Do apply to Grinnell though. Super long shot but if you’re in contact with the professor and could be on the team, why not?
Register for a fly in. With Grinnell, often, seeing is believing, and since you’re urm, you’ll get a three day free trip. It’s always nice to visit another party of the country.
Sadly that professor never makes it this far west for atlatl tournaments so I have never had the pleasure of meeting him. I do know a lot of people who do know him, specifically the state archaeologist of Alaska who’s offered to introduce me to John Whittaker…I might take him up on that. How do I apply for a Grinnell fly in?
Type in 'Grinnell fly in ’ and see. Or go to greenlight, the website for first generation students. Hurry because deadline is probably soon.
Never heard of that website, I’ll check it out. Thank you!
The most important reason to go to college, any college, is to go to class and complete the work assigned. ‘I teach myself a new skill every month. Small stuff that will probably never help me in life.’ That was brutally honest. I doubt that Oberlin or any other top 50 school mentioned in posts above are looking for sub 3.0 GPA students, unless they are great at a differently oriented non-academic activity: athletics. (Fair? Probably not.) Many of the colleges ranked about 50 to 100 will take a chance with a student like yourself, but you will have to complete the work assigned and not pipe in about studies that say ‘assignments assigned by English and history teachers contribute to a misinformed or uninformed adult citizenry.’
That is screwing around. Don’t describe it that way to the schools. It doesn’t look good. It says you put play before work. None of that fun stuff you participated in was required. Schoolwork was.
When I mentioned the assignments leading to an uninformed citizenry, I was referring to what that guy, Kelly Gallagher, had said, just to be clear.
So the skills and atlatling aren’t required, and while I think debate SHOULD be required because it’s simply the most formative and rewarding activity I’ve ever encountered, teaching me more real world applicable skills and tools than any other class I’ve ever taken in school, it is just an elective and doesn’t matter as much as jumping through the hoops for other class. Though I would like to add that there is no reason play can’t be work and work can’t be play.
The skills thing may be an interesting interview conversation, but it won’t be an essay. I can screen and censor myself when I need to.
Hampshire and New College Florida would agree with you, so you can add them to the list already suggested.
It’s okay to skip a couple pointless assignments given to help struggling students. It’s another to do it systematically. What worries colleges is that youll encounter plenty of assignments you don’t feel like doing, and what will happen when you don’t ? Will you just give up after three days - if not, what have you done that shows resilience? Will you be tallied against their returning rate and graduation rate because you fail to complete assignments ?
Another worry is that you exhibit the "I know better than my teachers " attitude which is typical from 13-15 year old boys, but at 17 is a proof of immaturity. (And yes, I know, sometimes the kid may know better than the adult BUT, again, never systematically.)
As I said, though, Hampshire and Ncf appreciate the way you think. Several colleges will appreciate that you’re self motivated, can create a sequential path to mastery and stick to it, read on your own. However even these, or Beloit, Grinnell, will care that you exhibit greater ability at constraining yourself toward a further goal(college) even if it means jumping through hoops and doing stuff you find boring.
It’s not that I find some assignments boring. I have never gained knowledge in a class from anything other than reading the textbook or listening to the teacher lecture. I can only think of one instance where I knew more than the teacher on one specific subject (paleolithic technology, you know, ancient spear throwing and all. He even let met take his classes out to the soccer field for demonstrations of the atlatl, rock sling, and swiss arrow), otherwise, I always respect my teachers as the smartest people I know.
I see the point of school to learn and gain knowledge. I express my mastery of the material by Aceing my tests and getting a 5 on almost every AP test. I take studious notes, participate daily in class, and read all required materials. This is why despite my lack of work ethic, I’ve received near perfect citizenship marks from my teachers all of high school. If I don’t see something leading to my personal mastery of the material, THAT’S when I decide it’s not worth doing, which is why I still do large assignments or projects, just not the small stuff. You could argue that school is also supposed to instill work ethic in students but to that I say, no student who shows enough mastery of a subject to get a 5 on the AP test deserves to fail a class.
I have shown strong work ethic in things I am passionate about and that I see directly and consistently contributing to my knowledge and development as a person. For example the 4 years of dedication I put into multiple academic clubs. The 4 academic clubs I am president of and the 5th I am Vice President of. The long hours of studying philosophy and foreign affairs to better myself as a citizen. The devotion I have to the Speech and Debate community and my insistence on the success of my teammates above my own (to the frustration of my parents and sometimes my coach). Not to mention the near decade of research and study of the atlatl and other anthropological or archaeological information, a direct flow into what I want to study in college and do with my life.
Have you considered going to UNLV? They offer great scholarships for kids with high test scores. Also, if you’re dead set on going out of state, look at the colleges in the WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange) that offer reduced tuition rates for out-of-state students.
Unlv is underfunded and the students who attend tend to be computers who couldn’t afford to go elsewhere
Op : what you describe is the tedium of high school. Can you make yourself complete the pointless assignments? Because even if some don’t mind, some do yet do the work, and that’ll be who you’re compared to. You sound like a bright kid stuck in a bad district where unconventional students are taught To fit in to the definition of standard high school student, but there’s no way outside of jumping through hoops for the last semesters. In additional information you can always explain where the F comes from.
Except for ncf and Hampshire where admissions would probably agree with you.
