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When admissions officers are reviewing transcripts, they evaluate the difficulty of a student’s high school coursework. The lower a college’s admit rate, the more likely it is to expect that applicants take rigorous courses in high school. Notably, colleges view rigor within the context of students’ high schools and examine curriculum in light of what classes are offered by that school. While selective colleges expect students to reasonably challenge themselves in high school, they examine the confines of the curriculum available to each student. Imagine if a student at High School A takes four AP courses, the maximum number offered by that student’s high school. Even though a student at High School B might take twelve AP courses, the first student will not be disadvantaged simply because the total number of APs is lower.
Discussions of high school rigor inevitably involve an age-old question in college admissions: Is it better to get an A in a regular class or a B in an honors class? The answer is neither: the best outcome is to earn an A in an Honors class! All joking aside, colleges (especially selective ones) expect students to perform well in challenging courses. That does not mean, however, that students need to take every single honors, AP, or IB course offered by their high school.
In a perfect world, all students would excel at the highest level in every subject. However, that is not a reality for most students, especially because high schoolers are busy juggling a full course load with extracurricular, work, social, and family commitments. Most students are naturally inclined to excel in some academic areas than others, and their interests may align more with certain subjects than with others. For this reason, students should strategically select their high school courses to ensure that they are appropriately challenged without being overwhelmed. If students choose more rigorous courses in areas that fit their strengths and interests, they are more likely to do well, bolstering their transcripts and deepening their knowledge. Selective rigor also provides much-needed balance for stressed-out high school students, enabling them to push themselves in areas of interests while also making time for activities and other subjects that may be less interesting or intuitive.
Because admissions officers often look for trends in grades and rigor, students generally benefit from gradually adding rigor to their curriculum throughout high school. By slowly and appropriately ramping up rigor each year, students will be less likely to feel overwhelmed and potentially harm their GPAs or, worse, their mental health. Ambition is undoubtedly a laudable quality, but overzealous course selection might actually be a detriment in the college admissions process. This is especially true because of the emphasis colleges place on GPAs in the admissions process. Whether a college uses the high school GPA or recalculates this metric on its own scale, poor grades can harm a student’s chances of admission. Grades alone do not make or break admission at colleges that review students holistically, but poor performance in rigorous courses is typically not viewed as a strong indicator of college success. The well-documented prevalence of high school grade inflation intensifies this reality, as more and more applicants are presenting nearly-perfect transcripts.
Students should also design the high school curriculum that works best for them—without worrying about what their peers are doing. Every student has different strengths, interests, and parameters. While earning top grades in the high school’s hardest courses is the best recipe for admissions success, this combination is neither realistic nor healthy for all students. Instead, the ideal approach is for students to choose challenging courses that capitalize on their strengths and interests and to gradually increase rigor as appropriate.
