The rate of high school students taking college classes is a rapidly growing trend in the U.S. My question is, how do colleges react to taking major-specific courses rather than core subject courses as a high school student? For example, a programming language or a business course instead of math or English. Would colleges dislike you taking these instead of focusing on high school core subjects or would it come off as impressive or cunning?
assuming you’re already taking core subjects at a high school, this would be extra.
Anytime a student takes college courses during high school, it is almost certainly going to be seen as very good- you’re challenging yourself, taking charge of your application, etc.
If the high school student has no deficiencies in the usually expected high school curriculum (whether taken in high school or college), then any additional academic electives taken at a college should be fine.
However, some college courses may be less rigorous than even high school level courses. E.g. “physics for poets” and “calculus for business majors” type of courses.
^^^Agreed. Before you start to consider non-core college level classes be sure you have completed a full HS curriculum and have satisfied all of the required/recommended coursework for any college you are considering applying to.