Dropping one academic class senior year?

<p>Hi. I'm applying to Ivy League-level colleges as a humanities major (particularly English, politics, history, languages, etc). This is my situation:</p>

<p>I currently have one class each in highest rigor honors/AP science, math, English, and history for senior year, plus my elective and some non-academic school requirements. I finished the most advanced course sequence for my world language last year, so I was going to take a second history course to replace my world language during school, but one of the AP history classes in my school is a joke because the teacher doesn't do anything and students don't learn anything, so I decided to just take nothing during that period, since easy filler electives don't interest me. I plan to dedicate the additional time to my elective, extracurriculars, studying, college applications, my arts supplement for colleges, creative writing, studying the world language outside of school, etc. I also will probably use the time to get a political internship.</p>

<p>However, I told my guidance counselor I was dropping the class because I wanted more time to work on college applications because my parents said I should be "politically correct" (i.e. don't mention the teacher's poor quality) and simple (i.e. don't explain so much stuff). Should I talk to him later and tell him what I've been accomplishing with my time so he doesn't think I'm some kind of slacker? I don't want him to recommend me as the student who took the most rigorous courseload but took it easy in 12th grade.</p>

<p>bump10char</p>

<p>I would recommend being honest with your counselor about what you want to do with the time, since saying that you want the time to work on apps does convey the wrong kind of message.</p>

<p>I dropped history my senior year and took independent study art instead, since i always liked art but could never fit it into my schedule. Independent study is a pretty soft option over AP Euro or AP Gov/pol but i still ended up doing fine in the admissions process, hitting 8 for 11 (1 reject 2 waitlists)</p>

<p>Get the counselor to understand what you’re doing so that his rec doesn’t suck but otherwise it’s not a problem</p>