I have the opportunity to take a number of community college courses and am in a position where I could gain A.S. degrees in math, engineering, and possibly physics. At the moment, my unweighted GPA is 4.0 and my weighted GPA is 4.5. Will having the A.S. degrees by the time I graduate high school help at all in my college applications, or will the course rigor only be counted?
For context, I hope to get into UC Berkeley as a freshman applicant.
Taking actual college courses that are more advanced than AP level while in high school, if you do well in them, can certainly be seen as a good thing in college admissions, as well as giving you an idea of how a college course is run (i.e. less hand holding and progress monitoring than in high school – students need to self-motivate more).