Some of the course offerings at my school made it so I couldn’t take some classes that I wanted to. Does it seem like I’m trying to hard if I mention this in a section dedicated to additional information for my school’s course offerings? I ended up taking two free periods junior year (one each day) because of it since I didn’t want to be stuck in a class I didn’t actually want to take. Saying that as plainly as I am here on the application feels like I am sabotaging my application. Additionally, I ended up only taking the different physics options at my school because I couldn’t find space to take chemistry. I feel like this matters for some of the schools Im applying to so I want to gauge your opinions about how such a statement would sound. I don’t want to be the person chalking up their single A- to some personal trauma they supposedly went through.
Yes, you’d be trying too hard. Schedule conflicts happen. Every college knows this.
Whether your best option was to take a free period vs another class is a separate question, one that can’t be answered with “I didn’t want to be stuck in a class I didn’t actually want to take.”
I’ll add that I am not a fan if using the additional information section to “explain” what you didn’t do.
Agree. Almost every HS student will have to deal with a scheduling conflict. I would not mention it.
I don’t think putting it like this on any college application would be a wise move.
I don’t think I’d mention this at all.
Most definitely. It sounds bad.
Generally, not having a full schedule is a negative, except for senior year. But it’s in the past now and it’s not something you can explain away. So best not to mention it.
If you are applying to selective colleges for a STEM major, it matters. Otherwise not.
Have you taken three different lab sciences? If not, that actually could matter at some colleges, regardless of your major intent.
I totally agree with what was said. You don’t need to mention schedule conflicts in the additional info section. However, if you still want to explain something about the two free periods, then explain what you did with the extra time. Did you take a college class? Did you work on a project? Explaining what you did during the time instead of explaining why you had to do it, perhaps could make your application stronger!
This is the first thing that I thought of when reading this post.
“Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot — who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor, who had nearly stood up to the Vicious Chicken of Bristol, and who had personally wet himself at the Battle of Badon Hill — and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film.”