<p>I am an Asian male that is taking honors Pre-calculus Freshman year and I want to drop down into an easier class so I can get that A. Right now I have a B- and it really lowers my GPA by a lot.
But at the same time, I want to be able to stand out from all my fellow Asian peers who are taking the same course, but they’re as good as, if not better than me at not just math, but everything. They all do orchestra, chem-olympiad, bio-olympiad, math-olympiad, and a ton of other academic extracurriculars which I cannot handle. Some of them have won national math competitions and some of them are taking calculus this year. A lot of the girls are entering national writing competitions and winning as well. How do I stand out from the smartest people when I can barely handle pre-calculus.</p>
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<p>A single B- hardly does anything to your GPA, unless you have a bunch of Bs already. I wouldn’t drop the class solely on the basis of the B-…did you just have a bad test or something, or do you really not understand the material? Wouldn’t dropping down into a lower math class mean retaking something you already took and presumably did well in?</p>
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<p>What are you doing right now? What are your interests? What are you good at? What colleges are you looking at?</p>
<p>First of all, I think that you should just stop comparing yourself to all the other Asians.</p>
<p>Well first the teacher is also Asian, (no not my dad lol), but he has a lot of the same expectations that most Asian parents have for their children so he grades very strictly and expects the best out of his “honors kids”. Honestly the class average is probably lower but he doesn’t believe in curving grades and so the class average remains quite low (I’m in a different class then most of my same-age peers. I got put into the less competitive class) I understand the material enough to get the basic concepts in the book, but he makes up his own questions which always catch me up and deduct a ton of points from my test grades. The questions he makes up are just “extensions of the material” but as many of my classmates can attest to, they’re hard. I would have had at least a 3.87 unweighted but it brought me down to 3.64.</p>
<p>Well I play half court basketball with my friends afterschool and I play League of Legends. I’m pretty decent at debating, and I’ve been trying to get a focus in my extracurriculars.
Eg: Debate, MUN, Speech, maybe even drama
Any advice on clubs/extracirriculars?</p>
<p>Well to be honest I don’t know enough about colleges to make a list or something, but a definite reach school would be Princeton.</p>
<p>just fyi, many of those kids in USABO, USNCO, AIME, etc. do not even get accepted just because of those things.
you shouldn’t worry about them if they do not actually interest you.
just do whatever you actually enjoy doing, and make something awesome out of it.
a special talent or interest would really make you stand out.
and you shouldn’t have to ask for confirmation from other people if something will make you stand out, instead you should do it just because you are genuinely interested.</p>
<p>in short, enjoy school, do what you like to do, and don’t worry so much about objective stats.</p>
<p>Do what you like to do. If you don’t know what your passion is, start experimenting with outside of school resources.</p>
<p>Two things will make you successful in life:</p>
<p>Doing what you love.
Not being lazy.</p>
<p>The best way to find something you love is to try everything. High school is a great time to do this. Once you find something you love, dedicate EVERYTHING you have to it. One day wasted could become a lifetime spent with regret.</p>
<p>sluchy523 is totally right. The best book about getting colleges to notice you is Mike Moyer’s “How to Make Colleges Want You.” The key is “non-teenager activities.”</p>
<p>Here is a book you should read: “How to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get Into College By Standing Out (Without Burning Out)” by Cal Newport. It talks about how to swim against the crowd, especially in ECs, to make yourself stand out. Now… you still have to have good grades and test scores. But stop butting heads on everything with every other student, and find things you are interested in that are on a somewhat different path.</p>
<p>@Animefan1998: “First of all, I think that you should just stop comparing yourself to all the other Asians.”
That is a silly thing to say. Because “all the other Asians” are who he will be compared to during college admissions. If he doesn’t compare himself, then he’s going to have a HUGE rude awakening during senior year when he finds out all his peers are going to HYPSM and he can’t get into any school of that caliber…</p>
<p>OP - If the things that the other Asians are doing don’t interest you, and if you don’t have a knack for those things, then don’t do them. The key to getting colleges to notice you if to excel at whatever it is you’re good at, no matter what it is! Maybe enter some debate competitions? Try for leadership positions in Junior State of America or Debate Team or whatever other related club is at your school? Definitely keep up with basketball and try to be good at it because athletics is NOT common among Asians, so it would look good if you could not just be good, but EXCEL at it. Basically, the key is to aim to be the best at whatever it is you plan on committing yourself to.</p>
<p>Also, ORCHESTRA is so common among Asians that being anything less than SPECTACULAR at it would only hurt you, not help you. </p>
<p>As for your pre-cal dilemma, definitely do not drop into a lower class, especially not at this point. A B- does not look as bad as you think. If you want to raise that grade, learn the material and study hard, not DROP into a lower class. I think it might still possible for you to get an A if you ace the final and the rest of your exams? If you persevere, it’s possible. Plus, you’re a freshman, so you have 3 more years to raise your GPA. And test scores to balance out a mediocre GPA.</p>
<p>Just try hard and maybe use the time you spend gaming on those things? </p>
<p>You can compete by maxing out AP credits and college units and abusing the heck out of them at a decent but generally considered low tier college.
You can then stand out with practically nobody matching you. Prepare your career path (you don’t need to attend a prestigious college) well ahead of those playing the good college game and you might be finding yourself with the edge–time not getting paid with the job you have in mind is opportunity cost / money.</p>
<p>@peachmarmalade, how do olympiads hurt asians in admissions?</p>
<p>@Iamthecan, I hope you’ve taken all this advice to heart. I guess you truly have to change your mindset in order to stand out, and do less typical asian stuff. I have a question for you. Did you notice a trend that asian girls are really good writers and win a lot of writing awards? Why do you think that is?</p>
<p>@ScrewCC I didn’t say they “hurt”. I just said that those applicants aren’t accepted solely based on those science competition experiences. In other words, not doing them will not drastically harm your chances as long as you do what you like to do and it shows in the application.</p>
<p>Thought: theater/drama, debate, slam poetry/spoken work, + public advocacy work on an issue you care about. </p>