Our guide to choosing next year's classes

Making the right choices now will affect your admissions odds later

It’s March (already!), which means that if your school hasn’t already asked you to select classes for next year, they will soon. In advance of the March to-do list, I wanted to give some handy tips to help you make your course selections in a way that will make you maximally competitive for college admissions. 

If I had to sum up the perfect course schedule, it would be challenging, achievable, well-rounded, and interest-specific. Let’s break these qualities down one by one: 

Challenging

If you have a look at the Common Data Set, you can see that ‘rigor of secondary school record’ is a separate metric from GPA, which means that colleges are particularly interested in how difficult your courseload was. Colleges want to see students who challenged themselves as much as possible in terms of class difficulty, which is something that they look at relative to the classes your school offers. Consider that if your high school offers only five AP classes and you take all five classes, it looks different from a scenario wherein your high school offers 30 AP classes and you still only took five. On that note, let’s consider APs and other advanced coursework. 

Advanced Coursework

Advanced Placement (AP) courses are, of course, the gold standard for advanced coursework because all AP students take approximately the same test, which makes the comparison apples to apples in the admissions office. While we know the instruction that prepares a student for the AP test varies wildly (and should be taken into account as you choose your courses), it goes without saying that the number of times “AP” appears on your transcript is valuable and important. 

International Baccalaureate (IB) is also an awesome alternative to AP (in fact, I completed the IB diploma program myself, about a million years ago) and similarly, if “IB” appears on your transcript, it will be well regarded. 

Now, if you go to a school that does not offer AP or IB, there will still be a bit of hierarchy among the coursework. “Advanced”, “Honors”, and “Accelerated” are words that clue the admissions officers into the challenge of your coursework, but if you go to a specialized high school with a different system, don’t worry. Admissions offices do their due diligence when it comes to assessing the difficulty of your curriculum, often aided by the school profile that accompanies your application. 

College-level courses

If you max-out the level on certain courses, are interested in a niche subject, or want to spend your summer doing something academic, taking courses at a local community college is a great way to demonstrate rigor on your application materials. Many high schools have relationships with local community colleges that make it easy to sign up and receive credit for such coursework. 

Mathematics

While it is a good idea to play to one’s strengths when it comes to course difficulty, it should be noted that mathematics courses are of particular interest to admissions officers. Inside Higher Ed published an article last fall about calculus as a gate-keeper to college admissions, discussing, in essence, that competitive colleges are looking for students who have completed calculus. Even if math is not a student’s strongest subject, we do encourage choosing courses that will put them as close as possible to that calculus level by graduation. 

Many high schools only offer mathematics courses through the calculus level, but not beyond. From calculus, the natural progression often sends students to AP Statistics, but if you’re planning on entertaining a major in STEM (particularly hard sciences or engineering), then we recommend skipping AP Statistics in favor of pursuing Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, or similar college level mathematics coursework through a partnering community college.

Start Early

Keep in mind that when it comes to advanced coursework, students are often on a prescribed trajectory beginning in ninth grade. If you are the parent of an eighth grader, remember that it can be harder to jump into an advanced track later on in high school, as there are prerequisites barring enrollment in certain courses. The best way to make sure you can achieve the maximum level of some courses is to start from the beginning of high school. 

If you are looking to accelerate the process to get on the fastest track for a certain subject (like mathematics), you might be able to take a summer course to put yourself where you want to be. This should be discussed with a high school counselor before you rush to enroll, though. 

Achievable

We are asked all the time whether it’s better to have strong grades in easier classes or weak grades in advanced courses. The answer, unfortunately, is not one that anyone wants to hear. Both strong grades and difficult coursework are important for college admissions, so when choosing courses, students should remember that they are aiming for an A, even when the class gets really hard. 

If you are planning to take an AP course, you should also plan to take the AP test and receive a 4 or a 5. Before the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, there used to be SAT Subject Tests that assessed students’ knowledge on subjects like history and other topics not covered in the standard SAT. But when SAT Subject Tests were cancelled indefinitely, colleges turned to AP scores to assess students’ talent and ability in such subjects. More than before, AP scores matter to admissions officers. After all, earning an A in the class is dependent on the teacher’s grading practices, among other things. It is only through the test score that an admissions officer will believe that you truly mastered the content. 

Anecdotally, I have worked with a number of students who have perfect As on their transcript, but are unable to secure 4s and 5s on their AP tests. Unfortunately, I have found that this does seem to negatively impact their admissions success, especially where top-ranking colleges are concerned. 

Well-rounded

The ideal student schedule will be well-rounded among the core classes: English, hard science, social science, mathematics, and foreign language. Beyond what some colleges like the University of California schools require, I will go subject by subject with our personal recommendations. 

English

We recommend four years of English, but do consider how sophisticated the course sounds on a transcript. If you’re not going the AP Language/Literature route, consider that Professional Composition or Diverse Voices of the 20th Century sounds more college-worthy than Science Fiction and Fantasy. This is sad and limiting, in my opinion, but true. 

Hard Sciences

It is our recommendation that students have biology, chemistry, and physics appear on their transcript before sciences like geology and astronomy. The order that you complete these courses in will depend on the school, but they are substantially more valuable than their alternatives. If you are planning to pursue a STEM subject in college, you should definitely plan to take four years of hard science and have at least one of the courses be at the AP or college level.

Social Sciences

There is some flexibility here, but usually students should have world and American history at minimum, as well as a foundation in government, geography, and economics. Beyond that, we believe it’s good for a student to play to their interests, whether that means European history to complement an interest in Gothic literature or Psychology to complement an interest in biology. Four years is ideal, but if you’re headed in a STEM direction, you might be able to get away with three. 

Mathematics

We did cover this at length above, but as an addendum, we recommend four years of mathematics for any student. 

Foreign Language

We used to have a hard four-year recommendation, but we have revised this recommendation to say that students should reach level 4 in one foreign language. That means that you could finish your foreign language by the end of junior year if you began learning it in middle school. However, level 5 is better. Colleges want to admit students who are, at minimum, open to learning about other cultures and are preferably enthusiastic about it. Foreign language study can help students demonstrate positive character traits in the admissions process.

Interest-specific

Hey, have you heard of an Admissions Angle? I know, I know. We talk about it all the time, but it’s important to remember. Your electives are instrumental in shaping not only your academic interests, but also your demonstration of such interests. If you want to study art, your electives should include art courses. If you want to study a STEM subject, maybe you want to use your electives to take on Computer Science or Robotics. We suggest making every single course on your transcript work for you. To that end, you might need to make some tough decisions.

Physical Education

All high schools require physical education to some degree, but once you finish the requirement, we recommend utilizing your elective time in more academic ways. After all, you can exercise outside of school hours way more easily than you can teach yourself Latin. 

Music or Band or Orchestra

If you are not planning to major in music or submit a recording with your application materials, we generally advise that students drop band or orchestra from their schedules in favor of something more academic. However, we would also never discourage a student from participating in something they love. If you love, love, love music, then sure, stick with it. If you’re simply (as many students are) going through the motions by junior year but feel compelled to stick it out, you don’t have to. It’s okay to cut it loose.

Consider your major

If you are planning to major in something STEM related, we strongly recommend using your electives to dabble in STEM related subjects. If you are planning to pursue business, then you definitely should consider taking business or economics electives while also challenging yourself in mathematics. If you are planning to study Psychology, make sure you make space to max-out your school’s psychology offerings. Are you beginning to see a pattern?

The Bottom Line

Course selection matters greatly as a metric for admissions. Do not enter this process without goals and the proper focus to set yourself up for success, not only in the immediate sense (grades) but also in the future sense (applying for certain majors).