<p>I understand competition because i'm a martial artist and I compete in sparring/form occasionally. True, it does sometimes show that you beat your competition, however it does not in many cases.</p>
<p>My friend is a 15 year old valedictorian who is a full IB student taking the same courseload as I with the exception of AP Constitution Team, Econo AP, and Physics IB HL, and he has a 1450 SAT. The kid was rejected from MIT, whereas I was accepted. It does not in anyway make me better than him.</p>
<p>you really should attempt to transfer to UCB if it means that much to you. Transfer admissions is competitve but if my sister could manage to transfer from another UC into Cal, it can't be that bad...just pick an easy major, get a high GPA, and go for it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
getting into a great school, will show that i have beaten all my competiton and left them to rot, because of my hard work
[/quote]
College admissions is not a race. Getting into college is not a prize. College is the beginning of a process whereby young adults begin to explore the wider world around them and hopefully find some things that excite them and inspire them to work hard simply because they love what they do, not to "beat out the competition and leave them to rot."</p>
<p>Out of state transfer applicants got admitted to UCB for Fall of 2005 at the rate of approximately 20%. Something like 60-65 admissions out of 310 applicants.</p>
<p>no no you got me wrong....im not saying that getting into a good college will make you be better than somone else...it will show your hardwork and dedication you put in it...this is the difference between getting in a great college, and getting in a good college</p>
<p>again like i said.....it would be really hard for someone who is not a runner, to understand what i mean......its not supposed to mean as direct as you think....i cant really explain this...its something runners start to understand after many experience with bad and good races</p>
<p>But BestMiler, you shouldn't look at everything through the eyes of a runner. Life is not a race. If you see everything as such, you are bound to be miserable because there is always someone faster.</p>
<p>^^ very well said.....thats quite true...to tell you the truth...my life is in such a hole, i dont know what to do...everything seems like the same to me whether good or bad....im in emotional shock, because i anticipated rejections, but not at this rate</p>
<p>"my life is in such a hole, i dont know what to do"</p>
<p>You have no idea what it is to be "in a hole." I am not, but my close friend is and has been for much of his life. He is a smart guy, friendly, and an amazing martial artists (self-taught 12 different forms).</p>
<p>-His father died when he was 7
-His two brothers were and still are drug dealers
-His mother is a bum who lives off of HIS social security
-He would have graduated by now, but he has had too many absences due to family problems and counslers refuse to help (they are normally useless to begin with).
-He now has a restraining order placed on him by his girlfriend's mother because she was constantly trying to see him and it affected her studies (damn asian mother).
-He can't get a job because he cannot afford a car and has no transportation.</p>
<p>I'm trying to help him and will get him on his feet this summer, but trust me. You have yet to feel true hardship.</p>
<p>Miller, you need to get over your problems. Thinking about what could have been will only make things worse.</p>
<p>I'm out, I have a 20 page math portfolio to do in two days.</p>
<p>my situation and his situation are totally different.....im in a hole for a totally different reason...and he is another type of hole for a totally different reason.....</p>
<p>UCB's berkeley right...? but i do think it was quite a reach trying to get into UCB with 1540... should've taken it more than 3 times, i suppose.</p>
<p>ahhaha lol.....become a plumber...i would say my hardwork in school would be a waste if i wanted to be a plumber..and why am i meant for service industry?</p>
<p>Forget the plumber/service industry comments, Miler, they're just yanking your chain.</p>
<p>Since you seem reluctant to get back to work right now, instead of wallowing for another half hour, try reading an essay written by a pretty amazing fellow. His name is Paul Graham. He has a Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard, is a published author, and studied painting in Italy. Together with another programmer, he developed the first web-based application which was later acquired by a little startup company called Yahoo. He has written some wonderful essays, and one in particular seems like something that might give you some new things to think about regarding what you've been doing for the last four years, what you're doing now, and what you might do tomorrow and thereafter. </p>
<p>The essay is titled, "What You'll Wish You'd Known". It's quite long, but worth reading. Here's an excerpt, and the link to the essay follows:</p>
<p>
[quote]
You may be thinking, we have to do more than get good grades. We have to have extracurricular activities. But you know perfectly well how bogus most of these are. Collecting donations for a charity is an admirable thing to do, but it's not hard. It's not getting something done. What I mean by getting something done is learning how to write well, or how to program computers, or what life was really like in preindustrial societies, or how to draw the human face from life. This sort of thing rarely translates into a line item on a college application. [emphasis mine]</p>
<p>It's dangerous to design your life around getting into college, because the people you have to impress to get into college are not a very discerning audience. At most colleges, it's not the professors who decide whether you get in, but admissions officers, and they are nowhere near as smart. They're the NCOs of the intellectual world. They can't tell how smart you are. The mere existence of prep schools is proof of that.
