What’s the Importance of Course Rigor in the College Admissions Process?

Grades are one of the most important factors in college admissions, but it matters how you earn them. In this episode of Just Admit It!, IvyWise counselors Tasha and Abdiel talk about course rigor and why it’s crucial for students not only to achieve strong grades, but also to challenge themselves academically.  

Key Takeaways 

• Course rigor helps colleges understand not only the grades a student earned, but also the level of challenge behind those grades. 
• Admissions officers evaluate rigor within the context of each high school’s offerings, including AP, IB, honors, and school-specific advanced coursework. 
• Students do not need to take every advanced course available, but they should pursue an appropriately challenging schedule that reflects their strengths, interests, and goals. 
• Balance matters: Taking rigorous courses should not come at the expense of overall academic performance, extracurricular commitments, or well-being. 
• Course selection can help shape a student’s academic narrative, especially when it aligns with their intended college major or area of interest. 

Podcast Transcript 

Tasha

Hi there. Welcome to Season 13, Episode 2 of the IvyWise Just Admit It! podcast, where former deans and directors of admission give expert insight into the complex college admissions landscape.  

I’m Tasha, your host. I’m an admissions counselor at IvyWise, a former international admissions officer at USC and former assistant director of international admissions at Boston University.  

This season on the show: The college admissions rubric. We’ll be breaking down the eight components of the rubric from grades to essays and everything in between.  

Today’s episode: course rigor — and here to join me in this conversation is Abdiel. Hi, Abdiel, how are you? Thank you so much for coming on to the Just Admit It! podcast. 

Abdiel

Hi, Tasha, great to be here. 

Tasha

Great to have you. Can you please introduce yourself and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself? 

Abdiel

Yes. Hello, my name is Abdiel, and I’m a counselor here at IvyWise. Before that, I was an admissions officer at Harvard for five years. I also worked as a high school college counselor in Los Angeles, and most recently, I was at EAB, a higher education research and consulting company based in D.C. I’m happy to be part of this wonderful team now. 

Tasha

Great. Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction, Abdiel. As I said, today we’re continuing our review of each of the eight components of the college admissions rubric. Again, that rubric is what colleges and admissions officers use to evaluate applicants based on a combination of hard and soft factors. 

To apply to college strategically, we think it’s wise to familiarize yourself with the rubric and each of its eight components so you can understand how to be competitive in each category. Last week, we started with hard factors and talked about grades. Today, we’re discussing a very interrelated hard factor: course rigor.  

Abdiel, can you define course rigor for our listeners? 

Abdiel

Absolutely. In its most basic terms, course rigor is how challenging a student’s academic program is. When colleges look at a student’s transcript, they’re not just asking, “What grades did this student earn?” Obviously, that’s important, but they’re also asking, “What classes did the student take to earn those grades?” 

For example, a student can have an A in an introductory-level class and an A in an advanced class. Both are excellent, but they tell slightly different stories about the student’s pursuit of course rigor. 

I also want to note that rigor can come in different forms. And I know we’ll get into this, but it might mean an honors class, an AP class, or an IB class. If those terms sound confusing, we’ll explain them.  

Every school looks a little different, and rigor is always evaluated within the context of a student’s school. Basically, colleges aren’t expecting every student to have access to the same courses. They’re asking, “What does this high school offer, and what does rigor look like within that context?” 

Tasha

Thinking back to the grades episode — and for listeners who haven’t listened to Episode 1 of this season, I highly encourage you to go back and do that — we had Anthony on the show telling us about the importance of grades. 

But as Abdiel just said, grades don’t really tell us much if we don’t know which courses those grades were earned in, right? So, I guess a related question is: How is course rigor different from grades, and how are those two things viewed together on a transcript? 

Abdiel

You said something really important, which is that grades and rigor are related and interdependent. Admissions rarely operates in silos. Context is a word that comes up time and again. Both grades and rigor appear on the transcript, but they tell colleges different things. Grades show how well a student performed in their classes, while rigor shows how challenging the work was. 

You can think about it this way: If a student has straight A’s, that’s obviously great, but one might also ask, “Straight A’s in what?” Rigor helps tell that story — including the areas in which the student chose to pursue more challenging classes. That creates a very different academic picture from a student who earned the same grades while taking introductory courses throughout. 

That’s why colleges look at the transcript as a whole, right? They’re trying to understand both performance and challenge, and how the two interrelate. 

Tasha

You said something really key there: Straight A’s don’t tell the full story if we don’t know what those A’s were in, right? We need to know which courses those grades were earned in. 

