<p>I’m a high school junior and I often find my self having to pick between fun with my friends and my sports v.s. my schoolwork. I am an excellent student and academics are important to me but I wonder if I will regret the fun I missed out on. On the other hand, I feel guilty when I go out instead of studying.
College students: Do you wish you had played or worked more during high school?</p>
<p>As a senior in high school, I definitely regret not giving as much effort in my first couple years of high school. However, I wouldn’t say that you can’t get a 4.0 and have fun all the time. Getting A’s in high school is pretty easy. Just don’t procrastinate. </p>
<p>When I was in high school, my friends went out almost every weekend and partied and drank and did drugs and all that. I have never been much of a partier at all. I never went to a single party until senior year, and then I only went over breaks (Thanksgiving and Christmas) when I didn’t have to worry about schoolwork. In many ways, I much preferred staying home than partying anyway, so I was content even back then.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends or other people made fun of me for staying home and actually reading the assigned books/writing essays before they were due etc. At the time, it sucked, but I told myself it would pay off in the end. Staying home and working in a sense became part of my identity.</p>
<p>This is not to say I didn’t have fun. I had plenty of fun and did plenty of cool things my junior and senior year. I was just smart about the choices I made. I didn’t lose any friends over it, and I don’t really feel like I missed out on anything. The only problem that I feel has come out of it is that I still find myself not going out much in college and resort instead to my high school ways. While this was not a problem in high school at all, I feel like I will regret not going out or having fun in college. </p>
<p>In the end, for the record, staying home and doing my work definitely paid off. The vast differences in SAT and ACT scores, GPA, and acceptance letters were enough to show that.</p>
<p>I’m 30 and wish I’d tried a bit harder to be social in high school–I wonder if I’d tried to actually be friends with the “popular” kids if I might have actually scored a party invite or two. But. I do not regret at all my academic zeal and the choices I made in high school (including being an exchange student, for which I paid a serious social penalty). They paid off and got me what I wanted–out of Georgia, to an elite school on a scholarship. Twelve years out of high school and I’ve had life experiences and career successes my peers haven’t had. No one is doing anything particularly notable (other than my fellow nerds who didn’t party and also went to elite schools out of state!) I had plenty of fun once I was done with college. No regrets! </p>
<p>@nickxx Getting all A’s in high school is easy, sure… if you go to an easy school. Last year, the only person in the entire senior class at my school that kept all A’s was the valedictorian, who was accepted into many top 20 schools. Regardless, many other people who DIDN’T make all A’s were accepted into equally selective colleges and programs - Duke, the BHP at UT, UPenn, etc. I get slightly ticked off whenever I see anyone imply that getting all A’s in high school is “easy”. It really depends on the school you go to. And no, people don’t have a hard time making A’s in my school because they procrastinate - the workload is simply ridiculous. Regardless of anybody’s work ethic, everybody has a hard time keeping all A’s, even the few that do manage to pull through.</p>
<p>That said, my response to the actual topic: The only thing I really regret was not doing more ECs/volunteering freshman/sophomore year. Junior year I went out pretty frequently with friends mainly to alleviate the stress of a heavy workload, but only if we knew we had time to do so. We didn’t “party” though - mainly just going out to eat good food and have a good time, nothing illegal. It’s absolutely absurd that many people think they need to drink or get high to have a good time, though I’m sure that doesn’t apply to most people here on CC at least. It’s funny though how the “popular” crowd at my school are the honor society presidents, those ranked top 10, those who are taking classes that are meant to be taken a year or more after their grade level, the people that make it into top 20 universities, and so on. We’re a nerd school I guess.</p>
<p>I almost never go out. I have so many fun things to do at home. Read books, look through the telescope, play the piano. I also have a job that takes up a lot of time. Being a natural introvert, I don’t see the need to go out when I can enrich myself in so many ways in my own home.</p>
<p>College is quite a few years behind me, but at no time in college did I or now do I ever wish I had worked harder in high school. I worked pretty hard - I was in a Magnet honors program, and took an AP-heavy schedule my senior year, so I spent a lot of time studying and doing homework. But given my program, all of my classmates were also all spending a lot of time studying and applying for colleges senior year. We were a pretty work hard/play hard kind of group. (All of my classmates went to college and many went on to graduate degrees, so I have a lot of HS friends who are doctors, lawyers, engineers, PhDs, teachers & administrators, etc. This is pretty remarkable since we were all mostly black first-generation working/lower-middle-class kids.)</p>
<p>Due to my parents’ religious background I didn’t spend as much time socializing with high school friends or on the extracurriculars I really wanted to do, and THAT’S what I wish I did more of in HS. I think in the long run few people look back on HS and say “Sigh, I really should’ve studied more AP Chem on the weekends!” But people may have wished they had tried out for cheerleading or went to more parties.</p>
<p>Same thing about college: after being a top student in high school, I wanted to spend more time developing myself socially, so I was an above-average but not excellent student in college. I graduated with honors, but just barely. I don’t regret that a single bit. If anything, what I ‘regret’ is not being even MORE socially outgoing and doing more clubs and activities in college. It also worked out for me, since I just finished my PhD and work as a research scientist now, yay.</p>
<p>I think it’s hard to think about what you regretted when you are still in it. A HS senior might ‘regret’ not spending more time studying in freshman or sophomore year because of anxiety about getting into college, but a happy college junior who’s already successfully into his or her choice and doing well probably won’t regret it. And quite frankly, my 10-year HS reunion is this year and I almost never think about HS. When I chat with my HS friends it’s mostly about their new jobs, new marriages and new babies. Every now and then somebody posts a really old picture (we all went to Magnet middle school together, too, and many of us started Magnet together in the fourth grade - so tight-knit group) and we’ll laugh at it, but that’s it.</p>
<p>Probably what a lot of others would say, I wish I was more focused and tactical for high school so that I could excel more in the areas that I wanted to and have more fun while also not working as hard / doing things I enjoy.</p>
<p>I don’t go to a top tier school and I barely missed the top 10 of my graduating class. I should’ve focused my efforts on taking courses in the high school’s engineering program as well as focus on my math/science extracurriculars over trying to compete in the maximum AP course game. I also probably could’ve found time to attend a lot more social events and develop those skills, but aghhhh</p>