In high school, choosing classes for the upcoming year can be a fairly tedious chore. There’re so many things to consider: graduation requirements, availability, and—not least of all—how attractive those choices will appear to prospective colleges your senior year. Here’s the kicker, some of the “good” choices you think you’re making could reflect negatively on you when it comes time to apply to college. So what are the biggest mistakes high school students make when scheduling classes?
Choosing Dual Enrollment over AP Courses
Why you thought it was a good idea: What better way to show colleges how ambitious you are than to start taking college classes when you’re still in high school? Plus, you’re technically earning two credits for the price of one: a credit for high school and a transfer credit to whichever college you end up attending after graduation. That’s a win-win scenario.
Why it’s not: Dual enrollment credits may not be accepted at the college you choose; Centre is a prime example. Centre doesn’t accept college credit earned in high school because it’s difficult (if not impossible) to assess instruction quality and student performance uniformly across the map. College Board AP (Advanced Placement) courses solve this problem by offering standardized tests at the end of the academic year for students enrolled in AP courses. It’s then up to colleges to determine which scores they’ll accept for credit. As a result, AP exam scores are almost universally used for determining college credit. (Centre accepts scores of 4 or 5.)
GPA Hedging
Why you thought it was a good idea: Your grade point average is often used as the primary indicator as to what type of student you are: 4.0 Excellent, 3.0 Good, 2.0 Average, 1.0 “Hello Summer School.” So it’s natural to want to choose courses in which you’re confident you’ll perform well.
Why it’s not: Most colleges look at your GPA in context, so they know whether your course load was incredibly demanding or rather weak. Then they adjust their evaluation of your GPA accordingly. That’s not to say you should only take AP classes to prove you’re up for a challenge; if you can’t “tread water” in those demanding courses, you shouldn’t venture to the deep end. (I think you’d agree setting yourself up for failure is worse than setting yourself up for success.) But a challenging schedule in high school indicates that you’ll be ready for a challenge in college.
Elective Overload
Why you thought it was a good idea: There are a number of reasons why you may have chosen to load up on electives. Maybe you really like the subject matter, perhaps you want a break from core content, and there’s always the possibility that you needed a little GPA boost. Whatever your reason, electives seem like they might showcase your interests to selective colleges that are sorting through thousands of applications.
Why it’s not: Depending on the college, your elective classes may not have a great deal of influence on your application. In fact, some colleges recalculate applicants’ GPAs excluding elective courses because they tend to inflate the overall GPA; they really just want to know how well you performed in core content classes. This isn’t to suggest you should stop taking classes that aren’t under the math, science, English, or social studies umbrellas, but when confronted with a choice between gym and advanced biology, it would serve well to opt for the latter.
As a rule of thumb, use your best judgment and go with your gut when scheduling your classes. If you don’t trust your gastrointestinal functions to make sound decisions, consult with your guidance counselor or a trusted teacher. Even then, you leave the door open to assumption. If you need the final word on what a college is looking for, there’s no better place to seek guidance than the admission office.
