My very very ambitious goal: Make USAMO
@tonystarkofwinterfell it’s cool that you’re starting an earth science club! Do you happen to like planetary science? I did an internship in a planetary science lab last summer and it was awesome. A goal for my school year is similar (start an astronomy club). I hope it works out! And good luck to you with your clubs.
My goals for this school year are to get a good score (33+) on the ACT and the new SAT, start an astronomy club, get all A’s, get a job, and get into a good science program next summer.
My goals for the school year: survive. But in all seriousness, I want to do well on the ACT/SAT (whichever I take) and the PSAT, pass all the AP exams I take (esp AP Spanish!), keep my grades around where they were last year, still do my extracurriculars, and find a nice summer program for me to do.
;-; school starts Tuesday… I’m so excited and nervous at the same time.
@Faultystart Hey I’m also learning AP Spanish! Self studying though… many sweatdrops. Do you know what materials you’ll be using yet?
Good luck on your goals 
mine are looking pretty similar. What summer programs are you thinking of?
@coffeeaddicted yess I love planetary science! I love pretty much any aspect of earth science (especially geology) and any aspect of astronomy (especially planetary science, astrobiology, and astrophysics) 
I’d start an astronomy club at our school, but the old one went defunct, so I’m not sure how open ASB would be to let me start a new one.
@coffeeaddicted Do you have any tips on getting an internship in such a lab? Since I want to go into astronomy or astrophysics, I need as much experience as possible, so do you have links for good programs in that field?
@tonystarkofwinterfell that’s too bad 
hopefully the earth science one will be successful! I think high schools need more earth/planetary science and astronomy to raise interest in these fascinating fields that many people know little about.
@otonanokaidan the internship that I got was actually quite informal, although I did work a lot, learn how to code, and will now be the coauthor on a few papers. My advice would be to email around like my dad (he works at the university) and I did, because many professors have such opportunities for motivated high school students who are willing to do some intern jobs (Often manual labor, but you never know, as was the case in my internship). Just be confident and know that there’s no harm in sending out a few well-worded emails that show you’re motivated and willing to do some work.
I know there is the SSP (summer science program) but I don’t know more than what there is on the website and I’ve never done it. There are threads here on CC that list all the good science programs, and I encourage you to pursue one if you can!
@tonystarkofwinterfell I’m also starting a club! I’m starting HOSA! It sounds so cool…an earth and science club!
I’m also hoping for a 34+ on my ACT and get the Merit Scholarship from the PSAT.
Do you guys think training to hike 14ers will count as an extracurricular? I can’t do it as an extracurricular through the school but I really enjoy hiking and am currently training for it.
To all of you who want rigorous science programs, here is a good website to find selective summer science programs. It’s an MIT website so they will have MIT summer programs first, but if you scroll towards the bottom, you will find other selective science and math programs throughout the country.
http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/summer
@athenanv13 HAHA, I feel you. I was so unproductive this summer. I spent half the time I wanted to on ACT prep and even less on PSAT prep. School starts in a week for me, and I still have to finish my biology reading book (which is actually overdue at my local library as I type this!), biology reading packets, literature essay, and psych reading packet.
My goals for this school year are to procrastinate less (sigh), go to sleep before 11 p.m. on school nights, be an awesome neuroscience club president, be more vocal in school, get a 34+ on the ACT, get 5s on my AP exams, 750+s on my subject tests, enter a lot of writing/photography competitions, hopefully get an internship or lab experience through a program, be more kind to and respectful of my peers and elders, and enjoy life more. I honestly don’t think I’ll complete half of these, but maybe I’ll surprise myself this year.
@Ciella My class is using Vista Higher Learning’s AP Spanish book. I’m not sure if we’ll be using anything else though.
On another note, I’m thinking of starting a chemistry club at my school, but I don’t think many people would be interested…
@athenanv13 Yes definitely! I am a hiker as well, I have hiked a lot of major peaks in my state and I think I would be able to write a quality essay surrounding that. You should totally put that in. There really aren’t too many people that are into outdoorsy activities and I’m sure adcoms would like it
@sprights last year with boy scouts I hiked 50 miles on the AT in Shenandoah National Park. It was a lot of fun. Goals for this year include
2100 plus on the SAT
5 on AP Bio, Calc, and Lang
32 plus on the ACT
750 on the Bio SAT
Get more service hours
Win on It’s Academic, a Baltimore Quiz show
Up my class rank to at least 2
And definitely win regionals in 100 backstroke
Lol it’s gonna be a tough year:)
@sprights Thank you so much! What mountains have you hiked? I usually hike mountains with my family or friends in Colorado (where I live) but none of us have hiked a 14er before (except one of my friends)!
@coffeeaddicted they really need to do that. We don’t even have a geology and/or astronomy class at my school. We used to have them, but they got rid of them five or six years ago, as demand was low for any classes that weren’t AP or Honors. Sometimes I hate my school.
@047pusapatys That’s my goal too! It’s definitely a reach for me though, since my AMC 10 scores weren’t that high last year. junior year is going to be soo busy as well. What were your amc10/12 stats last year?
Has anyone’s schools started doing the PARCC tests? My high school just started making juniors take it since last year but I’m so confused if I’m supposed to study for them or if they’ll impact me in any way during college apps.
@imbep49 Yeah my school started them last year. Not a single person tried on the exams, short of about two people. Most kids either didn’t show up for testing, or slept during the testing time. I’m not too worried about there impact on college apps. I could be wrong, but it might vary a bit by state.
@athenanv13 I have done the major peaks in SoCal, including mt. st jacinto and I have hiked mt Whitney took three days!
@imbep49 PARCC test are horrible! Everyone at my school opted out of it, because they have no impact on college whatsoever, they are very hard and a time-waster (at my school, you have to skip class and make it up later. Ok, I was kidding, not everyone opted out, 13 people took it in my class out of 760. That’s 747 who opted out! My advice is to opt out because they are useless tests. My math teacher last year was actually encouraging us to opt out saying “I’m not telling you to opt out but the opt out forms are in the office.” HAHA
@sprights Wow! Three days! My family has never had much time so we’ve never done any hikes that last more than 4 hours. That’s why I really want to do a 14er.