high school course choices - competitive or no? (For Harvard/Yale SCEA)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

(See questions at the bottom) –
Warning: it’s my first time posting on cc so I’m sorry if I did it wrong/posted in the wrong category :frowning:
I go to the largest public school in my school district (~2000+), but my school doesn’t offer any AP/honors classes. I really enjoy the humanities and I’m not taking any sciences right now. I’m a junior, and my courses this year include:

3 art courses: 1 painting, 1 drawing, 1 life drawing
Classical civilization (Gr. 12)
World history (Gr. 12)
French
English
Functions

Next year I am taking:
2 art courses
3 English courses (literature, writing, general)
Data Management
French (I LOVE FRENCH!!!)
Philosophy (creating phil club this year, waiting to be approved)

AP exams I took last year (with self-study):
art history (5)
Japanese (5)

AP exams I will take this year (also through self study)
Euro history
Studio art: drawing
Latin

I am thinking about applying to Harvard/Yale next fall for SCEA but also considering Princeton…I was hoping you guys can give me your opinion on the courses I’m taking - i.e.
(1) Are they too humanities/language focused? I know many Ivy Leagues like seeing a more balanced course load but I really enjoy humanities and I’m also applying to my first choice uni in the UK (which highly suggests you take courses most related to the subject you’re studying at uni).
(2) Also, I’m unable to go to college tours at Yale or Princeton (went to Harvard tour already) so do any of you have any positives/negatives you want to share about these two universities? I get the impression that Yale is stronger in the humanities but Princeton also seems very beautiful, and like Yale, it has a great student-faculty ratio…thoughts?
(3) I heard Yale is less safe (in comparison to most other ivy leagues), is this true for everyone or mostly minorities? What about Harvard’s safety? (It’s safety is not ranked that well but I think it’s partly due to its location) Should I be worrying about school safety this much?
(4) Also any recommendations on how many subject tests I should take? I was thinking about doing SAT II French and World History (since I have an AP Japanese and will do AP Latin, a different language would be better right? As well, b/c I’m doing Euro history it’d be easier for me to study the world history material independently)

Oh and I don’t know if this is that important but my intended major is ART HISTORY and all my extracurriculars are centered around museums/art/history/philosophy related things. I’ve done art competitions in the past but nothing math/science. I don’t have any SAT scores so far but I’m planning to take it this December once I’ve prepped enough for it (the thing is, my family is ok financially but I don’t want to burden them in paying for tutoring/prep books/registering for too many exams - but I’m worried colleges will see my family income and assume I had the same opportunities + resources people from the same income bracket have…)

for those of you wondering why I’m taking so many art courses, there’s a mandatory requirement b/c I’m at an arts school (3 art courses in freshman yr; 3 in sophomore yr; 3 in junior year; and at least 2 in senior year)
*If any of you require more information please feel free to ask me!
Any help/suggestions/opinions would be greatly appreciated!

2

FWIW: Harvard, Yale and Princeton do not offer majors in “ART HISTORY.” They do offer majors in “STUDIO ART.” As such, what is your interest in these schools if they don’t offer what you are looking for?

Harvard majors (called concentrations): https://college.harvard.edu/academics/fields-study/concentrations
Yale majors: http://catalog.yale.edu/ycps/majors-in-yale-college/
Princeton majors: https://www.princeton.edu/academics/areas-of-study

3

The person to ask is your guidance counselor, not any one of us. Rigor is relative to what is offered in your HS. The top tier colleges will want to see the guidance counselor check the box on the recommendation saying you have taken the most rigorous course-load available at your HS (which doesn’t mean taking every AP class – there is often some latitude in this). If the guidance counselor says that your prior and current HS schedules are sufficient to get that most rigorous box checked then you are fine.

4

The lack of science and math courses is going to be a problem. From Yale’s web page:

Balance
Yale does not have any specific entrance requirements (for example, there is no foreign language requirement for admission to Yale). But we do look for students who have taken a balanced set of the rigorous classes available to them. Generally speaking, you should try to take courses each year in English, science, math, the social sciences, and foreign language.

From Harvard’s:

But in summary, we recommend:

The study of English for four years: close and extensive reading of the classics of the world’s literature
Four years of a single foreign language
The study of history for at least two years, and preferably three years: American history, European history, and one additional advanced history course
The study of mathematics for four years
The study of science for four years: physics, chemistry, and biology, and preferably one of these at an advanced level
Frequent practice in the writing of expository prose

From Princeton’s:

If possible, we expect students will complete the following courses before beginning study at Princeton:

Four years of English (including continued practice in writing)
Four years of mathematics (including calculus for students interested in engineering)
Four years of one foreign language
At least two years of laboratory science (including physics and chemistry for students interested in engineering)
At least two years of history

Yale and Princeton are both great universities. They have there own strengths and weaknesses, and different people have different opinions about those.

Yale is no less or more safe than any university in an urban area. Crime is color blind but is attracted to the foolish and unaware.

All you need are 2 SAT2’s for these schools. More is not better. You may take more than 2 if you score poorly on 1 or both of the first 2 you take. In that case you might take other SAT2’s so that you can submit 2 with scores that start with a 7.

5

I do agree with @BKSquared If you have not taken the recommended/required coursework for these schools that your application will be at a big disadvantage. You should look at the common data set for these schools and any other colleges you are considering (google "common data set XYZ college) and look at Section C to see where your coursework stands. Note that self-studying does not count as taking a class as it demonstrates an ability to cram for an exam rather than the ability to do excel in an academic setting.

6

Sorry for not clarifying - I mean the “History of Art (B.A.)” at Yale and the “History of Art and Architecture” at Harvard - for Princeton (I’m referring to its Visual Arts program) - thanks for pointing it out! I was just used to referring to it as Art History (rather than History of Art haha)

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My guidance counselor said that in his opinion, taking all humanities (lots of English and history) is in some cases even more rigorous than science/business courses b/c the marking at our school is quite tough for the humanities in general - he said that I am taking a rigorous course load and he would certainly point that out in his recommendation letter

8

@happy1 I won’t be spending time to “cram” for AP exams per se, the subjects I’ll be taking all have overlaps to my courswork (e.g. We’ll be learning basic Latin translation in classical civ; since I already go to a rigorous arts program the pieces I’ll be submitting for studio art will mostly be taken from class work; Our school’s world history course in fact is more focused on European history but I’ll just have to practice writing the FRQ and DBQs myself) - what I meant was that, since my school doesn’t do the same curriculum as the AP one (I forgot to mention that I’m Canadian in my original post), I’ll put in some more effort to write the AP exams (I know more does not equal better) b/c as I mentioned previously my first choice university is in the UK, which recommends a certain number of relevant AP exams all with 5s (and I believe the AP exams I’ll be taking pertain to my subject) - thank you for your input btw!

9

Great strategy for UK universities, but a really crappy strategy of HYP. Regardless of what your GC says, these schools want to see a balanced schedule and you will be at a competitive disadvantage.

10

I think you’re right, but unfortunately I can’t taken any science in my senior year b/c I didn’t take it this year (thus I don’t have the prerequisite for it). I think I’ll still apply anyways next yr to the US to give it my best shot but I’ll prioritize UK universities first with my course choices