Should I feel guilt in taking so many easy courses... Forum

[MGH1989]

for my electives? I know the goal is to have the best GPA possible for law school, but I kind of feel like I'm selling my self short here. Intro to Sociology? Intro to Womens Studies? Lifeguard class? Running Class?

[MGH1989]

BTW: What the hell is with school being shown as skool, when I spelled it like s-c-h-o-o-l, thats strange?

[Steven Perry]

Maybe he thinks he's posting in a chatroom in the year 1998.

He's probably just waiting for some songs to finish downloading off Napster, maybe he has TRL on in the background too.

[KibblesAndVick]

You have a choice between boosting your chances of admission to law schools or pursuing something academically challenging in undergrad. Which of those two means more to you? If you find your undergrad courses satisfying then you might want to take harder classes. I go to a crappy state school and often times I feel bored even in upper level classes. If you're in a similar position, padding your GPA so you can get into an elite law school might actually end up being part of a more rigorous academic program in the long run.
This might be helpful.

Hope this helps.

[CG614]

You have a choice between boosting your chances of admission to law schools or pursuing something academically challenging in undergrad. Which of those two means more to you? If you find your undergrad courses satisfying then you might want to take harder classes. I go to a crappy state school and often times I feel bored even in upper level classes. If you're in a similar position, padding your GPA so you can get into an elite lawl skool might actually end up being part of a more rigorous academic program in the long run.
This might be helpful.

Hope this helps.

Damn, Rick Roll'd. Well played, sir!

[thomas85]

Do you think college admissions people look for evidence of GPA padding? I mean if I had a record like that one, then isn't there a good chance that they might think that I took those courses simply for the purpose of boosting my GPA? How has this kind of behavior affected past applicants?

[KibblesAndVick]

Yes, they will get a copy of your transcript which should make it fairly clear if you've been applying yourself. One way to kind of get around this is to take easy classes that have cool names. They probably don't know anything about professors or how hard each class is. The problem would come up when they see you enrolled in Lifeguard Class and Intro to Womens Studies. The trouble is that this isn't always accurate. "Economics of development" was probably the easiest class I've ever taken in UG, where as "Human Rights on Film" was actually a difficult upper level course.

Law schools have to report your GPA at face value. They are then ranked based on the median number for their class. Because of this, schools want people with high GPAs to help their rankings. While they'd look more favorably on someone with a transcript full of really intimidating sounding courses, it will hurt you A LOT less than the actual "number" of your GPA dropping by 0.1. Because of this, padding your GPA will be a net positive in the admissions process (assuming you will end up with even a slightly higher GPA if you do so).

[AllBusiness]

Hell yes, you should feel guilty about taking a ton of cake classes. You will only be an undergraduate once, so you should make the most of it by attempting to become the best-educated, most well-rounded, most experienced person your college can make you. There is so much that higher education has to offer, and it would be a genuine shame not to take advantage of it.

Also, if at the tender age range of 18-22 you are already hedging your life choices in this way, I would be wary of your ability and willingness to really immerse yourself in your work, which is a quality that should be highly-prized in a profession as demanding as that of lawyers. Basically, my friend--if you care for my self-righteous two cents--you should take challenging courses and become involved in exciting activities. Doing as much will go some way toward making you a smarter, more worldly, and wholly more interesting person.

[Jas]

Hell yes, you should feel guilty about taking a ton of cake classes. You will only be an undergraduate once, so you should make the most of it by attempting to become the best-educated, most well-rounded, most experienced person your college can make you. There is so much that higher education has to offer, and it would be a genuine shame not to take advantage of it.

Also, if at the tender age range of 18-22 you are already hedging your life choices in this way, I would be wary of your ability and willingness to really immerse yourself in your work, which is a quality that should be highly-prized in a profession as demanding as that of lawyers. Basically, my friend--if you care for my self-righteous two cents--you should take challenging courses and become involved in exciting activities. Doing as much will go some way toward making you a smarter, more worldly, and wholly more interesting person.

Agreed! But I'd like to point out that any of the classes that OP is listing could be very interesting and challenging under the right circumstances. Yes, even running, for those who have never learned the ins and outs of running for fitness. Intro to women's studies? I wouldn't kid myself into thinking that it's a definite pass... the name of a course doesn't indicate its difficulty, ratemyprofessors does...

I took a class called "Joy of Numbers" and it was the most advanced math I'd ever even seen... we were doing some kind of encryption process.

Also, if these ARE all easy course, then shame on the lazy school you go to first and foremost, and if it has a bad reputation, then that alone will hurt your transcript. Yeah, I know all schools have easy courses. But why? Why enroll people who need these in order to get by? Anyway, I think I'm ranting a little.

[savesthedayajb]

BTW: What the hell is with school being shown as skool, when I spelled it like s-c-h-o-o-l, thats strange?

You must have a virus or something.

[CanadianWolf]

Taking an easy course load without substantial reasons will diminish your chances of admission to the top law schools.

[MGH1989]

Hell yes, you should feel guilty about taking a ton of cake classes. You will only be an undergraduate once, so you should make the most of it by attempting to become the best-educated, most well-rounded, most experienced person your college can make you. There is so much that higher education has to offer, and it would be a genuine shame not to take advantage of it.

Also, if at the tender age range of 18-22 you are already hedging your life choices in this way, I would be wary of your ability and willingness to really immerse yourself in your work, which is a quality that should be highly-prized in a profession as demanding as that of lawyers. Basically, my friend--if you care for my self-righteous two cents--you should take challenging courses and become involved in exciting activities. Doing as much will go some way toward making you a smarter, more worldly, and wholly more interesting person.

