<p>For a student choosing a low ranked, in-state (non-flagship) public over other top tier (“elite”) options - how does one excel without challenge? How can one “find” challenge in such an environment? </p>
<p>From my experience in high school - I’ve done exceedingly well in courses where there was a very competitive, high pressure environment - whereas, my performance faltered when I took easier electives and courses because I couldn’t take the class seriously enough to stay on top of the minimal work assigned - and my grade would suffer. Because of finances, I’m turning down elite, competitive schools for my local in-state non-flagship public and I need some advice on changing my habits/perspective/etc. </p>
<p>Choose a challenging major and elective courses if that is what you need to stimulate you to do well enough to get A or A+ grades needed to get into a top 14 law school (since that is apparently your goal). Don’t choose whatever the “gut” major(s) and courses that weaker students flock to.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus - I want to major in Political Science - which in itself is not inherently difficult - not even at particularly prestigious schools, which makes me worry that at the school I’m going to, it’ll be a complete joke. There are a lot of Harvard/Cornell/Oxford educated professors in the Poli Sci department but I’m afraid that I’m going to be shuffled into courses taught by apathetic TAs and grad students and not actual tenured professors. I don’t know what else I’d major in instead which wouldn’t completely destroy my GPA (I’m particularly fond of Calculus but not enough to major in math/engineering) - so I’m kind of stuck. </p>
<p>You want to be challenged but you want to avoid classes that might be difficult enough that you’d have to work to keep up your gpa? I don’t get it.
Double major in PolySci and Econ, and take the hard courses. Do well enough that a prof will let you take graduate courses in your senior year. There really is no way you won’t be challenged at a state school if you truly apply yourself.</p>
<p>Within the department, you can try to choose courses and instructors that are “hard” (not necessarily in a grading sense, but in terms of instructors’ expectations).</p>
<p>Note that the LSAT has a logic puzzle section. You may want to take a logic course from the philosophy department<em>, or a math course with proofs</em> if you are more adventurous, to prepare for that.</p>
<p>*Assuming UMass - Boston, PHIL 120 and MATH 280 would be likely courses.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, have you actually taken any upper-level courses (or any courses at all)? If not, I wouldn’t assume for a minute that you’re not going to be challenged. </p>
<p>You can always go above and beyond- produce great papers instead of acceptable papers, seek out internships or research opportunities, etc. </p>
<p>@moonchild - I meant I didn’t want to take heavy STEM courses (like OChem) that would ruin my GPA - I didn’t mean Economics - I considered Econ today while at the open house. </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus - I was definitely going to take Philosophy courses (I chose a Philosophy course as part of my CLA cohort for Freshman year) – I’ll look into proof based math courses. </p>
<p>@romanigypsyeyes - What do you mean by upper level courses? I’ve taken courses at UMass (online), the local community college, and multiple APs offered by my school - though those would all be considered “introductory”, I suppose? Not sure. </p>
<p>In general, introductory are 100 or 200 level and upper level are 300+ (depending on how your school numbers courses). </p>
<p>APs are not equivalent in any way to real college courses. The CC would be lower level courses. It would depend on the UMass courses but if they’re online, it’s a very good guess that it’s a lower level course. </p>
<p>@romanigypsyeyes - Oh okay, I see. I don’t remember the course numbers from the classes I took at UMass, but they were English and History courses and I enrolled in them when I was in 8th grade. They included a physical textbook, though, if that means anything - they were probably intro level courses too. The community courses I took were 100 level courses (Intro to Sociology and Intro to Psychology) - I had the same issue with them that I described above. The professor let everything slide, late work, test corrections, etc - I ended up skipping a lot of the classes (so that I’d have more time to study for Calculus - since my tests seemed to always be the day after my class was scheduled) – and I pulled off an A, but I feel like I won’t be so lucky at UMass if I have the same experiences. </p>
<p>UMass - Boston appears to use a course numbering scheme where 100 courses are frosh level, 200 are soph level, 300 are junior level, and 400 are senior level. 300 and 400 level courses would be the “upper level” courses.</p>
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<p>An overly broad statement… although it is wise to caution high school students that, even when the content is equivalent to a college course at a particular college, the high school environment may differ in that high school typically has more hand-holding while college expects students to be more self-motivated. College may also give harder test questions but use curve grading, rather than holding to the high school norm of giving mostly easy test questions so that C students can get 70% of them correct.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus - Do I need to take the corresponding final exam in order to actually get credit or are you recommending that I try the final exams as a way of gauging my mastery of the material? </p>
<p>The latter. UMass - Boston will give you subject credit for AP scores as listed by the chart. But if you intend to take higher level courses for which the listed courses are prerequisites, use the old final exams to check your knowledge of the material.</p>
<p>It sounds like you haven’t started classes yet and are assuming that you won’t be challenged when you do start classes in the future. You might be surprised about the degree of challenge you can find, even if it is a less selective college. General classes will likely be taught at a higher level and faster pace than your HS, without stopping each time someone in the class doesn’t understand. In many high schools, most students receive A’s, so it has come to mean A is for average. College classes tend to have more challenging problem sets and exam questions, leading to more harsh grading. In some less selective colleges, the average grade for the class is C+ or lower, and only a small portion of the class receives A’s. I once took a linear algebra class at SUNYA where the majority of the class received a failing grade. You also won’t be the only bright person in your classes who did very well in HS. Many excellent students choose to attend their local state school, even though they could have been accepted to ivy-type private colleges.</p>
<p>I’d suggest waiting to see how you find the courses, rather than assuming that it will be too easy for you to do well. If it does turn out to be too easy, then I’d suggest taking the highest level of courses when multiple levels are available (honors/accelerated) and emphasizing upper level courses, including ones frequently taken by graduate students, once you have completed the relevant prerequisites. The emphasis on more advanced courses will probably seem impressive, if applying to a graduate or professional program elsewhere.</p>
<p>Just building on what everybody else is saying, but use your CC, UMass & AP courses to jump over as many 100 level classes as you can. </p>
<p>PoliSci is not seen as a particularly rigorous major in general, so there will be a fair few students who will not be as ambitious as you are. Moonchilds suggestion of double majoring in PoliSci & Econ is a good one- or even consider doing Econ as your major and minor in PoliSci. </p>
<p>I get what you mean about doing better when you are working close to your ability. As others have said, choose rigorous classes. Equally, get to know your profs and establish a reputation as the class star. They will be looking for students like you- the ones who really want to learn / do well / achieve- and they will help you in many ways, from summer internships (the good kind) to grad school references, to earlier admission into the fun but challenging seminars. </p>
<p>If law school is the ultimate goal, then an Economics and Philosophy double major would be far more appealing to law schools and future employers than Political Science. Take upper level, writing-intensive classes to improve your skills in this area, as it is very important to be a good writer to do well in law school. </p>
<p>@albclemom, is that really true? I don’t know much about law school admissions, but it seems to me that they wouldn’t care so much about major and in fact some students have good reasons for choosing very different majors (eg. gov or related for wanting to go into politics, or a science/engineering major for wanting to go into patent or environmental law). Why do you say that law schools favor philosophy?</p>