Advice You Wish You Had Known In High School

Pre-College Topics High School Life
101

<p>volunteer. colleges love that, and so scholarship committees. it’s good to volunteer with something kind of unique, too. and, try to volunteer outside of your church, which is something i wish i would have done more. volunteering in your church actually benefits you; i wish i would have spent my time doing things that would really have gotten my hands dirty. </p>

<p>do some research if at all possible. i hated it, but, again, my research is part of the reason why i’m going to college for free. </p>

<p>stay organized senior year. i don’t think i would have made it through college applications if i didn’t have all of my applications, recs, etc. in some sort of order. it’s really important. (wall calendars are helpful, too. i’m not a long-term planner, and the huge calendar that planned out my month really helped with that.)</p>

<p>do NOT get overwhelmed senior year. i’m trying to fix that, but it’s hard. i’m not going to lie: senior year is incredibly stressful. geez, and i thought junior year was bad. </p>

<p>take standardized tests before senior year. the last thing you need to do when you’re figuring out where you’re going to spend the next four years of your life is to worry about that silly SAT or ACT. just get it over with as soon as you can - you’ll thank yourself later.</p>

102

<p>–You have only one reputation. Don’t screw it up.
–If you want to start clubs, don’t put your best idea out first. First start some silly clubs with narrow focus so you can figure out how to do the whole leadership thing. Otherwise your best idea will probably end up dying.
–Don’t commit yourself to too many people.
–Your freshman and sophomore math classes will probably end up being your most important. If you coast your freshman year, you may have a hard time with upper-level classes. It’s probably better to work hard freshman and sophomore year and gradually start slacking off than the other way around. Well, it depends a lot on what classes you take.
–If you know any bad teachers who hate everyone and put very little effort into their teaching, it’s very important that you suck up to them. (This works best if you’re already a good student.) They might start looking at your grade when deciding whether to curve the tests, or just slap check-plusses on your homework without even looking at them. Or maybe they’ll let you, and you alone, eat lunch in class.
–Taking APs early (freshman + sophomore year) will help in that it’ll give you more time to study for them (you’ll have easier classes) but will hurt in that you may not remember the subject matter by the time you leave for college and pass out with AP credit.</p>

103

<p>Don’t wait to be in love. Just do it, get it done, and move on so that you put it in it’s proper perspective. I turned down some great offers, and now I spank myself for having done so.</p>

104

<p>Life is not all about school/grades/etc. Make use of what you have while you can and enjoy yourself. Try to put your life in perspective and prioritize. Sometimes there are more important things than a highg GPA.</p>

105

<p>you have to work alot harder. High school is really competitive, if you’re not unique or different from the rest of the crowd - you won’t get anywhere!</p>

106

<p>Never volunteer to do finish up health projects over the weekend and work on them until 3 A.M. in the morning and leave them in the car when going to the bus stop. >_<</p>

107

<p>^Haha, that sucks. Same thing happened to me when I did this big project a week in advance, but then forgot about it on the due date. The one time I don’t procrastinate, everything goes wrong.</p>

<p>Work on getting good relationships with your teachers. Life would suck if the person whom your grade depends on hates you.</p>

108

<p>I wish I had know how difficult it was to get into a college. I wish I prepared sooner for the SAT and SAT2’s!!! ahhhh I wish I could go back!!!</p>

109

<p>I wish I hadn’t of slacked off my freshman year</p>

110

<p>Don’t hang out with the wrong crowd.</p>

111

<p>This may be long-winded, because I’m narcissistic and love my own opinion. I’ll divide my brilliant advice into categories so you can sift through it…</p>

<p>SOCIAL – I came into high school after eight years homeschooling, so I was pretty shy and socially awkward. I only had one friend until junior year, then I broke into a few cliques and now I have more friends than I can keep track of. I would say join clubs, that’s what I should have done, they are usually very welcoming & people share your interests.
As for drama, don’t even try to avoid it, it will get you. Just play along, remember that it’s no big deal, and laugh when it’s over.
It’s important to remember that except for a few people, you won’t ever have to see anyone from high school ever again. Even the people you think you want to stay friends with will get removed from your contacts list one by one as you meet new people and slowly forget your old pals. Sad, but that’s how it almost always goes.
So don’t stress too much about your social life, just try to enjoy it.</p>

<p>ACADEMIC - Someone mentioned not letting your parents choose your classes. Not everyone has that option, I guess (I did), but you will have a much better slection of courses in college, and much better professors, so don’t resent the 'rents TOO much. Some people say challenge yourself, some say take it easy, I think they’re both good ideas. It all depends on what you want.</p>

<p>COLLEGE SEARCH - For the love of God, start ASAP. And do your college visits EARLY. If you have lenient parents, like me! :stuck_out_tongue: do a college road trip with your friends. A friend and I took a week off school and drove all over New England, staying at colleges, it was pretty sweet.</p>

<p>DRUGS - Stay away from heroin. Some kids at my school started doing it and it messed them up pretty bad.</p>

<p>TEACHERS - Tell them what they want to hear. Personally, it bothers me when people intentionally misrepresent themselves (posers!), but when it comes to teachers you have to, but they are subjective and control your grades, and WILL make your life hell if you **** them off, whether they mean to or not.</p>

<p>SPORTS & CLUBS - Definitely join some. I recommended either joining or founding your school’s Ultimate Frisbee team.</p>

112

<p>Get 'er Dun.</p>

113

<p>Don’t put your real email down on the PSAT/SAT, instead use a second email address that you never check (but that won’t regularly delete your old mail). Probably about 1 in 100 of the emails you’ll get will be of actual interest to you.</p>

114

<p>why put e mail in the first place? I never give info like that.</p>

115

<p>Once in a blue moon it’s from a college you actually like.</p>

116

<p>Hook up with somebody because honestly high school is one of the few times you will see very many attractive people in one spot…if you’re lucky.</p>

<p>Oh and don’t let people walk all over you.</p>

<p>And a personal one:
Don’t limit yourself to hanging out with just the smart kids.
Most of my friends aren’t in gifted or honors classes. In fact they’re as far from that as possible, but they’re some of my favorite people to be around.</p>

117

<p>The only good colleges aren’t MIT/Caltech/Ivies/Whatever. I’m turning those down for a college I hadn’t heard of a year ago.</p>

118

<p>I’ll actually somewhat disagree with people…</p>

<p>Do hang out with smart people. They boost your grades… somehow. I used to think that getting an A was good enough… but after I met my current group of friends… I wanted the 100% instead. This is probably due to the pressure to do well or better than them and the motivation that they gave me.</p>

119

<p>but people have limits in terms of their… mental capabilities. I mean, with some people, even hanging out with geniuses won’t help. Because straight A+s are just not for everybody.</p>

120

<p>There’s life after high school.
Don’t let the h8trs get you down.</p>