Colleges are changing their analysis.
In conversation after conversation with college admission representatives, they told us that they look for students who take the most appropriately rigorous path and who have clearly demonstrated their ability to complete college-level coursework. Often, college admissions officers may use APs and honors as examples of what rigorous coursework could look like, but this does not mean that APs and honors are the only rigorous pathways or that they are necessarily what colleges and universities want; colleges and universities will evaluate the rigor of a student’s academic program in the context of what is offered by their high school. In other words, when we communicate on our school profile that ATs are college-level, admissions officers take that at face value.
Beyond rigor, many colleges and universities prefer to see students who have deeply studied topics that interest them rather than simply taking as many AP courses as possible. They are increasingly looking beyond course designations (AP, AT, Honors, etc.) to a student’s ability to demonstrate deep, relevant, interdisciplinary, and applied learning.
Today, colleges read students holistically. Colleges want students who are prepared for their educational experience; an experience that is collaborative, interactive, engaged in the real world, and project based; an educational experience where learning from your peers could be equally important as from your professor. To be competitive in US admissions, students need to show colleges more than just AP exam scores.
As far as test scores, each year more US universities are becoming test optional (referring to the SAT and ACT) as they recognize it’s not a single test taken on a Saturday, but four years of coursework, that are the best predictors of a student’s success in college.
If we do not change, our students risk being left behind in the US college admissions process.