[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by LCJ

As a current high school senior and an active member of Team 2468, I cannot express my frustration enough about exactly the issue being covered in this thread.
My school is a very competitive high school where being in the top 10% of the school means taking as many AP classes (that means 5-7 per semester) and getting consistent 95+ grades.
As a student who is actively engaged in Band (which is unweighted), Robotics (also unweighted), and taking foreign language classes (first two years unweighted), I am always at constant stress of trying to juggle my time effectively between the ridiculous amount of homework from the AP classes, marching band practices, and robotics meetings to where I was forced into quitting band for my senior year to make sure that I was able to continue being an active member and a leader in the robotics program.
Spending hours on homework after getting home late from a robotics meeting and then waking up at 5:30 for a band practice has yielded me a class ranking that is barely in the top 10% of the class and I cannot express my disgust with this system enough. I pursued my interests through the activities I engaged myself in (which were time consuming and taught me useful life skills) and the result is a punishment for not taking the "easy-APs" that other take to ensure a higher rank for themselves.
I think a clear solution lies in allowing multipliers for only core-classes (English, Math, etc.) and not for elective courses, but having a higher minimum number of credits necessary to graduate, thereby ensuring that all students are only allowed to take a certain number of grade-enhancing classes and evening the playing field a little more, while decreasing the gap created by students who do not taking as many classes overall to benefit their GPA.

Sorry about the rant, but this issue has been a major source of stress for me in the last several years of my life and I really hope future students don't have to go through the same issue I had throughout my high school years.

Wish me luck as I begin applying to colleges! Maybe they'll value my time spent at robotics and band!

+1, Same scenario at our high school.