Advice on what to do before College

<p>You know what I wish I'd done? I wish I'd relaxed more, done activities I actually LIKE, not flipped out about every little thing (aka EVERY freaking test that I EVER took in hs!), and taken classes for the sake of learning and not for acing the exam. How does this translate to you? RELAX! You need to even more than I ever did from the looks of it - I didn't get into the whole college thing till like sophomore year and here you are as a freshman...Do what you want to with the Mandarin/Spanish thing. Take classes that INTEREST you. Then you'll be able to honestly tell interviewers you did what you like in hs. Trust me on this...</p>

<p>Chill. I didn't know what an SAT was until my 2nd month senior year. Oh wait...that's actually pretty bad lol.</p>

<p>
[Quote]
Cure cancer and win the Nobel prize. You're doomed otherwise.

[/quote]

And don't forget to write a novel at least 800 pages in length dealing with the supposed mutational abilities of Andromeda Strain in Micheal Crichton's novel. Anything less and you're a failure.</p>

<p>all you can really do right now is get the best grades you can and do ECs you enjoy, because if you don't enjoy them you won't stick with them. Try to take difficult classes and build good relationships with your teachers so you have lots of choices for recomendations.</p>

<p>I think the most important thing is to read all that you possibly can. It's a better preparation for the SAT Critical Reading section than anything else you could possibly do (I say this as someone who got a perfect score on that section without studying). It will also help you become a good writer -- which is necessary for nearly all of your classes -- and to understand the world better.</p>

<p>Stick with your extracurriculars for all four years and make sure that they're activities you have a passion for and could possibly achieve leadership positions in. Don't pad your resume; just work hard at things that you enjoy.</p>

<p>Take the highest level of every class you can.</p>

<p>Have fun, discover the world, be social, develop passions -- the rest will all fall into place.</p>

<p>Don't chill to much we wouldn't want you to freeze. I know lame joke.
Play a sport even if you can't throw a football 10 yards. You will learn a lot of things that the debate team could never teach you.</p>

<p>find activities that reflect your interests. don't do activities because you feel you should. don't do nothing at all.</p>

<p>take classes you want to take, but challenge yourself. learn for learning's sake. don't stress over grades, but don't slack completely. try something you never thought you would- join a club that seems a little obscure, pick up a new hobby. if you explore what your high school has to offer you'll be better prepared to take advantage of what college has to offer.</p>

<p>develop and maintain good study habits. do not be like me, who has a research paper due tomorrow afternoon and is on CC posting... :rolleyes:</p>

<p>Hi ChaiMex
I can teach your Chinese if u want.</p>

<p>kids, it seems to me like you're already making the mistake of living in the future. trust me, once you reach college, the level of anxiety in your life will have increased so much you will look back on your days in high school in nostalgia. my advice?: be here now. forget about the future and college, it aint even that fun to begin with. give it your best in what you're doing now and take pleasure in your academics (although i know this will not be the case for every class). a few recommendations: join only one or two extracurricular activities and really dedicate to them. preferably one academic oriented (debate or writing for the newspaper) and the other physical, like say track or basketball or something like that. if i could focus on one skill to truly prepare for college it will be this: writing, writing, writing! (<em>hint</em>hint*). other than that, just enjoy your time now.</p>

<p>It is never too early to start thinking about college. But at this point you shouldn't be stressing too much about it. Get a good GPA, do EC's you like, don't do it just because it looks good. Get good SAT's. Thats about all you need really. I mean its a good thing that you are thinking ahead, but high school isn't all about just prepping for college. Enjoy yourself while you are at it and perhaps learn something new about yourself. The people that I know who excessively obsess over getting into college are generally pretty pessimistic and negative about a lot of things in life. If you are one of those people, don't think it all ends once you get into college, because once you are there you'll be doing the same for grad school/internships/future career/ and yada yada. </p>

<p>Yeah, minorityman is right--write. Haha, it is important is all aspects of college--and life--no matter what major or field you want to get into. </p>

<p>I'm from UCLA and it is surprising how many people write like TOTAL CRAP. My writing was mediocre coming into college, but then I had an amazing english comp teacher my 1st quarter and was reformed. Haha. Still tons of room for improvement though.</p>

