<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I'm a senior in high school and I'm introspecting on the past 4 years... -.- If there's one thing I regret about High School, its not doing just the minimum that is required to guarantee graduation! I know this sounds so unambitious but here's my claim - if we do just what is required to satisfy the grade requirements and pursued legitimate passions such as a sport, visual/performing arts, writing, etc,., wouldn't we be better off (talented, motivated, stronger as an applicant) ? And my "minimum", I mean just enough to challenge you in the field of your interest. So if you're an artist and not a science-person, you'd be better off taking the hardest art course at school with a medium-weight science course to satisfy the requirements ----- this is what I wish I'd known in high school, I loaded on many challenging courses that I wasn't interested in ALONG with hard courses I was interested in, just to show that "course weight and rigour" to universities (and I feel so foolish for doing this right now).....at the end, I was just really tired and demotivated. </p>
<p>While you're answering the title question, what do you guys think about the above thought? Is it the same in college? Should I take harder classes in college and get a mediocre grade or take classes designated for my level and do well in them while concentrating on exterior interests (clubs, jobs,.)? </p>
<p>I think people on here vastly overemphasize the importance of “passion” in high school (I mean, college admissions people apparently like it, but life isn’t only about college admissions). Teenagers aren’t that great at introspection…the major and career I thought I wanted at the beginning of ninth grade are worlds apart from what I think I want now. Generally the more you learn about something, the more you like it, and I don’t know enough about anything to have really developed a passion for it. People in high school should keep an open mind and take challenging classes even if they aren’t initially interested in all the subjects. That’s not to say you can’t “specialize” in something if you know you like it, but a lot of people don’t already have a passion, and those people should focus on getting a well-rounded education and doing stuff they think they might like rather than searching for a passion. </p>
<p>I’m pretty happy with where I ended up, but I wish I’d done more (well, better) ECs. </p>
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<p>This depends some on what your goals are (grad school, the workforce, etc.). Networking and internships/research are pretty important. But if you’re majoring in something you’re good at, you’ll probably do pretty well in upper-level classes too. In college (based on my limited experience of it), higher-numbered classes aren’t necessarily more difficult. They’re just more advanced, and if you like the subject you’ll probably find them more interesting than the intro classes. But there’s probably no point in taking the hardest class possible to fulfill a general education requirement in a subject you’re not so good at. </p>