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Just in the past two days, I've seen a lot of happy people. Three of my senior friends got into Princeton, Brown, and Harvard(!!!) from EA.
I've also seen a lot of sad people. One person rejected from Duke was supposedly crying in the hallways today.
When I think about two years from now, I wish I didn't have to confront the truth: in two years I will either by crying or posting a YAY! status on Facebook. I don't know which it's going to be.
Right now, my ambitions are really small-do OK in school, study macroeconomics in my free time, do well at Speech and Debate. Looking at the portfolios of the students from my school being accepted into Ivy Leagues, I see ridiculous credentials like:
Editor in Chief of School Newspaper(best in region)
Founder of Genocide Awareness Club
Leadership Board, Speech and Debate
1 Gajillion APs
4.8 GPA
Interned at all the places
300 hours of community service
And that's just one person and what I know about him. I've just begun the trek to college admissions, but I'm just as worried as the seniors still waiting for their EA applications back.
I'm good at what I do, but I only have, at best, two extracurriculars and reasonably above average grades.
And that's not enough, is it?
 
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just got rejected from harvard EA. my blog from a few days ago can be read here http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=387629 for anyone who hasn't seen it and wants to.
Let me just tell you, it's like a wrench is in your chest. All the hope and hype you've built up for the past 4 years to go to your dream school is over.
i'm sure it's a phase; i'll get over it eventually. i was just hoping beyond hope that i'd get lucky.
it's a crapshoot, i'm trying not to sound overly pessimistic; just make sure you don't set yourself up for let down.
Good luck.
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Baa?21247 Posts
tips for getting into college:
1. work harder
2. be better
3. don't be asian
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On December 14 2012 08:29 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
tips for getting into college:
1. work harder
2. be better
3. don't be asian
That's about as close as you can get to the truth.
Honestly, grades are just a way to get your foot in the door. You don't know who's going to be reading your essays so there's no way to tailor your application so that you are guaranteed into any school.
Safety school are pretty much the only cases where your grades will really matter (beyond a certain point). The idea of a safety is that hopefully your grades will be good enough to get you into a given school regardless of how much your essays/other things may suck. However, the idea of a safety school pretty much vanishes when you go below the 30% acceptance rate where it's just spam as many as you can and see where the chips land.
The best thing to do as a sophomore is just try to find as many ways to stand out as possible--more compteitions in whatever, and to stay movtivated to do well in school. College decisions--just cross that bridge when you come to it.
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So, is GPA all it's cracked up to be?
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On December 14 2012 08:29 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
tips for getting into college:
1. work harder
2. be better
3. don't be asian
Can't say it any better, HIGH FIVE!
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I dodged a bullet with my college admittance. My university doesn't care so much about GPA but more of just your math grades and essays. A slacker in highschool like me got in with flying colors.
My advice from my times of high school are: get as high of grades as you can and practice a lot a long time before you take the SAT.
Other than that, reform and re-write/edit any admittance essays a lot, and have qualified people like guidance counselors or AP English teachers go over them with you.
Extra-curricular activities related to your major also helps a lot if you're going into a specialized program, but I'm not so sure of what to do and how to do it for traditional non-specialized entrance.
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Once you get into university, you will see how easy it was to obtain a good GPA in high school and still have plenty of free leisure time.
edit: But coming from a architecture student, its a different story. Art schools tend to care more of your creativity than pure grades and how many APs you have.
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e: First off, don't post a FB status about where you got in, so annoying to everyone else.
A few things about applying, from somebody who got into pretty much everywhere they applied but, if I summarized my accomplishments, probably wouldn't look very noteworthy. Certainly not that dude in the first post.
0 - write a good essay which shows off your personality and above all is well-written. My common app essay was about being afraid of car ferries, and it worked really well. Other friends at my school wrote essays about shit like their favorite bra, or nap time in kindergarten, and it went A OK. Less important what, more important how.
1 - GPA just needs to be above a certain level, same goes for standardized tests. That level is high, but not unachievable.
2 - speech and debate is literally the single most helpful extracurricular when it comes to getting into college (after, maybe, being good enough at a sport to get recruited). Be a debate captain and it will help your chances a ton, more than being an editor-in-chief at a newspaper, for example. So don't worry about having a ton of extracurriculars, just do well at the right ones.
3 - it's easier to found clubs than you think. Just talk to a teacher about it and pu tup some posters You could very easily be the proud founder of the macroeconomics club, or what have you.
4 - the number of community service hours you have is less important than helping in ways you care about. Anyone can put in time -- follow the stuff you are passionate about and it will count for way more. This goes for everything about college, actually.
5 - Don't get freaked out by EA -- my year I saw tons of people I thought were definitely going to get in not, and got myself really worried about it. I still got in everywhere I wanted to in the end, and am really happy where I ended up.
6 - Take the time to make relationships with teachers. It will give you good recs, but more importantly, you will get way more out of high school. Your teachers have far far more knowledge and experience in their fields than they could ever give in some shitty high school class, so talking to them outside of class is an incredible way to get 10x more out of high school intellectually.
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On December 14 2012 08:13 darthfoley wrote:just got rejected from harvard EA. my blog from a few days ago can be read here http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=387629 for anyone who hasn't seen it and wants to. Let me just tell you, it's like a wrench is in your chest. All the hope and hype you've built up for the past 4 years to go to your dream school is over. i'm sure it's a phase; i'll get over it eventually. i was just hoping beyond hope that i'd get lucky. it's a crapshoot, i'm trying not to sound overly pessimistic; just make sure you don't set yourself up for let down. Good luck.
That sucks man, but it really doesn't such as much as you think it does.
I honestly think the idea of dream schools is bullshit. When you set your sights on Harvard when you were what, 14? you probably knew next to nothing about the school, and were a totally different person. You probably still don't know much about the school other than an idea you've constructed from pop culture and canned routines from admissions people and looking at USN & WR.