But I think the question then becomes: What choices does a student have available? Some high schools have prescribed curricula, while others have a wide range of program offerings or diploma programs students can choose from. Tell me a little bit about choice, how it varies, and what a student should do if they don’t have much choice. 

Abdiel

That’s a really important question, and one where I hope to lower the anxiety level a little bit. I often hear students ask, “Well, I have a friend at another high school, and they have all these AP classes. At my school, the curriculum looks very different. Am I at a disadvantage?” 

The simple answer is no. Again, it comes back to context. Students don’t choose what their school offers. They don’t have a say over the curriculum, and they’re not being judged based on what their school offers. They’re evaluated based on what they have taken advantage of within the context of their own school, right? 

This is where we can define some of these terms. AP stands for Advanced Placement, IB stands for International Baccalaureate, and honors courses are another common form of advanced coursework. These are some of the options listeners may have heard of, but there are many different types of curricula. 

Sometimes high schools — including very established high schools — create their own forms of rigor. They might have their own internal systems. Colleges understand that, so they generally evaluate students within the context of the opportunities available to them at their school. 

So, that’s true for everybody — an applicant doesn’t have a choice in what their high school offers, right? But they do have a choice in what they pursue, usually in consultation with a college counselor and academic advisor. But I think the key question for colleges becomes: Did you take advantage of the opportunities that were available to you? 

Tasha

We’re going to be discussing this in Episode 4 with counselor Juaquin. So, I don’t want to get too far into this, but can you give us a sneak peek into how colleges and application readers know what is available to a student? 

Abdiel

There is something called the school profile. When students apply to college, there are typically two parallel processes. A student submits their application — essays, extracurricular activities, etc. But the school is responsible for submitting materials as well, which might include letters of recommendation and a school profile. 

A school profile is basically a brief document, sometimes a page or two, that gives you the high-level overview of what the high school is. Every high school writes this differently, but it might be: We were founded this year, these are the courses we offer, and outside the classroom our students have access to these kinds of clubs and opportunities. 

But importantly, and related to this conversation, what the school profile provides is that explanation of what academic offerings are available at that school and what rigor there looks like. That is really one of the key documents that colleges use to contextualize what a student is taking. 

Tasha

Great, thank you. And we will be getting fully into the nuts and bolts of the school profile in Episode 4, so stay tuned this season to learn more about that.  

But for now, continuing to talk about course rigor — I can imagine that if I were listening to this episode as a student, I would start to ask myself, “Do I need to be taking all of the most rigorous classes available at my high school in every single subject?” What would you say to a student who asked themselves that? 

Abdiel

Let’s be real here: When students are applying, especially to selective colleges, rigor is important. We’re talking about this for a reason. We want students, if they’re academically curious and motivated, to pursue rigor to an extent — to challenge themselves. That really is the question: Are you challenging yourself? 

But honestly, the truth seldom lies in the extremes. I wouldn’t tell a student not to take any higher-level courses that might be available to them; they might be able to push themself a little more. Conversely, I wouldn’t outright say they have to take every single AP course their high school offers. In some contexts that might be appropriate, but not always. 

Some high schools have a limit on the number of AP courses that a student can take. Some might only offer a small handful of AP courses, and in that context a student might max out the number of high-level courses they can take. But in other high schools, there might be many more AP courses than a student can possibly take. 

I would bring it back to the student’s academic experience and how they are defining success for themselves. Every student learns differently, and every student approaches academics a little differently. For one student, taking a handful of AP courses might be very manageable alongside all their extracurriculars and applying to college. For another student, that might feel a little overwhelming, and so for them rigor might look a little different — maybe a slight modification to that schedule. 

And then some students are broadly interested and want to take challenging courses across the board, while others have a specialized area of interest and might want to lean more heavily into rigor in math, for example, as opposed to other areas. There’s so much context that surrounds this.  

So, the short answer is no, not all applicants have to be taking all the most rigorous courses available to them. I would flip that and encourage students to think about what appropriately challenging could look like for them. 

Tasha

And what would it look like for a student to overdo it, to challenge themselves maybe a little too far? How would you be able to determine that on their transcript? 

Abdiel

Going back to grades and rigor, I’ve gotten questions from students like, “Should I get an A in an easy class or a B in a harder class?” And the more selective the school, the more the answer is going to be the rigorous class and an A. But the truth here is that students do want to strike that balance between getting strong grades and challenging themselves appropriately. 

