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Ever since my academic pursuits have went full-out, with me investing all of my precious time into crafting myself into the best student I could possibly ever be, I have always had the goal of getting into a prestigious university. Stanford. Harvard. MIT. You name it.
I was doing really well in school up until 9th grade, where, I fucked up. I got an around about 2.9 or 3.0 gpa on a 4.0 scale in the IB programme. From there on I was in a rage of fury, and that tough passion inspired me to do better, landing me a 98% average sophomore year and 93% during the junior year, all while taking fairly tough courses. I never intended this blog to be me basically bragging, but I understand that my dreams of getting into the amazing schools like Stanford, MIT, Harvard, UCLA, are all basically gone. UCLA, I feel like I might have a SLIGHT chance, because of it's holistic approach to candidates and the fact that I sugercoated the grade 9 fuck up with leader of a club, lots of volunteering, stuff like that. Other than that, I feel like what I've lived for, what I always dreamed for, is all gone. I feel like a walking bag of wasted potential, a guy who slacked off and didn't give a shit about school in freshman year. I got lazy, was getting used to highschool, tried to fit in with the 'cool kids', and wounded up screwing over my perfect plans for the future.
I'm going to be going face-to-face with other candidates, and these people are probably those that DID give a shit about grade 9, and didn't mess up like I did. Now I feel like I won't get in anywhere excellent. I feel like yes, I may get in somewhere 'good', or 'great', but the feeling of excellence and superiority will most likely be gone forever since I won't be able to attend any of the schools I listed above.
I don't know what to do anymore. I feel like a huge burden is set on my fucking shoulders, the fact that I fucked up one year, and that my future will suffer because of it. Everyone won't be proud, because I'm expected to achieve 'excellence'.
I feel like utter shit writing this man... SERIOUSLY, just that one year? Do the adcoms SERIOUSLY see your grade 9 grades, and check them out, and evaluate your character based on those grades??? Come on! They mean jack shit! I hope this isn't true for schools even like UCLA, which is no Harvard or Stanford, but is the closest to excellent or awesome I'll ever get to, if I get in... :/
Has anyone ever felt like this? Any words of advice, knowledge, or insight? I'd appreciate it.
  
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I have always had the goal of getting into a prestigious university. Stanford. Harvard. MIT.
College is what you make of it. I know countless people who went to any Top 100 college and gained a ton of insight and knowledge and are better prepared than a few of my ivy league friends who just jerked off for four years (of course, I have some ivy league friends who took the experience seriously and succeeded greatly as well).
Don't be so devastated if you don't get into a top top tier university. It's actually not the end of the world. What's more important is to own whatever college you do end up going to.
Don't kill yourself over the past; look towards the future and be motivated and determined to succeed in the future (and enjoy yourself in college too!).
Best of luck 
EDIT: To directly answer one of your questions: yes, college admissions do look at your 9th grade GPA (along with a ton of other things though, so relax a bit... just perform better in your upcoming classes).
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my advice? dont feel shitty about some grade and dont care to much what university you gonna go too.
just enjoy your time and make the most out of it, dont worry what other thinks.
a system which puts that much pressure on people due to one grade is a bad system which should be replaced anyway
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It's that constant feeling in your head of, "hey, you fucked up! you'll never get to an amazing university! you'll go to a "normal" university, like all the other "average, normal" people!".
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On July 06 2014 09:44 ill_mind wrote:
It's that constant feeling in your head of, "hey, you fucked up! you'll never get to an amazing university! you'll go to a "normal" university, like all the other "average, normal" people!".
I understand where your worrying is coming from, but you'll find out in college that you didn't need to worry When you get to college, you'll realize that you're no longer the smartest person in the class, regardless of what university you go to. Plenty of incredibly intelligent and unique students go to non-ivy colleges, and you can have a wonderful (or a shitty) educational and social life at any college.
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United States889 Posts
While I respect your goal, it's not all it's cracked up to be. You get a second chance, I think, depending on what you want to do. So if you're looking at graduate school, you'll definitely get a second chance.
I went to the University of Iowa. A good school, not a great school, but I'm in a doctorate program at Northwestern University now, which is reaching a tad bit higher than undergrad was. I took a class a while back where we had to disclose where we went for undergrad on a sign up sheet passed around the room. I glanced over it, and there were several Harvards, a Berkeley, an MIT, an Oxford, etc. And I proudly signed University of Iowa. Who cares, you know? We're all in the same place now, and there's no shame about it.
If you plan on continuing on (and that's a fairly big if, but by no means out of the question depending on your goals/field) then you're not out yet. Just work really hard in undergrad and seize every opportunity and you can make it there.
