Which online courses should I take going into senior year to be a competitive applicant? My dream schools are Wharton at UPenn and McDonough at Georgetown.
The courses I am considering are:
Latin I & II
Creative Photography
Anatomy and Physiology (honors)
Personal and Family Finance**
Law Studies
Leadership Skills Development
Business Software Applications 1 (includes Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) industry certification exam)
**I am planning on taking this before I graduate, I just want to know for college applications.
I know they aren’t AP or IB courses, but I am taking a full load of them next year. Plus, I would like to be able to finish the courses before October (you can move as fast or slow as you want since its online) so they go on my transcripts when applying for college. I can probably take 2-4 depending on the course length.
I’m not too concerned with the grade part. I’ve taken FLVS courses before and usually earn As (mainly because you can resubmit every assignment three times, most people get As).
Also, I know this likely won’t make or break my college applications. I am just trying to decide between these courses and an outside opinion familiar with the college process might help. I can’t speak with my counselor because it’s summer and I’d like to start before we go back to school.
If you’ve taken any of these courses on FLVS before, please let me know what you thought!
If you have a full course load why are you looking to do an online class? You will have a lot of working getting your application and essays together and should focus on that.
Colleges don’t care if you took 10 courses. They care if you do well in the core courses (math, english, science, social studies, Foriegn language) because that is what they want you to do at college. Are you also doing some traditional ECs? Because colleges would rather see you getting engaged in the community. THey don’t want all students who hole up and just do online classes. They would rather see you using that photography skill for the yearbook or newspaper or an art exhibit. They would rather you show leadership rather than taking an online class.
That said, if you want to take a class to learn photography, go right ahead.
I feel like I have plenty of ECs. President of two clubs, varsity swim, etc. I also received a few awards through journalism and was pretty involved with newspaper and online, I just never learned formally how to use a camera and it seemed like an interesting class. Also, my grades are fine as I am in the top ten for my class.
I like taking online classes because I like learning about new things and they provide a free and effective way to do that. The goal is to finish them before applications really kick up so I have more time to devote to that. I am not too worried about the time constraint as during the school year as I usually only spend an hour or two working in the course each week.