Where I’ve seen this go south is when a student says, “I have this gut feeling that two APs this year would be ideal for me, but I want it to look really good on my transcript, so I’m going to double that number.” And then what you start to see is a student dropping off on their extracurricular commitments, or not performing well, or getting overwhelmed, or having to take sick days because they’re overwhelmed. 

Again, you want to think of the totality of you as a person — your academics, your extracurriculars, but also your time. Do you want to have time on the weekends to hang out with your friends and family? I ask students, let’s think about what you want your year to look like. Yes, I would encourage you to challenge yourself, but not to the point where it’s going to have an adverse impact on your overall academics and well-being. 

Tasha

That’s right, and I appreciate your honesty. I think that’s completely correct. Oftentimes we’ll say that the best choice is to take the most rigorous class and get an A, but obviously that’s a tricky thing — it’s all within context.  

Students must make those individual decisions. That’s what an IvyWise counselor and a school counselor are there for: to help students decide which classes they should be challenging themselves more in, if not all of them. So obviously playing to students’ strengths and taking the most rigorous courses in their best and favorite subjects — and then ideally across the board. But I think listening to teacher recommendations about the next level of rigor a student should take, based on their academic achievements so far, is important. 

Now I want to put everything we’ve been talking about into practice. It’s been a little bit theoretical, but let’s put some real situations to the test, so that students and parents listening can think about how course rigor really maps onto the college admissions process and the way that we review transcripts. 

So, let’s say that a student is at a high school that offers both honors courses and the IB Diploma program. If you were to read that student’s transcript and see that they were in honors courses and did not participate in the IB Diploma program, what information would that give you? What would you learn about that student’s level of rigor within the context of their high school? 

Abdiel

That’s a great question. Let’s dive into that case study. In this example, we know that the IB, the International Baccalaureate program, is highly rigorous and internationally recognized, and honors within the context of a school might also be rigorous. But based on the question alone, the IB diploma seems like the clear standout. I won’t get into the details of what the IB program is, but it’s pretty comprehensive, and especially with the diploma there are additional requirements and courses that a student needs to take. 

Generally, we don’t automatically assume that one path is more challenging than the other — this is why we consult the school profile. But in this case, I think the school profile would probably corroborate that the IB is the more rigorous path. So, I would encourage the student to take IB courses. That might mean the full diploma; that may not mean the full diploma. It depends on what a student can realistically handle and what appropriate rigor looks like for them. 

I would also say that when you’re having those conversations, the counselor’s job is to help a student map out what the path looks like — not just this year, but across high school. If you’re having this conversation in ninth or 10th grade, you might ask: What does 10th grade look like? What does 11th grade look like? What does 12th grade look like? Like we said, case studies help us take the theoretical and make it real. Similarly, with a student, we can say, “Let’s visualize what this path would look like. If that sounds good to you, let’s proceed.” 

Tasha

Great, thank you. Let’s take another case study but be a little bit more specific. We’ve been talking about rigor broadly, but we’ve discussed how it can be mapped onto the different core academic areas — math, science, social studies, and English. Of course, there are also AP electives that are additional social sciences but thinking of the four core academic subjects as well as foreign language, we would be mapping the different rigor paths that are available at different schools. 

So, let’s talk about math, because I think it’s one of the more common and most variable subjects, where rigor can really depend on a student’s level but also on what they’re interested in pursuing and studying in college.  

Let’s take a case study of a student who is interested in business and applying to a school of business. They are on a path of rigor where maybe they’re still in ninth grade — they can still make some choices, but they may or may not reach calculus. They’re thinking about taking AP Statistics in their senior year instead of calculus. Walk me through that. How would you advise that student, and what would be the most rigorous path forward? Would it be calculus, or would it be AP Statistics for a student who wants to study business? 

Abdiel

I’ve had this conversation with many students. We’re talking about a student who wants to pursue business, and math is pretty central to that. Again, the more selective the university, the more likely they are to expect students to take at least AP Calculus. So, for highly selective schools — especially if students are putting some of those schools on their list — I would strongly advise AP Calculus. 

That doesn’t mean a student can’t take AP Statistics. Sometimes a student says, “If it fits into my schedule, I could also pursue that.” But AP Statistics is not usually the expectation in place of calculus. AP Calculus is a core math course, and when we’re talking about the core academic areas, you don’t necessarily want to substitute out a core course. Statistics is legitimate, but I wouldn’t replace calculus with it for a student pursuing business at a highly selective school. 