For example: Harvard has a greater incidence of depression than any Ivy League school but Cornell, and has a student suicide rate 3-4x the national average. A lot of Harvard grad schools are less likely to accept a Harvard student than a similar student from another school, especially in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. It gets fucking cold as shit in the winter. Most professors are here to do research, not teach, and most of Harvard's resources go everywhere but the undergrads -- there isn't even hot food for breakfast in plenty of dining halls. Harvard doesn't have an actual campus to speak of, and you are as likely to run into a homeless person or a tourist as you are another Harvard student on your way to classes. People can enjoy themselves here, but it isn't some sort of panacea. The fact that asian housewives swoon at your school's logo or your high school acquaintances are jealous of you really doesn't affect your experience of actually being at the school.
I legitimately think that the differences between any top-tier school (by which I do NOT just mean the Ivy League) are incredibly minor, and I think that with your profile you will get into one of those schools, and that you will be happy at any one of them. Sorry if this came off as harsh, I really don't mean it to be, and getting rejected feels shitty no matter what, but it honestly truly is not a bad thing and will not affect your future life or happiness in any meaningful way. In fact, its totally likely you will be way happier somewhere else.
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On December 14 2012 09:29 Disregard wrote:
3. don't be asian
What is being asian having to do with getting into a US college?
Edit:typo
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Note: I'm a sophomore too!
My school happens to be an extremely competitive public school. I can see evidence of this myself, that a 3.9-4.0 UW and a 2350+ SAT should be given just to stay competitive as an asian kid; they're basically the foundation with which to actually start building an app.
If I were you, I'd just find something in terms of clubs that you like doing and join them. High school is a place to explore interests and to have fun. If they happen to coincide with some sweet looking extracurriculars, so be it.
Of course, if you're blatantly aiming for extracurriculars to distinguish yourself, aim for leadership positions. Most schools love leadership. Since I enjoy being in my clubs so much (i.e. science club, ultimate frisbee, volleyball) and am willing to put in a great deal of time and effort into them (producing results), it's not too difficult to gain popular support to be club pres or captain.
However, in the end, it's all a toss-up. I have friends that put up similar apps to the ones that you describe and get rejected from their dream schools. Don't get too down on yourself! High school is supposed to be fun 
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On December 14 2012 10:14 pebble444 wrote:What is being asian having to do with getting into a US college? Edit:typo
US colleges discriminate against certain races, IE if you're Black or Mexican you can get admitted with much lower scores/grades than if you're White/Asian.
"Presently, affirmative action expressed through Executive Order 11246 considers factors of "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." In the U.S., affirmative action's original purpose was to pressure institutions into compliance with the nondiscrimination mandate of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[5] The Civil Rights Acts do not cover veterans, people with disabilities, or people over 40. These groups are protected from discrimination under different laws.[15] Affirmative action has been the subject of numerous court cases,[16] and has been questioned upon its constitutional legitimacy. In 2003, a Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action in higher education (Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 US 244 – Supreme Court 2003) permitted educational institutions to consider race as a factor when admitting students, but ruled that strict point systems, such as the one previously used by the University of Michigan Law School, are unconstitutional.[17] Alternatively, some colleges use financial criteria to attract racial groups that have typically been under-represented and typically have lower living conditions. Some states such as California (California Civil Rights Initiative), Michigan (Michigan Civil Rights Initiative), and Washington (Initiative 200) have passed constitutional amendments banning affirmative action within their respective states. Conservative activists have alleged that colleges quietly use illegal quotas and have launched numerous lawsuits to stop them."
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do something cool that's not studying or sports.
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On December 14 2012 10:36 shindigs wrote:
do something cool that's not studying or sports.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5ACRu.jpg)
:D
Thanks for the advice everyone!
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Yeah, your GPA doesn't need to be perfect, just high enough to show them you take school somewhat seriously. Most college admissions people are looking for kids that are good for promoting their campus (aka well-rounded people). If you can show them you're well-rounded and/or have a passion early in life you've done all you can do.
And Apple up above is pretty much spot on. The only difference between the high prestigious colleges like Harvard and other colleges are the level of connections that become available to you. The educations themselves are very much alike other Ivy League schools (even less so because the profs are there for research as opposed to teaching). But if you want to connect with the best people, getting into a school like Harvard or Yale could be super beneficial (although you could argue you could do that at any decent state school).
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If you're not interested in studying really hard to keep a high GPA with an impressive course load, then you should consider state schools. Depending on where you're from, they could be very good academically and even present more opportunities than top private schools because they're so much bigger. I have a lot of friends (even the valedictorian of our high school who was accepted to MIT) who ended up at our state school and the ones that are working hard are finding good internships and/or research opportunities.
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On December 14 2012 11:07 nbaker wrote:
If you're not interested in studying really hard to keep a high GPA with an impressive course load, then you should consider state schools. Depending on where you're from, they could be very good academically and even present more opportunities than top private schools because they're so much bigger. I have a lot of friends (even the valedictorian of our high school who was accepted to MIT) who ended up at our state school and the ones that are working hard are finding good internships and/or research opportunities.
I'm from Massachusetts. As it happens, I have a wonderful backup in BU, since my father works there as a professor of botany and I would get free tuition if I was accepted there.
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Tip, be rich enough to not care about financial aid. Then you can apply ed, take advantage of double or sometimes triple admit rates and tell yourself it was merit and not privilege
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On December 14 2012 10:39 Praetorial wrote:Show nested quote +On December 14 2012 10:36 shindigs wrote:
do something cool that's not studying or sports. :D Thanks for the advice everyone!
I feel like speaking teams are practically an academic sport at this point.
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EPT
