<p>Those courses were included in his class rank, but were not considered to be honors level classes, which is what hurt him. My hunch is that other students didn't take these classes, and instead took other classes that the schools allowed to be more heavily weighted, thus hurting the OP and giving the other kids a better rank. Basically, the OP was hurt for pursuing his interests in spanish and music to the detriment in his rank. Other kids didn't do this - either because they werent interested in spanish/music or because they took classes just to help their rank.</p>