While we often discuss GPA, extracurriculars, and standardized test scores as integral parts of the college application process, we overlook an important aspect of college readiness: course rigor. On average, students who take courses with similar workloads, content, and structures as college classes may be more
prepared for college than those who choose easier classes that differ significantly from college courses.
5 Ways Challenging Courses Boost College Readiness
Given the increasingly competitive environment students face in terms of college admissions, taking more challenging Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or dual credit classes, may set students apart from their peers who may not have taken a challenging course load.
Save Money on College Costs
Firstly, taking challenging courses may allow students to
save money in college by transferring AP or IB credits to college credits and saving on the number students have to take. Most colleges in the United States accept AP credits to fulfill college credit requirements, especially non-major-related credits such as an art credit for a finance major, for example.
As a result, students can fulfill some of their college requirements in high school and possibly graduate early. Even if their universities do not accept AP credits, students who have taken AP courses can earn money by tutoring their peers and becoming a teacher’s assistant.
When in college, having a deeper understanding of a specific subject matter can be especially beneficial to other students, and the student would be able to have a deeper impact on their college campus in addition to possibly earning or saving money.
Help to Choose a Focus
Taking AP courses can also serve as a way for a student to gain insight into a specific subject and learn if they are interested in a particular subject early on to save money in college. By choosing to take an AP course such as AP Macroeconomics, for example, students can learn if they are interested in the subject, allowing them to make more informed decisions about their major and interests in the future.
While easier classes can serve as valuable exposure to a specific academic field, challenging courses give students more to consider in terms of the types of content, information, etc., that make up that course. In turn, students will learn more about themselves and subjects that they may want to
pursue in college.
Insight into the College Experience
Dual credit courses can also be beneficial to students, maybe even more so than AP courses because
dual credit classes involve students going to a college campus and learning from a college professor. As a result, dual credit classes simulate actual college classes, preparing students for the university environment.
For students who want to learn how receiving a college education feels like, utilizing dual credit courses offered by local community colleges and their high school can be an excellent way to explore the college environment and learn more about how they can make an easier transition between high school and college.
Contribute to Higher GPAs
Furthermore, taking challenging courses often serves as a way for students to enhance their GPAs. In most GPA systems, course rigor is a determining factor of which GPA scale is used.
Harder courses are weighed on a larger scale, which means that the grading system accounts for challenging courses being harder to score well in compared to easier courses. This allows students to score slightly lower in AP classes than in on-level classes while still maintaining the same or sometimes even a higher GPA. Therefore, by choosing to take AP courses,
students maximize their GPAs.
Additionally, taking challenging courses allows students to broaden their academic abilities by including various components of reading comprehension, analysis, and connection-making. On-level and honors classes typically do not express ideas in the same ways that AP classes do, and partaking in AP classes allows students to see concepts represented in different ways, allowing students to draw connections and ideas.
As a result, taking AP classes fuels interests outside of the classroom and encourages students to explore different applications for what they
learned at school outside of the classroom.
Compare to Students Nationwide
Lastly, AP and dual credit courses provide a standard by which students across the country can measure themselves. While final exams for on-level and honors courses differ based on school,
AP exams are standard, which provides students with a metric to see how they are doing relative to their peers in certain subjects.
Moreover, students who take AP classes can measure their progress and connect, even from different schools and states, as a result of a standard curriculum and set of resources.
All in all, taking challenging courses in high school allows students to prepare for their futures by exploring challenging subjects early on. Moreover, by taking college-level courses in high school, students may set themselves up to save money in college by not having to take as many credits.
As a result, choosing AP and dual credit courses can be a good first step to being college-ready!
