Should I take Chinese classes in college?

I have gotten the general message that the difficulty of classes you take outside of your major doesn't really matter to IB recruiters and employers. Therefore, I have thought up the idea of taking a few relatively easy Chinese classes whose difficulty level is far from challenging for me to get easy A's. But I am actually an international student from China and possess intermediate skills in the language.

Could this strategy potentially backfire on me badly as they look at it as "cheating" for good grades? Or would they probably not even take a close look at my transcript?

6 Comments
 

If you do decide to take them, I don't think it would backfire. Even if they question you about what courses you took, you can always give some bs speech on heritage or how your parents wanted you to remain close to your culture. I wouldn't worry about it...However, if your GPA doesn't really need a boost just take whatever might be useful later on and don't waste time on sh*t that will bore you.

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Best Response

Seems like a thread like this gets posted every couple of months.

Take some fucking classes that are actually intellectually stimulating for you. A couple of A's in Chinese will only boost your GPA by a few hundredths of a point over the course of an entire 120+ credit undergrad stint. Take a class on film or linguistics or a different language, or add a minor in math or CS or something. You or your parents are pissing away 40-50k a year on your education. Do you really think it's cool for them to be spending effectively 10k a year so you can cut class in a subject you already know?

Banks may not look at your transcripts, but business schools and other graduate programs will. They will know that you went to high school in China and tried to pad your GPA in college. If your instructor is not an idiot, they will also know you are full of shit. I had a bunch of kids in my Chinese classes get kicked out or promoted to the reading/writing track courses for ABCs/CBAs.

Are you a PRC National or were you at ISB or something similar?

 
TracerSeems like a thread like this gets posted every couple of months.

Take some fucking classes that are actually intellectually stimulating for you. A couple of A's in Chinese will only boost your GPA by a few hundredths of a point over the course of an entire 120+ credit undergrad stint. Take a class on film or linguistics or a different language, or add a minor in math or CS or something. You or your parents are pissing away 40-50k a year on your education. Do you really think it's cool for them to be spending effectively 10k a year so you can cut class in a subject you already know?

Banks may not look at your transcripts, but business schools and other graduate programs will. They will know that you went to high school in China and tried to pad your GPA in college. If your instructor is not an idiot, they will also know you are full of shit. I had a bunch of kids in my Chinese classes get kicked out or promoted to the reading/writing track courses for ABCs/CBAs.

Are you a PRC National or were you at ISB or something similar?

I went to an international school in Hong Kong.

 

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