AP, IB, Honors, & Dual Enrollment: Planning Courses for College Admissions

Webinar Transcription

2026-3-4-AP, IB, Honors, & Dual Enrollment: Planning Courses for College Admissions

Anna: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. Good evening or afternoon or morning, whatever time it is from wherever in the world you’re joining us, we’re so happy you’re here for our webinar, “AP, IB, Honors, and Dual Enrollment: Planning Courses for College Admissions”. My name is Anna Vande Velde and I’ll be your moderator today. I’m a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor and I’ve been with the company for about four and a half years now.

Anna: In addition to working with students one-on-one, I’m a co-captain on our essay review team. To orient y’all with the webinar timing, we’re gonna start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q&A. On the sidebar, you can download our slides and you can start submitting questions in the Q&A tab, tab anytime.

Anna: Please [00:01:00] note that super specific questions like should I take X, y, or Z class, uh, are not the most appropriate for this format ’cause those require a discussion. But later on we’ll share, um, about a free opportunity to meet with us one-on-one and ask exactly that type of question. Uh, so for the Q&A, try and ask questions you think might be helpful to other students as well, and we’ll get to as many of them

Anna: as we can. It is my pleasure to introduce to you, your speaker this evening, Dr. Katie Chiou. Katie, could you please share a bit about your background?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Yes. Hi everyone. I’m excited to be here tonight. Um, I am Katie. I am currently a resident, uh, at Mount Sinai, and I also was a graduate of the Brown PLME program, which for those of you who might not be familiar, just stands for program and Liberal Medical Education.

Dr. Katie Chiou: It means that I was a part of a BSMD program or an eight year program where I was accepted into medical [00:02:00] school, um, and college at the same time. So I went to Brown and majored in science, technology and Society with a focus in anthropology. It’s always a lot of words. Um, excited to talk about APs today.

Anna: We’re excited to have you here. Before we kick off the presentation, I thought it might help us to know who’s joining us. Um, so I’m gonna open this, full, this poll. Please let us know what grade you are in. If you’re here as a support person, feel free to select other, and while we wait for those results to come in, Katie, I was wondering what was your favorite class in high school and why?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Oof. That’s a good one. Um, I, my school did actually offer a decent amount of APs, which I was very lucky to have. And my favorite of all of them, even like the, like, like the honors classes and whatnot, was AP psychology, which makes a lot of sense considering what [00:03:00] I am now. But, um, it was so fun because I think I had a really, I, I connected a lot with my teacher who also happened to be my AP English teacher, and she made it a lot of fun with fun.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like, we watched a lot of videos, we like learned about things through experiments. Um, we learned about things through like different psychology tests and, um, it was a fun and also a little bit more relaxed of an AP for me compared to like an AP physics.

Anna: Yeah. Um, thanks for sharing that. It looks like the poll results are in.

Anna: So joining us tonight, we have about 20% in 10th grade, 20% in 11th, um, 15% in ninth grade, uh, seven ish percent in eighth grade. And then a, a decent chunk, almost 40% said others, so presumably educators, parents, guardians, um, that sort of folks. I’m gonna close the poll and then hand it over to you, Katie, for the presentation.[00:04:00]

Dr. Katie Chiou: Sounds good. All right. I’m excited to have so many parents as, as well today. I think this is my highest percentage I’ve had so far on all of my webinars. Um, so hopefully this will be informative and kind of be like a very straightforward direct, um, understanding of what all these classes mean. So we’ll start with, I’ll go through kind of each of these four sections.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um. We’ll start with ap. So, AP right stands for Advanced Placement. They’re essentially college level courses, um, offered in high school, which are done by college board. Um, the main thing to know about them, like logistically is that there’s an AP exam every May. This is the same AP exam that’s offered to all students across the country, and I think across the world actually, um, offered in that subject.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And it’s typically offered on one day at a specific time. So it’ll be like, I remember AP chemistry is always like, let’s say like a Monday morning, and then AP psychology was always like Monday afternoon. So, um, if you’re taking both of those classes, you might sometimes have to take up [00:05:00] to like even two APs in a day.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, typically AP tests are about three hours long. They’re scored, scored on a scale of one to five with passing being three. And when it comes to like competi competitive, um, universities and admissions, they would, they like to see mostly fours and fives. Um, so as far as credit replacement, this is where things get a little bit tricky.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, depending on your university, a lot of them may accept AP classes for either fully for credit, which means that you literally have to take less classes because you took an AP, which might mean that you can graduate from college faster. It might also mean that you might spend less money on college. So that’s one huge benefit of an ap.

Dr. Katie Chiou: The second thing is that it might be for placement. This is true for I would say most of the competitive like school, like colleges and liberal arts colleges that you can think of. So I went to Brown as an example, and for most of the Ivy League schools, it was considered a placement. So it [00:06:00] meant that if you took AP Biology and you got, let’s say a four or a five, you could skip the intro first semester biology course, but you would still be expected to take the second semester of the course.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And then any further courses that you might need in order to advance along a biology track, for example. Um, so that’s typically how AP courses are done. So the idea of it is, it’s, it’s, it’s designed to show more academic rigor, subject mastery, and readiness for college level work. Um, we’ll talk a little bit more about like, which APs to take depending on your majors and why it might be wise to take APs.

Dr. Katie Chiou: But I would say that, right. These are tough things, uh, tough classes and the most important thing I would say is to do well in them as far as grades, but also when you get hit that AP test, um, that ends up being standardized tests. So that ends up being, a lot of times the metric that colleges will use to assess how strong you are in the subjects that you’re taking.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Okay, what is an IB course? So I’ll be honest, I didn’t [00:07:00] have IB offered at my school, and we’ll talk a little bit later more about that as well. Um, but a lot of my good classmates and my medical school classmates took IBs. So IB stands for International Baccalaureate. Um, oftentimes they’re at, they’re offered us sometimes individual IB courses, but more often what I’ve seen from most of my friends and classmates are, it’s like a two year curriculum, which is, they call it like an IV diploma program.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And it’s two years with the second year being, um, where the final kind of like exam section is. It’s not quite as simple as like a one three hour exam is my understanding because there’s a lot more writing, there’s a lot more, um, essay and like kind of showing different facets of the area of your knowledge of an IB course involved.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, and typically they end with an external exam, scored one to seven. Okay, dual enrollment. So dual enrollment refers to when you are a high school student, but you also are taking a college course, typically at your [00:08:00] local community college or to local university. Sometimes people will also do this through an online college program.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So in this case, you would be earning high school credit and college credit at the same time. Typically, when you sign up for the course, you have to pay out of pocket for, usually you pay out of pocket, um, for whatever like that community college charges for the class. Um, it might also be something that’s offered through your high school, and so in that case it might be covered.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, potentially if, for example, you are a student who’s taking such advanced level of math that it’s not offered at your school, that might be something that the school could figure out with you. Um. Oftentimes also people will take dual enrollment classes to, um, they’ll take them over the summer, and so they’ll take them to advance their math level.

