Choosing the right high school classes is one of the most important decisions you will make on the path to the college applications. Not only do high school classes selected indicate a student’s academic attitude, but they also reflect a student’s interests and initiative.
Plan your high school academics
Understand employer expectations
Dive deeper into transferable skills
The classes that you take in high school are important in a few different ways. College admissions committees will consider a student’s GPA, and this will be affected by the difficulty of the classes you select. Generally, you should select classes that you can do well in, so that your GPA will be strong.
That said, it’s not quite as simple as taking the easiest classes possible to get a 4.0 GPA. Class choice can showcase your ability to take initiative and rise to challenges. An admissions committee doesn’t want to see straight A’s in easy classes. This might lead them to think that you don’t like challenges.
Demanding and challenging honors, accelerated, AP, International Baccalaureate (IB), and Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) courses make a student more desirable to a school.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AND ELECTIVES
Both of these are classes outside the required curriculum that you get to choose. You may find classes in subjects such as art, music, journalism, computer programming, and business. Extracurricular activities include sports, student government, community service, employment, arts, hobbies, and educational clubs.
These activities all complement an academic curriculum
Explore your interests. Lighten a demanding class schedule. Have fun studying something you love.
BENEFITS
- Statistically, students participating in extracurricular activities have a higher GPA and attendance
- Extracurriculars are often used as differentiators of college admissions teams
- Extracurricular activities allow students to develop new soft and hard skills based on their interests
- Extracurriculars provide learning opportunities for students to apply their understanding of soft / hard skills in a real-world setting
- Extracurricular activities help with relationship building and meeting like-minded classmates that a student may not have interacted with otherwise
COURSEWORK PLANNING
No matter what you dream of doing with your life, preparing yourself for more education beyond high school is your wisest plan right now. Post-high school education can provide valuable experiences that contribute to a better quality of life for you.
Whether you go on to a college, university, technical school, or straight into the workforce, the knowledge and skills learned in high school will always be useful in the world of work.
Regardless of your post-high school plans, it’s important to prioritize your education now, and having a solid academic foundation is the first step in this journey towards your future!
Making a plan for your High School course work will help to keep you prepared and organized.