Rigor of Curriculum

Looking to attend a highly selective university? You’ll need to make good choices when selecting your classes, beginning as early as eighth grade. Middle school students may have the option of taking their first year of a foreign language and/or a more advanced Math class such as Algebra 1. When a student submits a college application, the admission reader also receives detailed information about academic options available at that student’s high school. The reader will expect to see that the applicant has taken the most challenging classes available, and has done well in those tough classes.

Further proficiency may be demonstrated with a strong performance on the SAT Subject Tests, AP Tests or the IB tests. Colleges will carefully examine overall academic rigor and performance, as well as grade trends over the course of high school – they don’t like to see downtrends, ever, so if you struggle in a tough class, always seek help.

In order to be competitive and well balanced, students should take 4 years of English, 4 years of one foreign language, 2-3 years of History/Social Sciences, 4 years of Mathematics and 4 years of laboratory sciences to an advanced level. Note that the majority of successful applicants to an Ivy League college will present with 4 classes in each core subject. Elective classes can also reveal the range of an applicants’ interests. Taking advanced classes in your areas of academic interest also reveals more about you, but you may want to be cautious about taking on more advanced coursework in weaker subjects that are not an imperative for your likely area of college studies. Selective colleges highly value students with special talents, strong personal qualities, long-term involvement in some important extracurricular activities and evidence of resourcefulness and resilience. Colleges want students who will take advantage of the many opportunities they’ll find on campus, come prepared to develop new knowledge, and show academic curiosity both in and out of the classroom.

It is a given that students should take advantage of AP courses, Honors classes and the most advanced options offered at their school, but there are other ways of completing more advanced coursework that will be interesting to an admissions review committee. Taking college classes, perhaps through dual enrollment, demonstrates the applicant’s ability to manage college-level coursework and shows careful time management. Other students may choose to take summer classes on a college campus. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are other ways of taking on additional coursework in areas of interest.

You can’t design your school’s curriculum but you can control how you complete your four years of high school, so plan well for the most rigorous program you can comfortably handle while still having a balanced life.