<p>HEY, Who says you are not going to be successful? You are giving up before you even try!! This attitutde will not get you anywhere, you must snap out of it right away and concentrate on the deck you have been given, make lemonade out of lemons,etc...............COME ON............life isn't this bad, what are your choices at this very moment? Where are you still waiting to hear from? Have you been talking daily to your college advisor at school, is she calling the schools you felt you stood a decent chance of getting into? A good advisor will continue to campaign for you. But ultimately YOU must be the one to campaign for yourself, even if you don't go to your dream school this year, as thousands don't you must go, show everyone, most of all yourself, that you can do well, can succeed, and once you do, your chances of transfering are good to another school, unless you might end up being so happy where you are. Bottom line..............stop stop stop dwelling on the negative, 2/3's get rejected from their first three choices, that is life..............it will make you stronger down the road, now take a deep breath and start concentrating on only positive things.</p>
<p>Yup, you gotta forget about UCB now, even though you invested a lot of your thoughts of the future into it. Your SAT scores hurt you, but look at it this way, you start off on a clean slate in college along with everyone else. You finished one lap, and may not have been too happy with the results but now a new race is starting. Are you going to give up now before the gun has gone off and give everyone a head start? </p>
<p>During a race, bestmiler, do you ever look back? Because that's what you are doing right now. When you run, you look forward, run faster, and never look back at the past. You see the finish line and that's all that matters. Now reach it!</p>
<p>Sorry, just trying to inject some levity. Look, things are going to be okay. There are a lot of great schools out there that will accept you. And they aren't "mediocre" just because they aren't in the USNews Top 25 list. From some of your posts, it sounds like you are buying into your parents' mindset. If you remain unhappy with your admission results, check the NACAC website in May to see what's available -- last year a kid was dissatisfied with his results, applied to Hendrix in Arkansas (this is a person from New Jersey, btw), got a chunk of merit money even at that late stage -- and is now a huge Hendrix supporter. So what if your parents think schools like Hendrix are poor quality? You should know better.</p>
<p>BestMiler -- You sound like a great kid with a great future in front of him. Roger Dooley knows what he is talking about : In America, where you go to college does not determine your future success. What will have an impact on your future is the kind of hard work that you have put into your IB courses and the fact that you pursue things you love, like running, with a lot of passion. Also, your emotional honesty and ability to face things and talk about how you feel are wonderful qualities. </p>
<p>When you talk about feeling suicidal, being in a dark hole, and wanting someone to punch you in the face so you pass out, it makes me, as a parent, very concerned about the amount of pain you are in. You can get a lot of support on this board, but I also wanted to be sure you know that there are people you can talk to by phone at any hour of the day or night if you are feeling suicidal (or just really, really bad). The big national hotlines can be reached at (800) 784-2433 and (800) 273-TALK. Also, virtually every county in New York has its own hotline to help people who are feeling the way you are talking about feeling every so often, some of which even specialize in helping young people. I don't know what county you're in, but to find your local hotline, you can go to <a href="http://suicidehotlines.com/newyork.html%5B/url%5D">http://suicidehotlines.com/newyork.html</a>. If you are concerned about privacy, you should know that know that these hotlines will not make you give your name. And the phone calls are totally free.</p>
<p>I bet that years from now, you will be back on this board as a kind, senstive parent who doesn't beat his kids with objects or with words, and who feels justifiably proud of the satisfying life he has made for himself. No one will care what your SAT scores were. No one will care where you went to college. (Although I would love to see you going somewhere other than the local community college just so you can move out of your house and get a little physical and emotional distance from your folks.) OK, you won't be able to say you went to Harvard; but with any luck, you'll be able to say, "I had a wonderful experience at XYZ." Hang on, this is a truly awful couple of weeks, but it's going to get better.</p>