Dr. Katie Chiou: For example, some of my classmates did to kind of get ahead in math. Um, I took a dual enrollment cla uh, class. I remember actually in calculus because I, it sounds silly, but I [00:09:00] wanted to learn calculus before I actually took calculus in school because I’m someone who was like, I really don’t enjoy math very much.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And that was something that like helped bolster my confidence in math. Um, people will also do dual enrollment classes in subjects that simply aren’t offered in high school. So you could take a dual enrollment class in like forensic sciences for example. That’s an area of interest. Um, typically when you take these classes, like there’s a way to sign up to say if you want credit or no credit or pass fail, or if you want grades.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, but usually they do become a part of your permanent college transcript. Excuse me. Um, so as far as the actual credit transfer, typically it depends a lot on right when you signed up, what you opted for, but also what college you end up going to, whether or not that, um, community college credit will transfer.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I know for me, for example, I took this dual enrollment class relatively early on in my high school career, so I think it actually expired or something before it could transfer over. Um, and it [00:10:00] also depends on what subject you took and what grade you took. Um, one thing that I always make note of with dual enrollment classes is sometimes it can count towards your weighted GPA as calculated by your high school, and you often have to ask your high school guidance counselor exactly how they see it.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um. This is because aps, um, count towards your weighted GPA, right? Because they’re both, the idea is they’re both college level courses and so they are an extra, like if you get an A in an AP course, it’s supposed to count towards like a 5.0 GPA, so you can actually have higher than a 4.0 GA, which is classically what people think of as straight A’s.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, and so sometimes dual enrollment classes count towards that. Sometimes they don’t. Most colleges ultimately will recalculate your weighted GPA during application season because every college kind of calculates a weighted GPA very differently. Um, if there’s any questions with the way to GPI know that can be confusing, we can absolutely answer that in the Q&A session later too, as well.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And finally, uh, honors [00:11:00] courses. So honors courses are advanced high school classes that are more challenging than your standard level courses. I imagine a lot of you out there who are 10th grade did 11th graders, um, might have taken honors course already, so you kind of already know what’s happening.

Dr. Katie Chiou: These, um, are different from the first three, the first two, three options in the sense that there’s no standardized curriculum. It’s, it’s like, you know, organized by your individual school or district and also probably most likely by your individual teacher. Um, so there’s no like, standardized test at the end of it.

Dr. Katie Chiou: It’s just that it’s considered an honors course and it will be marked on your transcript as such. Um, typically, you know, those, there, there’s like higher expectations. They might go a faster paced. Um, I know some honors classes where the ideas would be, you might cover like more information into a shorter time period, for example.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um. And out of the three, like out of the four options honors is considered the lowest difficulty of the three options that I have just mentioned versus the other three are considered [00:12:00] relatively on equal ground, although I will say, depending on like, honestly like your teacher and, uh, how difficult the classes, like even within APs or within IBs difficulty varies greatly, right?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, like in AP psychology versus an AP, physics might feel very different. Okay. Um, honors classes typically do not confer any advanced credit. I will say, I noticed when I was applying that my honors classes counted towards a little bit of a boost. So where an AP might confer a 1.0 boost towards your GPA.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, I don’t actually know exactly how it’s calculated, but it’s like a 1.0, like it’s counted toward 5.0 um, as an ap. Um, and honors just gives you like a little bit of like a 0.5 boost. Um, and like I mentioned, honors is the least rigorous of the above mentioned class types. Okay, so what are the differences?

Dr. Katie Chiou: I would say that a APs and IBs serve a very, very similar function. Um, most schools might offer one or the other, some schools that offer both. You probably won’t be able to [00:13:00] take as many IB courses as you could AP classes just because right? There’s like a two year time commitment and there’s a lot of writing and intensive, um, like, you know, writing and researches, things involved in IB.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, so you might choose to take your IB courses more based on what you’re personally interested in because you can only take a few of them. Um, dual enrollment classes. That being said, can be really in any subject, that can be in topics that are not offered at your high school. So I mentioned forensic sciences, for example.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I’ve seen, um, anatomy and physiology. I’ve also seen, I would say in my experience, and granted like maybe this is in my personal limited experience, I fit, the dual enrollment classes were definitely really rigorous because the expectation of a dual enrollment class, right, is that they’re being offered to college students.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And so most college students are taking four classes a semester, whereas you might be taking right, like as a high schooler, six or seven. And so they can be really rigorous. I can definitely say that when I was in, um, my like dual enrollment calculus class, it was way harder than my AP calculus class. [00:14:00] But I don’t think that’s true of every dual woman class.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I think every single dual woman class is gonna be different. Um, just based on like the teacher again and like how rigorous the syllabus is. Um. And same thing within APs as well, right? Like every AP is different, every IB is different. When should you start taking these classes? Um, so I would say, so let me take a step back and say, colleges typically focus on your transcript from 10th grade to your first semester of 12th grade.

Dr. Katie Chiou: They do see your ninth grade transcript as well. Um, but most colleges are pretty understanding that ninth grade is a time of transition for, for, um, young people. It’s like a time, right? To kind of figure out how high school works, get the gist of things, and we start getting involved in extracurriculars.

