Despite the title of this article, you should not take the toughest courses your college has to offer. Why not? Put simply, you are not qualified. If you were, that course would not be the most challenging one offered by your college, at least from your point of view. For the art history major, advanced organic chemistry is not your thing, guaranteed. For the mathematician, you will probably do quite poorly in a senior-level class on modern thinkers and philosophies. Musician? It would be in your best interest to stay away from an in-depth analysis of the economic crises that faced feudal Europe and their effects on twentieth-century Brazilian architecture.

What would be a better option, however, is to take a course, any course, for which you are qualified but will challenge you and stretch you academically. This does not, however, exclude you from taking courses outside of your major or minor content area. On the contrary, liberal arts studies (or "becoming a Renaissance man/woman" in the vernacular) is highly encouraged, but a part of becoming a learned individual is the understanding of your personal boundaries. To that end, taking as many courses outside the realm of the familiar is a great way to better your understanding of the world around you, and highly encouraged.

Now then, on to the topic at hand. Challenging courses for which you are qualified are beneficial in many ways. Undoubtedly you will be exposed to new content and new ways of thinking about content that you will never have seen by taking the easy route. In many fields, particularly the sciences, the path to truly understanding the simplest material lies in mastering the most complex. The more you know and understand about a subject, the more desirable you will be in the job market.

Beyond learning content with facts and figures, you can learn more about yourself. Yes, you can pull three all-nighters in a row. Yes, you can write a fifty page critical review of the Reformation (or fifty pages of anything, really). Yes, you can learn material on your own without being spoon-fed by a professor, a skill which employers would love to see. And yes, you can accept a challenge and try something outside of your comfort zone, a skill which may earn you a raise some day from those same employers.

The final advice is this: do not take the toughest course you can find, but do take a course which will stretch both your intellect and self-awareness. You, and your employer, will be glad you did.

Learn more about this author, Jeremy Hohertz.
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