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I apologize in advance if I come off rudely. I'm choosing courses for next semester (my last semester in UG) and have the choice between a class I have a good chance to get an A+ in (think the classes designed for students to not fail out of school) or a class that I find more interesting but would be harder, and potentially bring down my gpa. The reason I ask is that an A+, assuming I get about the grades I would from these classes, could boost me past the 75% mark for HYS, but the other class would probably keep me below.

TLDR: My question is whether being over the 75% mark vs the median will help at all.

(Again sorry if I come off as an ass, but I'm struggling on the LSAT so most of those who respond have that on me).

ALWAYS TAKE THE HIGHER GPA

Law schools don't care if your courses were interesting.

Thanks for the response but I'm more curious if there is a big difference between just below 75 percentile and above.
The interesting course selection is for my own enjoyment.

Yes, you are instantly more attractive to a school if you are above their 75th because that will keep their 75th high once they factor you in.

funstuff wrote:Thanks for the response but I'm more curious if there is a big difference between just below 75 percentile and above.
The interesting course selection is for my own enjoyment.

Not a huge gap when you're talking 3.95 vs. 3.97 or whatever those figures are for HYS. I think the only one where they might make a significant differnece is at Yale, where most people go to faculty review. In the case of Yale, I would say they might favor classes that sound substantive over ones that don't, but it's hard to tell. Some faculty might not even take the time to review more than the major and GPA.

Any other opinions?

funstuff wrote:I apologize in advance if I come off rudely. I'm choosing courses for next semester (my last semester in UG) and have the choice between a class I have a good chance to get an A+ in (think the classes designed for students to not fail out of school) or a class that I find more interesting but would be harder, and potentially bring down my gpa. The reason I ask is that an A+, assuming I get about the grades I would from these classes, could boost me past the 75% mark for HYS, but the other class would probably keep me below.

TLDR: My question is whether being over the 75% mark vs the median will help at all.

(Again sorry if I come off as an ass, but I'm struggling on the LSAT so most of those who respond have that on me).

You definitely don't sound like an ass in any way to me. I would love to have a GPA up there, but I don't because I didn't work hard enough. Good for you for getting it done! I would say take the class you want to and if that's the harder one, challenge yourself, work you ass off and get that A. How good would that feel?

Johann (Northwestern's dean of admissions has insight on this):

Johann's G+ wrote: Pot Applicant: Well, if you are here, I haven't decided on a major yet. Should I take something that interests me but is difficult OR something easy that I can CRUSH
Me: Take the courses that interest you. Life is too short. Plus, there's no guarantees that you will "crush" that major if you aren't really interested in the coursework.
Pot Applicant: Trust me, I'll crush it- with no effort at all.
Me: <ugh!>

Against TLS wisdom, I'm going to agree with Johann and advise that you take the class you'll enjoy because it may be the case that you'll end up doing better in it even if it is more challenging. (Some of my poorest grades in UG were not in difficult classes but in classes where I couldn't find the subject matter interesting; my best grades were in some of the toughest classes I took because I loved what we were studying and applied extra time outside the assigned work to learn more about it.)

I had the same experience as JDizzle. I got A's in all the classes I really enjoyed in undergrad, regardless of how hard they were. The easy, boring classes were unmotivating and the reason I got a 3.8

JDizzle2015 wrote: (Some of my poorest grades in UG were not in difficult classes but in classes where I couldn't find the subject matter interesting; my best grades were in some of the toughest classes I took because I loved what we were studying and applied extra time outside the assigned work to learn more about it.)

True Fact.