Dr. Katie Chiou: All of that stuff is just starting to gear up. And so, um, they pay most attention to 10th to first semester of 12th grade, first semester, because my second semester you’ll have been accepted. And so they actually won’t see your grades from second semester to 12th grade. Hence the common term of [00:15:00] senioritis.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, that being said, we like to typically see a ramp up, right? So we wanna see that you are both doing better in your, in your grades. Like we want, like, we like to see improvement and upward trajectory as they like to say. Um, but they also like to see more advanced level classes. So as the years progress, typically most people will take their max number or their most advanced classes in their junior year.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um. This can continue into your senior year, but pay atten, pay, pay in mind that, um, your senior year AP tests and your AP exam scores will not be on your application. So keep that in mind. Um, so when it comes to thinking about these advanced level courses, I would say it very much depends right on what your school has to offer.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Some schools will offer something like an AP world history or AP Human Geography, and these are often considered like lighter, easier APs, but also APs where you can take one. Or two at a time and not take too many more in ninth grade. Like, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t say that you need to take a lot of APs or [00:16:00] any APs in ninth grade.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, it’s really a time to kind of get used to high school and then you really wanna keep going up. So maybe by sophomore year, if you took one AP in ninth grade, maybe you’ll take two APs in 10th grade. Right? Or you’ll ramp it up in a way that, um, is typical for your high school based on the number of APs that you have offered.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And I’m using APs, but I want to be clear that when I’m using the word AP, I’m kind of using it interchangeably with IB and then dual enrollment classes, most people are dual enrolled in like, usually maximum one to two classes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen, I don’t, I haven’t seen more than that in most of my students.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, okay. How many courses did you take throughout high school? I have been asked this question a lot of times in my like, what, eight? Years now of doing college advising and I wish there was a clear cut answer. I wish I had a number to give you as a threshold. Um, if there was, I would give it to you if there’s like a golden number.

Dr. Katie Chiou: What it really means though is that what I’m really, what really ends up being [00:17:00] the answer is you wanna take, take into account what your school offers. Because at the end of the day, um, your college admissions officer is comparing you with your classmates at your high school. And so if most people are taking X number, you are also aiming for probably around X number.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, you wanna keep that in mind alongside what you can handle. So you wanna be getting primarily A’s and B’s in your AP classes. If you’re starting to get a lot of C’s, then that’s maybe a sign it’s a time to take a step down from the AP courses and maybe take honors courses instead. Um. And I would also, the other advices that I have offered is that if you are someone who’s interested in STEM or in medicine like I was, um, I can certainly speak a lot more to that, but I would say not to take more than two advanced STEM courses in a semester.

Dr. Katie Chiou: It’s actually true for college as well to take two more than two STEM courses because STEM courses typically are amongst the more rigorous AP classes. I would say certainly [00:18:00] for myself, they were like, they were tough tests and so taking just like advanced calculus, like AP calculus and AP physics in the same year is certainly enough coursework and you can fill up the rest of your coursework with hopefully, um, lighter APs.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And again, like every person is different. I’m saying this, and I think this is true in general because those are classes that involve a lot of coursework, but some people struggle way more with English or may, may more with history. And if you know, you’re that kind of person you don’t wanna take, right?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like it doesn’t really make much sense. People almost never do, like, you wouldn’t take AP world and AP US for example, in the same year. Most people don’t. But if you’re, if you know you’re someone that struggles with history, right? Don’t, don’t stack them upon yourself and take more than two or three, let’s say humanities APs in a year.

Dr. Katie Chiou: ’cause that might be a lot for yourself. Um, the other thing that often people don’t know is that there are also elective courses in APs. So, um. Like music, computer science, art, psychology, you’ve already mentioned. Um, there’s APs in all of these [00:19:00] things. And so if you’re interested, you could absolutely see if your school offers those.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like AP Music Theory, for example, is a class that I took. Um, I actually took all of these except for AP art. Um, I simply don’t have any art skills. Um, but there’s an AP studio art for example too, where you create actually a whole, whole portfolio, which is really, really interesting. Um, and if there’s ever any subjects that you don’t have offered at your high school, but you have a really deep vested interest in, again, consider dual enrollment into a college.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like if you wanna do a little bit of forensic science in the side, um, I don’t know why keep using forensic science as the example. There’s plenty of other examples. Um, that’s the one that pops to my mind. Um, those are also right, those are options for dual enrollment. Okay. What if my school doesn’t offer AP or IB or these things above?

Dr. Katie Chiou: How can I still stand out in college admissions? That’s okay. Not every school will offer everything. So as an example, I already gave my high school only offered AP courses, no IB. And that wasn’t something that was ever held against me because at the end of the day. [00:20:00] Um, admissions officers, people often don’t know this, are assigned to your local high school area, so that means they get to know your area actually really, really well.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, so I remember for example, when I was talking to admissions officers, one of them even knew specifically the name of the teacher who taught my high school AP, um, US and AP European history because famously he was an incredibly harsh grader and he would hand out Bs and Cs like candy. Um, like there were people who were straight A students and got a singular C and it was always in his class.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And the admissions officer knew this guy by name. And so what I’m trying to say is like, these are people who are like assigned to your local area. They know your high school, they know what your high school has to offer. And so at the end of the day, you’re being compared to, you’re only being compared to what you have offered to you.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um. So the fact that I never took IB really made no difference. Um, I also had a pod mate for example, at Brown, like [00:21:00] someone who I met very early on. I remember early on he told me he had taken three AP courses total in his high school career because his school offered so few options. But one of the APs that he happened to take was an environmental science and that ended up shaping a lot of his interest because he ended up wanting to go into environmental law.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And so my point is like even if you are just taking the few that are interesting to you, the few that are being offered, you never know what might come out of it. You might come out of it, right? Like learning about something that you otherwise wouldn’t have learned about. Like I don’t think environmental science is in, I certainly didn’t learn a lot about environmental science like in my high school time.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And so it can be a really great way to get exposure to new things that you might find a career in.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Okay. So how do admissions officers actually evaluate your courses? So number one, I would say. The rigor of your course load. Did you take the most challenging courses available at your school? Um, so they’re really comparing you to other students at your high school. So again, a [00:22:00] against what was offered.