My advice is to focus on the atlatl and contact the professor at Grinnell, reach out to all colleges with teams, as well as unconventional colleges.
I have started this year off with the right foot, doing all the assignments on time and thoroughly. I haven’t slept in a week…but that’s just a side effect of AP Lit I guess. A few other schools offer atlatling but not many and atlatling isn’t prominent within the school at all, just a small group but I’ll look into it.
Prioritize sleep (7-8 hours a night). Learn how to skim for literature, or, if you have a topic to focus on, focus on that. Learn how to work efficiently. Sometimes, with busy work, just 2-3 words suffice even if you feel you can write three full sentences.
HAHAHA. I’m not sure how possible that is this year. I’m taking 9 separate classes, 4 of them AP. AP Lit and AP Government has more work than the other 7 classes combined. AP Lit especially. Not to mention any free moment I get I’m researching colleges or writing college essays. Most of my friends have Calc 3 and a lot more AP’s so I can’t complain honestly. I’m kind of grateful AP Econ and AP Computer Science didn’t fit in my schedule.
How are you taking 9 classes? For senior year, seven is plenty.
Perhaps you coukd take honors gov rather than applying gov. 3 AP 's and 4 honors would be quite rigorous.
Lit : skim, read by focusing on questions. You don’t have to read everything to be able to contribute to a good high school discussion - as long as you can bring up themes, character evolutions, turning points, and back it up with one example, you’re good.it’s different from ‘reading as our go’ like you do for fun, it’s targeted reading.
If push don’t sleep enough our health will suffer.
I wouldn’t mention this on your applications. It sounds rather tinfoil-hatty. I also wouldn’t use it as an excuse as to why you didn’t do your homework.
You come across as a super bright, rather undisciplined kid. In my experience (as a super bright, undisciplined kid), until you learn to really grind it right, you’re going to struggle within the confines of the educational system.
I think the college you end up at matters a lot less than your attitude towards education, which, right now, kinda sucks.
an atlatl thrower…very interesting! it’s a cool activity and also one of my secret scrabble words, sends people to the dictionary every time. I agree with @MotherOfDragons however, about the tin foil hatty thing – major red flag to older adults anyway. It’s good to hear that you are now sweating the small stuff (smaller assignments) but if you want the best results, you should be talking about how you really believe the small stuff is worthwhile now. not saying, “well I am doing it because I have to but I still don’t respect it”. Think about the admissions counselors that will do a first evaluation of your application…people in their young twenties, who graduated college and now have what is usually a pretty low paying job. How will they respond to the attitude that comes through in your essay and written materials? I don’t know really, because i am well over 25, BUT if you know anybody that works in this environment you could ask for their advice. and follow that.
As for a good college, your interests and your intelligence are somehow signaling deep springs college, or that college in Vermont where you live on the land. They are looking for people that aren’t just grades and they would be all over the atlatls.
If you’d been doing the homework you thought was “pointless” all along you’d have been acquiring the skimming and other skills that would be helpful to you now. Have you considered taking a gap year? Your entire senior year would be figured into your GPA. That might help. And working a full-time job for a year would give you another year to mature. That would be helpful too.
Seconding Deep Spring in addition to Grinnell, Beloit, ncf, Hampshire 
@MYOS1634 For AP Lit, the reading isn’t the issue at all. I read at about 950 words per minute with a decent (>90%) retention. It’s the responses and essays. We have a lot all the time. And these aren’t assignments we can use a few words on. It’s regarded as the most rigorous course at my school, which I find odd seeing that it is a math and science focused school. AP Gov is required by the program I am in, as is AP Lit and AP Stats, so no way of getting out of that one. We run a block schedule so loading up on that many classes is doable. Lit and Gov haven’t been assigning small, busy assignments so it’s not totally an issue there. It’s a lot of work but it’s substantial work. AP Research for example is not going that well, and it is the one class I could drop for a study hall with my Lit teacher. I think it might be a good idea because I could do homework and get help on Lit stuff when needed, but at the same time I am already halfway through this AP Capstone program, and not completing AP Research after completing and doing well in AP Seminar doesn’t sit well with me. I have until Wednesday to decide if I want to drop AP Research or not. We’ll see. Spanish 2 Honors is the only other non essential class I have this year. I already have all my language credits, and then some. But I want to get better at Spanish to communicate better with my dad’s side of the family. I’ll graduate with 5 language credits, 3 in Japanese, 2 in Spanish.
@MotherOfDragons and @thingamajig It’s not as out in left field as you’d think. Every single one of the AP English teachers has this book on their shelf. That’s where I got it from. And that’s why the English department is my favorite at my school. But as I said before, I know how and when to censor myself when needed.
@austinmshauri You know what’s funny my debate coach said the exact same thing about a gap year to me last week. But we calculated it out, and the maximum my GPA could go up after two, perfect 4.0 semesters in nine classes would be 3.25~ unweighted. Didn’t seem worth it. Should everything go well I’ll have a 3.1~ by the end of this semester.
Never heard of Deep Springs, but I’ll definitely look into it.
Has anyone heard of this new ‘Coalition Application’. Similar to the common app but you get to submit research papers, projects, reports, videos, and/or audio files should you choose to round out your application. They don’t offer as many partner colleges but quite a few of the schools I’ve shown interest in are partner colleges with coalition. Thoughts on this?