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On July 06 2014 09:44 ill_mind wrote:
It's that constant feeling in your head of, "hey, you fucked up! you'll never get to an amazing university! you'll go to a "normal" university, like all the other "average, normal" people!".
Amazing university does not equal amazing person.
When I was applying for graduate schools my professor told me this:
"If you are amazing, the name of the school does not matter. You will be recognized no matter what and you will be able to go wherever you want afterwards."
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I'd suggest you read Malcolm Gladwell's "David and Goliath" as there's a great section in there about the myths and mystique of top-tier vs middle-tier universities and their students' success ratios.
It's also just a great read in general! :-D
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I am planning on continuing on. I'd like to work really hard in undergrad, but college seems so much harder than highschool. I always found highschool quite easy, in terms of paper writing, exams, etc, and I heard there are very few cases of excellence in subjects, and most people get 60s and 70s.
I'm still thinking of applying to UCLA though. It's a holistic admission process, and it's not a huge Ivy league like Harvard, nor is it something top-tier UC like UC Berkeley. I feel as though my extracurriculars, participation in olympiads pertaining to my areas of interest (math, science) and other non-academic stuff may push me through. Sure, MIT and Harvard may be no-no's for me right now, but I might give UCLA a shot. Does anyone here have experience with UCLA? It's at the same time both a challenging school to get to, but something that seems somewhat reachable.
Edit: Also, thank you for the responses everyone.
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You're not majorly boned. Regardless of what happens, it sounds like you'll go to a decent university.
And as long as you go to some university for undergrad, you're likely not shut out of whatever aspirations you have for the future (unless it's heavily prestige-centric but those occupations are pretty rare e.g., academia). You'll need to do well in undergrad and it'll take more legwork, but you can overcome whatever advantage you might've had at an ivy school with sheer determination. The greatest economic advantage of an ivy over a non-ivy is the network. So don't just be reliant on your career office, but do your own networking.
And don't let the prestige stick to your brain. There are plenty of idiots who go to top schools. And there are a lot of bright kids at your state universities as well. Try not to put a good pedigree on a pedestal.
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Grade nine grades don't matter as much as other grades and they are not even a factor in Stanford's admissions. Consider your GPA to be better than it is since it pleases admissions people to see an improvement in your grades from year to year.
Also UCLA is probably less holistic than other universities (especially those you listed) because it is limited in the extent it can practice certain admissions practices. It's just easier overall, to boot: look at its admissions statistics.
Here's what I learned about MIT, going through the process myself: they want a certain class. Yes they want the kids who got gold-medals at the IMO, and the kids that won the Intel and Siemens fairs, but they don't care much about scores and grades as long as they are good enough; the majority of students there aren't actually that impressive numerically. You can verify this yourself by looking at their admissions statistics. I don't want to go on a cynical tirade about why that's how they run their admissions, but that is just how they do it. If you can emphasize something about yourself that would fit in with their "culture" you will have an easier time getting in. It sounds like you have around a 3.7 GPA or something so just don't sweat it.
I had the same attitude as you for a while (top X or bust!) and guess what? You get over it. I go to a somewhat "prestigious" school, though not one of the ones that I had wanted (I wanted MIT or Harvard too) the most. Yes, it stung to see that I was rejected from Caltech, MIT, Princeton, and others, and it stung when I didn't make it off the Harvard waitlist. But considering all the people I know and where they are going to college, I have to say that going to a higher ranked college doesn't mean jack shit when it comes to how smart you are. One of the smartest guys I know is going to the University of Kentucky. The girl I know going to Harvard isn't even very smart and has a horrible personality. Plus, it's undergrad. Unless you plan on going into consulting or finance, it probably doesn't matter that much anyway.
Protip: before you apply anywhere look for a school's net price calculator. Since you say you're from Canada, UCLA probably isn't that great of an idea since they won't give you much financial aid, and they don't have merit scholarships afaik.
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You're looking for Status of the school, not the actual education you can get out of it. So, the first issue you have is that some part of you wants the Status before the Fit, Utility or Cost of the school is taken into consideration.
Though the next highly important issue is: What do you plan to get a Degree in & what do you plan to do? If you're going into Engineering, that's a BIG difference from, say, Humanities. A school with a "good, well-regarded" program in the field you're studying is actually more important.
Side bar: if you come from a family with a good amount of money, and the Status of where you get in is actually important to all of you, then realize what you're actually up to. It will hurt your actual education in the process, however. (No one makes a strong argument that most of the top schools have the best undergraduate education in the country, anymore. They're good, but the best? No. What they are is the most exclusive with the best students. Schools in the middle of the Top 50 are likely the best actual "schools" for the sake of the education.)
