I’ve been meaning to write something, but have put it off for a while because I felt it was too recent for me to discard my emotions and prejudices. Now, though, I feel I’m preoccupied enough with other troubles to take an objective look at these ones (gate-control theory shout-out for those of you who are furiously studying for AP Psych right now). I’ll do my best to try not to repeat any pieces of advice that I don’t have something to add to.
For those of you who don’t know me, here’s a quick summary: I’m the guy who retook a 2380 to get a 2400, retook a 790 to get an 800, 5’d 13 APs, and 800’d 6 SAT IIs, who emerged as the or one of the dominant figures in all six academic competitions my school offers, and so on and so forth. For a fuller picture, I’m in all of the HYPSM results threads.
And before I start, a quick disclaimer: I did all of this stuff because I’m competitive, and I loved every minute of it. If I knew retaking the SAT would get me rejected from Yale, I would’ve done it anyways because I wasn’t going to get beat by that test. If testing and competitions is what you love to do (as it is for me), this doesn’t apply to you. Keep doing what you’re doing, and the results will be what they’ll be.
But I know this isn’t true for a lot of people - maybe even most. Most people study for the SAT, or the AP test, or Academic Decathlon, or whatever because they have to do well to get into college. Or at least they think they do. This is to the people who, in the back of their minds, are always worrying about how something will look on their resume.
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Tests won’t save you, so don’t sweat them too much. They certainly help (Mifune and Anonymous93, who have very similar scores, were much more successful and I didn’t exactly do horribly myself), but no matter how good you are, you’re not going to be the first test monster adcom has seen.
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If you ever think to yourself, “That doesn’t sound fun, but it’ll look great on an app,” don’t do it. For me, this means community service. I never did any. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. When I think about the great memories of hanging out with friends around town and unsuccessfully chasing girls that might be replaced with memories of pulling weeds and taking out the recycling, I know I made the right decision.
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Turn in an application that you can be proud of. I spent literally five months writing my essays. My College Essays folder has 214 drafts, rewrites, and final essays that I just ended up not liking. I wanted to say, as I turned in my essay, “If I had a million years to write an essay, this is the one I would want to turn in.” And I did.
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You are not a robot. Believe me. I tried to be, until I realized being a human being is much more rewarding at about the end of sophomore year.
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Your peer group is important. The next three in my school rankings are also three of my best friends. Hanging out with them all the time really pushed me to be better, and conversely I had more fun pushing myself because I was hanging out with them all the while.
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It’s really not better to be feared than loved. But if you’re not going to be loved, being feared is pretty awesome too.
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Using academics as a fixation for your emotional excesses and a way to bury your problems can be a viable strategy, at least in the short run.
And some CC specific-stuff:
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Don’t spend too much time on this website.
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Don’t do chance threads. They’re stupid. Even though the people in mine were pretty much on the money.
As I’m writing, I’m warming to this stuff and becoming emotionally reattached. I’ll close by saying rejection hurts. You can’t really appreciate how much it does until it happens. Even as I go off to what is (according to USNews) the best university in the country, I’m still sore about that other best university in the country that I tried and failed to keep myself from putting on a pedestal. As I rationalize and distance myself, I feel like a lego that was knocked over and put back together with one of the pieces missing. So my last piece of advice isn’t to not have a dream school. I tried not to, and sometimes you just can’t help yourself. That’s what dreams are: involuntary. But try to appreciate what you do get, whatever it is, and be happy for those who have what you coveted.
After reading this, I understood a little about why you retook a 2380.
Princeton is so lucky to have you. I don’t really know what else I can say, except that I meant everything that I said. Anyway, I hope that one day you decide to come back to CC and that you see this.