@DaEmmJay23 What are you planning to do the other half of the day?
@snowfairy137 I’m gonna go to the gym or do homework before practice becuase I play football, basketball, and lacrosse. I possibly will have a job, so I should be doing that after my practices. Also, college Apps in the beginning of the year, and enjoying life my second semester.
My school, for the most part, isn’t very competitive, but once you get to the top 10, it gets super intense. Literally the difference between valedictorian and salutatorian in the senior class this year is by 0.something. This year, when the sal. dropped an AP class, the val did too, because she was afraid that she would lose her spot. Which is really stupid, because she has dropped so many AP classes this year that I’m finding it hard to believe that top colleges won’t notice that when she applies.
Also, the top 10 is literally super rigged. In the senior class, some of the top rankers have only taken one AP, while my friend who is in 8th will have taken, by the end of the year, all 8 APs that my school offers. Our school weights them, yes, but it doesn’t compensate for people who get over 100s in regular US History (due to bonus points, extra credit, etc) versus a 90 in APUSH (which is still really good). The val. in my class literally dropped APUSH for regular US to get this edge on his grade.
Hi! Just now joining this thread lol. I can’t imagine going to a competitive high school. My school is pretty small so all the smarter kids just kinda boost each other up. All of us basically have the same schedule every year since we all take the most challenging classes. There really isn’t any competition to get the highest rank. We all know each other well and instead of competing we just help each other out.
There’s up to 70cm of snow here on Monday and Tuesday! This might turn out to be one very long weekend 
Graduating class at my high school is just over 1000 kids. About 20 each year qualify for NMSF out of Pennsylvania. There are so many opportunities and talented kids though, I love my school.
My school is fairly competitive. We have a very rigorous curriculum and as such, average accepted GPAs to top schools for us is lower than most averages (Tufts, for example, sits at a 3.7, and UChicago is at a 3.89). There are people who have disconcertingly high GPAs (I know one kid with a 4.2/4.3), but most of them generally have paltry extracurriculars.
Our graduating classes usually have at least 1/3 going to top schools. It fluctuates year to year, however (last year was particularly not a good year for us).
hey guys, just wondering, what do you guys do to get a feel of what schools you’re interested in are like (other than visiting ofc)? i feel like all of the school-specific pages on here are just ppl asking for their chances, and when i go on a specific school’s website it’s just them trying hard to sell themselves and i don’t really know what’s genuine.
@gormar099 What I do usually is go on youtube and see what I can find there. Also check if the school has a blog/newspaper you can read up on to see how student life is at the school. Like for example I like reading up MIT’s admissions blog page because its written by students and I get to see things from their perspective.
@gormar099
I watch vlogs
I recommend Cath in College(she goes to Stanford) and Katheroutings(USC). I dont really watch any other college youtubers. Ive heard of HeyReneu(something like that I think shes graduating from Harvard soon)
same I watch vlogs too
another good one is morgan yates (UNC - Chapel Hill). I love love love Cath in College because of her editing style and music choice, plus her friends seem super cool and idk it’s just interesting to watch people live their lives. Katherout/outtings has a lot of really good advice videos about college, but her vlog channel is really cool too except they’re also p long (8-12 minutes each vid)
another thing i recommend is to add your senior friends on snapchat before they go to college, especially if they end up going to schools you’re interested in. I have a friend who goes to georgetown in SFS and this election year her snapchat has been very interesting with everything that’s been going on
also i feel like some people overestimate how competitive/stressful their schools are
my school was ranked as one of the most challenging schools in the country, but if you talk to any of the top students in any of the grades, the main thing you’ll hear is that there really isn’t any competition and that the work is really pretty manageable. on the other hand, if you talk to the middle-bottom of the pack students, all you’ll hear about is how they sleep at 3 am every night and can’t manage to get good grades because everything is so hard and the competition is so tough and they blame all their stress on the school
ngl though my school is pretty hard. we offer 24 or 25 APs I think, but a typical max schedule for us would be 4 APs junior year and 5 APs at most senior year (with a study hall). in my grade, the top students are taking 3 APs plus precalc BC (which is all of precalc plus the calc ab curriculum) or 4 APs w/ precalc AB. And one of the APs is usually an “easy” AP like psych (which is actually hard af at my school) or comp sci.
we don’t have class rank aside from valedictorian and cum laude (top 10%) since it’s a small school, but 10-20% of the students get national merit
If anyone is looking for a good college blog/YouTuber, I reccomend Appsademia. Unfortunately she hasn’t been active lately, but her vlogs are fun to watch, and she gives good advice in her videos and Tumblr.
I started obsessively researching colleges the entire night, but actually getting a good night’s sleep would have probably helped me with school in general… Oh well! Its 5:11 AM, too late now. x)
I guess I can’t edit my above post now, but I just found out I have a 2 hour delay, just after I got ready… Go figure. 
I also recommend cat creature for anyone interested in art school (she goes to RISD), or the city of providence.
I watch Katherout all the time lol I think Katheroutings is her vlog and the other is her main channel.
I found out yesterday at 2pm that I didn’t have school today. We’ve gotten at least 2ft already and there’s been near whiteout or whiteout conditions all day because of the wind. The Department of Transportation for my state has even stopped sending road crews out to clear roads because of low visibility (plow truck drivers haven’t been able to see the roads). Hopefully it stops snowing soon. Everything’s coated.
I usually watch college acceptance reaction videos on YouTube. I’m starting to branch out into those vlog type videos that students from various colleges I’m interested in do (other than the generic stuff I watch on YouTube).
We had a 3-hour delay due to parent-teacher conferences and not that many people showed up.
Also, I got a letter from Questbridge that suggested that I should apply. They probably saw my PSAT score through the College Board.
Since the SAMS program deadline is drawing near, I’m going to go ahead and make a GroupMe:
You’re invited to my new group “SAMS Program 2017” on GroupMe. https://app.■■■■■■■■■■■/join_group/28917020/2Bb39j
@Soccer1235 I watch Katherine too! I even met her at USC when I went to visit, she’s so nice.