Should I take a free period senior year?

Applying to College
1

I know it is important to take the hardest courses your school offers, but do you think it is okay for me to take a free period senior year?

So far I plan to take:

Government/Economics H (my school doesn’t offer AP)
Physics H (my school doesn’t offer AP)
AP English Literature
AP Calculus AB
AP Spanish Language
AP Statistics
Human Geography (at the university)
Eighth period: open

Out of all its courses, my school only offers 5 AP courses (AP Psychology, AP English Literature
AP Calculus AB/BC, AP Spanish Language, AP Statistics) and I am taking AP Psychology this year. So in fact, I will have taken every AP class that my school offers by the time I am done with senior year.

Furthermore, my high school is on the campus of a state university and students are allowed to take classes in place of High School classes in order to earn college credit, but the classes do not factor into our high school GPA.

If I were to fill my schedule with an eighth period class, it would have to be a fluff course that I’m not particularly interested in, such as Drawing and Painting, or a random university class such as Humanity, Nature, and God lol.

I’m aiming for über selective colleges (Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton), and my counselor strongly advised that I take a free period senior year. But one of my friends said to fill the free period because it looks bad to colleges. If I were to take a free period, I would work on the homework for my other classes, study for the SAT, and do college apps.

What do you guys think? Should I fill my eighth class or take a free period?

2

Take the free period; your schedule is busy enough, and you will also need to devote a large chunk of time to college apps and essays.

Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but in the world of college admissions, if your sources of advice are a college educated counselor who presumably has a few years of doing this under his/her belt vs. a high school student who probably knows less about the process than you, go with the former. :slight_smile:

3

Taking a free period is the wise decision (your friend is wrong). You will need the time to study, work on the college application, essays and just chill.

4

Third vote for taking the eighth period. Your schedule will be busy and your courseload will be rigorous enough!

5

Vote for the free period as well. Mine was invaluable this year for working on my abundance of homework, finishing chem labs, or even napping after a long night up writing application essays. And it did not hurt me at all in the admissions process.

6

If you seriously are willing to believe that one of your friends is better informed than your counselor (at a HS high school is on the campus of a state university) you ought to ponder whether the most selective schools in the country are really a good fit for you