Dr. Katie Chiou: If you were someone who’s telling me, Hey, I’m really interested in, let’s say biomedical engineering. I’m a lot of my students that I work with happening to be in stem, since I’m with one of the pre-med advisee, uh, advisors. Um, you, you tell me you’re really interested in biomedical engineering. Okay. I’m expecting to see a pretty, like a sizable AP STEM course load, right?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like I’m expecting to see AP calculus, I’m expecting to see AP biology. I’m just to see like AP physics potentially. If those are the things that are being offered at your school. Obviously if they’re not being offered at your school, that’s totally okay. But if they are, and you tell me that you’re interested in biomedical engineering, that’s what you’re applying for in college, then I would see those APs, um, at some point on your resume.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And I would also hope to see that you’ve done well on them, that you got A’s and B’s in them, and that you got five fours and fives in them. Um. So that’s one, that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about rigor. Um, and obviously if you’re taking a lot of APs, then I’m also taking that into consideration.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I’m like, okay, like, you know, let’s say you took five APs one semester. Oh, you [00:23:00] happen to get a B in AP with history. Well, I’m also aware that, you know, you took five APs that year. You were really doing a lot. I see your extracurriculars, you’re doing so much this year as well. Okay? Like it makes you want one B.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like, okay, so what? Um, right. Those are the kinds of things that admissions, that’s flowing through admissions officer’s mind as we look through your resume. Um, number two, uh, performance in those courses that kind of speaks to those classes. So. Strong grades and hard classes matter more than easy A. So that’s what I was saying, where if you, let’s say you took all honors courses and you got straight A’s in them, amazing.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, if you took the same number of all, so you took all of those classes, but now an AP and you got one B in them still ends up looking way more impressive. ’cause that shows me that you were able to really take your rigor up a notch, a huge notch, and at the same time keep up. Even if in one class maybe you struggled a little bit more.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, and I would also say. Right, like improvement over time shows a positive. [00:24:00] And that if you are taking only honors courses and you have APs being offered to you, and again, you tell me you’re interested in biomedical engineering, and I’m like, okay, I see honors physics, I see honors biology, but I know other people at your school are taking like an AP physics.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I’d be like, curious, why didn’t you opt for the AP physics? Like, why didn’t you challenge yourself in that way? Um, so that would be like at the back of my brain as an admissions officer. And that’s, I think one way to show, like, to kind of combine both that rigor and the performance. So take as much as you can rigorous, like rigor wise.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, it’ll ultimately end up making, boosting your GPA even to get one B in an AP is equivalent to an A in a regular level course. Okay. And last thing, I already mentioned this, but really admissions officers are assigned by your area so they know what other students at your school are taking. They know what’s challenging at your school, right?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like I just said, they knew that AP Euro and AP US history was like particularly tough at my school. And so one of the upperclassmen I [00:25:00] remember actually, um, really awesome girl got into Harvard. She had actually straight A’s, except she had one C in AP US history. And most people would be like, oh my God, she got a C.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like there’s no way she can get into Harvard. Um, she’s like a good story to the opposite, right? Like the, the admissions officers knew that this was a particularly difficult class. Okay. Um, what’s a good strategy for course selection? So again, starting with the highest of a course that you can reasonably handle, you wanna prioritize rigor specifically in core subjects.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, so when I say core, I mean math, English, history, science. Those are the ways that you want, those are the things that you wanna focus on. A lot of things I’ve heard also, um, back when I was in high school and even to today, is that a lot of times schools might also wanna see an AP foreign language. I would say this definitely pri is prioritized less than core subject.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And also if there’s an AP that you’re really, really excited about taking. Um, I would take that over the [00:26:00] foreign language. At the end of the day, I ended up actually taking three years of Spanish, and so my fourth year would’ve been AP Spanish, but I opted to take. God, I don’t even know AP Music Theory or AP Computer Science instead in my senior year, partially because if I’m being totally honest, I knew that AP computer science was gonna be much easier than AP Spanish.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And with all the other APs I had, um, loaded up for senior year, I was like, this is just better for me balance wise. And so that might also be a consideration that you take, right? Like, how can you maximize rigor? And you might even think about like, oh, like rigor. Like, oh, I, I, I’m still taking an AP, but maybe it’s like a better balance for me than another tougher, more rigorous ap.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So it’s also about like choosing the right APs at the right time, if that makes sense. Um. And you don’t wanna take all APs and then suffer with a poor performance, like poor mental health and, and bad grades and just kind of feel down about yourself. So definitely balance out the APs with the honors, um, or with the IBs.

Dr. Katie Chiou: [00:27:00] And then also think about, right, what do you know? Like keep your ear to the ground from upperclassmen. What do you know are easier APs? What do you know are harder AP? Like, know yourself. What do you think you’ll struggle with? Um, are you a STEM person? Are you a humanities person? Do you know, like this elective AP is gonna come like a breeze.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like it’s gonna be so easy. Think about those. And so when you create your course schedule, you can kind of balance that. And I often did a very hefty amount of that when I, when I’m thinking about like an average, um, year of, of my course load. Um, the other tip that I have is, this is for you ninth and 10th graders.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Honestly, all grades ninth, 10th, 11th. Really only the seniors, I wouldn’t say this to, you can kind of think about course selection really early on, especially if you look at what the upperclassmen are taking one. And also to, if a lot of schools that I, I know have like specific prerequisites to take the aps, like for example, you have to take honors biology before taking AP Biology.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Okay? So if you know that information ahead of [00:28:00] time, then you can really, like, you know, you’re taking seven classes or six classes a semester. You can literally lay out, you know, your four years and you can plot out. So if you know that you’re someone who, let’s say you wanna go into medicine, you really wanna make sure you take AP Biology, okay?