Next, you've likely been sold on a steady diet of "School -> College -> Degree -> Job -> Success". He's a bit of Wisdom: it doesn't work that way. Your "success" is built off your Self-control and your Skill set. Then, how you can sell that skill set. School & Grades are hoop-jumping competitions. You have to be thinking about looking past that, which means actually learning skills from your classes and having work experience in the actual area you want to work in.
If you're looking at a field that requires Graduate School, that's actually the school that matters. But each field, for which is "best", is different and takes even further research. Which is a slightly different topic.
So, it's really about what you want to "do", the reasons for it and where you want to go. That's a much better way to select a school. Both my brother & I took this approach to college. Brother went to one of the best engineering schools in the country (and makes a lot of money for his effort), while I went to one of the top 20 Private Colleges (at least in the year I applied, those ranks popping around a lot) and spent most of my free time talking 1 on 1 with my professors. (This was a *really* important point for me) The approach of finding the school that works for *you* is far more valuable, considering the MONSTROUS COST ASSOCIATED WITH COLLEGE. This is likely the 2nd most expensive investment you'll ever make (a single family home being the other) in your LIFE. Put some thought into the utility of the school for your own ends, not the name-tag that comes with it.
And if you do go to UCLA, which is a good school, work hard to be at the top of your class. Learn deeply of what is important for your field of study. *That* is where the value comes from. Showing up? No.
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I guess you guys are right. It's just that to be honest, I have no idea where I want to go, or what I want to do. My passions are playing SC2, coding, doing graphic design, that sort of stuff, but I have no idea how those can intertwine since I love them all pretty equally. I don't know what direction to go or what to do.
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The College Admissions process has created a generation of the most boring people imaginable.
No offense to the OP.
For the record, I applied to MIT, Rice, and Princeton and, despite easily being the most impressive candidate in two top 100 high schools, I didn't get into any of them while classmates parlayed their sob stories into Harvard and Rice admissions. (Yes, I'm bitter. Hey, it's not my fault that they won't grade on a curve and fail my other classmates in English!) I went to Texas, fucked up a lot and learned unimaginably more than I thought possible. One advantage of going to a slightly less prestigious school is you can get out of the mainstream bubble a little bit. I mean, good luck getting anywhere at Harvard if you don't like fellating Marx and Rawls.
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On July 06 2014 11:13 ill_mind wrote:
I guess you guys are right. It's just that to be honest, I have no idea where I want to go, or what I want to do. My passions are playing SC2, coding, doing graphic design, that sort of stuff, but I have no idea how those can intertwine since I love them all pretty equally. I don't know what direction to go or what to do.
One of the nice things about freshman year of college is that you have time to explore novel courses. Take a coding or graphic design course, but indulge yourself in other interesting classes too
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Unless you're planning to attend a business school and hobnob with the scions of the super-wealthy, the name of the school is far far less important than you think. If you have any idea what you're interested in studying you can find many schools that offer excellent programs that won't put you into a lifetime of crushing debt. Student loans are worse than herpes, be very very careful with them because you will pay them and many/most have borderline criminal interest rates.
Qualifiers aside, most college admission folks are looking for students who will be successful at their school and make their student body more dynamic and interesting. Potential to be a big donating alum is always another plus. Your 9th grade grades don't mean shit. Like at all. They will not be why you don't get into the school of your choice if you don't. Admission offices will, if the rest of your application is good enough, see your grades as someone who understands what they need to do to succeed at a university. Who is unlikely to go full Animal House and fail out on them. If you can write a decent essay, they will want you.
The idea that you need to do good all the time in school so you can get to a good college so that you can get a good job so that you can live a happy life is pure bullshit. You can find a school that provides the necessary paperwork for the next stage in your life, just choose carefully. (I recommend considering the weather, It was cold as fuck at Penn State. no bueno.)
You'll be fine.
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It's also much more important with WHOM you study than WHERE you study. A recommendation from a professor is worth much more than merely a degree. This is particularly true if you plan on going into higher education.
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On July 06 2014 11:14 Jerubaal wrote:
The College Admissions process has created a generation of the most boring people imaginable.
No offense to the OP.
For the record, I applied to MIT, Rice, and Princeton and, despite easily being the most impressive candidate in two top 100 high schools, I didn't get into any of them while classmates parlayed their sob stories into Harvard and Rice admissions.
