Avoiding Course Selection Red Flags At Top Colleges

In this episode, we break down how to think about high school course selection when different admissions “rules” seem to conflict. Using the case of an actual student, we explain why many students who are particularly strong in one area (e.g. STEM vs. humanities/social sciences) often create subtle red flags to admissions officers. Finally, we discuss the problems with the typical framing of “X vs Y” course selection decisions when deciding between classes and demonstrate how students can think more outside-the-box when solving admissions dilemmas so that they don’t make unnecessary trade-offs.——“The Game” is hosted by Sam Hassell and brought to you by Great Minds Advising.Great Minds Advising’s unique, hands-on mentorship program and its deep strategic insight into the application review process have earned the company a nation-leading track record of excellence, with 100% of its students gaining admission to a top-choice school in the 2025–26 application cycle.Its students have recently gained admission to Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, and WashU (among many others) and are admitted to the Ivy League at a rate 14x the national average (90% when applying early).Web: greatmindsadvising.comContact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contactNewsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletterEmail: [email protected]: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising