<p>I'll complete all AP courses at my school except for AP physics. I stand top 5% at my school and have good SAT score. I'm planning to take a free period a.k.a study hall instead of taking a ramdom class. Do you think it'll affect an application/admission? [I've acknowleged that admission includes many factors, i.e gpa, sat, extra-cur, etc.]</p>
<p>I think you are fine. I insisted that my seniors took a study hall second sememster senior year. You guys have worked hard and you deserve to enjoy your remaining time and not be stressed out with an overload of work. Enjoy your study hall!</p>
<p>Are you a current junior? If so, I would not take the study hall first semester of senior year- take another elective. This will look better on the mid year transcript. </p>
<p>If you are a current senior, then go for the study hall- your colleges already have everything they need to make admission decisions.</p>
<p>I personally wouldn't suggest it if you want to go to princeton... i mean its fine to have a study hall, but its not going to help you in the ultra competitive admissions</p>
<p>I had a free period my first semester. I signed up for an elective (economics) at the end of junior year but they didn't have the numbers to run the course. I take comfort knowing that TOK will show up as a course, even though it alternated with Math >_></p>
<p>What is so bad about having free periods? I had two this year because my course load consisited of four AP classes and an upper level French (I skipped a year in between sophomore and junior). And next year, I'll have 6 AP classes and a mandatory Economics one semester, and 6 AP's plus a free period the next semester. I really don't think that a free period would look that bad. I mean, a full high school schedule is larger than a full college schedule, so filling a high school schedule with college classes is insane (yes, I will be doing it for a short while, but oh well). If you need a free period, go for it. It'd be no use getting into Princeton if you're already insane from a crazy work load. Don't worry so much about how you'll look and just do what makes the most sense to you. I doubt adcoms will penalize you for taking a break for once. Just don't worry, and if you think that you'll need the study hall, then go ahead and take it. :)</p>
<p>Today in my AP comp gov class one of the kids was scheduling a test and he said he didn't have any frees. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. </p>
<p>In short, take the free.</p>
<p>I have 6 frees/week.</p>
<p>Honestly there is nothing wrong with a free period if you have a tough course load. An elective that isn't very academically rigorous does not help a lot. I doubt that Princeton is going to be like this kid took film instead of a free, we must accept him! imo the only way it helps is by increasing your gpa.</p>
<p>Ras22,</p>
<p>Increase your GPA? This may only be my school, but at my school taking a regular elective only hurts GPA because it makes the AP classes worth less. So, it also affects rank (I know that not all schools rank by weighted grades however). Or are you talking about if you have any grades below an A in earlier years? Because I suppose it would help then...</p>
<p>taking electives in my school shoots ur gpa (weighted) to death bc we rank on a 5.5 scale with an A+ in an AP class as a 5.5... electives would then be worth a 4... lol i made the mistake of taking some electives a few years ago and now paidd the price for it in my rank (4).. zz </p>
<p>just wondering -- how do other schools do their unweighted GPA? do they do it as an A = a 4.0 .. or an A+ = 4.0 ...</p>
<p>I was talking about uw gpa because I don't really consider weighted gpa to mean anything.</p>
<p>^ I feel your pain, Accptd. I'm ranked second in my class because I took band (and even got straight As in it) while the val took study halls. It's beyond frustrating. To answer your question, I'm pretty sure my school uses any A (A-, A, or A+) = 4.0 and for AP/honors, any A = 5.0.</p>
<p>The consensus here seems to be that taking a study hall senior year is okay. However, what about taking a study hall all four years when there was a slew of honors, APs, and electives available that were not taken advantage of? What if this hypothetical person also had perfect ACT and SAT II scores? I didn't do this personally, but I'm just curious whether perfect scores would compensate for taking a study hall all 4 years.</p>
<p>haha i bet a million people across the nation can talk about how dumb some of the class ranking systems are. every single year at my HS, the val is someone who takes two or three AP classes, almost every honors class, and "gifted" humanities. honors and AP are weighted same: 5.0 for A. every year there are one or two people who take like 7-9 AP classes and dont get it, because they took journalism one year and weren't in "gifted" humanities..
ANYWAY,</p>
<p>it seems the consensus is that it doesnt really matter. my only suggestion if you take it off - do something productive! :)</p>
<p>any A as the highest gpa is utterly ridiculous... lol.. utterly</p>
<p>At my school, final grades on transcripts don't have pluses or minuses (even if over a hundred percent was scored, which rarely happens given AP teachers don't really do extra credit). So an A = 4.0 and an A in AP = 5.0. No weight is given to honors courses, but some non-AP courses are weighted (we offer Multivariate Calculus, Differential Equations, and others that are not technically AP but really should be). Our valedictorians are generally the people with a million AP courses. It generally ends up being people with perfect 4.0's though. And thankfully, we have an AP requirement for valedictorians, meaning we never have valedictorians who managed higher grades only because they didn't take any AP classes. I honestly think it's not a bad grading system. Only, my friends who are in Band/Orchestra/Newspaper are upset because I take free periods and they don't, so their weighted GPA's (and thus rank) are lower. But, oh well.</p>
<p>I got in with a free period my senior year.</p>
<p>My S had a free period & marching band in his senior year & we don't feel it hampered his college apps. He got into many of the schools he applied to with significant merit aid & is happy at the school he chose; he will graduate next spring in EE.</p>
<p>there is a place on all the teacher and counselor recs where they mark how rigorous your schedule has been -has it been the most rigorous possible.
personally, take the elective. you can socialize at lunch and during the elective,which will also de-stress you.
i haven't once had a free period/sh in hs and im better off for it.</p>
<p>You might consider taking the free period and then using it to volunteer in your school (tutor the special needs kids, the ESL kids, or other kids who need help, or start a project like a garden, or help the school nurse, or write the school newsletter for parents, etc.) When you really need to study, you can study. To whom much is given, much is expected!
Or, another idea: take an extra period of gym, and get some exercise!</p>