(I accidentally posted this in another topic too)
I am a senior looking to get into a highly selective college. I am scheduled to be taking a local college class in the mornings this year. I have not registered for one yet. Here are my options
- Philosophy 101 at a local college - I hear it is reading intensive and it would cost about $180 to take. It doesn't seem worth the money or added work bc, well, it's philosophy.
- History 101 at a local university - I already have 4 history courses and plenty of social studies courses under my belt, and I plan on majoring in Biology. This would cost $240.
- Change my schedule to take Chemistry II at my high school. Taking more natural science sounds like a great idea as I intend to major in biology. This would cost $0.
I have already taken 5 dual enrollment courses so far, and will have about 5-6 AP courses under my belt by the time I graduate. What I’d like to know is if taking either of these two college classes would be worth it (for college admissions), or if I should just take the high school course that is related to my interest of study. Cost is a factor as it is my mom’s money and not mine. Thanks in advance!
And if it IS worth it, which class should I take?
If I had to recommend a class I would have to say take a class that is universally required of most any college and that’s English Composition, unless of course you already did that. Take a peek at the requirements at the colleges for which you are interested and pick a 100 level class that most students will be required to take. You did not mention whether one of your APs is history so that would be my second recommendation. My sophomore entering student (not prep school) took US History this summer. He plans to major in engineering and chipping away at these general education type courses will let him pursue a minor without additional time. The cost is inexpensive if you compare it to your cost at a highly selective college would be my guess! I don’t have to pay because I work at the college where my son took the course but even as much as $400-500 would be worth it in my opinion.
Just realized I posted this in the wrong category. Woops. Anyway, I have already taken college-level Composition as well as AP US History. I don’t think the colleges I’m looking at will accept much (if any) credit from my dual-enrollment classes so far. This is mainly to boost the rigor of my courseload and look good on applications.
I found out that the other class I could take is Chemistry II at my high school. Taking more natural science sounds like a great idea as I intend to major in biology. Do you think taking a major-related HS course is wiser than taking a non-major-related college course?
Rereading this, I can already tell that I am biased toward option #3. Still, tell me what you guys think.
For reference, here are the courses I’ve taken so far that are relevant to this discussion:
Science:
-STEM Foundations
-Bio Honors
-Bio II
-Chem I
-Computers and Applications (dual enrollment)
-Adv Physics
-AP Bio
History:
-World Civ
-USH
-APUSH
-Social Science Seminar
Social studies:
-American Social Concerns (sociology) (dual enrollment)
-Civics/Economics
-AP Macroecon (self study)
-AP Gov (self study)
Should I add an advanced chemistry course to the list of sciences or a college-level history course to the list of humanities?
So I decided to look at one of “the best” last night as it relates to transfer credit and yes if you are shooting for the stars in terms of a college acceptance, you should place most of your emphasis on classes at your school. You don’t mention which star you are shooting for though…
My kids are still younger and haven’t taken SATs/ACTs so I’m not knowledgeable about the new scoring system but have you taken them and how well did you do? What about your GPA? Are you in a public or private school? Are you a legacy at your star school? In my son’s case he won’t be aiming at a star like that and most of the good engineering schools I might expect him to look at will take his dual enrollment courses.
As a somewhat relevant example, the valedictorian of our good Massachusetts public school, took tons of AP courses, earned the rank of Eagle Scout, played violin at a high level in multiple ensembles, and didn’t get into any of the Ivies for which he applied. He’s a physics and computer science major. Akin to the prep school forum where you posted this message, predicting acceptance to these colleges is very hard. I hope you have a good mix of schools for which you plan to apply.
To be honest I’m still narrowing down my many choices. I plan to visit JHU, UPenn, NYU, and Carnegie Mellon. There are a ton more on my list. My first try SAT score is 1510/1600 (I have to work on my math) and my cumulative GPA so far is 3.8. I spent two years at private school and my junior and senior years at public school.