How much should a student challenge themselves academically?
A deep dive on academic rigor in the admissions process -- ft. recorded audio!
Hey subscribers, Noelle here — Come to our webinar this Thursday! We’ll be discussing the best extracurricular activities for college admissions.
Now, onto academic rigor! I’ve gone ahead and recorded myself reading this article for accessibility and ease. If you like these recordings, let me know! I’ll make more.
What does it mean to have high “academic rigor”?
College admissions officers want to see students who “challenge themselves academically”. In fact, this quality is so important that there’s a whole metric for it on the Common Data Set (section C7, my favorite!). On the Common Data Sets, colleges categorize the importance of various metrics ranging from standardized tests to grades, to extracurricular activities, to demonstrated interest. The admissions value of each metric is then assessed as Very Important - Important - Considered - Not Considered.
“Rigor of Secondary School Record” appears at the very top of these metrics as number one on the list, and no matter what kind of school you’re applying to, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a school that does not consider academic rigor to be “very important”.
NYU (12% acceptance rate):
Dartmouth (6% acceptance rate):
Brandeis (39% acceptance rate)
University of Colorado (80% acceptance rate)
University of Kentucky (94% acceptance rate)
As I am compiling this data, I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen a school that does not consider academic rigor to be “very important”. I don’t think I have! You can see that while the rest of the data points might be scattered, all colleges are looking for students who have pursued challenging courses.
But there is another insight that you might have noticed– all of the above schools rank “academic GPA” as “very important” as well.
They want you to challenge yourself, but they also want you to get As. This is tougher than it sounds – push it too hard and your grades will suffer.
How do colleges calculate academic rigor?
It is impossible to fairly calculate academic rigor because every school is so different. For example, a well-funded suburban high school might offer 30 AP courses, while a low-income urban high school might only offer five or six, and some prestigious private schools have done away with APs altogether in favor of proprietary curriculums that are supposed to be more similar to college courses.
Furthermore, there is no standardized assumption for how difficult classes rank against each other. For example, we may agree that AP Calculus is more impressive than non-AP calculus, but most people would also agree that a calculus course of any difficulty is more impressive than, say AP Environmental Science or AP Government.
Oh, and some schools weight their GPAs and some don’t, so there’s no standardized metric across transcripts, either.
In other words, whether or not a student did or was able to challenge themselves in high school is entirely dependent on the high school’s offerings. Thus, the formula is simple: an equation wherein the student’s rigor is divided by the total rigor offered by the high school.
That doesn’t sound simple at all.
The total rigor offered by the school is something that high schools are supposed to include in their “school report”, which is sent directly from the high school counseling office to the college admissions offices. The complexity of these school reports can vary. I have worked with some students whose high schools provide detailed logs of every course offering with the total number of students receiving A, A-, B+ and so on for the past five years. I have worked with other students whose high schools send out a demographic report and a course catalog. Your mileage may vary.
What can I practically do with this information?
If you want to know whether you are challenging yourself enough at school, we suggest that you ask around.
Ask your counselor:
“How does my academic rigor stack up against that of my peers?” Your counselor will be able to look at your transcript with full knowledge of your school’s offerings and a good idea of what other students are taking.
Ask your peers:
“Hey, how many APs are you taking next year? What are they?” By asking around, you can get a sense of whether you are challenging yourself to the same degree as your classmates.
Push yourself as much as you can:
No matter what the other kids are doing, try your best to challenge yourself to the highest degree that you can while still receiving As. This is the safest way forward.
Do I have to challenge myself in every discipline?
The good thing about an Admissions Angle is that you don’t have to push yourself in every direction but rather focus on the disciplines that support your Angle. For example, if you’re planning to pursue engineering, do you really need to take APUSH? We don’t think so.
However, we have found that mathematics can be the exception. No matter what discipline you plan to pursue, colleges tend to look for students who challenge themselves to the highest degree in math. Check out this article about calculus as a gatekeeper in higher education, which essentially states that admissions officers disproportionately value calculus in the admissions process when it comes to academic rigor.
As such, we suggest that you prioritize challenging yourself in the disciplines that are related to your Angle while also pushing yourself in mathematics to the highest degree that you reasonably can.
What if my high school doesn’t offer very many difficult courses?
If you are not feeling challenged enough in your current environment, we suggest augmenting your schedule with online programs like this one or in-person courses through local community colleges. Many high schools around the country have dual enrollment options – ask your counseling office to learn more about what is available.
What’s more important, academic rigor or a high GPA?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but these are both foundational to the admissions process. They are equally important, and colleges do not want to see one without the other. This balance will be personal to each student, but we recommend challenging yourself as much as possible without letting your grades dip. However, you can’t predict your grades in advance, and fortune does favor the bold. As such, it’s a good idea to challenge yourself with your course selection, and if you can’t pull an A, at least the admissions office will be impressed that you tried.
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