<p>Oh yeah and if you are planning on going into sciences/engineering/math, anything like that.. PAY ATTENTION IN ALGEBRA. A lot of the concepts in higher level math are actually pretty easy, but when you do the problems, bad fundamental math from high school comes back and kicks you in the butt exponentially. Seriously, my high school math classes/teachers screwed me over.</p>

<p>wow I thought this was a thread about FUN stuff to do before college....lol....
in any case, I was going to suggest:
Defer college for a year, and travel the world.
Go bungee jumping with all your HS friends.
Get to know your home town.</p>

<p>.....yep...</p>

<p>slit your wrist and come back to life!</p>

<p>Looking back, there isn't really anything I'd do differently to improve my admissions chances. I've been accepted to Wisconsin @ Madison, Texas @ Austin, and Missouri @ Columbia, and am still waiting on a decision from Northwestern; rejected nowhere so far. </p>

<p>I'll tell you my story to success.</p>

<p>In 8th grade, I got A's, B's, C's basically an equal proportion of each. I was a pretty good academic student, taking Algebra (B grade), a year earlier than we do here. I've placed high in some math competitions, and was on a Scholastic team. But I played volleyball and basketball, and those were the core of my extra curricular, loved the sports. Loved going to dances, and just being a dumb kid, having fun. </p>

<p>I thought I was smart in math, and alright at everything else. Not the smartest. I went to a Catholic school though, and was going to go to a Public High School. We were doing a lot of Regular HS level 9/10th grade level work there, so I was better off than I originally thought.</p>

<p>So I went in the midst of 8th grade, on the 8th grade slide : D, and filled out my schedule for my freshman year.</p>

<p>Here it was:</p>

<p>Keyboarding - I loved the computers going into high school. I was confident that I would probably end up with a job where I sat at a computer all day, seamlessly doing nothing, but still getting paid to surf the web and do minimal work. Didn't really want this class, but it was a prerequisite for the other computer courses at our school. In short, I typed faster than the teacher in the class, and it was an easy A. It was still good, because we learned some formats for business memos and letters.</p>

<p>Art Medals- Didn't really care too much about this class. The way I looked at it, have to take my 1 credit of art, so best to get it all out of the way right away (this was a half credit course, so half way done). I thought, this one would be best, make some bling bling or whatever, maybe make a ring, necklace etc. Looking back, I wish I took a drawing or painting class, thought that would be more fun. Got an A in the class. Never made bling bling, etc. for this one necklace pendant thing (it was a baseball themed one), otherwise I just made crappy magnets, except for this Christmas Tree ornament I made for my mom for X-mas that year. </p>

<p>Biology- This was the advanced science class for freshman. I took a test and tested out of 9th grade lab science, so this was good. We had this teacher who had a monotone. Dissected a frog, pig, and the lot. This teacher was in his last year before retirement. My brother and sister had him the year before. My brother liked him, and my sister hated him. So then that year, me and my sister had him (since she failed), in different classes though. I thought this was going to be some strict guy, blah blah blah. He ended up loving my work ethic, and I had no problem in his class. My sister failed again.</p>

<p>Health- This was a mandatory freshman class, they automatically assigned it. I hated this. There is nothing I hate more than seeing fetuses in the womb (I'm pro-Life, but still, I don't think we need to see that graphic, I hate when the pro-Lifers send me this type of stuff in the mail, and I hated the class). Hated the bulemia videos as well. Got my A though.</p>

<p>Geometry- Took Algebra in 8th, so this was just the next step. Boring class, easy A.</p>

<p>Advanced Fresh English- This was a class that was for advanced Freshman in English, and semi-advance sophomores. Read Tale of Two Cities, and To Kill a Mockingbird I believe. Got an A the first semester. </p>

<p>US History CP- You just take a History class, all freshman are in US History. Chose CP which was the highest. Pretty easy class. We always did these current event tests/ team comps, and I always killed in them. The teacher was cool, always said, "No Sex before marriage". Got to make a cool Moon video. Got kicked out of this class with this one girl, only class I ever got kicked out of. Got an A both semesters.</p>

<p>Was ranked #2 in my class after the first semester. I was like OH YEAH!!! I'M SO GREAT!?!!!!!</p>

<p>So then my 2nd semester was a bit different, because of half credit classes.</p>

<p>Physical Education- have to take 1 1/2 credits gym, so get half out of the way. Fun class, just play sports. I always loved gym, easy A.</p>