Bro you better switch to a low sodium diet x.x
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What you have isn't a success/failure issue; what you have is an identity issue. By wrapping up your identity in the school that you go to, you're just ripping yourself apart. You are valuable because of who you are as a person; don't let yourself get sucked up into accepting the cold values this society tries to place on you, and don't shortchange yourself: not going to an Ivy League school doesn't suddenly make you less smart. There are millions of happy and successful people; there are thousands of people that attended an Ivy League school.
And just because, I'll share a bit from my own life too. See, I actually identify a lot with what you're saying here. I felt very similar a lot of times this past year. Academics has always been "my thing", so to speak. I've always done really well in school, and, like you, my goal was to get into a Princeton, Stanford, MIT etc. I applied (gosh, after all that, I didn't want to write another for months lol). I got rejected at all the top schools and now I'm going to a state public school. That hit me hard. I thought the exact same as you, "I'm going to school with all the normal, average kids" (I'm embarrassed to say I thought this, but I did, ok). I was used to always succeeding in schol, and now, suddenly, I felt like a failure. I was tempted then (and still am somewhat) to shift goals and do everything I can as an undergrad so I can go to a top graduate school. But at some point, you just realize that that's all just BS. I'm not going to let an external institution dictate my life. It's fine as a goal but as an obsession, it'll just make my life miserable, for no other reason than that I'm too proud to accept a perceived "failure". It's not failure; where I'm going now is opportunity, and I'd say the same for any place I go. That's what living is, and I'll gladly take this adventure because, at face value, not wrapped up in silly comparisons, it's actually quite quite amazing.
Just my thoughts. tl;dr Re-assess your values
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On July 06 2014 13:18 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2014 11:14 Jerubaal wrote:
The College Admissions process has created a generation of the most boring people imaginable.
No offense to the OP.
For the record, I applied to MIT, Rice, and Princeton and, despite easily being the most impressive candidate in two top 100 high schools, I didn't get into any of them while classmates parlayed their sob stories into Harvard and Rice admissions. Bro you better switch to a low sodium diet x.x
The only salt I consume are the tears of my enemies.
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TLADT24920 Posts
wait, in the US, they look at grade 9 marks for entering college or university? Oo; Up here, it's mostly grade 12 marks and some grade 11 ones if the grade 12 ones aren't finalized yet but scholarships etc... are based around grade 12 marks. Why do you think you're completely screwed? Because of that one year?
Also, why not just go to another Top 10 or 15 college (or w/e the range is). As DarkPlasmaBall mentioned, college or university is what you make out of it. Even if you don't get into a top one, you can still have a wonderful experience and gain lots of knowledge from whichever one you end up with. It's all up to you to make the university or college experience the best it is.
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On July 06 2014 13:44 BigFan wrote:
wait, in the US, they look at grade 9 marks for entering college or university? Oo; Up here, it's mostly grade 12 marks and some grade 11 ones if the grade 12 ones aren't finalized yet but scholarships etc... are based around grade 12 marks. Why do you think you're completely screwed? Because of that one year?
9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th all technically make up your GPA here, although colleges do care more about your later grades than your earlier ones, especially if you demonstrate improvement (and the difficulty of the classes you choose to take, e.g., an honors/ AP class over a regular class). But there are so many other variables to consider during college admissions (standardized test scores, personal essays, recommendations, are you well-rounded with a job and sports and community service, etc.) that doing bad in 9th grade almost certainly has a negligible effect in the grand scheme of things.
Also, why not just go to another Top 10 or 15 college (or w/e the range is). As DarkPlasmaBall mentioned, college or university is what you make out of it. Even if you don't get into a top one, you can still have a wonderful experience and gain lots of knowledge from whichever one you end up with. It's all up to you to make the university or college experience the best it is.
I would venture to say that the biggest misconception about college (for high schoolers worrying about admissions) is that the university you end up going to matters more than the effort you put into your experience.
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You'll get over it. My sister had her heart set on a big name university, and went to an excellent, but not nationally prestigious liberal arts college. Two years later, she's happy with where she ended up and can't think of herself anywhere else.
School name helps for certain things - entry level jobs, professional schools, etc. - but how you do in university also matters tremendously.
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I think it's more of what you make of it, rather than what university it is. If you work hard in a university that's not well known, you will learn more than if you don't work that much in one of the most famous universities.
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On July 06 2014 11:20 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2014 11:13 ill_mind wrote:
I guess you guys are right. It's just that to be honest, I have no idea where I want to go, or what I want to do. My passions are playing SC2, coding, doing graphic design, that sort of stuff, but I have no idea how those can intertwine since I love them all pretty equally. I don't know what direction to go or what to do. One of the nice things about freshman year of college is that you have time to explore novel courses. Take a coding or graphic design course, but indulge yourself in other interesting classes too
That's the best thing I've ever heard about the American university system.