Dr. Katie Chiou: So then you can plot out when you’re gonna take honors biology so that you can make sure that you get AP Biology in. But at the same time, um, plan for like another year to take AP Chemistry, for example, so they don’t overlap on top of each other. Um. That’s, that’s I think my biggest strategy for APs is really sitting down ahead of time and plotting out when you’re gonna take what, and especially when it comes to knowing the prerequisites for those APs.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, and that’s something that each individual school does differently. So that’s why I, I can’t answer it. I, my school didn’t have that policy. But if, you know, there’s prerequisites for certain APs or, you know, for example, like calculus, AB has to come before BC. Um, physics C has to be taken after UT calculus.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like those are the things that are computer science, like a, has to be taken at a certain time or something [00:29:00] like that, right? Those are things that you can sit down and kind of, um, kind of plot out once you figure out what the prerequisites for the APs are. Um, it also helps to just get like a sample schedule of what typical upperclassmen are taking so that you know, when most people are taking what, um, they often, you know, have, have it plotted out very efficiently as well already.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um. And I, I think the main thing is that I don’t, I hope that no one, like if you don’t miss out on taking an AP class or an IB class, just because you didn’t realize that there was a prerequisite, and then you’re scrambling towards the end. Just why I always say start early. As soon as you get into high school, ninth, 10th grade, ask your guidance counselors like, Hey, like, I wanna take these classes.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I’m interested in these classes. Like, what are, are there any prerequisites for any of the AP that I should know about? Okay. Final piece of advice is, um, this is for my STEM people out there. If you know you’re interested in STEM or interested in medicine or engineering, make sure prioritize taking [00:30:00] the advanced math class.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, I would say for the admissions officer’s perspective, you really want to see an AP calculus by the end of high school. Um, because calculus is really the starting point for a lot of, um. Oh, to be honest, like a lot of science and a lot of more advanced thinking in college, and so they wanna see that you’ve been exposed to calculus in high school because oftentimes when you get to college, you’ll be taking even more calculus and it’ll be even more advanced.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, if you’re interested in science or pre-med, I would say really prioritize. Excuse me, AP or IB biology or chemistry, because those are typically like the weeder classes when it comes to pre-med weeder classes, meaning the classes that they make really hard so that, um, they kind of weed out, um, people who maybe think they wanna do pre-med but won’t be doing as well in these classes.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, if you’re interested in engineering, I would say physics and chemistry are priorities for you. And again, these are tough because [00:31:00] in, in my opinion, like I would say, like I said, two STEM classes a year really is plenty of difficulty. So plotting them out means that you really have to space them out appropriately.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, if you’re a humanities or social sciences student, I would say, um, the AP English and the, i, I wrote US courses, but I meant to say history courses, um, take all the AP English and history courses that you can. Um, so there’s. A lot. There’s actually a lot of social sciences, APs, not all that are offered by every single school.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I remember, I think my school didn’t offer, for example, a AP human geography. So that was something that I could take, but that might be something that intrigued you. So, um. Keep an eye out for some of these APs that are like elective courses or maybe aren’t quite as popular or as well known by other students who are like on the STEM track and consider taking those courses as well.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, and you might also consider IB if you’re someone who’s naturally more suited to the written or essay based type. Um, I guess my last piece is I’ll walk someone through, I’ll [00:32:00] walk you guys through. Maybe like what I was thinking about when I was choosing my course selection for, I’ll say my junior, ’cause that was my toughest year.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, so I remember for example, like I said, I am someone who’s naturally strong at the humanities. I always found AP English to be really a much easier course and one that I could faithfully know that I would get a four or five and usually a five in even without doing much preparation. So I would keep that in mind and I would put AP English on the docket, right?

Dr. Katie Chiou: That’s one that won’t cause me too much stress. That same year I also took AP psychology. Now knowing what I know about AP psychology, because I listen to upperclassmen, it’s typically a much easier class. I knew the teacher and also it’s a class where if you study the material and you learn the material, you’ll typically will do well on the ap.

Dr. Katie Chiou: There’s not like a lot of problem solving, if that makes sense. It’s a little bit more like memorization based. So that was one that I also put as like, you know, an easier AP. Now, um, then I had my history class. So I thought about taking AP US history that year versus [00:33:00] honors US history. And I knew that this was a tough one because AP US history was really, really difficult at my school.

Dr. Katie Chiou: The teacher was really, really harsh. Um, at the same time I had already taken a class with him and I knew that, um, for whatever reason, like I kind of meshed with his style. Like he was like, he was kinda like a law school professor. He liked to pop, like cold call people all the time. And I ended up realizing that I actually do learn that way.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I hate to say, and also that I was a strong AP history type taker, test taker. So I knew that I could do well in the ap. I knew the class would be tough and would cause me a lot of stress, but at the end of the day, I, I felt like that, that it was stress that I was good at handling. So I added that to my like medium tier level of ap.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I’m trying to remember what APs I took. I’m so sorry. Um, the, the LE next two, now I had two slots. Um, for that I allotted myself for like hard APs, which for me were the STEM ones because I could take up to like two like really truly difficult APs at a time. [00:34:00] And, um, I would say at this point I took AP Calculus and again, ’cause I took that dual enrollment class, I was like, AP calculus honestly for me ended up being more of a middle difficulty because I kind of already knew the material pretty well.

Dr. Katie Chiou: There was just a little bit more information. I knew the teacher was like an easier grading teacher, so I knew that I was gonna get an A in it. So I wasn’t gonna be stressed about the class per se, but I might be a little bit more stressed about the AP test. Like that was one where I actually did have to study a little bit and like drove some problems and like, you know, study ahead of the AP test.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So that was like the opposite problem of AP US history, honestly. And I was like, okay, perfect. So they kind of balance each other out. So then I was with like one like really, really tough AP and that for me, in my junior year, I think it was AP chemistry that I took, um. And that one I knew from the get go was gonna be hard.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like I am still someone who does not enjoy chemistry, was by far my least favorite subject. Really pushed through it to get through med school. And being pre-med, um, was not an enjoyable experience for me. And still, like looking back was not enjoyable experience for [00:35:00] me. But I also knew that was something that, you know, like I was pre-med, that was something that I really needed on my, wanted to show that I could do well in.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So it ended up being that I just invested a lot of my time and energy in studying energy into AP Chemistry to put it bluntly. And um, so that’s kind of how, hopefully that helps people understand like how I balance out my ap. So I took four Core and then I took one elective AP and I think that’s what I, I’m trying to think if was anything else, but that’s what I can remember right now of what I took for my junior year.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Okay.

Anna: Thank you so much, Katie. Uh, that’s the end of the presentation, part of the webinar. We hope you found this information helpful. Remember, you can download the slide slides from the link in the handouts tab. And I also forgot to say at the top that this is being recorded and the recording will be emailed to everyone who registered.

Anna: Um, we’re gonna move on to the live Q&A now. As I get to each question, I’ll read it out loud, then paste it into the public [00:36:00] chat so everyone can both hear and see the question before Katie responds. As a heads up, if your Q&A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page.

Anna: All right, Katie, let’s dive right in. Uh, do you know, do Ivys accept local community college credits?

