<p>Last year as a freshman, I was severely misinformed. I chose my classes with little direction. And while the majority of the "smart" kids in my class began HS with Honors Biology, I was stuck with Lab Science. I could easily had taken Hon Bio, but no one helped me. I didn't take a language first year either, so I will have to skip a year in order to reach AP by senior year. My grades were perfect and I had time to do tons of ECs and stuff, but won't Yale basically look at me and say, "They offered Honors Biology, and you took Lab Science. You were also stupid enough to take Multimedia instead of any language. NEXT." </p>
<p>The fact that I'm in Bio (honors is only offered to freshmen, wonderful isn't it) now, means my friends are in Honors Chemistry now. Next year I'll take Honors Chem, and my friends will either take AP Chem or Physics. I kick myself every day for being so stupid freshman year. It has affected my entire high school career. </p>
<p>So am I correct in how ivies will see this?</p>
<p>It looks really bad the other way around; hard classes freshman year and easy classes senior year. By the time you’re a senior and applying, all schools, Ivy’s included, know that you’re not the same person you were freshman year. As long as you start taking difficult classes now and keep with it through senior year, the progression will look good. Will they hold it against you versus someone who took hard classes all of high school? I don’t think anyone knows but admission officers themselves.</p>
<p>Quit beating yourself up over it, it’s not worth the time or the energy. Keep a high GPA, take subject tests as you finish the classes too that way the stuff is fresh in your mind. I recommend buying a $30 practice book too. Start studying for the SAT/ACT soon too. Don’t go overboard buy make sure you’re getting Ivy-esque scores. Try to tailor your EC’s to match what your intended major possibly is. The selective colleges like to see passion for one thing like the sciences instead of a completely rounded student.</p>
<p>You are at a disadvantage as it does leave you behind in the number of advanced courses taken which is a factor when colleges are assessing the rigor of your courseload in comparison to what you could have done. They probably won’t care about the fact that you took lab science instead of honors bio as much as they would about care about the junior and senior year courses you could have taken but can’t. Either way, don’t worry about it, make the best of your situation. If you start taking the most advanced classes you can and do very well in them, you can make up for the deficit in course rigor to a degree.</p>
<p>I pretty much agree with dblazer: the disadvantage you’ll face when it comes to Yale and its peers is that you won’t get as far as the competition. It’s not that they’ll disparage what you’ve done, exactly, but rather that they’re likely to choose someone who’s done more if the can. And, invariably, year after year after year, they can.</p>
<p>Can you use summers to beef up your studies? Can you take a science class or a language class in summer school at a nearby school or college in order to catch up to people who got better freshman advising? If so, you’ll make yourself more competitive for top colleges.</p>