Q:   My son's high school offers very few Advanced Placement courses but does let qualifying students take actual college courses at nearby colleges.  Are the in-school APs weighted the same as taking college classes at a a college (even if it is not a very rigorous college)?  Or are the college classes in fact more desirable even if the local college is not highly selective?  And how many of such classes will a college want to see that the applicant has taken?  Is one per semester a healthy stretch?  Please advise!

A:  As I have often written, colleges want to see that applicants have challenged themselves intellectually  but this can be demonstrated in a number of ways.  The most common way is to take Advanced Placement courses offered at one's high school.  Advanced Placement courses are considered desirable because 1) they are advanced, and 2) they are nationally adjudicated with a standardized exam designed by a national board to measure a student's mastery of the subject.

But AP courses are not the only way to demonstrate academic challenge.  Not every high school offers AP' courses or offers a wide variety of them, as in the case of your son's school.  AP courses are expensive and some school districts  cannot afford to offer them.  Some high schools have stopped giving AP courses because faculty felt they were obligated to "teach to the test' rather than to develop a course syllabus they might prefer. Does this mean that students at high schools that have no APs have zero chances of being admitted to the most selective colleges?  Of course not.  Excellent students are still going to be admitted.<!--more-->

Often high school's such as your son's make arrangement with local colleges for students to supplement their studies with college courses.  These must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.  The classes may or may not be taught by regular college faculty.  They may not be offered consistently.  And the college may be  a long subway ride away -- and at the end of a long and tiring school day, I am not sure that traveling to another campus for an additional class is a great idea.  It all depends upon the individual situation.

Colleges don't look for applicants to have taken a specific number of AP or college classes. They do want to see that students have challenged themselves as much as possible in the the five academic areas:  English, foreign language, math, science, and social science.

So, for instance, if a high school does not offer AP Calculus, a student may wish to take calculus at a local college. But if the high school offers calculus, even if not AP, take it at the high school.  Always exhaust your high school curriculum first before looking elsewhere. Remember that colleges evaluate students' curriculum on the basis of the educational environment from which they are coming. A student is not going to be penalized for not taking what is not offered.