<p>Drivers Ed- Our school offered Drivers Ed at the time. You took a book class for a school grade for a quarter, then they had an after school for the actual driving lessons. Easy class, learned how to drive while getting a grade. Got my Temps out of this class : D. Easy A. My grade remained constant throughout the quarter, the teacher messed up her excel formula obviously, so my grade stopped updating, so I had that A locked up pretty easily. </p>

<p>Career Development - A class where we were literally expected to do nothing. The teacher is this black business teacher. All the black people take this class just to do nothing. We had about a week worth of coursework (for me at least), yet some people still never finished it. Read the paper in this class a bunch, talked to this group of girls. Easy, laid back class. The teacher, while she was giving A's like candy, she is actually very intelligent (she runs her normal classes like normal classes), and she could definitely help out if you needed it. Only took this class because it was the only 1/4th quarter class to put opposite of drivers ed, didn't think study halls were a good idea, warned about how all people do is pass drugs, so didn't sign up for it.</p>

<p>Radio & TV- The radio part got slashed, and so did the TV part, this got turned into Movies class. Learned about screenwriting, directing, shooting, acting in here. It was a theater class, which was something I didn't expect. The teacher was a bit wacky. The theater kids are very cliqueish at my school, the only real group that establishes a clicque and tries to make it exclusive. So the class ended up divided into two groups. The theater guys, then the black kids, me, this one mexican guy, and this super hot senior who liked me a bit (she's pregnant and married now though). The theater kids actually did give us a chance, and I became pretty good friends with one of them, but they made that initial divide right away. Got a B in the class, as did the rest of my group, because we weren't the cliqueish people, and had no idea what the teacher was grading on.</p>

<p>Got a B second semester in English because I was slacking big time in there.</p>

<p>Ended #51 in my class after my first year. </p>

<p>The only extra curricular at school that I did, was Volleyball. Didn't do basketball because my knees were pretty shot after volleyball and needed a rest. Played volleyball my sophomore year. Didn't do that after that, as I fell victim to one of the most competitive volleyball conferences in the nation : D</p>

<p>Sophomore Year, my schedule was:</p>

<p>IB World History- This was the class from hell I was told, from the teacher from hell. The teacher wasn't that bad. She was different, she was mean when you ****ed up, but she really prepared you for further course work. She gave these hella hard tests (still managed to get a D at least on all of them). She graded our papers hard. She liked my "attempts" at analysis on my research papers, but then would cut them down : D. She ranted at our entire class since no one could answer this question about the Reformation one time. I got a B both semesters, and am damn proud of them. I could have gotten an A 4th quarter, but I didn't finish my notebook (random notebook checks, argh!), and got an F, instead of my usual A. Oh well, if I didn't fail that notebook, I probably wouldn't be the same person I am today!</p>

<p>Advanced English 2- Opted for this instead of the IB route, since the teacher seemed like a looney. This teacher was supposed to be "a *<strong><em>", but she was "the *</em></strong>", and I mean that in a good way. She made fun of people, etc. She brought us donuts some. We didn't read half the books we were supposed to, and we didn't write all our required papers because she was too lazy to grade them (and she was the dept. chair, haha). She knew my grandparents, and she liked me in general. My A was never in question.</p>

<p>Engineering & Design- This class was supposed to be a ****, do nothing class for the most part, which it ended up being. Got an A in it both semesters. We did small engineering projects, which were always fun. Learned some small fundamentals of engineering. Grilled brats, etc. Fun class.</p>

<p>Computer Apps- Continuing on with the computer classes. Used photoshop, powerpoint, and this movie program. Had to do a bunch of photo projects and make a movie. Easy course, got an A.</p>

<p>Web Page Design- Opposite of the other class for second semester. Make web pages using HTML, CSS, and Dreamweaver. Easy class, one of those classes where I was more talented and knew more than the teacher. Easy A, highest computer class at the school.</p>

<p>Latin 1- This was the first course I took with college in mind. I knew I needed 2 years of foreign language for college, took this. Picked it up easily, Easy A. The teacher was this old guy, but he was really nice. People always thought this was just some dumb mean old guy at the beginning of the year, and dropped after the first day, but he was awesome. We did fun field trips and activities. I would have rather learned Spanish looking back, but don't regret my decision taking Latin.</p>

