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College Admissions
Walnut Hills High School:
What You Need to Know
Walnut Hills High School is a selective-enrollment, college preparatory school in the Cincinnati Public School system. Serving students grades 7-12, Walnut is ranked among the top 100 U.S. public high schools by U.S. News & World Report and named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2023. Admission is based on a qualifying standardized test scores from across the city. Nationally recognized for its arts, athletics, and extracurricular excellence, Walnut offers five major dramatic and musical productions, over 90 athletic teams, and 70+ clubs.
Understanding all the opportunities available will help you plan and match your priorities.
Walnut Hills High School AP Courses
More than any other private or public high school in Ohio, Walnut Hills offers 35 Advanced Placement (AP) courses, supported by Honors Program and extensive college-level coursework. These are challenging courses and gives students a chance to take college-level courses. Through taking AP exams at the end of the course, students can earn college credit and placement. Honors and Advanced Accelerated (AA) courses have a weight of 1.25 and Advanced Placement (AP) courses have a weight of 1.5, increasing a student's weighted GPA. Colleges care about both weighted and unweighted GPA.
Course optioning at Walnut Hills is the annual process where students select their courses for the upcoming academic year. Each January, students research and meet with their counselor to go over their courses for next year. Students can use the Optioning Assistant Tool to help them determine which courses.
It is impossible to take every single AP course. Nor should you try to take all of them. That is where strategy comes into play. Make sure you are the taking the courses that align with your interests and career goals.
Walnut Hills High School CCP Courses
Walnut Hills High School offers on its campus 9 College Credit Plus (CCP) courses, Ohio's dual enrollment program that allows students to earn both college and high school credit at Ohio colleges and universities. CCP courses are offered at little to no cost to students, covering tuition and books. Students grades 7-12 can also take other CCP course from Ohio public colleges or universities, but can only take a maximum of 30-credits per year. Similar to AP courses, CCP courses are weighted by 1.5 and increase a student's weighted GPA.
*Note that students taking CCP Anatomy and Physiology will receive two high school credits and can earn 8 semester hours of college credit.
Students who wish to explore a modern language (Spanish, French or German) can apply for the University of Cincinnati's CCP World Language honors courses offered on-site and taught by Walnut Hills faculty. Students who complete a CCP Modern Language course will earn 5 hours of course credits from UC as well as a full year of high school credit from Walnut Hills.
Why would a student take a CCP course vs a AP course?
If you plan on attending a public Ohio college or university, you can graduate high school with 12-18 credits and save time and money by skipping intro-level courses. Private or out-of-state public colleges will decide independently whether to accept these credits as transfer credits. These are semester-long courses. You are able to earn credit at an accelerated pace and freeing up valuable space in your busy schedule for other courses.
Additionally, students can start taking CCP courses that don't require pre-requisites, like public speaking, when they are in 7th or 8th grade. That's why we start college planning in middle school to help explore the options available.
Any student who intends to take a CCP course must attend the annual mandatory information session and submit a CCP letter of intent to Walnut Hills High School. We can help you decide which CCP courses to take and can help you meet enrollment deadlines.
Walnut High School Accelerated Pathway
For accelerated math students, Walnut Hills offers the option to take Geometry & Algebra 2 in the same year with teacher and parent approval. Students in Pre-Calculus can also take concurrently Mathematical Modeling & Reasoning, Probability & Statistics, AP Statistics, or AP Computer Science A.
As a Classical college preparatory high school, students starting in 7th or 8th grade must complete 3 years of Latin. Students entering in 9-12th grade is required to take at least Introduction to Classical Studies or Greek I. Walnut offers Latin IV Honors Poetry and Latin IV Honors Prose along with AP Latin, which prepares student to take the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy.
In addition to the Honors Diploma Seal, students must earn two additional diploma seals to graduate.
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Biliteracy
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Citizenship
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College Readiness
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Community Service
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CTE/Industry Recognized
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Fine and Performing Arts
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Military Enlistment
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Science
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Student Engagement
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Technology
Learn more about the how to earn each Ohio Diploma Seal on the Cincinnati Public School Graduation Requirements page.
Work with a Private Counselor
Our Private Counselor can assist you with every step of course planning at Walnut Hills High School. Our Prep programs for 8th (and 7th grade for Walnut Hills students only) through 11th graders offers customized, one-on-one counseling with a dedicated Counselor.
We can help you expand your student's interest beyond the classroom and develop academic projects and learning opportunities that best align with your goals.
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