<p>Right now I have a useless introductory computer class, and I wanted to take Spanish III. OF course I will take it next year, but now on my schedule I have a class that isn't really "challenging me". I was just wondering applicants/admitted, how many stupid electives did you take? I am a bit worried that this will hurt me, the non-honors-point classes hurt.</p>
<p>Yup. (10char)</p>
<p>you’re supposed to take classes you’re passionate about</p>
<p>It will not hurt you if it’s a required class.</p>
<p>I took just enough stupid electives to fill blank spaces I couldn’t fill w/ full-year courses.
I made the mistake of taking computer science in my junior year - it was fun and all but unfortunately, I’m not very good at programming. I got an eighty-something on my midterm/final. :(</p>
<p>If it’s like health (required in my state) then you’re probably ok.</p>
<p>Health and PE are usually required, so no harm there. And I had to take creative writing because of scheduling issues, but I imagine, since creative writing is one of my interests, that it won’t hurt that much. It can impair your rank, though, but if it’s only by a few points in a large class, no big deal.</p>
<p>There’s an absolutely brilliant kid the year ahead of me who took creative writing freshman year and two years of lit mag–a totally mindless class–but he worked his way up to editor, which fits in nicely with his interest in writing. He also took a year of drafting, which is perhaps the silliest class of all time for a humanities kid to take. Scheduling conflicts. Oh, well–I have a hankering he has a Harvard acceptance coming his way. </p>
<p>Keep up your grades in your other classes (your elective could help by keeping your schedule light and serving as a study hall) and get high scores on your APs and SATs. Then there’s no dispute about your academic excellence.</p>
<p>when admissions recalculates applicants’ GPAs they don’t include most elective courses’ grades. if the classes are legit classes that coincide with your passions etc etc then they see that and put that into consideration but numbers wise, electives don’t count.</p>
<p>^Haha, yes I’m sure they won’t mind you getting C’s and D’s in all your electives.</p>
<p>i said gpa wise…</p>