The Message Behind Your Course Selections
A lot of schools invite me to speak to their Juniors (and parents) at this time of year and a key agenda behind the invitations seems to be the desire to address the importance of course selections for the coming year. My message is simple:
- Step up to courses that present reasonable challenges to you academically,
- Do as well as you can in those courses and, then,
- Look for colleges that will value you for what you have achieved in the classroom and for the trajectory of your performance curve.
Quite often, the question of “which course to take” in the Senior year reflects either a student’s determination to get into a highly selective school or a desire to find reassurance that taking a less rigorous and, obviously, “more interesting” course will be okay. In each case, the answer rests in an understanding of your natural learning path. For years, you have been “tracked” academically—exposed to a sequence of courses that were intended to match your level of ability and preparation to find success in them.
As you reflect on your natural learning path, then, you will find guidance with regard to the next steps in course selections. What will your course selections reveal to admission officers with regard to your desire and ability to push yourself in the classroom? By taking rigorous courses, you demonstrate an ability to step up. Doing so will not guarantee admission but it will establish you on the competitive playing fields (for admission) at colleges where admission officers make fine, qualitative distinctions between excellent candidates.
A lot of times, students worry that, in taking the greater challenge they will hurt their ability to produce top grades. This is where you need to understand your capacity to handle a complex and heavy workload. Don’t over-schedule in order to impress admission officers. Do what makes sense for you and do it well.
One thing is certain, however. At highly selective colleges—places that are faced with large numbers of highly qualified candidates—admission officers want to see how you respond given the opportunity to choose your curriculum. And they want to see how you perform in that curriculum in the senior year. They want to see what you will do when you don’t think it matters any more!
That said, the matter of rigor poses a conundrum for many students who want to apply to state universities and other institutions that rely on a basic formula involving grade point average (or class rank) and the SAT/ACT results to determine who will be admitted. While logic suggests you keep challenging yourself academically, you might be leery of doing so at the expense of a lower GPA that may not make the cut in the admission process. (Unfortunately, not all state universities make qualitative distinctions in the rigor of academic programs.)
In deciding what to do, be true to yourself. You are a living, growing person. Just as you need sustenance (food, water, etc.) to survive physically, you also need to challenge and nourish the intellectual and spiritual parts of your being so they can develop, too. Hopefully, you can do that meaningfully while still meeting the seemingly arbitrary requirements of a formulated admission process.
Wherever you go to college, you are likely to find academic expectations that exceed any you encountered in high school. If you have continued to step up academically through each year of high school, the step into the college classroom will be one for which you are prepared. On the other hand, if the academic challenge you give yourself in your Senior Year of high school is not that different from the one you experienced as a Junior, then the step up to college will be awkward, if not painful.
The bottom line with regard to course selections—and your eventual college selections—is this: Do what makes sense for you. Take stock of where you are on your learning path, set your college sites reasonably and build a strong foundation through your coursework in high school that will propel you into a successful experience in college.
I will answer questions about course selections in my next posting. If you have a specific question you would like me to address, send it to my attention at Peter@TheAdmissionGame.com.
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