<p>Katie–</p>
<p>I take it you are a junior in high school. </p>
<p>A long time ago, I went to a mediocre suburban high school. I studied, but it wasn’t really necessary to do much work to get good grades. Then I went off to college. I studied a LOT more --and got good grades. I was also incredibly happy because I loved most of the “studying” I did. Most of the “studying” was reading about things that interested me. So, instead of devouring a couple of novels a week, as I had in high school, I read the reading assigned for classes. I spent a lot more time studying than I had in high school, but I’m not sure that if you added together the time I spent studying and reading for pleasure in high school that it would be much less than the amount of time spent studying in college. I did have to WRITE a LOT more, but it sounds like you can do this quickly and well. </p>
<p>So, while I would agree with others who said only you can figure out if you can do this–and, after all, you may not get accepted–I would suggest that you figure out how much pleasure reading you do in a week, add it to your study time, and if totals at least 20 hours a week, I think college will be less of a transition than your dad fears.</p>
<p>Since you apparently don’t attend a particularly difficult high school, you might want to pick up and read through one of the many books out there about how to study smart in college. </p>
<p>How much other people study has very little to do with how much you will have to study. Light years ago now, my kid and I went on a tour at UChicago. We ended up talking to our guide for a few minutes when we ran into him later. I asked how much he studied. He sort of blushed and started something like “on average, UChicago students study about…” I interrrupted and asked how much he studied. Answer: about an hour a day, sometimes less–well, not on Saturday, when he didn’t study at all. GPA --he was a junior–4.0. (Yep, he had a free ride to UChicago. )</p>
<p>Now, obviously, the kid was a genius and few people can do that. But that’s why one person’s experience isn’t really a bench mark for how much work you will have to do. If you can do your work FASTER than your classmates–it isn’t that everybody at your school can do the little amount of work you do and get the same results gpa-wise–and you enjoy ideas, then tell your dad to quit worrying. You’ll be fine.</p>