I’m a junior in the East Bay area of California. My parents are somewhat crazy ^^
OK... they aren't quite nazis.
My grades haven’t been the BEST but still aren’t awful. And I’m super confused about where to go in life, what colleges, and Berkeley admission rates.
In any case, my last 4 years in about one blog post:
8th grade, decent grades, blah blah blah. 9th grade, doing OK, ended up getting a 3.8 first semester. HOLY SHIT SCOLIOSIS!
(And no, I didn’t break my neck or something…) Uber scoliosis surgery, C6-T9 if you know what that means. If not Google vertebrae levels and find out. If you are too lazy to do that look at
While in uber neck brace worked to D+ on iccup, epic failed at grades. Was out of school for multiple months Et al. became administrator on Wikipedia. Learned C++. Lost all my friends :/ (Yeah, sob story) Essentially it sort of set me up for what was to come which was…
Sophomore year
IN comes parents (yamato canon charged) pissed off because I didn’t get a 4.0 Pissed off at the best English teacher at my school for no good reason. Moving onto a tangent he now has lung cancer, and when I told them, they said that he deserves it…
I go into sophomore year and guess what. Get the new euro teacher, and everyone is cheating, and my parents are like “don’t cheat, it’s not ethically right” IN any case, he just kept on ramping up test difficulty to compensate for so many people cheating, and I got fucked. Got a 5 on the ap exam, and a B. Sort of like Usain bolt (thanks for the spelling correction) getting a B in PE. Have few good friends, everyone knows me, but nobody that well. Fail in trig, get a fail grade. Just get depressed. Go to counselor
Counselor was the opposite of above when dealing with me, but not with them…
We went in. He said, judging by your behavior you have a similar thing to PTSD, basically that I’m scared of my parents and depressed because of it. My parents get pissed, and we never go back. I have a feeling that when I left the room the counselor did something like that poster… Summer was quite awesome, got a lot done (including SCII practice :DD) (did SAT and although I didn’t like it I absolutely rape at it, and it’s something they can’t criticize) Also built a new computer. They yelled at me because I told them it wouldn’t take long and it took 3 hours. My parents actually become somewhat more reasonable because of SAT scores. I avoid arguments. I “go to bed” early (really staying up late reading, how stupid…) Then the flak starts coming in. I only have a 4.5… so bad. I get it up to a 4.65. I’m feeling much better, getting self confidence. Then, the long trek downhill. Starting after I started saying look mom, I’ve got this under control, you say I’m really irresponsible, but I think I can handle some more “privileges” (like a doorknob) things went downhill. She started saying how cocky I was, and how my grades would go down if I continued to be arrogant. She screamed at me, her fat flapping around her neck, while yelling ad nauseum with non sequiter. (You had rotting food in your backpack last year, you suck at life!) She started yelling randomly. Saying I wasn’t working enough. I lost self confidence I got TF2. I just started going screw this; nobody cares about me at home. Other people at school think I’m Ivy League material, which I’m not, and my parents think I should go to community college, yet push me to go to an ivy. I played a lot. A LOT. Didn’t study. Just said FML, screw this. I tried to play starcraft, I sucked. I did MUN and won awards, and was only criticized by my parents. This was the second lowest point this year. And then the college counselor from heaven came. Like a bat out of hell, she said, HELL YOU HAVE A CHANCE AT IVIES, lay off parents, you’re making things worse. Get your act together son, you have a lot of potential. You can do this! I was extremely motivated coming out of this, but this just led to the second pit of depression. Following the calc grade crash of 2010, my parents surmised that this lady had made my self confidence too high. (Ignoring the fact that the calc test was BEFORE the lady…) and started to lay into me with personal attacks. 1. I have no friends 2. I lie to everyone 3. My friends know #2, but won’t tell me 4. My teachers barely tolerate me 5. I’ll be sad when my peers get accepted to colleges and I don’t 6. I act like I’m 5 (Yes, it actually was a Tuesday) This lead to the “no motivational period” My priorities involved 1. Forgetting about my parents 2. Yeah, that’s it Solution: team fortress 2. 100 hours, in two weeks. Fail grades. Fail And then the subject of the last blog…
However, I’m just feeling depressed now .I may have screwed myself over. Mreow. I just want to know how screwed I am.
