..These days have LOST THEIR MIND!!!!! Has anyone on here ever been on College Confidential??(If you havent you probably will after this lol). It is just a shining example of the extreme pressure teenagers are being put through to achieve perfection. Taking 5+APs, multiple sports and clubs, community programs and services, getting minimal sleep daily, etc. ITS RIDICULOUS! Going to Harverd, Yale, Ivies and the such arent worth all of this. Its always great to try, but you should not encircle your life around it. Truthfully, you will be just as successful going to a well rounded UC or Uni. I was/have always been a A+ student(except Sophmore year, my god that was a train reck :C), I took all honors and a few APs, took all the SATs and ACTs, etc..etc... Basically, I was quite above average. But I only ever did what I could whilst still enjoying life and being happy. I studied and took courses I was interested in. I had/have friends and went/go to parties. I LOVE writing and am currently working on my debut series. I play the piano, read, and exercise daily. I get my 8 hours of sleep lol. I ENJOY MY LIFE!! No occupation requires a degree from a specific TOP ranked college. Nothing in life requires it. Once your in the field it really doesnt make a difference truthfully. Your YOUNG. Sleep in and take naps, play video games, hang out, go to parties(responsibly of course) if thats your thing. Write if that is your passion, draw if thats what you love, play instuments and make music if thats your talent. Success and Prestige are great and you should always strive to be the best you can be, but let us not forget that we only have one life and if we do not live and enjoy it to the fullest than what was even the point of having one?
I see nothing wrong with putting extensive effort into it if it's what they really want, and its not just pressure from parents to do it. Of course overdoing it to the point of damaging yourself is bad, but this just isn't the case from most. A major life goal of mine is to have a graduate degree. I have zero problem with short term discomfort to achieve that long term goal. Modern culture has a problem with seeking instant gratification as it is. I just can't see focusing too much on school as a problem for very many people. If anything lack of effort or commitment is going to be a bigger problem.
I said that they should strive for success and their goals. Their motives are very good. But a "graduates degree" doesnt require even a fraction of this. There is certainly an issue in society along the lines of seeking instant gradification, however, the extremes on either side are both with fault. Its not like there isnt a middle ground between not doing enough and doing way too much.
I agree with vyvance. I know classmates who are in much more intensive courses than me, to the point that it really damages their personal life. However, this is their choice, and I do not judge them. I know that, in America, college is extremelly valorized and planned ahead from birth, something that doesn't happen in my native country, where the system is very, very different. I might end up applying for an American college, but that will only be if I get some REALLY good SAT/ACT scores, because my grades and school participation are, honestly, not that impressive
Getting so involved and taking all those AP classes in high school has served me extremely well, and I can't say I regret it at all. Sure, it was a lot of stress at times, but that's how life goes sometimes, and if you put just a little bit more effort to stand out amongst your peers, then it does wonders for you and takes a ton of stress later on down the line. I'm really not trying to brag when I say I was basically a super student in high school. I suppose I'm unusual in that I actually didn't intentionally do it at first. My parents never pushed me that hard. I was lucky in that I went to a high school where being involved and getting good grades were actually considered cool, and that happened to line up with my priorities. I joined clubs, teams, and took all AP classes because I wanted to, and it was kinda the thing to do. It wasn't until my junior year that I realized how good I was at it, and then with college looming on the horizon, I started pushing myself, padding my resume, working on my well-roundedness. There was a great satisfaction to it all, and though I was very socially awkward at the time, I still made great friends, hung out plenty, and had tons of fun, all the while dealing with a workload that has more than prepared me for college. Overall, high school was a great experience. I was still enjoying being a kid, yet the workload pushed me to grow emotionally, intellectually, and athletically, and I believe it has set me up for success in a competitive world. The only ones who are depriving themselves of sleep and having regular mental breakdowns because of the workload are those who can't handle it yet are forced into it by outside expectations, doing it with the sole focus of getting into a highly ranked school. The College Confidential board is known for attracting these types. For fear of rubbing people the wrong way, I won't share my opinion about the school prestige thing but to say that getting into the group of schools that includes the Ivies, Stanford, and MIT is almost completely arbitrary because they get so many highly qualified applicants, and that's why so many freak out about wanting to get into them.
EC wont let me qoute for some reason o.o The only ones who are depriving themselves of sleep and having regular mental breakdowns because of the workload are those who can't handle it yet are forced into it by outside expectations, doing it with the sole focus of getting into a highly ranked school. The College Confidential board is known for attracting these types. This was kinda of "ranty" so I can understand how my point was kinda of vague. But as I said, I get it. I took all the most difficult course as well and do not regret it. I took them because I love the difficult and interesting subjects that are dealt within them. They are alot more interesting. But aside from wanting some extra college credit, thats why I took them. People who know me know that I am the strongest advicate for higher learning and top notch academics. But only for the sake of yourself. What bothers me is when I see 14,15, and 16 year olds on facebook, or CC, etc.... talking about how. "I'm not looking forward. I going to have 6 APs, Vasity sports, some clubs, Student Government, and volunteering. I'm not getting any sleep next year :/." All of these kids are loosing their mind to try to get into the "perfect school", which they probably wont get into because of the other millions kids doing the same thing. I wasnt saying "oh kids dont do your homework and go play". Dont stress yourself out and base your happiness on whether you get into harvard or not. If your gonna succeed, succeed, but do it for yourself not because you feel like you have to prove something to everyone or cant be happy unless your in the "top school in the nation".