Seriously, in Germany you just pick a subject and you don't have any courses unrelated to it.
Picked the wrong one? Okay, you have one more shot. Second one isn't yours either? Well, you won't get any funding after just one year of uni.
That's probably one of the reasons why we have like two universities in the international top 50 rating.
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On July 06 2014 22:19 SixStrings wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2014 11:20 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On July 06 2014 11:13 ill_mind wrote:
I guess you guys are right. It's just that to be honest, I have no idea where I want to go, or what I want to do. My passions are playing SC2, coding, doing graphic design, that sort of stuff, but I have no idea how those can intertwine since I love them all pretty equally. I don't know what direction to go or what to do. One of the nice things about freshman year of college is that you have time to explore novel courses. Take a coding or graphic design course, but indulge yourself in other interesting classes too That's the best thing I've ever heard about the American university system. Seriously, in Germany you just pick a subject and you don't have any courses unrelated to it. Picked the wrong one? Okay, you have one more shot. Second one isn't yours either? Well, you won't get any funding after just one year of uni. That's probably one of the reasons why we have like two universities in the international top 50 rating.
I know a lot of people aren't too happy about the idea of having general education requirements, but I think it's rather important, considering anywhere from 20-50% of college students enter into university as Undecided/ No Major, and 75% of students change their major at least once before graduating (http://dus.psu.edu/mentor/2013/06/disconnect-choosing-major/).
Some people find it to be a hassle if they have to take a few unrelated courses, but I find it to be a convenient way to explore classes you might not otherwise consider, and I also think it makes you more of a well-rounded individual.
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Yeah, being a well-rounded individual isn't really what German universities facilitate, because the market calls for specialists.
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Well i kinda disagree with you..
Here in Munich you can choose a lot of coursed that are not directly related to your subject and/or even write your thesis at other departments (esp. in physics and engineering)
And yes you wont get funding but you wont pay more than 500€ each semester in Germany wich is a joke compared to other countries (afaik). Imo the biggest reason that we have so few top universities is that all Max Planck and Fraunhofer Institutes are pretty much seperated from our universities and that they just have less money to spend...
But im not completely sure why exactly they are rated rather poorly... I know some people who went to MIT and stuff but it seems like there is no big difference in whats being taught (at least thats what they say)
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Well, unless you have rich parents, not getting funding is basically the same as not being able to go to any decent uni.
Have fun paying for a room in Munich or Heidelberg while studying full time.
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Yes thats true but what i wanted to say is that youre not that bad off over here compared to a lot of other countries (from what ive heard)
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I'll make sure to keep my mouth shut when I study at Berkeley for a term for free next year.
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On July 06 2014 09:35 ill_mind wrote:
I got an around about 2.9 or 3.0 gpa on a 4.0 scale in the IB programme.
GPA in the IB? What?
The IB cares about final/predicted final grades, GPA is for systems without standardized testing.
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You will always have security with just about any of the other top 25 universities in the nation, I feel.
On top of that, my education has almost nothing to do with what I do for a living, quite the contrary, it is actually considered an impediment in some situations.
I studied Chinese Language and Literature for my undergraduate degree. I teach English in Taiwan and the school that I work for doesn't like hiring teachers that speak Chinese in the classroom because really good English teachers don't need to speak Chinese in order to teach English as a second language (strange concept to someone not familiar with this career line, I know).
My advice to you is apply to a school that you really really genuinely like (for whatever reason - being it is ranked #1 in the world for _______ majors, you like the place where it is located, etc. etc.). Focus more on building your social network at said school. If you plan to go on to study a master's degree / Ph D. at another place anywhere in the world, it will help you greatly because you have friends in that place, and they might be able to help you find jobs / internships relative to the career that you choose. Take advantage of study abroad programs to extend social networking.
EDIT: Think of it this way - only 200 people can get in to grandmaster's league per server. There will always be at least 200 players better than you (unless you are already in GM like iNControL or Destiny, or Nathanias or MaximusBlack, etc. etc.). Point is, there is almost always going to be someone that's better than you. Do what you can do to make the best of your situation right now, because to be honest your situation is a lot better than mine was at the end of high school.
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Dear lord is this thread for real? You're only in high school and you already sound like a 25 year old law school gunner. You need to relax and grow up a little, chasing prestige is a never ending cycle that'll never make you happy. I know so many lawyers who graduated from top Ivies working in NYC V10 law firms who are still miserable and desperate for external approval. I think its a sad reflection of our society that kids these days have to create a fake persona for themselves to get into a "top" college, even when they have no idea what they really want to do nor understand the true cost of spending thousands of dollars to get a degree.