It's not like I'm a damn sociology major and my whole mission in college is to do the least amount of work possible. I'm a Poly Sci major. Not that its the hardest major out there, but it's what I enjoy and I always do my best in all my classes, but especially in courses within my major, as they genuinely interest me. The only reason I'm taking all these cupcakes is because I need more hours, I really only have 4 more classes that are apart of my major that I need in order to graduate, but I need about 31 more hours as well.

[MGH1989]

BTW: What the hell is with school being shown as skool, when I spelled it like s-c-h-o-o-l, thats strange?

You must have a virus or something.

Ive been reading other threads today, seems like it's happening to all the Op's.

[KibblesAndVick]

Taking an easy course load without substantial reasons will diminish your chances of admission to the top law schools.

While this is true, having a low GPA will diminish your chances to a much greater extent. Because of this if there is a choice between taking a lot of tough classes with a lesser GPA and taking a bunch of fluff with a high GPA the later option will maximize OP's chance of being admitted to the top schools. The ideal choice would be to get high marks in a demanding program at a top school. But, based on the fact that OP is asking this question in the first place we can assume he or she isn't in that boat.

[scionb4]

Don't feel guilty in the sense that its boosting your GPA making you look good for law schools. Feel guilty because easy classes like that don't prepare you at all for how hard law school is going to be. I purposefully made final semester of my senior year really hard so that I'd be in a "working hard" mindset because of the advice my lawyer uncle gave me. I know I ran the risk of burning out, but at least I won't be shocked by the law school workload.

[MGH1989]

Taking an easy course load without substantial reasons will diminish your chances of admission to the top law schools.

While this is true, having a low GPA will diminish your chances to a much greater extent. Because of this if there is a choice between taking a lot of tough classes with a lesser GPA and taking a bunch of fluff with a high GPA the later option will maximize OP's chance of being admitted to the top schools. The ideal choice would be to get high marks in a demanding program at a top school. But, based on the fact that OP is asking this question in the first place we can assume he or she isn't in that boat.

It's a cost benefit analysis. I want to challenge myself, but I'm not going to take Quantum Physics in the name of a challenge, knowing I would struggle.

[MGH1989]

Don't feel guilty in the sense that its boosting your GPA making you look good for law schools. Feel guilty because easy classes like that don't prepare you at all for how hard lawl skool is going to be. I purposefully made final semester of my senior year really hard so that I'd be in a "working hard" mindset because of the advice my lawyer uncle gave me. I know I ran the risk of burning out, but at least I won't be shocked by the lawl skool workload.

I understand what you are saying in regards to "hard work" and getting in that mindset, but realistically are there classes that can truly prepare one for law school?

[splay]

You should feel guilty if you essentially avoid difficult classes altogether, but if you're taking easy classes as some of your options its not a big deal. That said, I imagine a third year history course on fascism in Europe taken as an elective will be looked upon with more regard than taking intro psychology or something.

I can only hope that adcomms will look at my 3.3-ish GPA in philosophy/classics more favorably than a 3.9 in physical education. I can only hope...

[MGH1989]

You should feel guilty if you essentially avoid difficult classes altogether, but if you're taking easy classes as some of your options its not a big deal. That said, I imagine a third year history course on fascism in Europe taken as an elective will be looked upon with more regard than taking intro psychology or something.

I can only hope that adcomms will look at my 3.3-ish GPA in philosophy/classics more favorably than a 3.9 in physical education. I can only hope...

Well I am taking a course like this in my major as an elective. It's a third year Fascism and Communism course.

[KibblesAndVick]

I can only hope that adcomms will look at my 3.3-ish GPA in philosophy/classics more favorably than a 3.9 in physical education. I can only hope...

[splay]

Oh come on. I would probably put money on it.

Adcomm: "Ooh, a 3.9. Acce... Oh... it's in phys-ed. REJECT!"

[rando]

I can only hope that adcomms will look at my 3.3-ish GPA in philosophy/classics more favorably than a 3.9 in physical education. I can only hope...

not going to happen

[scionb4]

Don't feel guilty in the sense that its boosting your GPA making you look good for law schools. Feel guilty because easy classes like that don't prepare you at all for how hard lawl skool is going to be. I purposefully made final semester of my senior year really hard so that I'd be in a "working hard" mindset because of the advice my lawyer uncle gave me. I know I ran the risk of burning out, but at least I won't be shocked by the lawl skool workload.

I understand what you are saying in regards to "hard work" and getting in that mindset, but realistically are there classes that can truly prepare one for lawl skool?

No - but if you are in classes that make you work really, really hard, at least you will know what its like to work really, really hard. It would be hard to truly prepare for what you will go through in bootcamp, but its still a good idea to get yourself into shape so you aren't shocked when you get there.

[Borhas]

for my electives? I know the goal is to have the best GPA possible for law school, but I kind of feel like I'm selling my self short here. Intro to Sociology? Intro to Womens Studies? Lifeguard class? Running Class?

no, but you may be a dullard, that's its own punishment

[KibblesAndVick]

Oh come on. I would probably put money on it.

Adcomm: "Ooh, a 3.9. Acce... Oh... it's in phys-ed. REJECT!"

If you were given the choice would you rather apply to schools with a 180/3.9 in phys-ed or a 180/3.3 in philosophy? I'd take the former and laugh all the way to [strike]the bank[/strike] YHS.

On a side note, think of how cool it would be to have a 180/3.9 in phys-ed. You would probably be a huge meat head and you could Van Wilder undergrad. Think of how many girls you would pull with HLS as your pick up line. You'd clean up quicker than Chazz at a funeral.