advice for yale!

<p>hey guys,</p>

<p>I am going to be in the ninth grade soon and I really want to get into Yale. well to be honest I'm going in 8th....but that still count right!?! anyways I'm really nervous and I really need advice so I can get accepted into my dream college!...please help!!</p>

<p>Seriously?! You should really calm down. You have plenty of time before you should really start worrying about college
Besides…nothing you do in middle school will matter to colleges anyway. Just work hard and enjoy the time you have while you have it and come back in a year or two for advice you can actually use and appreciate</p>

<p>“I’m really nervous…please help!!”</p>

<p>Best advice we can give you is to go to 8th grade next year. Seriously though, just forget about Yale or college completely and enjoy your last year of middle school. There is virtually ZERO you should be worrying about now and the fact that you are is setting you up for possibly a horrible next 5 years filled with neuroticism. That’s NOT the way to get into Yale or any other top school for that matter.</p>

<p>Do well in your 8th grade classes (not hard to do with a modicum of effort) so that you place into Honors or advanced classes in HS. If you really want to do something, try to have fun and explore different things (sports, clubs, tutor, volunteer or whatever) just so you develop your social skills and also get a sense of what interests and motivates you but by no means should this be done with an eye toward getting into college. Just about nothing you do in middle school counts toward college (you haven’t won a spelling bee have you? - just kidding) It’s more to help you learn and grow as a person.</p>

<p>When you get to HS, take the most challenging classes, be engaged and engaging in class, find out what about you sets you apart from your peers (sports, music, a passion for a particular area of learning, etc) and put your heart into it and everything else should hopefully fall into place.</p>

<p>There are many threads with links to great articles aimed at people your age or rising 9th graders and I’m sure veteran posters can guide you to them but most of all, for now … relax and be open and receptive to the world as it unfolds in front of you.</p>

<p>Everything in this blog about Harvard also applies to Yale (and Princeton, Stanford, MIT et al): [Andrew</a> S. Doctoroff: Dear Eighth Grader: So You Want to Apply to Harvard? Some Words of Advice…](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Dear Eighth Grader: So You Want to Apply to Harvard? Some Words of Advice... | HuffPost College)</p>

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<p>This is good advice as well:
[Applying</a> Sideways | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways]Applying”>Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions)</p>