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freshman in college > freshman in high school. Try not to freak about your freshman college year
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Welcome to the gutter. You left the royal road my friend.
First off, apply to harvard, to yale, to princeton. It will be a 99.9% no, that is still less than a 100% no for not applying, maybe the admission officer that handles your file will be drunk that day and makes a cross in the wrong box. As for prestige and a fun life and the feeling of being special that television suggest to you as the most normal thing in the world. What you feel right now is how it is slowly taken away from you with age.
Most people wisen up, as most people did in this thread. They have ok lifes, nothing that ever is going to be written about or made into a movie, but defnitly a nice life to live, with plenty of money and decency.
Most people only really shine once or twice in there life and you better shine bright when your time is comming. It is approaching fast, first off, don't worry, if you miss it, you can still go somewhere okish and get a good job, but if you wanna shine, better go crazy.
Be honest to yourself, you don't have to tell anyone, but tell yourself what you really want. Maybe it will feel strange to ask for it, maybe you do not feel qualified and feel like you have no permission to ask, but right now you are young, how would you have all the experiences and qualifications to become if you are not already. So ask for it and keep in mind people will be generous towards your plea since you are young.
As for admission, if you have a state championship won, or created a indi movie that won some award or got first place at a science fair with a computer game you programmed, those thing show that you have direction and weight just as much as good grades. Even lead roles in school plays, selfwritten songs on youtube with 10.000+ views...show passion, if your passion really is sc2, better get grandmaster and win some tournament and explain why this is something only 200 people, only 100 people per continent have ever achieved.
Honestly, if you want it, you might still not get it, but to even have a chance at what you want start working till you drop fucking dead.
Cheers and have a nice life,
hope you take your chance to shine
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Have you heard about that new international currency called the Euro?
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On July 07 2014 05:48 SixStrings wrote:Have you heard about that new international currency called the Euro?
Oh, right. That's the new name for the Deutschmark, right? (I want to kappa so hard right now.)
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On July 07 2014 02:26 Dfgj wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2014 09:35 ill_mind wrote:
I got an around about 2.9 or 3.0 gpa on a 4.0 scale in the IB programme.
GPA in the IB? What? The IB cares about final/predicted final grades, GPA is for systems without standardized testing.
Hehe sorry for the misconception. In grade 9 and 10, in pre-IB, courses still differ very slightly from the standard level subjects you take in Academic (to non-Canadians, Academic is like "normal" subjects).
So in gr 9 I got a 2.9ish GPA, and then it improved from there on. I ended up doing well in gr 10 and 11, still have first semester of gr 12 to go and I'm done.
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Write something about how you learned from your mistakes in grade 9. Adcoms eat that shit up.
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CA10824 Posts
On July 06 2014 10:09 ill_mind wrote:
I am planning on continuing on. I'd like to work really hard in undergrad, but college seems so much harder than highschool. I always found highschool quite easy, in terms of paper writing, exams, etc, and I heard there are very few cases of excellence in subjects, and most people get 60s and 70s.
I'm still thinking of applying to UCLA though. It's a holistic admission process, and it's not a huge Ivy league like Harvard, nor is it something top-tier UC like UC Berkeley. I feel as though my extracurriculars, participation in olympiads pertaining to my areas of interest (math, science) and other non-academic stuff may push me through. Sure, MIT and Harvard may be no-no's for me right now, but I might give UCLA a shot. Does anyone here have experience with UCLA? It's at the same time both a challenging school to get to, but something that seems somewhat reachable.
Edit: Also, thank you for the responses everyone.
berkeley and UCLA are clearly the top two UCs, not sure why you think UCLA is much easier to get in to.
then again, as an international student, the rules are a bit different if you're full-pay.
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Russian Federation3631 Posts
but the feeling of excellence and superiority will most likely be gone forever since I won't be able to attend any of the schools I listed above.
relax mate it really doesn't matter
I actually think that maintaining a good GPA in a decent state school is harder than grade-inflation infested "prestige" schools.
If you're going to apply to grad school than it doesn't matter even more
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On July 07 2014 02:51 iamho wrote:
You're only in high school and you already sound like a 25 year old law school gunner. You need to relax and grow up a little, chasing prestige is a never ending cycle that'll never make you happy. I know so many lawyers who graduated from top Ivies working in NYC V10 law firms who are still miserable and desperate for external approval.
You must know a lot of Harvard grads. 
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Plenty of people, myself included, have gotten into good schools with less than perfect grades. You have nothing to worry about, and you will have much bigger problems in your life than getting a 2.9 in grade 9, look forward to those.
