<p>I want to take a few fun classes in my junior and senior year of high school. Would that bad on my application? Did you take any fun classes in high school? What were they?</p>
<p>Foods 1 and Science Fiction.</p>
<p>I warn you, though, that I had the worry that, because I had taken those classes, I would be barred from colleges like Dartmouth. Here was the concern that my course rigor would be dwarfed by that of other applicants.</p>
<p>I did manage to be accepted, however.</p>
<p>My understanding is that the schools are only interested in the grades and levels one takes in the 5 main subject areas- math, science, english, language, and social science.</p>
<p>The more AP’s in these areas that you can take the better. These schools also look for kids to be well rounded and “normal”. They don’t appreciate the “bookworm kids” as much as you may think.</p>
<p>Good Luck…</p>
<p>My S took wood shop every year. He loves working with his hands. It was the one class that he could take a deep breath and chill for 40 mins. He wrote about that in his essays and talked about balance and how important it was to him to have a break in the day. He’s been accepted to Notre Dame, Vandy, Colgate, Tulane, and Richmond and every one of the schools has given him some kind of scholastic nod… ie. nominated for the Hesburgh Yesko scholarship, nominated for the Richmond Scholarship, Full tutiion to Tulane, and AMS to Colgate. No we haven’t heard from Dartmouth but so far taking wood shop hasn’t hurt him at all.</p>
<p>I took symphonic choir for $hits and giggles sophomore year and I’m a freshman now at Dartmouth. I also took excel and powerpoint along with word and access because of my schedule (two different classes). Mind, I also took 14 AP’s, so… (selfcall).</p>
<p>I took 4 years of choir (last two “honors”), 3 years of orchestra, and 4 years of studio art. However, I took the AP Studio Art and AP Music Theory exams my junior year to turn what might have been considered “fluff” classes into a real asset. But then, I also took as rigorous a schedule of “hard” academics as I could, and I think that’s what mattered most.</p>