Would the U.S. Coast Guard Academy rather see: high grades in a regular class or mediocre grades in an advanced class? For example, during my freshman year, my final grades were a C- in Geometry Honors, an A+ in Concert Band, a C in Chemistry Honors, an A- in Multimedia Design, a B- in English I, a B- in Spanish I, and an A- in Civilizations. Unless something changes, I will be taking mostly regular classes in my sophomore year, which are Algebra II, Concert Band, Biology, Introduction to Computer Science, English II, Spanish II, and World History AP. Would doing excellent in these classes look better than doing mediocre in harder classes?
Which would the Academy rather see?
- Thread starter rubio1996
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Do both. The competition for an appointment is fierce. Take a look at the stats for the class of 2014:
http://www.cga.edu/display.aspx?id=340
Do what you can to be in the tippy top of your high school class, and if you take regular classes you might not be in that group due to the whole weighting factor for AP and Honors courses. Over half of the appts. for 2014 were top 10% of their graduating classes.
Study hard, do the best you can, and the chips will fall where they may. If the academy is in your future, or if any top notch university is on your radar, you should be pushing yourself to do the very best in the very toughest classes available at your high school. There are too many kids out there willing to do this to give slots away to kids who are acing their "regular" classes. That said, of course the academy is looking for other things too...leadership, varsity sports, and diversity. But, don't count on those last items to make up for a less than stellar academic resume.
Just my .02 from watching this merry-go-round of admissions for the last few years!
Good luck!
and ps....math and science are weighted more heavily, I believe, so if you can take high level classes and ace those, you are heading in the right direction.
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You're competing with students who get high grades in difficult classes.
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You might want to consider doing a math summer camp experience. Most community colleges offer them and it might get you the increased math skills to prepare you for advanced math classes. If Mom & Dad can't help with your Calculus homework, you might want to consider an after school math tutor. Its common for college math majors to make a little extra money tutoring students. This will not only help your class performance, but will help your ACT/SAT test scores as well.
I'm going to start a program at a local Sylvan Learning Center, where they help me with Algebra II material before I take the course, and will help me once a week during the course, as the year goes on.
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You have the desire and effort--best of wishes for success!