@RMNiMiTz For some of the more prestigious schools I’m applying to my family makes enough that we won’t have to pay much or anything at all to go there. The thing about making less than what schools cost by $10k is that you’re bound to get at least decent aid (at least I hope so). If things don’t work out the way I want to I could always go to my state school even though I don’t want to. It’s an option whether I want it to or not.
I’m almost finished with my study guide for my world history final! I have a Spanish test tomorrow, a trig test Tuesday, and then it’s just finals. I also got a 94 on my research paper, so I’m happy about that. I hope to work on my finals packets as much as I can during the school day so I can focus on my ACT on Saturday. Bama changed their merit so now I need a 33 for $25k/yr. My practice tests have been 31, 33, and 31. Ugh.
@carmen00 I’m feeling the same way. Howard raised its merit scholarship, so I’m retaking for a 34. I wonder if they superscore for scholarships? :-/
Does anyone know any tips for pacing on the Math section of the ACT? How long should I spend on the first 30 questions? I find I always spend too long on that part even though the questions are easy. I almost never miss questions in that half, so it’s not the material for me either. I read that doing it backwards is sometimes helpful if you are already confident with being able to do the first 30 in a time crunch. What should I do so that I have enough time to work on the last 5-10 questions?
@Hamlon Where did you find the information about test scores for Howard’s merit scholarship? And sorry, I don’t have any timing tips.
Although I don’t know the exact amount of time, my math teacher told me to do all of the problems you can do in less than a minute first then move on to the harder problems.
@Hamlon I don’t think there is a strict time distribution and it changes for each person. However, I would really recommend not going backward. Each question is worth the same number of points and the ones at the beginning are easier questions so by going backward you run the risk of spending too much time on hard questions and letting a bunch of easy questions go. My tip would be if you don’t know how to approach a problem withing 15 seconds or reading it skip it and come back to it at the end. Also, take use of programs on your calculator that can be very helpful for things like geometry formulas and quadratics etc. I have a bunch PM me if you want some.
@dietcig A friend told me. I couldn’t find the updated scholarship either until they gave me this link:
https://www2.howard.edu/admission/cost-of-attendance
@kassh4 @madison2000 Thanks y’all! Guess I know what to practice this week.
If I remember correctly you’re supposed to have 9 minutes per passage and the set of questions. Which when you think about it, nine minutes is not a lot of time when you have a little bit more than a page long passage and a large amount of questions.
I just looked up the set up of the ACT and since you have 60 minutes to do 60 math problems. So I guess you get a minute per question but some won’t take you a minute so you use the leftover time to work out the more difficult problems.
So is anyone here perfectly okay with attending an in-state university because you’re pretty much a shoe-in at? Like I feel like I have a semi-good chance of going OOS, but after how my grades are looking this year (no C’s, but more B’s than A’s), my GPA is going to take a hit. I’m still figuring things out and I guess all we can do is hope that this time next year, we’re satisfied with where we’re heading. 
Also, do you guys believe rank should not be considered in the admissions process or done at your school? I’m honestly leaning towards yes because it’s already getting ugly when it comes to ranking here. If I was in the race for valedictorian, which I’m definitely not, I feel like I would’ve just said by now, what’s the point? I guess it could help you get into top colleges and could be presented in your resume, but is there really much else other than bragging rights? I mean, I’m pretty sure in the real world, you don’t know exactly where everyone stands in comparison to you. You won’t know who gets paid the most or who truly works the hardest (probably because there aren’t many exact ways to measure that sort of thing). I’m pretty sure it’s meant to focus on the idea of not feeling like you’re competing against others, but focusing on bettering yourself and controlling what you do. This “rant” isn’t meant to hate on valedictorians of the past, present, or future, but based on a discussion with my future Philosophy teacher. We were talking about the positive and negative effects of elitism. The positive, being that it encourages people to work harder to be on top, but the negative being that it causes people to worry about what they can’t control as well as what they can, this being what I said. I feel like I’ve felt some of these effects which is probably causing me to have an inferiority complex. There are probably more, but that’s what I thought of then. He also said that becoming valedictorian is now becoming less special since “standards” are constantly being lowered, which I kind of agree with. Apparently they changed the grading school 7 years ago and before, a 94 - 100 was an A. They basically lowered the percentages four points. But yeah, again, no hate to any future valedictorians, I just kind of miss the days of middle school when I didn’t worry so much about getting a good GPA. I essentially liked learning much more back then because most of us were focused on doing our best, rather than competing against each other. “Rant Over” :))
Also, do you guys still believe graduating high school is still an accomplishment? I’m honestly so sick and tired of seeing comments on graduation Instagram posts basically arguing whether or not it’s really an accomplishment since you got your whole life ahead of you. I consider it to be a personal achievement and accomplishment since as defined by multiple dictionaries, it is considered to be an act or task that is successfully completed, no matter how insignificant or significant. I do however, believe that it’s more of a low achievement, since almost everyone in a graduating class manages to graduate, so it’s not as unique, but it could still be considered a personal accomplishment because, unlike waking up each morning, it’s something that only takes place once in our lives and graduation is considered to be a congratulations for what we’ve done. Some people have literally given it there all and have done much more work than needed to be on top and its seems like people consider it to be nothing now because of “lowering standards”.
My in-state public university is actually my number one choice. I fell in love with it when I toured it. But I do not feel that I am a shoe-in to get into, since it’s such a high reputable school that has a low acceptance rate. But my backup schools are surrounding state schools in which I can get into with a waiver that would get me in-state tuition. I feel like some in-state schools get bad reps while others have great reps.
@ak2018 I am okay with going to my in state University, but I’d rather not. I feel like I’m to dependent on my parents and that distance wild allow me to actually mature into an adult. Also, family problems have me drawn to the other sure if the country.