<p>Chemistry- Just the next line in the Science chain. Crazy teacher. He didn't know chemistry worth a damn. We'd get like 700% error on labs, and stil lget A's. We only covered like 10 chapters compared to 36 by the other class.</p>

<p>Alg.2-Trig - Fun class. We had our group in the back corner. We'd make so many dumb jokes, just messed around. The teacher was good. She taught good, and she would even come and joke around with us. Easy A for me.</p>

<p>Ended up like #31 in my class after soph year.</p>

<p>Junior Year, here was my schedule.</p>

<p>IB Biology- First real IB classes we can take Junior year. Took this for the hell of it, had the idea of taking the first year of this but not the 2nd because I didn't want to dissect a cat. Same crazy teacher as I had for Chemistry, but he actually knew Bio quite well. Got to dissect a shark in here. Got a B for semester in reality because I got a D on the final, but the teacher switched my 4th quarter grade to a B, and my Semester grade to an A. He was cool like that. When I went to go find out how I did on my final, he was like, you're not going to be happy when you hear this, and then when he showed it to me, I started swearing up a storm (but in self anger swearing, not swearing at him). I said "Aww *<strong><em>" and he was like "Aww *</em></strong> is right" lol. </p>

<p>IB History- From Napoleon through WWI. This class is dope, its history. The teacher was pretty nice. She becomes pretty good friends with most students, not me though, but that doesn't affect her grades at all. STill got an A.</p>

<p>Latin 2- Took this for my 2 years of language. New teacher this year, the worst teacher I ever had, still got an A in there. Like 3/4th of the class dropped, so there were only a few of us in second semester. So this girl, she always talked to this one guy, but he was forced to drop because of a scheduling conflict. I honestly thought this was just some annoying ***** for the entire first semester, who I had no desire to talk to. She sat the row next to me, one seat ahead. She was there to talk to this other guy she knew. By not too long though, she moved next to me, she'd scoot her desk right next to mine so there was no gap a lot, and we just talked in there everyday (the teacher would honestly yell at anyone else for talking, but he just let us talk as much as we wanted : D ). We got pretty close, love this girl, and she's one of my favorite friends now. Thats why I don't regret taking Latin. We all dropped Latin after the year, and now they won't have a Latin program anymore, because the teacher was so horrible.</p>

<p>IB Chemistry- Tough class. A first semester, B second. Gave up on it second semester, and failed pretty much every test. Hated labs in this class, had no idea what the hell I was doing. Was working on the labs with this one girl that was really smart, and knew what to do first semester. Second semester, I worked with one of the guys I was lab partners with where we kept getting 700% errors in regular Chem, and that girl from Latin, and my lab grades slipped as a result.</p>

<p>IB Pre-Calc- A whatever class. Boring math. A first semester, B second. Didn't really care 2nd semester. </p>

<p>IB english- Read a bunch of crappy novels, and then of course Candide, the king of novels. Began to develop as a writer more and more. Got an A first semester, B second semester in here, in what the teacher called a terrible tank job. Moved into the IB because my sophomore teacher said one of my papers was the best paper that she'd ever read.</p>

<p>Gym - Same as before, played volleyball for the most part in here. </p>

<p>Second semester, I had a study hall. We played basketball with the garbage cans, and watched Shakira videos, and South Park in here, etc.</p>

<p>Finished #24 after that year.</p>

<p>Senior Year so far:</p>

<p>Gym- Took a larger variety of different sports in here. Badmitton, I was the best in the class at, but we always did doubles tournaments, and my partnet was jackass, so I lost that, but was undefeated in singles play. Volleyball, did good as usual, got a what the hell attitude, usually one of the first few picks. Hockey, same as volleyball. Decent at it, usually one of the first few picks. But I took basketball in here. We played one on one games the first day, and then team games after that. Hadn't played basketball competitively in high school at all. We had some of the varsity and jv players in our gym. I was always the #1 pick or a captain, and would routinely put up 20 point games, a few 30 point games, and 40 point game, and thats in pretty rushed games. This makes me regret not biting the pain and playing bball fresh year. Got a study hall opposite of this, just mess around.</p>

<p>Calculus- A hard class. The teacher hates me. Still pulled a B first semester, and pulling a B this semester. Its like a freaking concentration camp.</p>

