Articles / Applying to College / Senior-Year Scheduling

Senior-Year Scheduling

Written by Sally Rubenstone | April 15, 2002

Question: I realize that it is important to take on a vigorous course load my senior year. Does it matter exactly what it is? I really can't stand taking Math. I have taken honors math all through high school. Would it be really damaging to drop math and take something like another science course instead? I am not planning on attending any Ivy League schools, basically just a step or two below them.

For the level of colleges you're shooting for, it appears to me that you should have no problem moving away from math and into a science for your senior schedule. As long as you have met the minimum entrance requirements of your candidate colleges (usually posted on their Web site's admissions page), you should be looking quite good, assuming that you can meet their other admission criteria.

The important issue, as always with high school course schedules, is to take solid, challenging courses. It's fine to take constructive electives that parallel your passions, but don't take electives just to make things easy on yourself. It looks like you're making a sensible decision. Follow through with your counselor to make sure that everything is on track for satisfying your graduation requirements.

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.