Hey.
One thing I've noticed at my school is that alot of people choose classes just to please colleges. For example, someone I know who hates math and science is taking:
AP Calc
Honors Physics
AP French (second year in a row, lmao)
*Literature of War
AP English
AP Government + Politics

I, however, am taking:
AP Environmental Science
AP Gov
*Modern Middle East
*Gender and Society
*Physiology:Nutrition and Exercise


The first example is someone who isn't taking classes they necessarily want to, yet think they have to in college. I mean, of course it helps you to get into college by continuing with math, science, English, history, etc, etc. But is it really worth taking classes that'll bore you, possibly lower your grades, and show no personality?

Take my classes for example, I take these classes because all these things interest me and I'd rather follow a profession in these. They help inform me about issues I desperately care about and hope to change in society. Other classes I've chosen in the past have been Activism, History of Race, The War on Drugs, Honors Chem, Honors Bio, Criminal Justice, etc. And think, 3 new electives for me each trimester, so I get to take almost anything I want.

*- Electives; change every semester

So, my question is: Do you think that it is important to take classes that will read well on a transcript? Or do you think it is more important to follow what interests you? Give me an example of course loads as well.

I take classes for interest... to the point of not taking required classes that I am not interested in. Yeah. I am definitely not graduating highschool...

If your smart and "owning" your classes you should definetly take classes that please colleges.

Thats sounds so dumb to me... Why do you say that?

I honestly see no point in me taking anything further than geometry (though i took alg 2/trig and precalc against my better judgement) or taking classes that just feel like a waste of time.
When will I ever need to use calc? I have a great time on the other hand learning about things that interest me, and I do better at them. I think its being pro-active vs being a tool.

You would probably be more likely to get into career "x" if you start your career from a good college(not that taking those courses wouldn't get you or anybody else into a good college.) I'd say get to a good college and THEN take the classes that interest you in a career.

I'm taking band, honors English, AP Physics, AP US History, German, Computer Programming, and Linear Algebra.

I suppose I am marginally interested in every subject (although my AP US teacher is absolutely horrible), but it's really that I don't have any incentive to drop a class just because it isn't my most favorite thing in the world. I'm certainly surviving them, and hey, they do help you get into college.

Heh. This reminds me of the Neils Bohr scenario when he tried to get into college. The guy applied to college and was asked one simple question. "You have a barometer in your hand, find out how tall this building is." Of course, Neil being the smart-ass himself, kept replying with correct questions. "Ask the Janitor how tall the building is," or "Tie a long string at the end of the barometer, and throw it off the top of the building." Even those these were all correct, he still got rejected for college, just because he didn't give them the answer they wanted.

So that's why everyone is doing stuff for college. Because they need to. For a post-secondary education.

I'm taking classes to become a Veterinarian and art/media as a hobby.

My classes so far are...
Academic:Science, Academic:english, Art/Media, Gym, Applied Math, Academic History, and Integrated tech.

It depends on whether you already have a goal (major wise) for college or not. If you are willing to go into something like say... engineering, then it's best to take stuff like AP Calculus and AP Physics, and even AP Chemistry. That way you can alleviate your schedule a little bit in college and have more room for error when it comes to dropping your classes.
If you do NOT have a goal however, then just take whatever is interesting to you AND whatever you think will help you boost your GPA, because GPA and class ranks are the first things colleges look for when seeing your application and transcript. It doesn't really matter if you have like 0 AP credits from highschool; colleges always base their cirriculums and catalogs assuming that you have 0 college credits (and besides, there's summer school. It's ALOT different than high school summer ones).

The only AP credit i have from highschool is AP Statistics. It does shit for my Civil Engineering major. I'm taking:
Statics, Engineering Design Graphics, Civil Engineering systems, Differential Equations Calculus, and Intro to Human Geography. These are all freshmen or sophomore level classes and none of them can be waved by any AP credits.

IB English 11 HL, Construction Tech 11, IB Chemistry 11 HL, IB History 11 SL, IB Functions 12 HL, IB Biology SL, Tech Design 11, Exercise Science 12.

HL IB courses make AP look like applied.

Well, I'm taking all required courses - Drafting, Literature, Honors Math, AP History, Chemistry, PE, French... and it's taking up most of my time. The only other non-required class I have is Math Team, which I expect will look great for colleges. They don't take anyone . I'm hoping to take some engineering and programming electives later on, maybe even Astronomy. Or Physics. Or Chemistry. Dammit, I wish High School lasted longer.

No u dont. College > High School ANY day, seriously

I don't get to choose most of my classes.

Algebra 1 Part 1 / Pre-algebra
Science
Spanish / French
Language Arts
American History
Computers
Gym

Pretty basic. Where I had a choice I bolded my choice.

*note, our highschool has 4 levels of classes, level 4 is essentially AP (ap always is level 4), although they do not always have ap next to their name, level 3 is right below that, level 2 is for "average" students (you could say), level 1 is for special ed, basically.

These are my classes: U.S. History Level 3, AP English III (British Lit.), Psychology Level 3 (next semester, study this semester), French IV Level 3 (it's almost as hard as a level 4, but this is as high as french levels go until french V, which is only level 4), AP Chemistry, and Pre-Calc Level 3.

Essentially, up to now I take classes trying to boost my class rank (currently I'm 20th, didn't take any level 4s freshmen year, had to come from behind, ). And I try to get all of my required credits out of the way that I can. Although I could take AP US history and level 4 pre-calc, I choose not to because I didn't want to overload myself with work and just try to do the best possible in each class. I know a kid last year that took like four level 4's but didn't get an A in any of them. I would rather take 2 level 4's and 2 easy level 3's and get B+-A in all of them, and try to maintain a life. Anyways, I think you should take classes that you are interested in, but balance it with classes that look good. Next year my schedule will look something like this:

Ap Calculus, French V, Creative Writing & Mythology, Journalism, Video Production (I think that's the name), Mass Media, and maybe Sociology (no science or real social studies class). The first of those 2 are level 4, the rest are level 3. It is essentially me following my line of writing/englishes classes that I like, while still including classes that look good for college, you could say. In summary, I in no way condone Farty's way of taking classes he likes, but I would have the priority of taking classes you like and enjoying high school over taking all classes that look good for college when balancing your schedule.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 18 2007, 10:35 pm by Dapperdan.

Daaamn, how did your school ever get to be that way? It is way ahead of the times

Try not to say things like that to yourself when your in school. You start doing things that interest you when your in college, in high school; you bust your ass off in classes that colleges like, so you can get into a good one.

My school has Essentials, Applied, Academic, and IB.

Meh, here we have AP and... not AP.

If I'm lucky.

Same. Ahead of time FTW.

Actually what I was saying was in regard so I can take a lot of electives and get into just about any college I want.

I got 4 actual classes (and an AP Seminar and lunch, so 6 periods)

AP Comp Sci (Damn Java)
AP English
AP World
Academic Pre-Calc (Wouldn't lemme switch into honors by the time I realised how freaking easy this crap is)

I'm taking Pre-calc because it looks good to colleges, as well as I know I'll be taking higher math in college, therefore I need a base knowledge upon which to build what I learn. I don't really like the teacher (too much energy, while that's a good thing, not in her case), but I'm taking it anyway and it's an easy grade.

I'm just mad that Honors isn't weighted like AP is in the GPA (AP = grade *1.15, so that 80* counts as a hundred in your GPA), because other than that I
hate.... I'll finish this later. Bell rang