<p>IB English- Nicest teacher. So easy. More oral speaking and more papers, but I do well on them. Easy A.</p>

<p>Physics- Just a general science course. Easy for me, hard for everyone else in the class. (Most of the advanced course people apparently took this sophomore year). Easy A.</p>

<p>IB Stats- Easy class. The teacher rocks. </p>

<p>IB History- Continuation of the junior year course. Same ol' same ol'.</p>

<p>Up to #23 after first semester. </p>

<p>I always took the classes I wanted to take, so no biggie there. My first two years of high school were a lot more fun classes, while my last two were more difficult courses. I'm more able to handle them now, then I was back then. I think taking easy electives, that you'll enjoy in your first two years is a good idea. </p>

<p>Senior Year, my extra curriculars were:</p>

<p>Key Club, joined this up. Became class director. Not really into it, just joined cuz this girl got me into it. Made some good friends in here, but the adult supervisors are bleh, but the people in here are real cool.</p>

<p>Newspaper, editor, web admin. Love it, love it, love it. </p>

<p>Math Comp team - fun stuff. Our team did horrible, but I did the best on our team....but our team sucked so much.</p>

<p>Model OAS/UN - the first sim, I was more quiet, just mapping it out, watching others, and didn't begin making too many talking points until a bit later in it. The second simulation, I knew what to expect, and came out gunning, and had a lot more fun in it. </p>

<p>Throughout this time, I did Boy Scouts. I was a Patrol Leader, Librarian, and Scribe in there. Became an Eagle Scout. In addition, I did Church Youth Group at my church, and always altar served.</p>

<p>I think the one thing that is underestimated as far as EC's go on here, it is boy scouts. The number of boy scouts are dwindling, and the number of eagle scouts is even less. The Eagle Scout award is always a great sign of success, as well as leadership. A large amount of NASA astronauts tend to be Eagle Scouts, as well as losing democratic nominees for the presidency. It is a sign of success, and I think its helped me a lot in making it into these colleges. In addition, putting a weird leadership position like Librarian probably helps as well. </p>

<p>As far as what I would have liked to do differently? I would have liked to get into more clubs earlier, and then did a more obscure sport, Golf in particular, in the Spring. Although without a car, and a willing mother (who only would do it for vball/bball for driving) it was hard to do this.</p>

<p>Clubs I would have liked to do:</p>

<p>Key Club- Would have liked to have been in this, with the seniors in here, for all four years.</p>

<p>Newspaper- Love this stuff. Would have loved to be on the Newspaper all 4 years.</p>

<p>Model UN- Would have liked to do it junior year at the least. Only did it senior year because a girl told me I have to do it, or she'll be so mad....didn't think I would enjoy this as much as i did.</p>

<p>Student Government- Wish I would have gotten involved in this in my HS, but its too late now. Didn't think this had any true power (since in my Middle School it didn't), but in reality, they can change a lot of things, and how money is spent. </p>

<p>Also, I wish I would have gotten in one of the business co-ops and made some money in those.</p>

<p>Hope this helps you out.</p>

<p>To quote the movie "Dazed and Confused"...</p>

<p>Well, all I'm saying is that I want to look back and say that I did I the best I could while I was stuck in this place. Had as much fun as I could while I was stuck in this place. Played as hard as I could while I was stuck in this place... Dogged as many girls as I could while I was stuck in this place.</p>

<p>You should aim to be able to say that when you finally leave for college.</p>

<p>First of all, I am a senior in High School.</p>

<p>Well, academic wise....I'm not sure if I would change anything. If I had put the extra effort in instead of breezing through High School with "my minnimum" (I put that in quotes since my idea of slacking, breezing, and "minniumum" seems to be relatively high to many:S). Regardless, I've taken every AP class avaiable in my school, have a nice GPA, and got last place in the top 10% without much of an effort.</p>

<p>If I had put more effort in? I would have had more money and maybe I would be more prepared for some college classes to come(though, I haven't taken the rest of my AP tests yet so....who knows). I still got accepted to all three schools I applied to (UW-Madision, UMN: st.paul/minnesapolis, and Michigan Tech) and the only school that I diden't apply to but would have maybe liked to go to was MIT...I figured my credentials just weren't enough.</p>

<p>Academic wise, one thing I do wish I did was put more effort into the ACT....a week of effort and I bet you I could have brought my score up a few points...</p>