Also, some perspective: consider that even if you fucked up completely and didn't get into any "dream" school, your bank account exploded, and your whole family died, you'd still have so much opportunity in front of you to change the world for the better and find happiness, given your self reliance, smarts, heart, and the privilege of where you live. Luckily, those things haven't gone wrong so you're quite well off, eh?
p.s. It's healthy to express yourself and feel what you need to. Just don't overdo it on the self loathing, it's not you.
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I would be a hypocrite to say I don't worry about my college admissions either (I'm going to be a senior, I am guessing you are too), but your emphasis on these top schools is unfounded though, and not to sound like an asshole, but you really don't seem like you belong at them. They aren't looking for people who want to be superior to everyone and believe that ivy education is the only way to be successful. You strike me as this person. This is even more obvious by the fact that you don't seem to care which top school it is, as long as it is at the top.
Let me give you some advice. Stop worrying about this shit, it matters much less than we think it does. It drove me insane throughout my junior year, and it caused me much grief. Getting into a school, let alone undergrad, is not worth these feelings, I promise you. You will get a great education and have plenty of job opportunities available to you at a state school or some other slightly selective university all the same. Plus, if you have any intention of going to graduate school, you can work your ass off during undergrad and learn from the mistakes you made in high school. Don't live your life to impress others, live your life to impress yourself.
Edit: I don't mean to sound like a jerk, I really apologize if I do. I just wanted to be honest with you.
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Ok bro I'm going to lay it out there for you. While I don't know you personally, so it's tough for me to say what's right or wrong for you, I will assume you are in general not a weirdo and trying to study hard so that you can have a career and take care of yourself.
First of all, your potential is not "wasted." There is one thing that kills all talented and non-talented people alike, and that's LAZINESS. It doesn't matter if you have potential or not, just don't be lazy. Second, there is no "burden" being placed on you. You're a kid who is about to go to college. The world is a much bigger place, it does not know you and does not expect anything from you. YOU need to take charge of your own life, no one else will do it for you.
Now, being the "best student [you] could possibly ever be" is not an end goal at all. This is NOT what you are trying to achieve. No one hires people because they are good students; people get hired because they have skills, capabilities, and personalities. Grades are simply an indicator (and sometimes a very weak indicator) of a person's general intelligence, work ethic, w/e. It's a good place to start, but is not the end all be all. What might be more helpful is for you to ask yourself what your goals are, then follow a path towards those goals. Don't get caught up in the details of what you need to do, and mistaking those as your actual end goals.
Speaking of your goals, you're right in that you need to put serious work into your grades if you want to go to a "top" school, but if you think just getting into Harvard is the definition of success then you are dead wrong. Going to college is just the VERY beginning of you growing up, finding a job, and living a life. There are so many challenges and twists and turns in life that just being a good student, or being a graduate from Harvard is NOT ENOUGH. You must always be working, learning, and trying to do better. Do not make the mistake of making college the pinnacle of your life's achievements, that's fucking sad. Seriously, if you introduced yourself IRL like this: "Hi, I'm Joe. I graduated from Harvard and I think I can help." You will make a terrible impression and will most likely be told to gtfo.
There's a lot more about this I could say but no need to bombard you with a wall of text. Plus, I'm sure others here have already given you plenty to think about. In general, I will just say dream bigger and set your goals higher. College is but 4 years of potentially 70 to 80 years of your life. Think about the big picture, don't let the little things you have to do along the way get you down. Of course this is all easier said than done. It took me almost the entire duration of college to figure myself out.
TLDR:
1. RELAX, enjoy college (wherever you end up). Learn as much as you can; get some perspective. Make as many friends as you can because you will never get an opportunity like this again. Surround yourself with quality people, this will help you in life more than any piece of paper with the name of a prestigious university on it.
2. DO NOT IDOLIZE ANYTHING (person or otherwise) ENTIRELY, because then the best result you can hope for is a tie. If others can do it, so can you, and perhaps better
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On July 06 2014 11:00 Taf the Ghost wrote:
Next, you've likely been sold on a steady diet of "School -> College -> Degree -> Job -> Success". He's a bit of Wisdom: it doesn't work that way. Your "success" is built off your Self-control and your Skill set. Then, how you can sell that skill set. School & Grades are hoop-jumping competitions. You have to be thinking about looking past that, which means actually learning skills from your classes and having work experience in the actual area you want to work in.
If you're looking at a field that requires Graduate School, that's actually the school that matters. But each field, for which is "best", is different and takes even further research. Which is a slightly different topic.
So, it's really about what you want to "do", the reasons for it and where you want to go. That's a much better way to select a school.
I really like this.