Dr. Katie Chiou: That’s a very good question. I think it’ll depend. Um, on the Ivy, what I will say is, my expectation for most Ivys is they do not let you graduate early. So by that I mean, like I was saying before, they’ll accept it as placement.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, so for example, you might get out of taking, um, like an introductory math class. Um, for example, for me at Brown, because of the way our system was set up, I didn’t take any math at all. Um, in, even though I was pre-med, I took, I took zero math because I took AP [00:37:00] calculus when I was in high school. Um, you might also get out of taking certain classes that you might need for your major.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So let’s say for example, um, you have to take like an introductory English class because you wanna be an English major. Maybe you took AP English literature and you got a five on it. So that might get you out of that class. But typically, I would say at most Ivys, you cannot graduate early unless there’s very, very specific circumstances.

Anna: Um, and the same is true for community college classes, dual enrollment. Um, that was my situation. My school didn’t offer AP, so I did dual enrollment and I didn’t go to an Ivy, I went to Carnegie Mellon. Um, and they, they didn’t count those towards any of my course requirements there. My best advice is to, um, first check their website.

Anna: You don’t want to email them or call them with a question that you could find on their website because that is annoying. Um, but if you can’t find it on their website, [00:38:00] reach out and ask, tell them what class they’re taking and ask how, ask how they will consider it. Um, while you’re there, it shows you’re interested and that you’re thinking ahead.

Anna: Um, okay. Katie, how important do you think freshman year is grade wise?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Yeah. Um, I mean, I would say, so the, the transcript of your freshman year is on the application. Um, like I was saying, having heard a, a couple of admissions officers speak, most of them will say they focus most on, most on 10th through first semester of 12th grade.

Dr. Katie Chiou: That being said, you know, your freshman year grades are on your transcript, um, and they like to see an upward trajectory. So, and also if you take any APs in your freshman year, that still counts towards your GPA and towards like credits replacement just as much as any other ap. It’s not like they’re completely discounted.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, [00:39:00] so I would say that freshman year really is the year for you to like, get adjusted to high school. Again, take one or two APs, if. You’re allowed to. Um, most high schools, at least from my, from my memory, didn’t allow students to take much more than that in their freshman year because they know that you’re trying to get accustomed and you have to kind of slowly ease into, um, the difficulty of all those classes.

Anna: Thank you so much. I’m gonna give you a little break now, Katie, because I realized I put that QR code up a bit early, so I should explain what it’s doing there. Um. So let’s just take a minute to talk about CollegeAdvisor. For those in the room who are not already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be.

Anna: CollegeAdvisor has a team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one-on-one advising sessions and essay editing through our digital platform. CollegeAdvisor has [00:40:00] had 10,000 total lifetime clients and a 4.8 out of five star rating on Trustpilot With over 750 reviews.

Anna: After analyzing our data from 2023 to 2025, we found that clients working with CollegeAdvisor who have a strong academic and testing record are 2.6 times more likely to get into an Ivy League school around three times more likely to get into a top 20 college and around five times more likely to get into Johns Hopkins, UCLA and NYU when compared to national acceptance rates.

Anna: So increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 60 minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team using the QR code on the screen. During that meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out.

Anna: This is a great place to come and ask questions that are really specific to your situation. Uh, [00:41:00] we’ll give you our advice in that free 60-minute session. At the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, choosing your high school courses, editing your application essays, and so much more.

Anna: We are here for the whole process. We’re gonna use the rest of our time for more of your questions, but that QR code’s gonna stay on the screen. Uh, so please do scan it. It’s a free hour with us. Um, we will answer as many questions as we can, um, and hope. I hope to, you know, get connected, um, that way. All right, back to your questions, Katie.

Anna: Do you recommend students take all of their advanced courses around the major they want to take in college or should they have a variety

Dr. Katie Chiou: anxiety? Um, that’s an interesting question. So I would say the major that you [00:42:00] want to take can help you prioritize the ap. So let’s say again, you really wanna do, I, I keep using the same example, so I’m so sorry.

Dr. Katie Chiou: But you really wanna do pre-med and, you know, your school like forces you to do honors before you do the ap. Okay? So you might like a lot for that in your schedule, even if it means that you aren’t able to take like AP. Some like, I don’t know, something else in the future. But at the same time I would also say that there aren’t that, like there’s not enough.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Well, no, that’s the wrong, that’s what I phrase it. There’s not like a bajillion AP STEM APs, if that makes sense. There’s, they’re not a bajillion, um, they’re all in different subjects. So I think at the end of the day you are sort of, um, taking this variety of APs. Um, and I would also say like you take this variety, as I was explaining when I was explaining my junior year schedule, to kind of balance out the difficulty of your APs as well.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So I would [00:43:00] ultimately say variety of APs, but you’re prioritizing what APs you take. If you have to make the choice and you have to like make a cut somewhere, prioritize the ones that are geared at your major.

Anna: Um, and. Let’s see. Sorry. Um, do you think it’s worth taking APs as a senior or do they not matter since uh, admissions officers tend to make decisions before they see your 12th grade grades?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Oh, that’s a good question. Um, they do still matter. Actually, we had, I had this, we had this exact conversation in high school.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, ’cause everyone wants to have senioritis early. This is very relatable. Um, they does matter because at when you’re applying for college, you typically apply, um, uh. For early action, it’s like in November. And then for most schools regular decision, it’s January. So that means that first of all, your first semester’s already, like you already [00:44:00] have your classes and you’ve been in your classes for a whole semester.

Dr. Katie Chiou: You might even have your grades already, um, by the time a regular decision, even if you don’t, sometimes admissions, there’s, so admissions officers have been known to actually phone schools and ask, Hey, like, what are the students’ grades right now in the classes that they’re enrolled in? But the important thing to note is that, right, they see the classes that you’re enrolled in.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And so it would look really weird if you, let’s say were taking like. Four or five APs in your junior year and in then your senior year, you’re taking zero. You’d be like, what? What happened? So I would say continue to take like, and push yourself in your senior year, and then know that in your second semester of your senior year, you can kind of relax a little bit.

Dr. Katie Chiou: But in your first semester, really you’re still chugging away just as hard, um, because at the end, like those grades could possibly make it, um, into college admissions.

Anna: Yes. And some colleges will require you to submit your senior spring grades.

Dr. Katie Chiou: That’s

Anna: true. Um, so you’ll already have been [00:45:00] admitted, but they will require you to submit them and they do reserve the right to change their admissions decision.

