“Your transcript does not define you.” Students hear this mantra when a test doesn’t pan out and when registering for classes. Of course, a person is more than a couple of letters on a document.
But it’s also true that as students enter the college admissions arena, transcripts are essential to their profiles. Despite ongoing debates about their value and legitimacy, diplomas from name-brand colleges can elevate young professionals’ resumés. To access these benefits, a competitive class record is essential.
While these elite universities certainly are not the end-all of education, many students strive to matriculate there. To do so, we must have honest conversations with them about the work that it will require. But we also have to enable and encourage them to put in that work.
Today, college admissions are more competitive than ever. An article in the Harvard Crimson in 1995 noted the decreasing acceptance rates of the Ivy Leagues. For the class of 1999, Harvard admitted 11.8% of its applicants. Princeton admitted 14%, and the University of Pennsylvania admitted around a third of its applicants. While these are still selective numbers, they’re a far cry from the 3.4%, 4%, and 4.1%, respectively, for the class of 2027.
Crimson Education reports that students aiming for top-20 universities take an average of 10 to 14 AP classes over their high school career. These universities put heavy emphasis on both performance and course rigor. After all, few people can have a high school start-up. But many more can push themselves to take the strongest curriculum their schools can offer.
Startlingly low acceptance rates mean that small factors in an application can be the difference between acceptance and rejection. Still, they also mean that students must have a stellar foundation to be considered.
Course rigor isn’t only for students but also for the benefit of the district. U.S. News ranks Clayton High School as the fourth-best high school in Missouri. Their explanation of methodology states that participation in and performance in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses are significant factors in calculating the ranking.
That means that if we want to continue calling Clayton one of the top school districts in the state, we need students to take these challenging classes. A number on a website, however reductive, can be all a family has to decide where to send their child. If a district wants to cement its status at the top, we must first encourage students to push themselves.

Education professors at the University of Florida conducted research showing that students taking advanced classes are more stressed than peers in general classes. But is stress a mental health issue or just a feature of life?
Princeton’s President, Christopher L. Eisgruber, answered this question in a piece published in The Daily Princetonian.
“Yes, demanding academic standards create stress. But no, stress isn’t always bad for mental health,” Eisgruber wrote.
This is not to say that every single student should stuff their schedule with APs. For some students, the fast-paced classes and greater workload can do more harm than good, and no student should feel like they have to take a certain course rigor to be worthy or intelligent.
But we should not be dissuading students from challenging themselves because we think stress as a whole is a bad thing. Coping with stress is essential to lifelong success, no matter what career a person pursues.
When students take challenging courses in high school, they do so in an environment with built-in support systems. Most teachers make themselves available during Greyhound Time for students who have questions about the material and are happy to have an email conversation. Students struggling in a specific subject could also reach out to an NHS tutor who could provide peer-to-peer advice about the material and the class as a whole.
These are opportunities that, depending on the institution’s size, may be more difficult to come by in college. Even when they are present, students who aren’t used to going up to a teacher and asking for help when necessary may be hard-pressed to start doing so. Without the experience of managing challenging situations in a structured environment, it will be far more difficult for them to thrive in an unstructured one.
As a perfectionist, it’s almost instinctive to want the easy way out—the way that gets you an A with minimal effort. But I’ve also always been ambitious and surrounded by people with equally high hopes for their futures. So, when I got to my junior year, I was caught off guard by the amount of planning, stress and work it took to keep myself on the track I had planned for so long. Results that I thought would come easily ended up being hard won.
But I don’t see this as proof that I bit off more than I could chew. Struggling where I didn’t expect to has made me more tenacious. Knowing that I can be challenged and still survive has empowered me to take on new challenges because I know that even if they cause me stress, I can still survive.

Ultimately, it all comes down to meeting students where they are and looking at where they want to be. Some students thrive in relaxed academic environments, others, in high-pressure ones. Both are valid and must be treated as such.
If we as a school district want to fulfill our obligation to all students, we must have honest conversations between teachers, students and parents about what’s required to make dreams reality. We have to be honest about our students’ needs and how we can best meet them, but we also have faith that they can survive and thrive in challenging conditions. Even if they take a class only to find out it’s not for them, they will have been better for doing it. They’ll have learned more about themselves, which is just as important as any academic takeaways.
For students still contemplating their curriculum, high school is the opportunity to take educational risks. You can find and test your limits in a safe, controlled environment. You might find you’re capable of more than you thought, or you might find that a class was not a good fit for you. Either way, you’ll have knowledge that will serve you well as you continue your journey.
Ten years after you graduate, you might not have all your trigonometric identities memorized. But you will still know how you handle stress, where your limits are and how you can push them. These are the skills that will carry you far. So, if you’re asking me, I think the answer is clear: take challenging classes.