FAQs - Transcripts, College Admissions, Scholarships

The consideration that is placed on accelerated or advanced courses in the admission process is dependent on the college that is being applied to. This is also the case as students apply for scholarships. Some of the confusion around this issues is due to the lack of clarity from district to district and state to state regarding what the “accelerated” and “advanced” title means. Colleges want to see a rigorous transcript including four years of math, three years or more of science, four years of English, two or more years of a second language, AP/IB classes, advanced courses and dual credit courses.

In a system of weighted grades, students who challenge themselves by taking AP or IB courses receive a different “weight” for their marks. For example, in a standard class such as Biology, a student would earn 4 points for an A, 3 for a B and so on.  For AP Biology, students would earn 5 points for an A, 4 for a B and so on. Weighting grades encourages students to challenge themselves to more rigorous classes without fear of impacting their grade point average (GPA)  and simultaneously allows them to improve their GPA if they receive high marks.