How bad does it look on college applications if I drop honors english halfway through junior year?

Hi everyone,

High school junior here. I’m seriously considering dropping my honors English class at the end of first semester, which means I would take regular english second semester. My main reasons for wanting to do so are because the class takes up too much time (too much work assigned) and I find the material being taught neither relevant nor meaningful, as most of the reading assigned is philosophy rather than proper English literature. Furthermore, I’d much rather spend the time working on preparing for math and programming competitions. I’m currently taking 3 APs and 2 Honors classes, so assuming I get all A grades, I’d have a semester GPA of 4.83. Without honors english in second semester, i’d have a semester gpa of 4.67. I plan on applying to many T20 schools and the primary strength of my application is my achievements in math/science subjects (multiple AIME qualifications, probably will reach USACO Platinum this year and possibly qualify for USAPhO) so I wouldn’t expect dropping honors English to have much of an impact, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be significantly detrimental to my college applications chances.

Thank you!

UPD: I’m applying either as a CS or Math major, in case that’s relevant.

It depends on the college you are applying to. Elite liberal arts colleges consider the rigor of high school classes. It may not look too good to them to opt for less rigor.

It is not a great idea if you’re trying for T20s. You will be up against thousands of applicants who are taking the most rigorous classes offered by their high schools.

I don’t think you’d be correct. Quitting a mid-tier course (not AP) because you you think non-STEM activities are a waste of time will not appeal to many college admissions officers.

The most selective colleges will want to see academic strength and achievement in all core high school subjects.

Downgrading the rigor of a core subject may be especially harmful for applying to the most selective colleges if your counselor will no longer mark that you chose the “most demanding” courses or will no longer mark that your academic achievement is “one of the top few I’ve encountered (top 1%)”. But even if that is not the case, the downgrade will be visible to admission readers looking at your high school record, and they will see it as a defect compared to other applicants.