getting into your dream school is an anti-climax

Sligh_Anarchist
Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:07:00 +0000

@ Caillebotte

Would you want to go to a school with an 84% acceptance rate, 40% six year graduation rate, and SAT ranges of 350-480 for each section? These are the kinds of schools that some of my fellow AP students (yes, AP students) are will be attending because they have this mentality that senior year grades (or previous years of high school) don’t matter. “It’s just AP Calculus. Why are you doing homework? That’s so lame,” says many of these students. What comes around goes around, and this applies to college admissions as well. You got into Cornell because you were at the top of your class, high SAT scores, etc. because you EARNED it. I will be attending Haverford because I consistently worked hard throughout high school to cultivate not only my academics but my intellectual enrichment as well. It paid off in the end because of the amount of effort that I and many of us here on CC have put into it. It’s conservation - what you put in is what you get out. Taking that quote out of context is inappropriate. Sure, I could be all “politically correct” about lazy students who criticize those who work hard during senior year and their subsequent admissions letters, but I am not because that’s the not the truth of the matter. You know what I am seeing right now in my AP courses? I see students who brag about not writing papers and then complaining to the teacher, “Well, you must have lost it. I ALWAYS turn things in!” I see students in Calculus class neglecting entire problem sets then mindlessly copying down answers. Screw the physics work as well. It doesn’t matter.

Personal responsibility and the real world are going to hit many of these students fairly soon. Sure, my words were harsh (out of context), but they are the truth.