My schedule!

[Rule]

Isn't it your goal in life to be President?  In that case, isn't it irresponsible not to want to learn about the environment?  Or is it just that you want to have all of the prestige associated with a title, but don't particularly care if you are competent or do a good job?  In other words, is it just that you care about looking like someone great and having power, but not about being someone great?

What do you think would happen to any established politican if he/she said,

I have no interest in the environment

[trust]

I have no interest in the environment, or a 3rd study hall...

I have to take World History 1 to fulfill credit requirements, since I didn't take it freshmen year due to International Baccalaureate.

What do you think looks more impressive on a transcript: a student with a 3.4 GPA who took a wide variety of classes, including a large number of AP classes or a student with a 4.0 who took electives so they could breeze through high school?

Knowledge determines success... not your GPA.

7th grade: Algebra 1
8th grade: Geometry, Earth Science, French 1
Freshmen Year: AP Government, Pre-IB English, Pre-IB Biology, Pre-IB Algebra II/Trig, Pre-IB French 2, Health/PE, Technical Drawinig
Sophmore Year: Pre-IB Chemistry, Pre-IB/Honors World History 2, Pre-IB English, Health/PE, Pre-IB Algebra II/Trig (retook it), Pre-IB French 3, AP Computer Science
Junior Year: AP Biology, AP Statistics, AP United States History, French 3, Pre-Calculus, Study Hall, Honors British Literature
Senior Year: AP Comparative Government, AP Literature, Psychology, World History 1, Elective, Elective (I'm thinking Business Administration and something else), Study Hall, Study Hall

In my opinion, my three electives in all of high school isn't going to crucify me. But that's just how I see it.

Rule: I want to be President, but I don't forsee it happening. My main goal is to be an attorney, but not an environmental attorney because they don't make much money. AP Env Sci builds off of Chemistry and Biology, both of those I did poorly in.

Sidoh: My GPA is much lower than a 3.4.

Everyone: I'm more concerned about my college education than my highschool education.

[Newby]

What's the difference between a college education and the education you get out of an AP class?

The AP exam will tell you how well you learned the material...

Business Administration sounds fun, though!

[trust]

What's the difference between a college education and the education you get out of an AP class?

The AP exam will tell you how well you learned the material...

Business Administration sounds fun, though!

First of all AP classes are equivilant to one semester of a college course iirc.
Secondly, I've taken pretty much every AP class my school offer aside from art, music, chemistry, environmental science, and the higher maths.
Thirdly, I've never done well on the AP exams. The only one I passed was AP Comp Sci.
If anything, my decision to replace a study hall (a class where I could come to school late or leave early) should be one thats well accepted. I'm not sure that I should even bother though since when I apply for college, my GPA will not have been updated yet.

[Joe]

If Sidoh runs for president I'll vote for him for the novelty of it.

[zorm]

I would rather boost my GPA, even though the Assistant Dean of Admissions told me not to lose sleep over my GPA...I would still like some extra insurance in case I am not accepted for early decision.

The purpose of education is learning, not achieving the highest GPA.  Taking a class over another because it'll be easier to get a high mark in, even though you'd learn far less useful information, is foolish, in my opinion.

With the ease of access of information learning everything you'd ever want/need to know in school becomes less and less important. You can look up just about anything you want on the internet and find very nice information as well as helpful people who can point you in the right direction or 'tutor' you if needed. As such school has just become a venue for getting your foot in the door persay, its basically just to meet people and for those people to have a very basic marker to judge the quality of your work/character. Of course this is all my opinion, and I'm not saying that learning in school is unimportant or that you shouldn't learn in school. But to me if it came to learning or getting my foot in the door someplace else I'd pick the foot in the door. You can always learn later but you may not have the chance to go where you want.

Also consider what you really learn in class and such, I've never had a formal education in computer programming yet I'd be willing to bet that I can program better than 30-50%(maybe higher I don't really know) of the people who take such classes.

Just food for thought

[Sidoh]

I am not saying that you can't learn outside of school.  I am saying that school presents a formal environment with the primary intention of education.

Yes, but more than 50% of the people who take CS classes in the average university are idiots.  I've since learned that after being to the classes I signed up for. 

[Rule]

I would rather boost my GPA, even though the Assistant Dean of Admissions told me not to lose sleep over my GPA...I would still like some extra insurance in case I am not accepted for early decision.

The purpose of education is learning, not achieving the highest GPA.  Taking a class over another because it'll be easier to get a high mark in, even though you'd learn far less useful information, is foolish, in my opinion.

With the ease of access of information learning everything you'd ever want/need to know in school becomes less and less important. You can look up just about anything you want on the internet and find very nice information as well as helpful people who can point you in the right direction or 'tutor' you if needed. As such school has just become a venue for getting your foot in the door persay, its basically just to meet people and for those people to have a very basic marker to judge the quality of your work/character. Of course this is all my opinion, and I'm not saying that learning in school is unimportant or that you shouldn't learn in school. But to me if it came to learning or getting my foot in the door someplace else I'd pick the foot in the door. You can always learn later but you may not have the chance to go where you want.

Also consider what you really learn in class and such, I've never had a formal education in computer programming yet I'd be willing to bet that I can program better than 30-50%(maybe higher I don't really know) of the people who take such classes.

Just food for thought

I think it's important to note that many of the better universities go out of their way to consider whether a student has taken the most challenging courses available to him; if you don't choose "learning," none of the most appealing doors will be opening for you.

[dark_drake]

I think it's important to note that many of the better universities go out of their way to consider whether a student has taken the most challenging courses available to him; if you don't choose "learning," none of the most appealing doors will be opening for you.

This is the exact reason my Calculus teacher required the student's parents to sign a sheet for them to drop AP Calculus.  He told them that he knew many students that did not get into their university of choice because they chose to slack off their senior year.  It seems that many universities consider slacking off in the final year of high school to be a sign that you aren't willing to continue to learn.

[Sidoh]

This is the exact reason my Calculus teacher required the student's parents to sign a sheet for them to drop AP Calculus.  He told them that he knew many students that did not get into their university of choice because they chose to slack off their senior year.  It seems that many universities consider slacking off in the final year of high school to be a sign that you aren't willing to continue to learn.

Or you think you're deserving of a break.  I completely agree with your teacher though; that's an excellent idea.

[Ender]

Yay I just got my schedule today! Finally!

http://64.9.205.64/~andrew/school/schedule.html

This year's going to be fun. And busy lol.

[trust]

They wouldn't let me drop AP Environmental because my AP Bio teacher (Science Dept Head) put me in it. I'm going to try and talk to her and get it dropped though.

[zorm]

They wouldn't let me drop AP Environmental because my AP Bio teacher (Science Dept Head) put me in it. I'm going to try and talk to her and get it dropped though.

Wow thats highly amusing. My high school didn't put us through such bullshit. If you wanted a class dropped it was as simple as saying you wanted it dropped. Same thing with adding a class, while they did little 'permission' sheets I've never seen one actually used to verify that a student can sign up for a course and in most cases our current teachers who would fill them out would select whatever we asked for.