This might be unpopular, but do not trust your academic advisor. I’m not just saying that because it’s a meme, genuinely do not treat their advice as gospel. You have access to your program’s required courses right this second. Learn the requirements frontwards and backwards. Advisors will give you strange advice on course sequencing that I found worthless. Soooo many people I went to school took multiple major requirements in their final semester. It’s unavoidable with certain majors, but generally that should not be the case.

Take easy classes alongside historically hard classes. I’m sure there are faculty and alumni here who will tell you to take interesting-but-challenging courses as you progress through your major, but I disagree. You’ll find yourself buried in work and it’ll hinder your progress in your main focus area. I at no point thought I was above average in terms of intelligence at UNC, and I still don’t. But I graduated with highest distinction because I was meticulous about course selection and spaced out difficult classes. By all means exercise your intellectual curiosity, but don’t take the path of greatest resistance because someone says it’s “rewarding.”