<p>Currently I'm a sophomore. MIT is the school of my dreams and I have a few questions on the direction I'm headed. Right now as a sophomore I'm taking English 2 Honors, Marine Science Honors, Algebra 2, Spanish 2, Web Design, Chemistry Honors, World History Honors. I'm wondering how much taking Algebra 2 Regulars instead of Honors will hurt me. On the track I'm going I'll be in calculus senior year. Other kids are taking Precalc this year and AP Statistics and AP World History. I didn't take any of these and I'm wondering how I'll compare to kids like these who take the perfect classes (I wasn't able to be in Algebra 2 freshman year because of my middle school). I plan to take AP Physics, AP Chemistry and AP Biology. Also some of these kids are joining every honor society at the school (Spanish, Science, English, Social Studies) while I'm only sticking to a small number of things (Chess, Business, Debate and National Honor Society) How well do I look compared to other kids? </p>
<p>If the math is lacking, I'm willing to take summer courses to get to the level I need to be at. I'm just curious and I want to get these things taken care of before senior year. </p>
<p>Should I take Spanish for the rest of high school? It bores me but I'll take it if it's necessary.</p>
<p>If other sophomores at your HS are taking Precalc or higher, just make sure you explain that you weren't able to take such courses because of the middle school you came from that way you won't be seen as not taking as hard as possible schedule. I really really would not go to regular Algebra II unless you cannot pull a B or higher in Honors, and really if you're getting a B, do everything in your power to pull it up to an A.</p>
<p>Summer classes would be nice, but I don't really believe in doing things because colleges think they will loook good. If you want to learn math for the sake of learning math def do the summer classes. If you want to take the summer classes to just get into MIT, then don't. That being said, although I would not advocate it, taking the classes would probably help you out. It would show them that at least you have initiative to learn math in the summer during your own time.</p>
<p>Same with Spanish. MIT along with all schools want to see you. They don't want to see some kid who did what he thought he needed to to be accepted. If you want to take it, take it. If you don't want to, don't. Once again however, taking only 1 year or something would not be to your advantage, although I would not advocate taking any Spanish unless you really wanted to. I think that'd be stupid, but I can name several people off the top of my head who would probably disagree with me on this.</p>
<p>Colleges aren't stupid. If you're in 29374938 clubs they'll realize that most of them mean absolutely nothing to you. And besdies? If you're in that many clubs it's not like you'd have time to contribute anything meaningful to any of them. In my opinion (and this time I think more would agree), being in several clubs in which you particpate and contribute a lot is much better than being in many clubs as you possibly can.</p>