I think my cum GPA in high school will be about 4.3, maybe 4.2, if I do well for the rest of the semester WORK WORK WORK. I’ll get a 2300+ SAT, and have won 3 gavels for MUN, and do academic decathlon. I live in the east bay, and probably want to do either some sort of computer science/programming work, or business, or a flat econ major Although I don’t’ expect a great answer, I’d like your input on where I can/can’t go in California. Also, do you guys have any recommendations on schools farther away? I figured I’d stay in California, but at this rate…
SPECIAL EXTRA!
Was just talking to my mom about rice. She insulted white rice. Thought you ought to know. She said I'd have to buy my own white rice, cause she's going to always make brown. Heck, short grain white rice is $6, I think I'll make the extreme sacrifice.
Secret rant blog is a brag blog. Man, when it comes down to it a 4.3 gpa is very good and many people would take a 2300 SAT. You can get into a lot of schools with those kinds of numbers. Really, you'll probably look back in a few years when you are in college, say "Man high school sucks", and be very happy with where you will be then, though I can't provide college recommendations.
That being said, white rice isn't as not bad for you as brown rice is.
On November 18 2010 10:15 Comeh wrote: Secret rant blog is a brag blog. Man, when it comes down to it a 4.3 gpa is very good and many people would take a 2300 SAT. You can get into a lot of schools with those kinds of numbers. Really, you'll probably look back in a few years when you are in college, say "Man high school sucks", and be very happy with where you will be then, though I can't provide college recommendations.
That being said, white rice isn't as not bad for you as brown rice is.
Lol, friend predicted people would call it a brag blog, but lots of my friends are outdoing me :/
Also, I understand brown rice is better for you, but she got very err, emotional about rice selection.
Read all of it - pretty great blog, can relate to a lot of it minus the pressure from home which in my case is seldom outspoken but always implied.
Just keep it up yo, if you get into an Ivy, that's great! Don't think too much about where you want to go (well, somewhere more than a driving distance away from your parents is probably a healthy idea) - just strive to have your options open until you do. If you start working towards a goal you might feel content once you realize it's doable and slack off - has happened to me many times.
Lastly - why did you have to include the white male bit? This would have KILLED the 'asian blog finders' win streaks - hell, you even have a paragraph in there about rice oO
On November 18 2010 10:18 Thrill wrote: Read all of it - pretty great blog, can relate to a lot of it minus the pressure from home which in my case is seldom outspoken but always implied.
Just keep it up yo, if you get into an Ivy, that's great! Don't think too much about where you want to go (well, somewhere more than a driving distance away from your parents is probably a healthy idea) - just strive to have your options open until you do. If you start working towards a goal you might feel content once you realize it's doable and slack off - has happened to me many times.
Lastly - why did you have to include the white male bit? This would have KILLED the 'asian blog finders' win streaks - hell, you even have a paragraph in there about rice oO
On November 18 2010 10:25 Luckbox wrote: Your grades/work ethic at school are your decision and they affect you. Don't let random douchiness from parents/friends get you down, fuck em.
You'll make more friends once you leave school and get into work - who you are now isn't who you'll be tomorrow, or the day after, or the week after.
PS: TF2 is the suck.
TF2 is the win, when you have time. As is Starcraft 2, when you ahve time.
Your parents sound like douches. Go to college, then when parents get empty nest syndrome super hard you can mail them white rice with a note saying "fuck you".