Anna: Yes, they do. They don’t say that to scare you. But I, I just think it’s important to know that if you completely blow off Senior Spring. They’re gonna see that. Yeah. And they, they’ll do what they’re gonna do with that information. But you’ve now been warned, so don’t, don’t do that. Um, let’s see. Katie, do you know how are homeschoolers assessed by admissions officers?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Oh, that’s a good question. Um, and it sounds like you can pay out of pocket for AP classes, um, and it can get kind of pricey, is what I was reading. Someone else said, I actually dunno the details that I’m happy if Anna, if you know more than I do. I don’t think any of my students have been homeschooled, so I haven’t had to deal with it.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, yeah, what do you think?

Anna: Yeah. Um, I think when you’re [00:46:00] homeschooled you need to do more work to show colleges what curriculum you have gone through. Um, so, um, there, I think there will be an opportunity for you to submit that any curriculums that you followed, um. You can, um, pay for AP courses or you can self-study and just pay to take the exam.

Anna: That’s another way to show,

Dr. Katie Chiou: yeah.

Anna: Um, academic rigor, if your high school doesn’t offer them or you’re homeschooled. Um, if you are applying to colleges and you are being homeschooled, I recommend checking their website now. And if you’re not finding clear answers to your questions, reach out because you want to give yourself the time.

Anna: You need to prepare, uh, to submit information about your curriculum in whatever format they’re gonna want it. Um, so start early, um, reach out, ask them questions, and lots of students do this. [00:47:00] You’ll, you’ll be fine. Um, just make sure you have all the information upfront. That’s my advice. Um, here’s the question about AP courses.

Anna: Katie. You described the AP exam, do the classes also have a final, so will the students have two exams at the end of the year?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Yeah, I think that’s often up to your teacher. To be totally honest, I definitely had some teachers who were like, nah, the AP test was it. Um, I definitely had a very significant final in some of my other classes, and then I had.

Dr. Katie Chiou: One class where my teacher was like, let me give you a final on something useful. And he taught us how to file our taxes at the end of one of my AP statistics courses, which was a pretty funny final. Um, anyways, point is it’s really up to the teacher. Um, so that depends. Um, as far as the AP test, um, I mentioned already it’s three hours long.

Dr. Katie Chiou: It’s definitely something that’s very [00:48:00] unique to each AP and college board as a website, online actually has multiple years of practice tests and I highly, highly recommend for anyone who’s gonna take an AP test. Look through those practice tests. Those are some of the most helpful study material that you, you get to have for an AP because those are questions.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Written by the official college board, it’s in the correct format. And you can kind of get us understanding of like, hey, like what does it mean when, like, on my AP world exam? And they’re telling me like, oh, I have to do what, at least back in my day. It was like a document based question, A DBQ, like, what does that mean?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, and it kind of like gives you a sense of what they wanna see, and also they attach the answer keys, which means that you can kind of see the rubric that, um, that people are grading you off of. And so my big thing is that if once you see a rubric and you understand what the rubric is looking for, you can much, much better write to what the rubric wants in that strict time limit so that you, you know, you’re not like all over the place trying to hit and trying to [00:49:00] regurgitate as much knowledge as, as, as possible.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Rather you’re doing exactly what the rubric asks you to do.

Anna: And how important do you think that AP exam is versus just taking the AP course?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Hmm. I remember this being a, a question too because, you know, AP tests also cost additional money, and I can, um, completely understand why that also is a financial burden.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, and also, by the way, if any of you guys are on financial aid, there are ways that you can apply for cheaper AP tests. I know for, um, a brief period of time, my high school was able to offer like $5 AP tests even down from like the, I think it was like $95 when I took them, but I’m sure it’s more than that now.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Inflation. Um, anyways, the point is I think these AP tests are really important to take at the end of an AP course, especially if it’s, um. Like prior to your senior year, so not counting the 12th year classes. I’ll talk about that [00:50:00] in a second. All the APs you take before that, you really should be taking the AP test because if you’re not taking the AP test, I’m a little bit confused.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I’m like, why didn’t you take it? Um, first of all, second of all, it’s the best way that we have to compare how well you were able to learn, um, to other students across the country. Right? So maybe you had a really particularly harsh AP teacher. Maybe you had a particularly easy AP teacher. I have no clue, but I know using the test, how well you knew the material compared to everyone else in the country.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And final thing I would say is the AP test is required oftentimes to get that advanced placement or to get that advanced credit. Um, so that’s why the AP test is absolutely necessary. It’s not just the grade, it’s oftentimes also the AP test score.

Anna: And what do you recommend for students who don’t test?

Anna: Well? Um, yeah.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Yeah, I, how should they explain that, that as well? Um, what I will say is for someone who doesn’t test well, and this is like, you know, at this point, I’ve been taking tests for many, [00:51:00] many years of my life. I’ve taken more tests than probably, hopefully most of you will ever have to in your lifetime.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, I just took like a two day, 16 hour test actually. Um, as someone who hates test taking, um, first I think it’s really important to learn how you study. So, um, figuring out are you an auditory learner? Are you a visual learner? Are you someone who works well with like, those like little timers, which is what I did.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like, I set like literally 30 minute timers to study for myself and then take a break for five minutes. Um, right. I think it’s called the Pomodoro method. I don’t know, but I was using a Pomodoro clock. Um, so learning your own study style. And the second thing is, like I was saying, practice based on those practice exams.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So I. For, especially for my weaker subject like AP physics, AP chemistry, like I had a method I would, before every single, every single test I like would complete all of the practice exams available online. I also often [00:52:00] borrowed like those AP. Practice exam books from like Princeton Review or whatever is out there now.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, but I would borrow those books from the library or I would go to like a bookstore and purchase them and I would actually complete those tests and those questions as well. Um, again, particularly for like the ones that I was, like the AP classes that I was really struggling in, um, those were the best ways that I need to prepare for the test and the best resources available to you all.

Dr. Katie Chiou: And the honest truth is those are really good resources as well because there’s so many of them, they’re in the correct format. You kind of learn, um, to, you kind of learn to anticipate. What they will ask you because you, you come to realize like, oh, they kind of ask similar questions every time. Or they like to make, they make sure they have to hit like X, Y, z like physics formula or X, y, z uh, physics like topic like electricity or circuits or something.

