have mentioned, but also there was a perception that community college
courses were much harder to measure in terms of rigor since there is no national
exam to test a student’s knowledge. Given the huge number of community colleges,
it stands to reason that the way hundreds of different instructors teach and grade the class will vary and without some form of standardized measure of what
students have learned there is less confidence on the part of admission offices
that these classes have prepared student well for work at a highly selective
university. In addition to that I would add that many in selective admission
have read applications from students who attend community college who have
earned all A’s but who then, when they transfer to a selective school, struggle.
Faculty sometimes write letters saying the students who have transferred in
from community colleges are not as well prepared as others. Of course this is
not true for many students, but there are enough cases of this that admission
people have come to be a bit suspicious about grade inflation and giving good
grades for working hard rather than for mastering the material. But the things
I have just written are rarely ever shared in public. My guess is that if you
ask admission officers these days if a community college course is as good as an AP
most people would say yes or possibly say "it depends", but I doubt many
would say that AP is better.
One reason for the reticence on the part of admission
offices to say what they may really think is that at least some schools wish to
be supportive of students who attend community colleges and of the community
college system as a whole. The US is one of the few places in the world that
gives students who may not have been great in secondary school a chance to
prove themselves ready to attend highly selective schools for their final two years.
Most other parts of the world do not give second chances. That is one of the
great things about the community college system.
If what I have just written seems to contradict what I have said
above, it really doesn't. The group of students who attend community colleges is, on the whole, different than the group of high achieving students in secondary schools. Far more students
apply for first year admission than for transfer and the competition is much
tougher. Schools wish to enroll students who will be successful, and students
who do well at community colleges tend to graduate from the schools they enroll in if they have taken the correct courses and have high GPAs. From this perspective, selective universities are taking part in a larger social good. For those
students in secondary school, however, the perception that AP/IB predict
success better than community college courses has some data to back it up.
Given this, it is in your best interest to take APs or the IB diploma instead of
community college courses (in some places these courses are called dual enrollment courses as a student gets credit for the class from the community collge but it also counts toward the high school diploma).
There are, however exceptions. For example ,if you are
already in 5 APs and wish to take a community college course which is not
offered through the AP program then this would be fine. Or if there are schedule
conflicts at your school that make it impossible for you to take an AP in a
certain subject, then take the community college course, but make sure your
counselor highlights this in the recommendation. You may also wish to write about
this in the "Is there anything else we should know" part of the
application. I hope this answers your question but if not let me know. I think
I have already written a lot and hope what it here might help you and other
students who have similar questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment