Hello, I will be a Junior next fall. As electives I have taken music (Orchestra) and business classes such as Accounting. I love Orchestra and intend on taking it for all 4 years of high school. Although I am done with taking business classes. I only wanted to take Accounting because it seemed to be an important class to me and I have learned a lot from it.
After high school I am interested in going to college and majoring in a science and then going to medical school. Common electives for high school students interested in medicine are sociology and psychology.
Although I want to take pottery so I learn how to use my hands. I am interested in surgery but I’m not a very hands on person. Taking a class such as pottery would help me develop hands on skills because I am more of a “book” type of person all of the electives that I’ve taken so far have been very academic with nightly reading etc.
Will deciding to take an art class confuse the college admissions teams of my identity ? Even though the rest of my scheldule is very rigorous with classes such as AP US, AP Chemistry and AP Lang? Should I just stick to psychology or sociology?
No not at all! Make sure you are taking the highest level English, Math, Science, Foreign language and Social studies you can and enjoy Pottery. HS is a great time to explore stuff like that.
Life is short–take pottery! Although I don’t think you need a reason for wanting to dive into clay, I liked your explanation about how working with your hands could be useful as a surgeon. Who knows? It could turn out to be one of the more interesting and unique essays, if you choose to write about it for your college applications. Plus, it is likely to be just as relaxing as taking a yoga class, which you will need given your rigorous schedule.
You are not expected to take career-oriented classes in high school unless you go to a vocational HS. The fact that you are interested in medical school is completely irrelevant to your choice of electives in high school. Truly. Take ceramics.
Your reasoning makes sense (btw, sewing and embroidery also develop hand dexterity). But most importantly your electives don’t matter to med schools.
You should have one each of math, history/social science, English, foreign language, and science. After that you’re good. Choose whatever you want.
(If anything, taking pottery will help you stand out if all kids at your school take psychology and sociology).
You have to understand, whatever you take in HS has nothing to do with med school, which is on the graduate level . It might effect your college application, however, I do not see how much it will inference college adcoms because you took pottery or not.
It looks like the difference is taking 3-D design, AP Psych, or Honors Sociology – and honestly I don’t think it matters much. The person I’d check with is your guidance counselor. If you are aiming for top tier colleges they will want to see that the guidance counselor checks the box saying you have taken the most rigorous schedule available at your HS (which is not the same as taking the most APs). If all of your proposed schedules would be sufficient for him/her to check that box off (or if you are not looking at the top-tier colleges) then any choice you make is fine.
Also please don’t ask the same question in different forms multiple times. People here are volunteers and it is much easier when we can prior old answers. It is best to bump your old thread.
Which scheldule is more competitive for Junior Year. Will taking one extra AP really give me a “boost” in colleges acceptance to competitive schools. I’m really interested in 3-D Design; you make sculptures in that class. Although psychology and sociology seem interesting as well so I wouldn’t mind. I just want to know which scheldule is the better move.
AP Language
AP Chemistry
AP US History
3-D Design (Pottery and Ceramics)
Honors Precalculus
Orchestra
Spanish 3
OR…
AP Language
AP Chemistry
AP US History
AP Psychology…or Honors Sociology
Honors Precalculus
Orchestra
Spanish 3
Sorry I wasn’t sure the best times to post, some get replies some don’t, more opinions are always better. How do you bump an old thread? I didn’t know you could do that.
Ceramics is a great way to improve your dexterity, my DS has done it in his freshman year and he was not a “handy”man, even though he is a very good pianist. It definitely trains your hand/eye coordination, he finds it very challenging (and it frustrated him too) but had a great fun learning the basic skills. He even won a school art award in the end and was thinking of doing it for his IB program. In the end he chose IB music (the easier route for him, lol). Additionally, for some of his fellow classmates, the class is meditating and relaxing, I think it must have something to do with playing with the clay and watching the wheels turn…
@smartypants210 No problem. Usually people bump if the thread moves off the first page and they are hoping to get more responses. You just have to write “bump” as a response (or you can add more information if you like) and the thread will move back to the first page. This way new respondents will be able to see prior comments and the forum doesn’t get filled up with multiple posts asking the same question.
Most of the high school students at my school interested in medicine either take psychology or sociology. Although I want to take pottery so I develop “hands on” skills because I am a “book” person all of my classes are very academic and involve a lot of reading. It would be nice to have a Moreno hands on class. I take Orchestra as well. Is pottery the wrong decision? Should I just take psychology or sociology?
There’s no difference for college admissions. AP Psych is an AP Lite, Sociology is another elective - neither is seen as especially rigorous. And, indeed, many colleges expect one year of art (mandatory for California). Since you like Ceramics best, take that.
Maybe you can find a private place and take a pottery/ceramics course over the summer and see if you can get into a higher level class, if one is available. You could also see if there is a wait list because maybe somebody will get a schedule conflict or decide they no longer want the class.
As for your other choices, read the class description, check out the teachers, talk to kids who’ve taken them before (someone who took both is best) and then decide. They can both be interesting.
I don’t know what happened to my other thread it dissapeared. But this is an update. I talked to the art teacher and unfortunately the Pottery/Cermaics class is full. I was so upset. Thank you guys for all the help. I am extremely bummed about it so now I’m at the point if I’m not sure if I should take AP Psychology or Honors Sociology. I feel extremely stressed now because I don’t have any relaxing or fun class (besides Orchestra) I really wanted to do ceramics! Hopefully I will enjoy Psychology or Sociology.
Thanks guys! All the students I talked to love AP Psychology because they say the teacher makes it really interesting. Not many people take Honors Sociology but the ones who do say the work load is very manageable. Although I talked to my counselor and she said she might be able to put me in the pottery class!
Is there no other art class you could take?
If not, what about culinary arts or something of the sort?
Do join the waiting list for ceramics and choose either AP Psych or Sociology H based on which teacher is best - when in doubt, always pick the best teacher.
and choose either AP Psych or Sociology H based on which teacher is best - when in doubt, always pick the best teacher.