By taking the classes I want, would I hurt my college chances?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>To start this off, I have always been the one to roll my eyes at those who lived their lives to impress colleges, rather than to fulfill personal goals. But, I don't want to make a decision that will completely kill my chances at getting into a good school.</p>

<p>To give you an idea of who I am, I will soon be a rising junior at a competitive boarding school. My interests lie heavily in psychology, English, and government/history. When I apply to colleges, I will most likely be looking at schools like Amherst, Haverford, Wellesley, and Williams. (But, then again, I'm a sophomore, so that changes every week.)</p>

<p>My problem is with math--I despise pre-calculus, the class that I'm in now. This term, I will have completed my diploma requirement, which is 3 terms out of a 5-term precal sequence. I talked to my math teacher, and he recommended that instead of pursuing the regular math track, I should take AP Statistics as a junior, and then drop math entirely senior year.</p>

<p>This year, I am taking:
College Chemistry
French 2/3
Precalculus
English</p>

<p>Electives:
Theatre Production
History</p>

<p>Next year, with my teacher's suggestion, my schedule will look like this:
College Physics
French 4
AP Statistics
English
US History</p>

<p>Without math senior year, I would use that to do a Developmental Psychology Independent Project or an English Independent Project. I just want to get it across that I'm not dropping math just because I don't like it, but rather because I don't see how calculus will help me in the future. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>For top schools, you should probably take a Calculus class. Most other applicants will have some sort of AP calculus class.
So take Calculus unless you know you will do badly. Then go ahead and do and independent project.</p>

3

<p>To be cliche, if a college rejects you based on what classes you like, it isn’t the right college for you.</p>

4

<p>Only 5 classes with one AP in Junior Year? I don’t know how it looks to competitive colleges.</p>

5

<p>At my school, you can only take a maximum of 6 classes each term. And we don’t have designated AP classes–essentially everything is advanced. So next year, I will take the AP exams in US History, Statistics, and Literature. Stats and Calc are the only classes that have the label “AP” attached.</p>

6

<p>That’s what high school is about. You take the classes you want and you can handle. Impressing others should be the last thing on your mind.</p>