<p>D wants to drop theatre (honors) and take a pre-engineering course (regular). Her theatre class is geared towards students wanting to pursue theatre in college and she wants to study math. Shes 17 and changed her mind:)</p>
<p>Our concern is how what the top tier admission committees will think of this. Her comman app essay talks about her love of theatre and math. If it impacts your advice, she is taking 4 AP courses and has two off periods to focus on college apps. She will get a job if she drops theatre.</p>
<p>We know that top tier schools are a reach for everyone but we want her to stick it out in theatre if it will make a difference in how admission committees view her.</p>
<p>Have a friend whose son was the kicker for a state championship high school team. He absolutely hated it, and wanted to drop football to play for a club rugby team his senior year, because he loved rugby, and had played it every summer for years. His parents wouldn’t let him drop football because of a fear that college admin people would view him as a slacker for dropping an extracurricular his senior year. This kid had stellar grades and test scores, and had been a 3 sport athlete through out high school. He was NOT good enough to be a recruited athlete for any school that he was interested in attending.</p>
<p>I thought that making him continue on in a sport he didn’t like just because of the possibility that some college admin person might care about dropping football to play rugby for the fun of it the saddest thing I’d ever heard. (This was before I’d really started reading much on CC.) </p>
<p>My thinking was: “Who would want their child to go to a college that cared that much about a single personal decision that doesn’t matter one bit in the big scheme of life?” </p>
<p>He is now attending a top 20 university, playing no sports at all, but doing well in his classes and enjoying life.</p>
<p>I should clarify that D is also concerned about this. We’re all in agreement that she’s not trying out for plays or committing to all the extra hours. We’re questioning if dropping this course is something that would reflect negatively on her. </p>
<p>Her high school counselor indicated this may be a concern when she sends mid year reports but wasn’t sure.</p>
<p>So she would switch to a different course in the middle of the school year? Or is she switching into a course which begins in the second semester?</p>
<p>She would complete the theatre course for this fall and enroll in the “pre-eng” for spring. On the Comman App, she lists her courses “Honors Theatre Productions- 1 credit”. This would have to change to .5 then add the other class. All her other classes are year long AP classes that are 1 credit.
Certainly appreciate any advice.</p>
<p>If it’s one of her courses, I don’t view it as an EC but more of an “exploring my interests”. I don’t see it being an issue. No one expects kids to just do one thing and then stick with it for their whole lives. Kids often explore different courses and change majors in college, why would that be seen as bad in High School? </p>
<p>Sometimes admissions want to see that the student can stick with something for a period of time and not be hopping all over the place, but that can be accomplished with, for example, 4 years of the same foreign language. Or 4 years of playing basketball, or many years of playing piano, etc. It doesn’t mean that everything has to be stuck to like glue.</p>
<p>I’d let her do what she wants - better to have a chance of finding out now that engineering is/isn’t a good fit!</p>
<p>I also wouldn’t worry about the honors thing. As Aloha points out, going into the pre-engineering course isn’t exactly akin to taking up basket weaving.</p>
<p>The only time it maybe a red flag would be if a kid were to drop an AP or Honor course for a regular course, this is slacking. It is not in OP’s case. The kid is completing one semester course and moving on to a different course. Why would that be a problem? She already demonstrated her love of theater by taking a course. I don’t think it should be an issue.</p>
<p>I would let her drop it if that’s what she wants. My S dropped out of National Honor Society at the beginning of senior year because he disliked it so much.</p>
<p>It sounds like dropping honors theatre (and all the after-school time that eats up) and taking a pre-engineering course (combined with an after-school job in her new-found free-time that <em>plays up her love of math</em>) is a great “change of mind”! Sounds like a smart move!</p>
<p>Switch it. My D dropped the second half of an elective for senior year and the GC had to send this to all her schools. Didn’t make a whit of difference. If she was dropping a core academic class, that would be different. Taking theatre class in school doesn’t mean anything to these adcoms, I’ll bet. They are really looking for the core academics (and most – if not all – take out all the other courses when looking at GPA and rigor).</p>
<p>Ditto everyone who says switch. She is not trying to get into a theater program and she should enjoy her senior year. Plus, she is switching from an art to a science, a perceived more academic course. I doubt the honors designation for the course means anything to any college (one reason for AP exams is to be able to compare apples to apples- who knows how rigorous “honors” is in any given HS). btw- interesting that a school schedule gives time for college apps- unheard of around here.</p>
<p>Taking a longer view on this, I think it’s a lot more important that she explore/test her interest in engineering before committing to a demanding semester of engineering courses in college than ‘proving’ with one more semester that she likes theater.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine an adcom who would think this was slacking. Sounds like a smart move on your D’s part.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone else. I don’t see how this switch would hurt her application. It’s a very good idea for her to explore engineering while she has this opportunity.</p>