<p>Heyy I am a student from Australia and Brown is my first choice.</p>
<p>I assume the education here is quite different from that in USA. I am in a state high school, and we have neither IBs nor APs. I am self-studying it though.</p>
<p>Trying to bring the best of my ECs and SAT scores, I am considering to drop a subject. I was a straight A student and pretty much sitting on the top of all my subjects but my SAT sucks in a weird way. So I really want to imporve it without sacrificing my leadership and other tons of activities.</p>
<p>Apparently a lot of my friends dropped one subject in Year 12 since we only need 5 to get an OP.</p>
<p>However I heard something like the AOs give a lot of credits to your course load in high school so I am wondering if doing only 5 subjects will hurt…but still the subjects I am doing are the most challenging ones they offer.</p>
<p>Umm…I think that’s it.
Plllsss say something if you know anything about it.
Thank you soooo much!</p>
<p>Have you already applied? And listed your courses on your application? If that is the case, then it is not a good thing to drop a class. Your application promises one thing, and you did something else.</p>
<p>If you are a junior and planning on applying next year, then the answer is “it depends.” You’ll have to explain a little more what you are talking about – what classes are you planning on taking and what are you thinking of dropping. </p>
<p>Bottomline, you are correct that admissions pay a lot of attention to your senior year courseload. Your transcript is the most important aspect of your application, and admissions officers want to see that you are challenging yourself and taking the most rigorous curriculum.</p>
<p>@Fireandrain
Thank you for your reply.</p>
<p>I am applying as the Class of 2016 even though I am a senior now (for a week, lol). I will graduate from high school in Nov. this year due to the education system in Australia.</p>
<p>Okay, I am doing Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy, Math B, Math C(equal to AP Calculus BC I reckon) and English. I am considering to drop Biology cos I self-studied it during last summer holiday and really I need more time to concentrate on critical reading skills.</p>
<p>Since English is my second language so I think philosophy is really challenging for me and I really love it =].</p>
<p>So what do you think?</p>
<p>Thx again for your post!</p>
<p>So…you have not sent a transcript to any U.S. colleges yet. And you’re thinking of dropping a course. I think there are two questions here. First, do you know whether the dropped course will show up on your application? Second, how does your schedule look once you’ve dropped the course? Even if the fact that you dropped the course may not be disclosed on your transcript, you still want to be able to show that you took the most demanding course load that’s possible/offered. And it would be unfortunate if the dropped course was disclosed through other avenues (teacher recommendations, school report, contact Brown makes with school officials). As a hedge against that possibility (and for other reasons) you may want to make sure that your self-study in biology is reflected on your application, preferably with some independent, credible assessment of your effort and mastery of the subject matter.</p>
<p>If you are taking chemistry, then you are OK dropping biology – since you have a science on your schedule. Is philosophy considered a social science/history? Because that subject is missing. And there are no foreign languages there, either.</p>
<p>@D‘yer Maker
Thank you for your reply =]
Umm I am pretty sure Bio wont be on my transcript and there will only be five subjects in the senior year (it will not be considered when they calculate my finals anyways cos the school only take five subjects)
I took SAT2 Biology and still I am waiting for the results, also I am planning to take AP Biology.</p>
<p>@fireandrain
Yes philosophy is considered as a social science.
As for foreign language, that’s English for me…oh well, I started it when I was in Year 7 so I assume it wont be a problem?..</p>
<p>Since they speak English in Australia, not sure how that is considered a foreign language. That would be Spanish, French, etc.</p>