I don't know how to phrase this properly, but I would not call you average. You sound very lucky to be a naturally intelligent person who can get A+'s and still do everything else they want but it's not so easy for other people. I got a reasonably low offer for university (AAB on a course that gives an offer of A*AA to 70% of its successful applicants), but the only way I can meet that offer is to work my ass off, and so I did (and I'll see if it paid off in a month). The only way I was going to get an offer from a Russel Group uni was to do a shitload of extra curricular stuff, that to be honest I didn't particularly enjoy, to put on my personal statement and get high predicted grades, and then get the actual grades by doing a lot of studying. I've been studying almost all the time for the past two years and I've worked my average grades up to A's in all my classes, but that is with A LOT of extra work put in (3 of my 6 teachers have been incompetent to the point that one was fired and the others no longer teach a-level, so I had to teach myself the whole syllabus for their subjects). For the careers I'm looking to go into, I need to get a good degree from a top uni, and the only way for me to achieve that was to put in a lot of effort. Comparatively, I have quite a low goal; I know people trying to do Law and Cambridge and Engineering at Imperial College who never take breaks. For some people, that level of work is necessary to achieve their dreams.
Attending a high college means challenge. And there are intellectual students that do not want to waste their times bored in class because his or her other classmates do not comprehend the material they are learning. I for one, isolate myself to all those people, because they are immature and are not willing to learn. For me, I was raised in Little Lamb Academy to Diliman Preparatory School since my frist school year. Sure, I did not make straight A's in DPS, but it is the hardest school to be accepted in the Philippines; therefore, when I had to move to U.S. I had to attend a lame public school... and guess what... I made all straight A's each year, and it bore me to death. All I am trying to say is that there are people out in the world who loves to study and loves the challenges ahead in life unlike some others. In addition, dreams can not be achieve greatly unless with harsh challenges. Like I always say, "The harder the course, the more rewarding the triumph". To be honest, I enjoy having work piled on me because there are not much things I would even want to be doing; however, that is just my characteristic. It's different for every person. For you, you want to party and get through school by luck probably, but for me, I am not content with parties(I don't know why) and I want to achieve more than the other students and not pass by luck. Furthermore, your goal is maybe graduate and attend a college to get your degree, for me it is more than that. I want to graduate from Yale, or any private university for the fun of it and the lavishing atmosphere. And I'm not proving anything to anyone, I'm just doing it for me and myself only. Proving to myself that I can achieve even greater things. I also do XC, Bowling, and Track for school. As well as League tournaments and Community events in my bowling alley. Sure, call me crazy and whatnot. Geek or nerd. I could really care less because I am enjoying what I love to do ! I adore being different. *Evil Laugh* x)
I agree with Gen. High school works great for a certain type of person. I was and still am not that type of person. I am perfectly willing to and capable of working hard, but unfortunately the things I like to do -- programming, math, science -- don't make for good extracurriculars. Also, my high school, like most, didn't have have that many courses in these areas, and what they had was not particularly good. So for all four years of high school I had to spend 90% of my time on things I didn't like doing. It doesn't help that I had horrible teachers who thought that essays and long "creative" projects were by definition substantive assignments with high educational value. For example, my economics teacher thought that having us make mock business plans would help us learn about the economy. I would think that as an economics teacher she should know better than most that designing a business teaches you next to nothing about how the economy at large works. In short, working hard because something is challenging is one thing. Working hard because something is poorly executed is another matter entirely.
Maybe it's just a US thing then. Over here, at least under my knowledge, I've never heard of any super-prestigious universities that require that degree of success and extracurriculars to get into. Certain programs at certain schools, sure; I know health sciences at my school is relatively exclusive and requires the 90+ averages with filled out applications. But beyond that, there are some schools who are more well known for programs than others (i.e. going for engineering at a school known for it's fine arts is probably not the smartest idea). The way I've always seen it is that at the end of the day, a degree is a degree. Certain degrees from certain programs offer up different opportunities, but the school you go to wasn't the most important factor. Where it plays in (from what I've heard) is if say, I'm applying for an engineering firm, but they were founded from X school and tend to only hire X graduates. Otherwise, the school itself doesn't matter much. What I do acknowledge is more important would be things like co-op placements and connections and such. For example, if you really wanted to do co-op at RIM, you'd go to University of Waterloo, because they're right beside each other. Beyond that though, a lot of people get hired out of school from successful co-ops, so their "degree" matters even less so. Hopefully that made some sense, I feel like I was rambling.
