I was originally going to talk about prepping for college interviews, however, with course registration for my underclassmen, I decided to share my great wisdom and insight into some of the college-level courses I’ve taken in my high school career. 

College level courses are available to high school students through AP Classes and Dual Credit courses. During my time in high school I have taken a number of college courses and I’ve found that some have more value than others. 

My freshman year, I started with AP Human Geography because that was the class everyone took their freshman year. It’s a completely useless class for any career in my opinion. The only thing the class was good for is that it was a good stepping stone to the other classes I would take. It was mostly common sense, but the busy-work that it required, and the amount of memorizing it took was just a waste of time. I will say, for students who don’t understand the basics of how human civilization is organized, it might be a good class, but most of the students I took the class with already knew this information from the previous eight years in the education system. 

My sophomore year I stepped up my game and decided to take a grand total of three AP classes: Psychology, Statistics, and World History. My favorite out of those three was Psychology. I had an amazing teacher that I could tell was just really passionate and knowledgeable about what he was teaching, and that made all of the difference. The content itself was really interesting. Although I didn’t have the biggest interest in psychology, it was still a very useful subject as it is applicable to various different subjects such as economics or history. 

World History is a bit of a sore subject for me. It is one of the only 4s I got on AP exams, which I honestly find super embarrassing because the way the class was structured, I learned it for two years. Statistics was just a difficult class. I’m someone who usually doesn’t have a hard time learning or understanding a subject so long as I thoroughly go through it and make an effort to understand it. However, statistics, for some reason, just would not click, and I had to make three times the effort as my other subjects. To make it worse, I was in a class full of seniors, and I was the only sophomore. 

Junior year is where I really amped it up, taking a grand total of six AP classes and exams. To list them out: Biology, Chemistry, Calculus BC, Spanish Language and Culture, U.S. History, and English Language and Composition. To preface, I should mention that I took American Studies which combines U.S. History and English Language and Composition, in a double-blocked period. 

But back to the point, I would say my favorite classes were American Studies and Chemistry. To start, American Studies was truly a transformative experience for me. The class really clarified what my interests were, what I wanted to major in, and what my strong suits were. I genuinely enjoyed the content within that class and was never bored. I felt that my creative processes were never impeded on and I could just fully be myself. It helps that I had some of the most intelligent and caring teachers. I still regularly go and talk to them and seek them out for advice. I think that’s what building a relationship with educators is really about. 

Next, Chemistry. I am not a STEM major, but this class was one of the most interesting and fun classes I took. Chemistry just clicked for me, there was never anything I couldn’t think through, and there was never anything I wasn’t willing to solve. It really helped with making logical connections and sense of things. And again, I am just one of those students who tends to love the classes when they love the teachers. This is not to say I don’t like the teachers of my other AP classes, but the combination of a great teacher and great content makes for a stupendous experience. As for the other classes, I can’t say much about them. They were good courses to take. However, I wouldn’t classify them as life-changing or “out of this world” like the other three. 

Now, in my senior year, I will take, or am taking, seven college level courses, but not all of them are AP courses. I’m not a fan of dual-credit courses. Although I never took them, I know for a fact that most prestigious institutions do not take these credits and do not consider them “rigorous” enough. 

Now that doesn’t go to say that they have no probative value, in fact, I think if one is looking to stay in-state, or, go to a school they know will for-sure take the credit, I think it is a better option than taking an AP class. 

This year, I had no choice but to take a dual-credit course because I decided to continue taking math courses. I finished the standard math pathway last year with AP Calculus BC, and so the only classes left were Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra. I chose to take Multivariable Calculus and Differential Equations through Collin College. 

However, at the time of registration, I was slightly oblivious to the fact that it was completely asynchronous. I thought that I would have a Zoom I would have to attend, but no. I learn all of the material by myself, which is difficult when you’re juggling a million other things on top of that. But I made my bed, I need to lie in it. 

To list out all of the courses I will take this year: English Literature and Composition, Macroeconomics, U.S. Government and Politics, Art History, European History, Spanish Literature and Culture, Multivariable Calculus, and Differential Equations. Out of all of these, Spanish is my favorite. It’s the same reasoning as the other classes; I love the content, teacher, and students. The teacher is so sweet, patient, and understanding, and the content is really interesting and the way my teacher explains it never bores me. Additionally, I always have so much fun with my friends in that class, which I feel is a very rare feat for me these days. 

To those who are currently making their course selections, I implore you to consider classes that you think will either help you and your desired career, or those that serve your interest. Don’t take a class to boost your GPA, or just because it looks good on your transcript, take it for a reason, with purpose. And don’t force yourself into a career that isn’t working for you. I hate to break it to some of you but if you’re bad at math, physics, and/or computer science, you’re not going to be an engineer or a computer scientist. It’s just not int he books. It’s much better to actually excel in something rather than just scraping by. 

Next week I’ll actually touch on preparing for a college interview, until then, it’s Christine Against the Clock.