<p>I plan on taking one or more online community college courses during the first semester of my senior year (easy courses so I can manage everything). Any benefits to doing so? Obviously I get transferable credits, but are credits really important in college? Will I have to take random courses during college to satisfy the course requirement (where these online courses could potentially help). Could this also boost my college application, showing I'm willing to do more work? Thanks! UCLA and UC Berkeley are my goals, if that helps.</p>
<p>Look at the undergraduate major at the colleges of your choice. Go to the college websites and view or print the course curriculum, then compare with the courses you are planning taking senior year H.S. If the class and specifically the number do not match then the senior year class it doesn’t fulfill a core requirement for your major. The next step is to see if it fulfills an elective. </p>
<p>If you take a dual credit PreCalculus course in high school and you are a STEM major you have probably fulfilled a math class in your core requirement. However, if you take College Algebra, and are a STEM major you probably did not fulfill a core maths requirement. Just because you are taking a dual credit course does not mean you are tactically gaining a leg up on your degree.</p>