Give me some advice, please.

jingle
Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:37:32 +0000

Tallkid, at your age, I think it’s worth getting serious about your schoolwork. For most good students, this is a matter of becoming well-organized and disciplined, not about being brilliant. Many eighth-graders are just developing the maturity to plan ahead and to defer immediate gratification for long term rewards. No matter where you go to school or what your career ends up being, learning to plan ahead, and to complete tasks on time and to a high standard, will give you an edge.

At the same time, don’t focus too much on the most tippy-top, famous, elite schools. They are very hard to get into, and depending on your family situation, they might not be affordable. Besides, as I’ve told my kids, you don’t want to be the dumbest kid accepted at MIT. Better to be in the top half of the class at a less prestigious college or university, that caters to students in your ability range whatever that might be. There are many, many excellent colleges and universities in the US.

As for ECs, do something you really enjoy and are good at, and by your senior year you will likely be in the sorts of leadership positions that look impressive in a college application. But your academic record and test scores are generally going to loom much larger than your ECs for college admissions officers.

As for your math placement, don’t sweat it. If you want to major in a science or engineering subject, just take math all four years of high school so that you will have taken at least some calculus before you get to college. Even that isn’t absolutely required, though.