You're never really "screwed" because of doing poorly/being unmotivated in school. Back in Elementary school, you had to get "good grades" to get into a better JHS. Once you get in, your elementary school grades doesn't matter at all. The same shit repeats for JHS-> HS, after you get into HS, all your grades in JHS is useless.
and the same shit repeats for HS->College, and College->job. Your HS grades stop mattering as soon as you complete your first semester/year at college. If you want to transfer, they evaluate you mostly based on your college grades and ignore your HS ones.
And once you get your first job and start working for a bit, I'd say your working experience is more important than what your grade was for undergrad (unless if you were a 4.0 ivy league wizard)
just make it to college man, and then live your life how you want
oh and don't major in econ, it's 50% handwaving; you'll find you have the aptitude to do something more technical. i would recommend looking into applied math
if your parents are making you depressed....... bro thats bad parents are supposed to be supportive and honestly if they aren't maybe its time to leave them behind
Just don't become one of those kids who goes to college and says, "OMFG NO PARENTS, ILL SHOW THEM NOW," and then parties until dropping out. Had a couple of my high school friends try that - they regretted their decision.
I think you should know how stupid your parents are. My dad is sort of like your parents except he's not as mean and doesn't yell as much. My dad doesn't know SHIT about how school works and shit like that cause he's so blindly nationalist towards Taiwan and always talks shit about how straight A's are so easy and I'm so dumb etc. Just don't let it get to you. Just keep doing what you do, don't let them bring you down, you know they're dumb as fuck anyway and don't know shit about how the academic system works. And when they attack you with those personal blows, just talk back. You gotta stand up for yourself man, and with your grades you have a high chance of getting into UCLA, but considering what you want to major in, maybe even try Caltech?
Education-wise, there is no one event that will drastically alter the trajectory of your life. It won't be the SAT, it won't be the day you receive admission/rejection letters (though it can easily seem like it), it won't be the GRE, it certainly won't be that one midterm in AP history. Your success is much more correlated to your work ethic (or at least, ability to work without distractions when the situation requires) and the ability to develop connections, at least as far as undergrad goes.
Which is why, in my opinion, going to a school (w/ good research but not incredibly name recognition) close to home with a scholarship can be a better choice than going to a school w/ high name prestige.
You still work your ass off--by no regards is this an easy way out--getting good recommendations and whatnot, but at least you're not terribly in debt when you're done with your degree. I guess I was lucky to have Asian parents that didn't care too much about ~school prestige~ while engaging in the offline equivalent of e-peen contests w/ other parents.
TL;DR having a good work ethic and ability to develop good relationships with people that have power means a hell of a lot more than the school you get into, and don't get tricked into thinking the latter is a good gauge for the former.
Thanks bbq &Omg, insightful. I don't have the BEST work ethic, and so my thought is set a goal to get to UCLA or Berkeley level, and if I do better, good, worse, then I tried.
Dude if you rape your tests and write a bombass personal statement your chances of getting in an Ivy are pretty solid, not to mention UC's. I was waaay more of a slacker than you, barely breaking 4.2 or so? can't remember but I had a ton of 5's and 4's under my belt and a 1580 on my SAT (back when it was out of 1600). Got into all the UC's I applied to and went to an Ivy. If you have the stats to back it up the UC's will take you in no question, there's so many people I know who went to Berkeley that really didn't deserve it and UCLA lol. You sound like you're fucking set so fuck your asian parents, apply the fuck away from home, you got the numbers to do it.
With regards to bbq ftw, he's right. I dunno how your financial status is but if you can't get a scholarship to a private school it might be more worth it to just roll with the UC's. I know kids who went to Yale and wasted their money and kids who went to Riverside who are getting their PhD's right now, it all depends on the person. But at the same time, the big names can sometimes be a help getting your foot in the door and the Ivies are definitely no slouches when it comes to research. You can blog about choosing schools later though.
Edit: And don't worry about other kids in your class "doing better", you probably go to a school filled with asian kids right? They're probably getting into UC's ezpz so you should be okay, if you were at my high school which was 70% hispanic you'd probably be in the top 2% of students.
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