At my school we have a scholar’s program where students in the top 10% of the class can choose to take classes at one of 4 local colleges, and first semester I took an Economics 101 course there and am planning to take another course second semester. There are a lot of interesting classes and I would like to take one that isn’t necessarily “challenging”, or at least not a core subject. If I do, I am thinking of taking something like an intro to photography or film class, because these are particularly interesting to me. I’m wondering, however, if it will look much better for colleges if I take another core class, something more challenging.
Other than these classes, I have 8 other APs, a 32 ACT, 4.0 GPA , etc. I am thinking about applying to colleges such as Duke, Cal Berkeley, Pomona, Reed… not a definitive list, just around this caliber, so I want my chances of acceptance to be as high as I can get them.
Any ideas and suggestions appreciated! Thanks
You have the GPA and test scores to make you a viable applicant. Now you need to make yourself an intersting applicant. College-level photography and film classes are challenging and allow you to pursue your own interests. Go for it.
Taking an arts or humanities elective that is not ordinarily available in high school is a good option to use the opportunity to take college courses while in high school. As long as you have the expected well rounded base high school curriculum with no missing subjects, you can choose academic electives that you are interested in.