<p>I go to a prep school in the Northeast. Currently a junior and it's my second year here. </p>
<p>I'm taking three APs (Eng, Chem, USH) and they're killing me. Not individually but all of them together. I honestly don't know how many of the people who do it can do it. Or perhaps academically rigorous schools are just not the right fit for me and I feel like I don't belong here.</p>
<p>Obviously a lot of people at my school takes loads and loads of AP classes because they feel the pressure for college and the same thing happens to me. But, as an aspiring journalist, I don't see how it's necessary to be doing subjects I'm not passionate about a la APUSH or Chem. And it's backfiring since my grades are less than decent. A lot of colleges say they'd like to see you "challenge yourself" and I certainly am, but it resulted me in dreading to go to school (I honestly used to love to go to school) and I'm not yielding the results either. So my question is: Do you think it's better to stay with it, be unhappy, and get mediocre grades or drop some and focus on things I am really passionate about and get good grades in those regular history/science classes?</p>
<p>I'm 100% sure of what I like and what I want to do in life and I'm a very active participant in those areas (in and outside of class)you could say I'm a very artsy person. I just feel like once I get rid of the AP classes I don't enjoy, schools I dream of attending are out of the question. I guess I'm not the ideal student that can take courses I don't love.</p>
<p>It depends. Do you know what college your attending or want to? And did you send your applications stating these know it will allow you a higher chance?
If you’re very active in what you want outside of school and know what college will favor you, then drop the two classes. Or pick the two that are the easiest and drop one. It really is how you think it’ll affect your chances of acceptance for uni. I would love to say follow your passion, but we all now college application process is a butt. Lol.
Good luck!</p>
<p>If you want to go to a good journalism school, take classes relevant to that…like how aspiring docs take Chem and Anatomy and all that good stuff.</p>
<p>This is my junior year so I haven’t applied. </p>
<p>My #1 choice would be Columbia (I know they have a good Graduate school there but I’d love to attend undergrad school as well if I could) or Northwestern. If nothing works out I guess I could attend NYU or something (since everyone in my school seems to get accepted therehope I didn’t jinx myself).</p>
<p>I’m not sure which AP classes would be relevant to journalism. Obviously I’m already taking journalism class and becoming the editor-in-chief of the student paper (and taking media-related courses like film and photography, etc.). AP English could help but I’d still say APUSH is a bit of a stretch, no?</p>
<p>Either way, do you really think I should stick out the schedule even if it means I’d get mediocre grades in AP Chem and APUSH? I’ve never had anything below an 85% in my years of school and now those two classes are putting me in the mid-70s. I have time to improve it but I don’t know how much I can do with it since it is really overwhelming me that I can’t even explain it. Or do you think it’s better to get nice grades with the lower level classes, even that means that I’m not “challenging myself” with what my school provides?</p>
<p>Is this even a question? How far have we gone to appeal to colleges? Do what you want and think is right, and stop caring about what colleges think. If you don’t like Chem, drop it. Why waste time on a class that you despise? With that dropped, you can focus entirely on APUSH and make your life that much easier. </p>
<p>Live for yourself, not college. Stop worrying about whether Columbia cares if you drop AP Chem. Do what you want.</p>