How to Choose College Courses to Take

DON'T Do Everything Your Counselor Tells You To: During orientation at my college, all students met with their counselors and were given advice on which classes to take. My intentions upon entering college was to enter the business program. Knowing this, my counselor advised me not to take a tough prerequisite first semester; instead fluffing up my schedule with useless classes deemed appropriately simple for freshmen.

On the advice from my friend, I changed my schedule upon finishing orientation and took the prerequisite. While the class was indeed tough, I was able to do well. Meanwhile, my friends who chose to follow their counselors advice found themselves with no work their first semester and way too much the next.

Counselors rarely know incoming students individually. If you think your schedule doesn't suit you, change it.

DO Challenge Yourself - It is easy to go through college partying and taking the easiest classes possible. To a certain extent, that is even fine. There should be plenty of room for having fun. On the other hand, no one wants to go through four years without learning anything useful.

My freshmen year I had to take two economics classes to apply for the aforementioned business program. I loathed the subject. The classes were graded and curved to weed out students who wouldn't succeed in the business program and as a result there was more focus on grades then there was on the actual subject.

Still, as a rule I try to take one challenging class, at least, a semester. So I didn't hesitate to take a 300-level economics course my sophomore year. Not only did I discover that economics was much more interesting than it was presented in the base levels, my coursework looked all the more impressive when I applied for the business program (which I did get into.)