<p>2 great students are enrolled in all honors/AP core classes. Both are straight A, 2300 SAT scorers. However, they still have two free periods. So, consider this scenario:</p>
<p>STUDENT 1:
Student one filled these gaps with classes such as AP psych and AP human geography because it would add to his AP list. Although not the most interesting to him, the boost to his GPA will surely help in college admissions </p>
<p>STUDENT 2:
Student two chose classes such as Sports medicine, anatomy, and sports marketing to fill these voids. These classes are of great interest to him. However, he worries that this will harm his GPA and how colleges view his rigor. </p>
<p>So, which will colleges prefer?</p>
<p>gpa. because althought the student’s intentino was to boost his gpa, the colleges don’t know that. the only exeption would be if the student 2 wanted to become a sports person when he grows up</p>
<p>Student 1.</p>
<p>The material covered in the high school classes mentioned for Student 2 will be general interest with many weak students taking part and will thus be watered down to the point of being essentially useless. The rigor (to the extent that such a term applies in high school) will be greater in AP classes, which are likely to attract the best academic teachers AND the best students. The classes you mention are likely to be taught by the school’s gym teachers at a superficial level.</p>
<p>Agree with #3 that the sports whatever courses are likely to be viewed as low rigor courses. Even “AP lite” courses like psychology and human geography will likely be viewed as more academically rigorous by admissions readers.</p>
<p>Lol it’s funny how students are punished for taking the courses they’re actually interested in</p>
<p>Unfortunately, many high schools’ courses “not on the typical college prep track” are taught at such a low level that they are almost a waste of time, even if the subject seems interesting at the first glance, since they exist to allow students with low motivation to pass the course to graduate from high school.</p>
<p>If those particular courses at your high school are the exception, then they may well be worthwhile courses, but they may still be seen by admissions readers as joke courses.</p>
<p>Warren1717, at the college level such courses would be taught by experts in the field. In high school, it would be taught by anyone available.</p>
<p>My son was placed in an “honors” computer class the beginning of his sophomore year in high school. He loves computers (is now a CS major) and would have wanted to learn more. Yet by the beginning of the second week he was getting glares from his teacher who demanded to know why he wasn’t busy taking notes. He wanted to respond: “Because I learned that when I was 2 years old!” What he ended up saying was: “Because I’m being transferred to another class.” Two days later he was taking AP Stats instead.</p>
<p>Haha the teachers at our school are actually really good ( sports marketing teacher has phd, athletic training and anatomy teacher was athletic trainer for Chicago Bears). Some of these classes have been harder to me than AP Lang and AP Calc!! I definitely think that they’re not for the “average” student</p>
<p>I would say student 1.</p>