<p>We all are probably familiar with Application padding… being a bunch of EC’s that you have no passion for, or running for like 10 leadership positions. It looks bad, of course. Well what about padding a transcript; is there such a thing?</p>
<p>Example: Taking advanced math courses. Kids who take up to Calculus 3 or multivariable look impressive to colleges. There’s no denying that. The rigor of your transcript is either important or at least considered just about everywhere. But is it possible to pad your transcript in a bad way?</p>
<p>I go to a high school that works in conjunction with the Houston Community College System, and we are able to take college classes there for free. This is a great opportunity because I’m provided with a wide array of extra classes that the average high school doesn’t offer, and it immerses me in the college setting (albeit a community college one ;-).</p>
<p>This fall semester I signed up for 3 classes at the college; History 1301 (American up to 1877), Sociology 1301 (essentially intro to Sociology) and Philosophy 1301 (again, an intro class). The first two were required, but I signed up for philosophy because it sounds like an interesting course, and 2 open spots in my schedule seemed like too much. Is it going to look like “Transcript padding” if I don’t opt to carry on into the next level of these classes? I’m required to take History 1302, but taking advanced sociology is an option as well as philosophy, but I just wanted to get a little experience in those classes. I’d rather save class periods this spring for maths and sciences that I want to take.</p>
<p>Basically, is it still impressive to take an introductory class out of interest, or if I’m going to get involved in a subject at all should I plan to pursue it past that? (keep in mind, I doubt the average high school student takes more than one philosophy class, if any). Thanks in advance for your input! :-)</p>
<p>Why would I take a full class to make it look good? I don’t know, and I didn’t. The day I was signing up for classes I realized I satisfied all of the high school credits I needed (except for BCIS) because I took 8 classes both freshman and sophomore year. I had nothing else to fill the spaces except college classes, so I signed up for those two that were required. I had 2 spaces left and didn’t want to waste them in study hall, so I set one up as a Teacher’s assistant, and the other as philosophy 1301.</p>
<p>The reason I’m asking this is because I was looking at my schedule and seeing “1301” next to all of the courses kind of put into perspective the fact that they were all introductory courses… Then I thought about how the college offered 2 more levels of sociology and philosophy, and I wondered if not taking those would be akin to taking like calculus one and then stopping. Or like taking Honors biology freshman year, doing well in it, and never deciding to progress to an AP form of it or another AP Science…</p>
<p>Well, it’d be much more difficult to do that. 15 AP courses and completion of differential equations certainly looks good, but you’d have to be pretty damn smart / hardworking to keep up your GPA. So even if it was padding, your credentials won’t be dismissed.</p>
<p>Fantastic point. It’s not difficult to be a “member” of five unrelated clubs that “meet” once a week for one hour. That’s application padding. What isn’t application padding is being in like three or four activites, all with a significant time commitment (like a varsity sport, academic team, job, whatever). And if these are related, more the better. Not only are college classes a major time commitment, but it seems your classes are all on the humanities side. So I definitely wouldn’t worry iiwy.</p>
<p>thank you for the replies, those were very constructive! Only question is, what do you mean by “Not only are college classes a major time commitment, but it seems your classes are all on the humanities side. So I definitely wouldn’t worry iiwy.”? </p>
<p>Is it a good thing that those are on the humanities side? In my opinion the math and science college courses require more study time, though both require more than highschool courses, imo.</p>
<p>I had a similar question.
I’m taking MAT 141 (Calc 2) and MAT 241 (Diffy Qs) as a Junior at a local Community College.</p>
<p>Will colleges expect me to continue on to higher level math next year? I’d love to take more math, but 241 is the highest math class the college offers. Will they look at the community college and find this out or is there a way I could tell them?</p>
<p>@michael: Some people will dabble around in a class of each subject. IMO, these people are more likely to be application padders than interested learners. Whereas you have a clearer focus. Just my 2 cents. </p>
<p>@vaelian: I don’t think they’d take the time to search the CC’s course offerings. So you should probably tell them in the additional info. Or have your counselor do it in her portion. I don’t think colleges will expect you to go past diffy-q, especially when it’s not offered at local colleges. I think they may look for some other form of math involvement, though. Maybe tutoring, teaching assistant at your HS, doing proofs in spare time, some independent study, math team, whatever. You could always take stats, if you haven’t.</p>
<p>You should be good. It sounds like what you’ve done is similar to what my S has done. He did Linear Algebra as a junior and will do MV Calc as a senior. Turns out doing the Linear Algebra first gave him a leg up in landing a research internship this summer, where he worked with a professor in Earth Sciences, learning Matlab and doing all kinds of data analysis associated with global warming. He’s also been on a math team for two years (his team partner is off to Yale this fall) and also likes to tutor, for service credit, money or just to help out friends and sports teammates.</p>
<p>Transcript padding is also called challenging yourself. Also, if you know you want to study in that field, it doesn’t hurt to show a healthy interest in it. </p>
<p>I like “op is going to a cc”, lmao. And I suppose I agree with Rcchay too, I just wanted to make sure my pattern of class choice didn’t look flakey.</p>
Only question is, what do you mean by “Not only are college classes a major time commitment, but it seems your classes are all on the humanities side. So I definitely wouldn’t worry iiwy.”? </p>