There are many paths to "success." This is one of the most important lessons you will learn. Believe me, I used to be exactly the same way, thinking there's only one way to be a doctor but actually working with so many real physicians showed me how wrong I was. I'm not saying just go crazy and do w/e, there are certain things everyone must do/go through, but be yourself, think for yourself, and act for yourself and you'll be much happier.
Also, if you think only "top" students go to Harvard, and only "average" students go to other universities you're in for the shock of your life.
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Really, up to a point, GPA, test scores, that sort of thing in general means very little. What colleges want to see more is activity, extracurriculars and not being one- or zero-dimensional. Plus, 9th grade really means nothing. In fact, having a poorer 9th grade may actually HELP you get into colleges-they will see you started working your tail off after 9th and like you for that.
When I applied for colleges last year I had what I thought were un-rejectable credentials: 4.75 weighted GPA from a nationally top 25 high school, ranked 7th in class, 2270 SAT w/ 800 math, 35 ACT with three 36 sections, and two perfect SAT subject tests. However, I was the textbook isolated computer nerd-I had very little in the way of extracurriculars, and the ones that I did were stuff like the robotics club. I got rejected by ALL the colleges I applied to. EVERY SINGLE ****ING ONE OF THEM. (Except the state school, because it was literally illegal for them to reject me because of my class rank.) So really, grades and standardized stuff doesn't mean crap. Colleges want to see a well-rounded person, not a bunch of numbers pretending to be a person. I learned that the hard way.
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On July 07 2014 16:16 User15937 wrote:
Really, up to a point, GPA, test scores, that sort of thing in general means very little. What colleges want to see more is activity, extracurriculars and not being one- or zero-dimensional. Plus, 9th grade really means nothing. In fact, having a poorer 9th grade may actually HELP you get into colleges-they will see you started working your tail off after 9th and like you for that.
When I applied for colleges last year I had what I thought were un-rejectable credentials: 4.75 weighted GPA from a nationally top 25 high school, ranked 7th in class, 2270 SAT w/ 800 math, 35 ACT with three 36 sections, and two perfect SAT subject tests. However, I was the textbook isolated computer nerd-I had very little in the way of extracurriculars, and the ones that I did were stuff like the robotics club. I got rejected by ALL the colleges I applied to. EVERY SINGLE ****ING ONE OF THEM. (Except the state school, because it was literally illegal for them to reject me because of my class rank.) So really, grades and standardized stuff doesn't mean crap. Colleges want to see a well-rounded person, not a bunch of numbers pretending to be a person. I learned that the hard way.
Thanks so much for the helpful advice everyone. I do see this a lot, universities want to see well-rounded, not one-dimensional people. I believe my credentials in terms of numbers are pretty solid, if you don't count 9th grade. 3.85~ish GPA on the 4.0 scale, (then again, assuming you don't count grade 9). My extracurriculars are okay, not the best though. I hear that schools such as Berkeley and UCLA look for some extracurriculars but still mostly focus on the numbers-- your SAT score, your GPA, class rank, difficulty of subjects, AP/IB, etc. I hold two leadership positions, leader of chess club, and I was a student counselor for some camping trip that kids had to go to. I won a math olympiad, and a math contest, as well as a computing competition, but all that seems too "nerdy". Leader of chess club, math competitions won... makes me seem kinda like a closed in nerd. I took cross country and track and field for 3 years, where you have to socialize, work as a team, and run and everything but... I don't know. I feel like I might give off impressions that might actually work against me when applying to holistic admission schools. Math competitions and olympiads and stuff work in favor of schools like CalTech and MIT, and even then, my feats aren't that great. I don't know what else to really participate in, or do... There's 1 year left for me to change stuff. :X
Thanks again.
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On July 06 2014 13:43 Jerubaal wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2014 13:18 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On July 06 2014 11:14 Jerubaal wrote:
The College Admissions process has created a generation of the most boring people imaginable.
No offense to the OP.
For the record, I applied to MIT, Rice, and Princeton and, despite easily being the most impressive candidate in two top 100 high schools, I didn't get into any of them while classmates parlayed their sob stories into Harvard and Rice admissions. Bro you better switch to a low sodium diet x.x The only salt I consume are the tears of my enemies.
If you came across at all in your applications like you do on team liquid it's no wonder you didn't get accepted.
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I've been where you've been, though it was grade 10 for me instead of grade 9. It sucks, but even if you don't get in your favorite/top tier undergrad institute, life goes on. It is good, however, to get in your life-plans fuck up early on - it'll teach you to stay on the ball for the rest of your career. Having a chip on your shoulder can be a nice motivation to help kick ass in college/go to your dream grad school, for example.
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EPT