As for ranking, I don’t think they should be used in the college process or throughout high school. I’ve seen our “future valedictorian/salutatorians” fight over the positions and I feel like this ranking process promotes cheating. Also, I don’t think that I should be penalized for taking an art class every year (choir). I could never give up taking advanced choir, but I am slightly resentful if the school system which believes that advanced art classes deserve no merit.
I do not think that graduating high school is an accomplishment when applied to my life/goals. I think of it as more of a mile stone or perhaps a right of passage, something to be celebrated but not particularly congratulations-worthy.
It also depends on how far away your state school is from your home. For me it’s about 2.5 hours which is a perfect distance for me. Now if it was less than 2 hours than I would be more reluctant to go there because that it pushing too close to my home. Since I am the oldest between me and my brother, my parents will check-in more with me than they will when my brother goes to college. By putting just enough distance between me and them it allows for my freedom but it also allows me to easily come home on a three-day weekend or when needed.
@ak2018 I would love to go to my state flagship, but it is way to expensive and offers 0 merit aid. My state-related schools are crazy expensive and the state schools don’t really have what I want. So I’m chasing merit at out of state schools. My in state flagship is over three hours away, so it’s definitely not like I’d be too close to home.
At my school, no one cares about rankings. My school is more of a community and all the kids in honors courses are always looking out for each other. We have most of our classes together so we don’t really compete. Rankings don’t really matter and no one talks about them.
Graduation, for me, is a milestone. I’m excited to celebrate all the hard work I’ve put in over my high school years. But for some people in my school, graduating is a huge accomplishment. Some people never believed they could make it. One of my best friends always thought she would end up dropping out, but she’s all set to graduate next year and only needs two more classes. So for her, it’s a huge accomplishment, but for me, it’s a milestone.
I had a guidance appointment this morning in which I finalized my schedule for next year and went over my college list. My mom was at the meeting with us, and I ended up taking 2 reaches – Caltech and Princeton – off my list and added a safety – CU Boulder – that she wanted me to apply to. My counselor wants to meet again before school breaks for the summer to go over my list more in-depth.
New and final schedule:
AP French
AP Literature
AP Calculus AB
AP Physics C
Honors Band
New college list:
UMaine
CU Boulder
McGill
Oberlin
BU
Harvard
MIT
People at my school wonder out of curiosity who is at the top. My school doesn’t have valedictorian/salutatorian, but instead has a medal named after someone important in my school district (idk) that is awarded to the top four in the class.
All of the people in honors classes have been together in those classes for all of high school or even longer. We’re friends. We don’t compete with each other, but work together. We’ve worked together so long that there’s little or no competitive sentiments but only feelings of collaboration and friendship.
My school does weighted GPA in a way where taking regular classes doesn’t really hurt you, so it is hard to game the system and get first. Personally, I like the ranking system. It puts everything into perspective. For example some schools near me it is so easy to get a 4.0 UW GPA. At my school, i am willing to bet nobody has a 4.0 UW. I am 2/250 and I don’t have a 4.0 nor does first. The ranking shows if your school has grade inflation or grade deflation. Maybe I’d think differently if people here were super serious about rankings but it’s pretty chill and nobody takes it that seriously its just something minor.
@ak2018 I’m applying to two in-state publics. The first is a safety I have no doubt I’ll get into. It’s affordable and seems to have lots of options I would like to explore, so I would be totally happy to go there. The second is my state flagship, where both of my parents went and somewhere I would absolutely love to attend, but it seems to prefer STEM over humanities, which deters me.
As for rank, I don’t think it should. In larger schools, being #50 may not be that different than #20, yet when listed on an application, it’s obvious which will be favored. Given the intense stress culture at my school, I’m incredibly grateful we do not rank.
I think whether graduating high school is an accomplishment or not depends on one’s situation. Personally, it’s not something I’m that proud of. I’ve read a lot of stories about teachers being forced to pass kids through classes they should have failed, and I could definitely see that happening to “problem” kids at my school. With that being the case, I will be proud that I academically pushed myself during high school and succeeded, but the actual graduation itself won’t mean as much.
I’m not a big fan of my in state flagship for a few reasons: cost, lack of scholarships, size (hugee), and engineering is an impacted major.
But I think I found my new favorite safety school today! I went to this tech day event and there were a lot of mechanical engineering booths from the University of Idaho and they explained some of their projects and how the mechanical engineering program was taught and I really liked it! Its not in state but its like 2 hours from my house which idk, eh. BUT WITH NATIONAL MERIT I GET A FULL RIDE SCHOLARSHIP and I like this option much better than the other full ride nmf schools I’ve seen mostly because of geography (I really don’t wanna go too far south cause I don’t like heat that much). Plus its a small school which I want, and apparently one of the girls at the event I went to (mechanical engineering major got a full ride to Cornell (I think that was it but either way it was prestigious) for grad school so like you can do well if you work hard!
The only two negatives right now are location (not urban) and they don’t have one of the languages I want to study (Russian) but I think for such an option for me personally otherwise (especially the full ride) I can deal with that.
AHHHHH this actually probably knocks a few other state schools that I had some issues with off my list (OU, ASU, UBC). I’m still gonna apply to my state flagship cause my friends will get mad if I don’t and the college I’m currently dual enrolled and I’ll apply to my matches and reaches and hope for some good merit!!
Of course I still need to visit it but that shouldn’t be too much of a hassle and ahh!
Ok end rant I’m happy.
I also cant afford any super prestigious schools bc they wont accept my credits and don’t give merit aid, but thankfully that’s not that important for my major (engineering) and I could always go for grad school when apparently for tech fields they give more funding.