<ol>
<li>Use your locker! (this may be more important at my school, but it applies everywhere)</li>
<li>Don't show off your grades. It's okay to tell other people, even without them asking, but don't rub in their faces, literally or figuratively.</li>
<li>Don't ask other people what their grades are unless they are evidently satisfied with them.</li>
<li>Don't be an idiot.</li>
<li>Don't annoy people just because you can (I had problems with this one).</li>
<li>Join clubs, sports teams, or other organizations.</li>
<li>It's okay to do some things for college admissions, but don't overdo it. Colleges can see right through that, anyway.</li>
<li>Read good books. Nothing trashy, overly sentimental or lachrymose.</li>
<li>Make friends and have a social life.</li>
<li>Remember that high school is not just preparation for college.</li>
<li>Be smart. See rule no. 4.</li>
<li>Say "NO" to drugs.</li>
<li>Don't be arrogant (I had problems with this one, too).</li>
</ol>
<p>lol i dont use a lock at my locker and nothing gets stolen, altho other ppls' stuff get stolen even if they have a locker! 0.0 <em>knocks on wood</em></p>
<p>in fact i conquered the locker next to mine's that nobody uses for my afternoon books too ^_^</p>
<p>"nah, you can kiss as*** without really showing it if you're skilled, that is"</p>
<p>fine, then. don't treat your teacher like he/she is an ass to be kissed. how about that?</p>
<p>lol that would work ^_^</p>
<p>aww good advice. I’ll take it into account <3</p>
<p>I really appreciate this thread :)</p>
<p>I appreciate it too :D</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t compare yourself to your classmates, compare yourself to yourself. Unless you go to a really good high school, doing better than your classmates is not that impressive because most of them are mediocre.</p></li>
<li><p>(As a rule of thumb) don’t memorize things without understanding why they work. Especially true in math.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are interested in science spend a summer doing research. Try to contact professors at top universities since they are more likely to publish high-impact papers.</p></li>
<li><p>Do national competitions such as the AMCs, USPhO/USChO/USABO. They look impressive on a resume and they’re fun.</p></li>
<li><p>If you can’t get leadership positions in a club feel free to start your own. Mine was called “Biological Research Club” and it didn’t really do anything but it looked good on my resume. I also made the Physics Club, which actually was supposed to do something.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>“It’s more important to be extracurricularly involved and get a less-than-perfect transcript than to get straight As and have nothing”</p>
<p>In certain cases, I disagree with this. If by “less-than-perfect” you mean “a few Bs” then fine, but the majority of extracurriculars will not make up for a truly subpar GPA. For selective colleges, you have to maintain a GPA relatively close to 4.0 and do significant extracurriculars at the same time. Most colleges don’t care all that much about extracurriculars except the highly selective ones, and those ones require good grades too.</p>
<p>“Also, decide what your top choice college is”</p>
<p>And for God’s sake, don’t just say Harvard because that’s all you’ve ever heard of. Actually do some research. The U.S. news rankings, while they may not be good for actually ranking schools, are a good place to start looking because they provide a lot of facts about different colleges you might not have known about before.</p>