Tasha

I think the nuance in that question is really about the student applying to a business program, especially a highly selective business program. Most will say that they highly recommend calculus; some will even require it. But if the student were applying to a college of arts and sciences or a liberal arts college, we would probably still recommend that a student reach the first level of calculus for highly selective programs. It would still be important, but it would be less determinant than for a student applying to a business program or an engineering program. 

So, how much does that core academic subject relate to the program that you’re applying to? That’s really going to make a difference when it comes to how a college is evaluating your course rigor. If a student is applying to social science programs within a college of arts and sciences, an application reader might want to see that their major makes sense with the kind of course selection they had in high school and the way they were prioritizing their electives. So, if a student doubled up on social studies their junior year and was able to take AP European History in addition to AP U.S. History, and they have a really pointy profile in the social sciences and history, that could make a lot of sense. 

So, rigor is not only an opportunity for colleges and universities to see how you’re challenging yourself, it’s also an opportunity for you to point your profile in a particular direction. That’s especially true for math and science if you’re going in those directions, because it’s really important to have those skills to be successful in those programs. But it can also apply to nuanced interests in the social sciences or the humanities. Do you want to add anything to that? 

Abdiel

I completely agree with your response. I would add a different perspective too: When a student is completing their applications — not to detract from anything we said — I would encourage them to ask themselves, “What would I say if a college asked me why I took AP Stats over AP Calc?” Your response there might be telling. 

Sometimes colleges might ask you that, but often they’re asking it internally as they’re reviewing your application. So, you want to feel like you made this decision for these reasons — and in your context, it makes sense. You want to know that you did this for the right reason, so to speak. And if your answer is, “Well, because I didn’t want to take that harder class,” then that might be telling you something. 

Tasha

Exactly. So, if you’re applying to a program that is truly something you’re very interested in, where you’ve demonstrated that interest throughout high school both inside and outside of the classroom, ideally you want to be taking additional coursework, or the most rigorous coursework, in that subject. If you’re really scared of calculus but applying to a business program, it could be a good idea to question how much math you’re actually going to need to use in a business program. And it’s quite a bit. 

So, thank you so much for that final thought, Abdiel. I’m going to ask for maybe one more: The question I always like to ask at the end of these conversations is whether there’s anything else you’d like to add about course rigor specifically and how important it is in the college admissions process — and anything you’d like to add about the college admissions rubric at large, which is the theme of this season. 

Abdiel

My approach as a counselor is that I always center the student’s narrative and goals. I have a child development degree, so naturally I come at it from a developmental perspective. I see this process as not just about getting into a college, but really about the growth that accompanies this journey. 

In high school, it’s less about saying, “I have to take these specific classes to get into X college.” There is a part of this process where you are future road mapping, but there’s also an equally important question: What do you want to get out of your high school experience? In high school, you are growing academically and in many other ways. So, what are you excited about? The students I work with are often very motivated, and they feel good in rigorous classes because they’re being challenged. 

So, in my parting thoughts, I would say don’t let college admissions anxiety completely dictate your educational experience. The purpose of taking challenging courses isn’t just to say, here’s this fancy course, and put it on your transcript. It’s also about what you learned, the intellectual depth that came with that course, and how it helped you grow as a student and prepare for the next level of your education. 

So that’s some perspective I always try to remind my students: They have a lot of agency in this process, and a lot of it is ultimately about storytelling. You obviously consult your advisors and try to make the best choices for you, but also remember that this is your journey, and there’s a lot more to it than just the name of a course. 

Tasha

Thank you for zooming out and giving us that wider perspective. Abdiel, thank you again so much for coming on the show. 

Abdiel

Thank you so much. This was fun. It’s been a pleasure. 

Tasha

Same here. Next week on the podcast: extracurricular activities. How important are extracurricular activities in the college admissions process?  

If you have any suggestions about what we should be covering, please e-mail us at [email protected]. In the meantime, you can catch up on all our previous episodes by visiting our podcast page, and be sure to bookmark our KnowledgeBase for additional help with navigating the complex and competitive admissions process. 

At IvyWise, we bring together a team of former deans and directors of admission at top universities to give students, parents, and fellow educators the most up-to-date higher ed news and admissions guidance. Visit ivywise.com today to embark on your journey to your best-fit schools with the world’s leading educational consultancy.  

From IvyWise, I’m your host Tasha, and this has been Just Admit It! See you next time. 

 

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Editor’s Note: This transcript has been cleaned up and edited for clarity and readability.