My problem with this is, why does the high-school require an introductory course before AP? I've never heard of this before. A college student who never took bio in high school can take college-level bio without taking an intro course for elective credit first... so why not take the college-level class in high school? Isn't that the point of AP? It's a nonsense requirement.
That's been my thought as well. She's taking a lot of pre-AP classes which apparently count for nothing in terms of boosted GPA but they are pre-reqs to take the AP classes and we're told that they look good to colleges. I took AP bio in 10th, AP chem in 11th, and AP physics in 12th with no pre-AP intro course before these classes, but I guess that things are different at her high school and we've not been able to talk them into letting her take the AP classes without the pre-AP first. She can do concurrent enrollment college courses her junior & senior year and take the college courses for college and hs credit. The only drawback to doing that in lieu of AP is that the AP classes count for an extra point on your hs GPA and the college courses do not. She also won't be able to drive until a little after the start of the senior year b/c she won't turn 16 until then so, if these classes aren't offered on campus @ her hs, getting her to and from them will require a little juggling.
Re Grinity's note, I have a very driven, motivated HG kid. She is, however, a slower processor with a SPD and dyspraxia dx. She has a 504 for extra time theoretically but that amounts to nothing really. She still has eight classes each semester and, if those classes are all core/hard classes rather than a lot of the softer electives that many other kids are taking, it means nothing in terms of her GPA, makes it hard to have the other things that appeal to colleges (like leading clubs/other extracurriculars), and the only thing she could get out of extra time is to ask to turn stuff in later which would only pile the homework up. She hasn't been using the extra time at all as a result.
It sounds to me like she has a good chance of getting into two of her top college choices (Stetson & UO) even if she doesn't take five AP classes every year and become the student body president. I don't know on others like Duke, but she can apply and see what happens. I'm just looking @ it from the standpoint of realizing that, if she falls apart and kills herself or her grades start slipping b/c she is so stressed, that doesn't help her applications to competitive colleges either. Alive and happy is more important to me. I just don't think that she should have to sacrifice her life long dreams to be alive and reasonably happy.