Dr. Katie Chiou: You kind of learn like what they like to ask. And through practice that really helps make perfect and also helps you make you less anxious on the day of the exam because that often is something that really gets [00:53:00] into the heads of those of us who like are not good test takers. Like knowing your environment, knowing what’s gonna happen.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like knowing like your time limit, your body kind of gets a sense also like of about how much time you have for each section. You kind of like get used to it if you time yourself. So those are all ways that I would say like to practice.

Anna: Thank you again, Katie. Do you know if students are doing dual enrollment at more than one college? Do they will, they need to send transcripts from every college. They take a dual enrollment course at when they apply,

Dr. Katie Chiou: they send it. If they take a dual enrollment class at multiple colleges. And Anna, you’re definitely more of a dual enrollment expert than me, so you can absolutely chime in more here.

Dr. Katie Chiou: I would anticipate, I remember I was able to get them sent to my high school and then my high school sent at the transcript. I don’t know how it worked for you.

Anna: Yeah, for me, I had to get it from the, the community college and then send it to the college I was [00:54:00] applying to. So I think the answer is, it depends on your high school and it depends on the colleges you’re, you’re doing dual enrollment at.

Anna: That’s annoying. I will readily, readily admit that. Um, and it means ask those questions now of your high school guidance counselor. Um, they should know the answer for all of those colleges that you’re, you’re taking dual enrollment. Um, so just ask, get the information. I will say it wasn’t that hard to request the transcript.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Yeah. I don’t remember it being a huge deal either.

Anna: No. Colleges like this is a huge part of what they do is send transcripts around to places they need to go. Uh, so they have really well built in systems now. They’re all online, um, for the most part. So I, I wouldn’t expect it to be a huge burden, but you do want to know well in advance so you’re not scrambling to get it, um, at the, at the last minute.[00:55:00]

Anna: Um, okay. Katie, if a student doesn’t get a four or a five on their AP test, do they have to share that on their application and do you think they should?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Hmm, that’s another really good question. Um, I would say it depends on what the setting is of what you took this AP test. So let’s say you kind of studied up for like AP, I’m gonna use random like AP psychology for fun by yourself and you know, for the reason like time got away from you, you just weren’t able to study.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So as usual. And you got like, um, uh, let’s say you got a two on it. So you didn’t pass in that case, you didn’t take an AP class alongside of it, you were self studying it. Right? So I would say you don’t need to send that one. Um, is that, but sometimes I think when you send, I, I’m trying [00:56:00] to remember as well, because I remember there was details about when you send the, like your AP scores to the schools, what you can choose to send, what you cannot.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, but that might be one that you would leave off your report. That being said, let’s say you took an AP class. Um, in high school you took AP Calculus and then you ended up getting a three in AP calculus. Um, I would say that that’s one where if you took the AP class and you didn’t take the AP test, one part of me in the back of my brain is wondering like, what happened to this AP test?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like, why didn’t you, why didn’t you take it? And I would say A three is also a passing score and maybe math isn’t your strength, or maybe you’re not applying for math, or maybe you take a math class later and you end up getting a five on the AP test later on. So that would show like a trajectory improvement, right?

Dr. Katie Chiou: So that’s one that’s like, those are ways in which I think that you can kind of account for the three, um, yeah, in an AP test. And it, it certainly happens like a three is still a passing score and it [00:57:00] certainly happens, um, especially if a particular subject or test was particularly hard for you or maybe you were having a bad day that day.

Anna: Yeah. Um, I, I think reporting a three would typically be advised. Um, it, it’s gonna depend on, on your situation. So scan that QR code and ask us about your specific situation. Um, but like Katie said, it’s passing and it’s a hard test. Yes. And, and admissions officers know that.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Yes.

Anna: Um, I think we have time for just one or two more.

Anna: We’ve got a few questions about this. Katie, do you think it’s better to do IB or AP if students have the option between both?

Dr. Katie Chiou: Oof, that is a tough one because I didn’t have to make that decision. I don’t know if you had to Anna at all. Um, I would say. It really depends. I think it would come down to, for me, if who the teachers were [00:58:00] teaching the AP and versus the IB.

Dr. Katie Chiou: So like if there’s one teacher that’s more, not like popular, but like where more well loved or like a very particularly like engaged teacher who like would be a great teacher for me, but also wink wig, not judge, could write me a really great letter recommendation. That might be something that I would consider.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Um, I might also consider like in that particular class’s IB coursework, like what, what does it offer me that the AP doesn’t? And sometimes that’s actually quite a bit like it might offer me like more, uh, hands-on experience with like, like experiments for example, maybe for physics or if I’m really interested in English.

Dr. Katie Chiou: Like that might be a way for me to get like way more exposure and like in depth exposure to a specific thing within English or history or something that I’m interested in, like researching more about, um. So those are the things that I would consider, um, as I’m choosing between AP and IB. I think with AP it’s like, the way I [00:59:00] think of it is it kind of slots really easily, not easily in the sense that the class is easy, but easily into your schedule, in the sense that it, it’s just like any other class.

Dr. Katie Chiou: It like takes, you know, the same amount of time. Like it’s like a one semester or two semester type of class versus an IB because it’s like a longer period of class. It’s something that you, I like, think of as like, it’s, it’s encompassing two years of, or four semesters rather. And so something that I, I really wanna engage with and be thoughtful and be like, interested in this topic to take the AB to IB.

Anna: Yeah, absolutely. And I, I would just add, I think it’s really smart to be strategic about the courses you take and I think it’s really good to. Also take courses because they interest you. And so if the IB courses because of the teacher or the content are just more exciting

Dr. Katie Chiou: mm-hmm.

Anna: Go do that. Like colleges are going to see either way you’re [01:00:00] choosing a rigorous course load, um, that’s really what they care about at the end of the day.

Anna: So I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t worry too much about. AP versus IB. Follow your interests, follow what feels right for you. And I don’t think you could go wrong with, with either of them. Like Katie said, um, I am seeing we are at time. Thank you everyone so much for coming out tonight. Thank you Katie, for your expertise.

Anna: If you haven’t been able to scan the QR code and schedule your free assessment with us, please just keep your browser open until the webinar officially ends and closes out. At that time, you’ll be redirected to the booking page so you can get signed up for that free 60 minute strategy session with us.

Anna: Um, and with that, I will sign us off. Thank you so much everyone. Have a great night. Bye everyone.