<p>Would a college be more willing to accept a student with a 4.0 who only took joke classes like (bugs and people, plant issues, sociology, study of food, gender issues) or a student with a 3.7 who took hard classes like (analytic calculus 2, chemistry, thinking with computer software, economics)?</p>
<p>The latter I’d think.</p>
<p>Definitely the latter.</p>
<p>4.0 > 3.7 in almost all circumstances. Unless you’re comparing a 3.7 engineering student from MIT with a 4.0 African American Studies student from a state school, the student with the 4.0 will have a huge advantage over the student with the 3.7.</p>
<p>Admissions committees look at the rigor of your coursework. It’s the same in college football. The schools who lose a game or two to quality opposition (ex: getting a B in a difficult class) go the the championship game, not those schools who beat up on crappy opponents all season long</p>
<p>I disagree with that. History has shown that when you’re trying to transfer to more prestigious schools, it almost always looks better to have a good GPA and a more rigorous course load than simply a bunch of filler and a high GPA. </p>
<p>This might not be the case with the lower tier schools, but the results from the Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Harvard, Yale and especially UPenn threads show that high course load with high GPA yields better results.</p>
<p>(But then again there is such a ridiculously low sample of people, so you really can’t come with any logical conclusion just using these boards… but that logic definitely applies with High School freshman applications so logically it should apply, also, to transfers)</p>
<p>Guess it also depends on what your wanting to major in. </p>
<p>Your classes look good for Entomology and some Public Health areas that the other courses would not be as useful for…</p>
<p>I’m taking the hard classes. This is just a prospective thread. I just hate the fact that people take moronic classes just for a 4.0.</p>
<p>I don’t think classes that focus on sociology, history, etc are “moronic.” I just took econ 2 and got an A, but I got a B in history.</p>
<p>I’ve heard this same logic throughout CC. Though the exact same metaphor that is used has something to do with taking a hard class as opposed to taking “basket weaving”,</p>
<p>So, in realistic terms, what would be the equivalent to a “basket weaving” class?</p>
<p>Like… Sociology? Isn’t that a core class for most AA’s, unless you’re taking Psychology or something?</p>
<p>I always figured classes like Art Appreciation, Music Appreciation, Career Planning, Math for Liberal Arts Majors, Earth Science, Conversational Spanish and such were the ones to avoid.</p>
<p>Any input on this?</p>
<p>Yup, I pretty much agree with GodricGryffindor (I like your screen name). A lot of people at my CC are taking the mentioned classes and then brag that they have a 4.0
I’m sure that if they were to try to transfer to school that are not in the state system/privates their transcript would not look as impressive as others who took more rigorous classes.</p>
<p>Haha, thanks. I think a general rule of thumb should be that a transfer student should always aim HIGHER than what his recommended core is. Of course, this is all my opinion more or less…</p>
<p>If the student only needs say, College Algebra, to fulfill their Math requirement and they tested out of it — is that enough if that student is planning on transferring to a competitive school? Definitely not. There’ll be students that will be transferring who received AP/dual/CLEP credit for Calc 1 or even 2. I know most majors don’t require you to go that high, but that’s the point. Challenge yourself and set yourself apart from the rest of the people in your Liberal Arts major. Take AT LEAST Calculus. I know it might be hard, but it’s definitely doable.</p>
<p>The same rule applies to Science core. Example — so you found out you need to take nine hours of sciences to fulfill the requirement. Sucks, right? No, what sucks MORE is if you and take 3 hours in 3 different introductory classes. INSTEAD, why not spend 9 hours gaining some proficiency in a science? Complete a sequence. Take Intro Chem 1, Intro Chem 2, and then take General Chem or something. If you’ve taken a year of Chem in school, continue that with a Chem in college. Same idea applies to Bio, Geology, and Physics. Which one should you take? Whatever one you’re interested in.</p>
<p>Also, English shouldn’t be overlooked. Just because you AP’d out of English Lit doesn’t mean that that’s the last English class you’ll ever take. Before applying for transfer, take an English class within your major or a class that you know would look good to the AdComs. See if there’s a creative or abstract writing course offered at your university, maybe even take an upper-level English course if you feel you can handle it. Set yourself apart.</p>
<p>Electives, electives, electives. Try and take sequences if you can. For example, say you took Psychology. Why not go on and also take Child Growth and Dev? Maybe even another course? Try and show proficiency in one subject rather than taking Intro to Psych, Intro to Sociology, and then finish off your requirement with an Intro to Econ class. You’re so cool!</p>
<p>And last but not least — Foreign Language. Do at least four semesters of the same language, come on. At a lot of schools, you need to be that proficient to do a study abroad, so that must mean something. Also, it just looks good. Just do as many as you can.</p>
<p>I transferred to Northwestern with a 3.65 and a crapload of intense math, physics, and science (with a smattering of French). You’ll do fine with the latter.</p>
<p>Hey, what major did you get into? The advice i wrote was intended for Liberal Arts majors, but yeah I know every person is different.</p>