I am a senior applying regular decision, and I’ve always taken the most rigorous curriculum available at my school. I’m considering dropping Spanish for a study hall, because I could really use the 80 minutes- I’m insanely busy and I’m nearly failing Calculus. Right now I am in both Spanish V and Latin V; I would love to hear people’s opinions about what I should do and how Tufts would perceive a study hall.
I know “insanely busy” is vague, so here are my extracurriculars: Yearbook Editor in chief, violist in prestigious youth orchestra, volunteer 5 hours per week at a PT clinic, president of schools Fiddle Club, Vice President of schools recycling club, Girl Scout working on Gold Award, Co-catechist for 9th grade religious Ed/ youth representative on Pastoral council, recreational soccer.
Sorry for the posts, I’m just really nervous and really want to get in!
How many substantive academic courses would that leave you with?
I’m taking a full schedule right now, so if I dropped Spanish I’d still be in: AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Macroeconomics, AP English Lit, Latin and Chamber Orchestra. @WCASParent
You can safely drop it if you’re still taking another language, but remember that tufts has a 6-semester language requirement (8 semesters for IR) so the more of that you can test out of, the better off you’ll be.
I don’t represent Tufts or any school so what I say is based on what I’ve learned about how admissions works. If dropping Spanish would allow you to get a better grade in cal, then you should do it asap. When colleges say they want you to take the most rigorous curriculum, it does not mean that you always have to take the course you find the most difficulty. Those decisions must be made with an eye towards what is most reasonable for your and your goals and that has to be weighed against the consequences of things like not dropping a course you are struggling in. Don’t wait to drop a course until it has harmed your achievement in other classes. Along with applying to colleges, the schedule you will be left with is plenty rigorous.
Drop Spanish. You still have Latin.