Weekly Column Tag: schedules
Tag: schedules
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We’re a week away from President’s Day, which means there’s only one thing on the minds of college-bound students—schedules. By this, I don’t mean “My homework is really cutting into my social schedule” or “Dude! Three girls asked me to the Sadie Hawkins Dance—do you think I can make that work?” Rather, I mean your school schedule—of classes—for school? Wow, it’s clearly time for winter break. I know you’re storing up on wings and dip for tomorrow, so I’ll make this quick: Seniors, even though this is the last semester of your high school career, you still need a strong schedule. Even as we speak, colleges are reviewing your applications, and one of their big questions is if you have the ability *and* the desire to really tear up college classes. Your grades from past semesters may say “You bet”, but if this semester has six sections of The Anthropology of Texting, chances are you’ll hit campus with a rusty brain and an inability to write words with vowels in them. Bottom line? Keep the neurons firing by taking classes that make you think. “But hombre” say you, “I’m smart enough to make this work. I’m entitled to some time off.” OK—consider this. If your college application says you’re taking a challenging load of academics, and you change your schedule to swap out AP English for “American Idol: Boon or Boondoggle?”, you have to contact the college immediately to tell them your schedule has changed.. No matter how smooth you think you are, do you really think there’s any way a college will see this change as good news? Sure, it’s tough now, but Tom Hanks was right—it’s supposed to be hard, or everyone could do it. Your teachers will cut you some slack come May and June—meanwhile, jump into the work you told colleges you love, and see what’s there to get juiced about. Juniors, you don’t need a pep talk to take tough classes now, since sixth semester is Show and Tell time. However, your counselors will be coming around in three weeks to sign you up for senior year classes—and that’s when the temptation to board the Blow-it-off bullet train will be strong. Here’s my encore: The primary factor used by nearly every college in reading an application is if the student has challenged him/herself by taking the most demanding classes available. If you’re getting As in French 3, and there’s a French 4, it goes on the schedule; ditto for Calculus and Shakespeare. If your school offers a course called Expository Writing, it’s on the list; college students tell me this is THE course that helped them see how to write great papers in classes other than English. Be advised-- “Expository” comes from the Latin expos, which means “to write so many papers you’ll wear out a pencil a week.” Tough? Yes. Beyond you? Please! You’ve probably heard that the number of high school graduates will go down next year, and that leads you to believe you won’t have to work as hard to get admitted to college. The first part is right, but the second part isn’t; even with the bad economy, more students are going to college than ever before, so colleges are likely to pick and choose the top students for at least the next few years. Make their work easy for them—gird yourself, smoke the tough classes, and give yourself a reason to be proud when the thick envelope arrives from your college. That’s the recipe for a super touchdown.
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