<p>Hi, I'm going to enroll in my local college during the Fall. I know that transferring into top schools is competitive given that so many applicants with very high GPA apply to them as transfers too. I also know that the course rigorosity also matters when you are being looked by the admission commitees. I was wondering if the course rigorosity would depend on courses such as gen. ed classes or does the heavy courseload have to be related to a certain major, which one is passionate about?</p>
<p>What is your intended major? What schools do you plan to apply to? What are your standardized test scores? Have you done anything significant outside of the classroom (or do you plan to)?</p>
<p>The obvious answer to your question is that success in the hardest classes is always preferred over success in easier classes. However, it could be argued that a C in a demanding class will hold one back more than a good grade in an easy class–especially if that easy class doesn’t relate to your major.</p>
<p>Anyway, you won’t find the answers you’re looking for unless you give us more information.</p>
<p>I’m leaning towards Business, but I’m currently undecided since college has an open of many options for people to choose.</p>
<p>My SAT score is atrocious and I will be retaking it again out of 2400.</p>
<p>However, I have yet to determine my official schools on my transfer list.</p>
<p>I don’t want to end up taking all the rigorous classes to the point that will make my GPA look detrimental. I’d like to challenge myself, but I also want to take some other classes that I can handle. Are you trying to suggest me to make my schedule look as hard as possible?</p>
<p>Hey if I learned anything from the transfer process Seachai, it’s that your college GPA can be extremely high 3.7-4.0 but if you want to get into a top 20 school, they’ll always look at the SAT scores, especially if you’re going to a community college where the highest courses offered are equivalent to 100 level courses at the school you want to go to.</p>
<p>ummm…rigorosity isn’t a word…it’s just rigor. I suggest that before you think of transferring to any top school you learn to write in proper English…so make an effort to take as many composition classes as possible…you’ll need them…</p>
<p>No, the point of this thread was to discuss how to select rigorous courses to make my college profile look really competitive. I know I will try to work on the SAT one more time, but I need to know whether I can mix in challenging courses along with the simple ones that I like, to make myself a successful college and transfer student. However, I don’t want to have it become an issue, which I’m taking all 4 or 5 hard courses and it’s bringing down my GPA. Do I have to follow the hard classes that pertain to my major or the gen. ed classes or other classes that don’t follow my major? I’m confused here.</p>
<p>Totally depends on the school you’re transferring to. Public school’s normally demand general ed’s and major prereq’s complete prior to transferring. It’s up to you how you distribute them. Now, MIT and Harvard might have different standards…</p>
<p>well if you’re applying to the top schools you’re going to have to take the hardest courses available. Just look at who you’re competing against. But if you’re not, then you can be much more liberal in your course selection. I would suggest staying away from any glaring weakness you might have though. For example, I’m incredibly weak in math and higher level sciences so I’ve avoided taking any kind of pre-calculus/calculus</p>
<p>So that means top colleges favor students who take alot of challenging classes than a liberal student with a mixture of the difficulty of the classes right?</p>
<p>I also think it makes a little sense to have a few nice classes with simple flow. It wouldn’t make sense to try so hard to impress the adcoms like that as “superman.”</p>
<p>If you want to take courses that don’t pertain to your major, do they also have to be rigorous?</p>
<p>It’s quite obvious to me that you have not done your research, so I’ll break this down for you simply …</p>
<p>In order of importance (with some lenience), this is what admissions officers will review when you apply as a transfer student:</p>
<ul>
<li>Whether or not any of your nuclear family attended or is attending</li>
<li>College GPA</li>
<li>Essays (mainly looking for “fit”)</li>
<li>Extra-curricular activities and recommendation letters</li>
<li>Standardized-test scores</li>
<li>High school GPA</li>
</ul>
<p>If you want to apply to an Ivy-League school (or any upper-tier school), you are almost guaranteed denial without a GPA above a 3.6 at a community college (unless any of your nuclear family attended or is attending the school). That is a fact. And if you don’t take all or almost all of the most rigorous courses available at your community college, your GPA–even if it’s a 4.0–won’t mean much to upper-tier schools. But if you plan to apply to third- or second-tier schools, there is more wiggle room.</p>
<p>You’ll have to rock the essays if you want to get into a top college. I’ve seen plenty of overly qualified kids get rejected from top schools, supposedly because they didn’t put much effort into their essays. The first step of your transfer process is narrowing your list down to a handful of schools, all of which you would kill to attend. Then you need to pour your heart out into the essays, and include incredibly specific reasons why you, a student at a community college, deserve the spot more than the applicants from Dartmouth, Columbia, Cornell, etc… </p>
<p>Well, that’s a good start. Do some poking around; there is an incredible wealth of information on this sub-forum. Read the stickys.</p>
<p>And nicolles, don’t be a <strong><em>ing </em></strong>*.</p>
<p>If I knew everything, why would I be coming on the forum then? It’s a sense of logic. I’ve already knew about this, but there are always some things that we aren’t going to know until then.</p>
<p>I’m not applying to any Ivy League Schools. Just some nice top schools with good reputation. Ex: Emory, UVA, BC, BU, GWU, G’Town, and Binghamton. Now, those are just examples.</p>
<p>You didn’t answer my question whether or not it would be good to have a few less rigorous courses on the profile and if other courses that aren’t part of your major should be rigorous also.</p>
<p>“it’s quite obvious to me that you have not done your research…” wow… some of the people on this forum… I swear…</p>
<p>also Seachai, that’s a good question. I’m wondering that myself. When I take classes out of my major, I do try to challenge myself unless it’s math or science. I took General Chemistry I, but ended up with a B-… hardest class I’ve ever taken.
It wouldn’t hurt to take the hard classes anyway, unless you’re REALLY sure you’re going to get a C+ or lower. And besides, college is about challenging yourself, right?
but I think if you take less rigorous courses outside of your major, you should be fine as long as you get A’s in them.</p>
<p>You can’t be serious. Like I said, there is a wealth of information on this site. All of it can be accessed just by skimming through the whopping 46 pages of threads, half of which attempt to answer the very question that you’re asking. You obviously didn’t take the time to read even a few pages; otherwise you’d have now come to realize that nobody here can tell you whether or not you’ll get into your first choice with “a few less rigorous courses” on the profile. What we can tell you is that you should always take the most rigorous courses available. What else would you expect?</p>
<p>If you want to get into a top school challenge your self point blank. It’s easy to take a full course load w/ a bunch of easy courses and get a 4.0 GPA. But if you are compared to someone who has a lower GPA but took challenging classes, who do you think the college is going to accept? Definitely not the student w/ the 4.0 GPA from a easy course load.</p>
<p>Nothing else can be said following eastbound’s last post. No one can give you a definite answer to your question other than take the most rigorous courses available and get A’s in all of the business pre-reqs (acc/econ/math/english/stats etc.)</p>