<p>I hope this works, If you want you can give future student one piece of advice for college.</p>
<p>My advice: Do not dream the impossible, because you will be let down, if you were an average student in high school, chances are you will not be the best student at your college regardless of how much hype you have, it happens to everyone, set your standards to a realistic level so you dont disapoint yourself, and believe me you will.</p>
<p>You should also think about what you really want first, I was a 3.0 student in high school and I really convinced myself I would get into Harvard (No Joke)…And the motivation I had was unimaginable, once school started, every thing changed believe me…There was no way possible that I would at the same time:</p>
<p>Maintain 4.0
Work at a bank
Join student government
Join scholars program
Join Honors society
Start a club
Volunteer
Work out
Take full on 5 unit classes
make friends
find a girlfriend</p>
<p>And it strange but true, I might as well added find cure for cancer or end world hunger…Come on, don’t obsess</p>
<p>I absolutely agree on your point that: “set your standards to a realistic level”.</p>
<p>For example, for students who used to get C, setting a B standard will be good. For students who managed to get some C,B and A, set your standard to only B and A. For students with no C, set your stand to not getting B but only A. Even these standard is hard to reach but still not be impossible.</p>
<p>sure you don’t want to be unrealistic with your goals but i wouldn’t use high school as a guideline to set them. people mature differently, i know i did and high school was certainly not an indicator of how i should have set my goals for college.</p>
<p>^ Exactly, most of us who did bad in highschool did so because we were not motivated, not because we lacked any mental capacity that you overachievers have :-P. I say try your best, study something you find interesting, and of course prioritize! Impossible is nothing, and like Walt said, dreams do come true (I know mine did!). Be a realist to yourself, but do not let anybody tell you that your dreams are unattainable and always remember ‘if you fail to prepare, you prepare yourself for failure!’</p>
<p>People get low GPAs in HS all the time for many different reasons. Divorce, death of a parent/sibling/friend, drug problems, undiagnosed medical/mental conditions, or they were simply unmotivated or went to a school that didn’t challenge them and just tuned out. I would say that if someone realistically tried their hardest and still only maintained a 3.0 in HS, then maybe the dream of a top university might be an unrealistic option. It comes down to learning capacity and motivation.</p>
<p>CC is where students who did poorly in HS have a chance to show to themselves and admissions committees that they have matured as scholars. I know that I greatly improved my GPA in cc (although it DID take quite a few years before I was mature enough to completely focus on my education).</p>
<p>Noworlater> looking at the list you posted I can see at least 6 or 7 items that aren’t as important as the other 4 or 5. You overloaded your priorities. Did you try to do everything/anything on the list? If so, did you do things that would benefit your education or your personal life or did you look for a balance of the two?</p>
<p>^ I completely agree. I’ve seen plenty of people with terrible GPAs during high school only to completely ace community college and transfer to a good school. CC is a time for a fresh start and to redeem yourself, and many people do take advantage of that. To tell someone who got a 2.0 during high school to aim “realistically” for a 3.0 is really selling themselves short.</p>
<p>I had a horrible freshman-junior years in HS, especially soph which was covered in C’s. Senior year did dual enrollment program and got a 4.5 weighted and now have a 3.93 in college which would be a 4.0 had one teacher followed the schools grading policy (gave me a B+ for a grade that should have safely been an A by 3 points), and I was dumb enough to think I could get an A on a credit by examination (computer class) on which I barely earned a B.</p>
<p>Grades in HS do not mean all that much. I was unmotivated, distracted by parents separation, and really just distracted around friends really not caring about grades as long as I passed (never got below a C in HS though). Realized my potential when I did dual enrollment and was exclusively on college campus. The freedom and lack of distractions (I did not choose the best group of friends in HS) really helped a ton.</p>
<p>This fall I will be a student government senator, have 2 internships totaling a minimum of 30 hours a week (one for a CPA firm, and the other for supervisor of elections office), breeding and caring for a very large group of reptiles, honors program, PTK, but will only be taking 9 credits to make up for the 12 I will lose from HS when transferring this spring and finish prereqs. I currently have 65 credits and AA degree, but since I will lose 12 that went towards HS dimploma if I get into cornell, I will make up for it this fall and maintain junior standing. Shouldn’t matter though since I have 3 full time semesters under my belt while being ahead of my HS class of '07 (16 credits summer 07, 16 fall 07, 18 spring 08), and am only looking to get the rest of the classes recommended prior to transfer.</p>
<p>Highschool poor grades might not be the indication of poor performances in college as some of you agree on. However, the beginning years at college would not be a bad indication of college performance because it is already part of it. </p>
<p>My point is that if the students are getting C or D at the first year level undergraduate courses, aiming for a 4.0 GPA and transferring to Harvard or similar schools is clearly unrealistic goal. In a matter of fact, 4.0 GPA is impossible already once you got a non-A grade. My point is not “selling themselves short”.</p>
<p>We should have goals and our goal should be as high as possible but it should be a realistic goal. There is a balance of how much you want and how much you can do and setting the right balance for yourself is a realistic goal. Wanting too much with limited ability only ends up in impossibility. Great ability without any goal would lead you to achieve not much at all. Therefore, the best scenario is setting the goal as high as possible but still within your ability to reach is the realistic goal. Since every students have different ability, their realistic goals should also be different.</p>