Will a college frown upon this kind of course selection for my senior year?

Question

I'm in the process of developing my senior schedule, but I'm not sure just how rigorous I should make it. I'm a 4.0 student, taking on ASB, sports, and choir. Will a college frown upon my downgrading from an AP Eng. Lang and Composition class my junior year to an independent reading/college prep writing course my senior year? Besides my english class, I'm planning on taking AP Calc, Physics, AP Gov, ASB, and Choir.

I know that I need to make my schedule challenging, but I also want to be able to have fun my senior year. You only go through high school once, right?

Answer 1

No, you should be fine.  You still have a healthy balance of AP subjects and unless you put your intended major as English, then you will be fine.  Even then, you will probably still be okay.  I took two AP courses my senior year and still got into MIT because of test scores, extracurriculars, and enough advanced courses in my intended major.  This was 2001, so not too long ago.

The choir and sports make a huge difference.  I will never forget sitting in my first info session at MIT and the guide letting us know they rejected five people with perfect SAT scores.  It's not all about numbers all the time; most schools want to see you are well-rounded and capable of commitment with varied interests.  

Good luck, but I don't think you need it!

Answer 2

Well, let me start by saying that that is one impressive course load, and I do think you are taking on a lot. However, it does sound like you can handle it, and let me give you some experience/advice. I took quite a few AP classes myself and none of them helped me more than the English one. It was like English up until that point had been the downgraded, dummy version. You know, because teachers are too lazy to teach you the best way to write and read. So they give you "rules" to follow. And then you get to college and find out that the way they teach you to write in high school is actually not very good.

I will concede two things: 1) my experience is unique to me, and 2) I may be biased because I studied English Education. However, number 2 does actually make number 1 not matter. I know and have studied that what I have said is true for pretty much all schools in the country. Taking AP English actually prepares you for college, and starts teaching you the way they should have in the first place.

Of course, if you're planning on doing engineering, or something else where being able to read and write very well matter little to you, then I think you have your answer. Of course, being able to write well helps you to achieve in a broader variety of classes. Colleges love papers.

Tough decision. Sorry if I got a little long winded, but I hope I gave you some good advice or ways of looking at things. Good luck.