<hr>

<p>Now, there are some things I regret and wish I did. First of all, I wish I got into theater and public speaking sooner (I "discovered" it my Junior Year). Regardless, it's not that big of a deal and I've participated in a lot of things since then.</p>

<p>The second thing, I regret not telling the person I really like that I really like her. It's been 4+ years where I have liked her to some extent or another and I haven't said a thing...I may not even pull myself to say anything now since in my mind it seems pointless considering after this year we may never see each other again.</p>

<p>That's about it though....sure, there are little things I'd change here and there, but those are the major things. :-) It'd be fun if I could play through this life again with no focus on my studies doing things completely contradictory to my personality in the eyes of others...but, that isn't what I'd do if I only had one time to repeat :-P</p>

<p>EDIT: Guess this post is a little more, "What I wish I did" and not "What you should do". I apologize. So, moral of the post: Girls are trouble, avoid at all costs :-P</p>

<p>I was always interested in getting into a college where I'd feel comfortable, have good opportunities, and all that jazz. However, my public school doesn't help kids try to go anywhere but community college (where they actually encourage you to go...) or in-state universities. Not that there's anything wrong with a state uni, but for many people they aren't good fits. I knew that I learned better in smaller, discussion based classes. I have friends that detest those and would prefer to be in a large class where there's little interaction between teachers and students. In the next couple of years, try to figure out what you're most comfortable with. See if your public speaking, writing, and other rhetorical skills need a bit of work-- everyone can always improve in those areas. </p>

<p>Also, try to be on good terms with teachers if you can. Not only does it make class a lot easier to deal with, but when teacher recommendations and such come around there's a lot less to worry about. Go in and ask questions if you have any-- that's a big thing I wish I had done more of before my Junior year. I was in a bunch of accelerated classes, but math was my weakest subject. Instead of getting outside help, I was really stubborn and decided I could figure it out on my own. Part of learning is knowing your capabilities and strengthening weaker areas when given the opportunity. </p>

<p>As for extra-curriculars, take your freshman year to get involved in lots of things to find your niche. If you like writing, reading, or art, go out for a literary magazine (or talk to a teacher about starting one if your school doesn't have one!). Some of the best things I got involved with were theatre and forensics, because they hone skills that honestly help in the long run (public speaking, memorization ability, being aware of others if you have to cover during a scene, hours of work and preparation, appreciation of a bunch of elements coming together for a show, etc...). If you enjoy music, stick with band, orchestra, or choir. Music activities tend to come with a lot of opportunities to improve yourself and gain recognition for it if that's what you want. If you're interested in other cultures, look into a program like People to People Student Ambassadors for over the summer-- you can receive grants or good advice to raise money if it's an issue, and you get invaluable experience to travel around the world and meet other dedicated students. If you're big on sports or just dabble in them, go out for a team and stick with it! Colleges like to see that you're in activities that you enjoy, and a lot of the times those activities recognize your dedication by giving you awards or leadership positions senior or junior year. I'm not saying you should be doing things to try to fluff an application-- I'm just saying that if you find things you enjoy, you shouldn't have to stress over looking impressive. </p>

<p>But I second what a lot of others are saying-- don't stress too much yet. Work on keeping a good GPA, challenging yourself, and finding good things to keep you busy in the meantime. :) I hope everything works out in the long run-- I ended up applying ED to my dream school and getting accepted, and I don't feel like I wasted too many opportunities or had a contrived list of activities.</p>

<p>chaimex- do you go to st. mark's? dallas right?</p>

<p>my only advise is to really through yourself into something you love. everyone has something really quirky about them, don't be afraid to just go for it. try not to put off something you really love so you can stay home and study for an AP exam you won't take for another 3 years. if you love something really obscure and can write a kickass essay about it, an admissions officer is going to think of you as the-kid-that-loves-ice-climbing-in-durango but does all the other stuff too. just think of one thing that you really love and it will make you stand out, the only bad thing that can happen to a person that already has as much motivation as you is to jump around from activity to volunteer work to internships without ever returning to something that is really integral.</p>

<p>you'll be fine. as a senior in high school i finally realized that all the hard work i put into an ivy league was for naught because my state school has the best engineering program i could get from any of those schools. it IS good to be prepared though so don't aim for a state school when senior year you might decide the classics program at harvard is the only one for you.</p>