Advice to new prep school goers

<p>OK this is just an advice...When you hear back from your schools, and hopefully good news, do NOT slack off the last semester.
When I knew I was set to go to BS, I didnt care about school anymore. I had 1B, 3Cs and 2 Ds 9th grade second semester...cool....fun huh? can kinda brag about that too...</p>

<p>I didnt realize there's anything wrong with it until this morning, I called my ED school, Cornell, and ask what I can do to improve my chance for regular round after getting defered. </p>

<p>The admission officer said "Do you know why we defer you?"</p>

<p>"We defered you because you slacked off your 9th grade second semester after you got into hotchkiss. How can we know you arent going to do the same thing and let senioritis take you away? We will wait for your third marking period grades and we hope you do well."</p>

<p>I said, "So if I do well third marking period, I will get in?"</p>

<p>He said, " We can never make any promises, but yes, a great chance."</p>

<p>Sometimes you dont know the consequence until things get back to you.. my point is, DO NOT slack off the rest of the school years when you guys hear good news from the schools</p>

<p>That's a bit of a given, isn't it? It's very important that once you show an upward swing, you keep it. Slumps are never looked upon favorably. Although I seriously doubt that a Cornell rep told you exactly what the problem was.</p>

<p>My advice is to never think that your school's name will get you into your top choice. It won't.</p>

<p>I was adviced to make the call. and they actually did tell me. Thanks for the doubt.</p>

<p>There are way too many kids who slack off the last semester before they came to boarding schools; so did I. Mine was probably one of the worst cases, and I understand why they would have that doubt. but my point is, things that you think are insignificant gets back to you even if you dont expect them to.</p>

<p>"My advice is to never think that your school's name will get you into your top choice. It won't."
What? I never said anything about it</p>

<p>I was just thinking about that this morning when I was taking my exams. I guess I better not slack off after (if) I get into prep school., but I'm in eighth grade, so colleges won't even see if I did or not.</p>

<p>Don't be so defensive, bearcats. I wasn't attacking you.</p>

<p>Not exactly true, J1.</p>

<p>If your grades fall off, it could determine your placement in your 9th grade courses. And, yes, that would make a difference. I'd argue it could wind up making a far bigger difference than getting a low grade in 9th grade...because it could be a lot harder to make up lost ground (from a lower placement) than a low grade.</p>

<p>I'm not saying this is a universal truth. And I'm sure there are plenty of ways you can dance around with slacking off that won't affect placement while you have good times and lower grades. But if you start to play the "I don't care" game, you run two big risks.</p>

<p>First, you may find it hard to only "not care" a little bit (sort of like it's hard to just be a little bit pregnant) and bury yourself. Apathy can get out of control real fast.</p>

<p>Second, you may find it difficult to turn that apathy on and off at will. There's no real guarantee that you can coast at the end of 8th grade and reboot with all the data and battery power restored. It may be like trying to restart a fire that you've poured the coffee on than flipping the power button back to "on." Even if you can regain that spark, it may take some time...like one semester or more of 9th grade.</p>

<p>There'll be plenty of time for y'all to coast after you turn 65...or 68...or whatever it's going to be when you're old codgers.</p>

<p>Well, it's not like I'm failing, it's just that I usually have all A's and this year I got a C on my Enlgish exam and I was very surprised. It only counts for 20% of our grade, so I'll have a B+. </p>

<p>I'll most likely have the following grades after exams. The ranking is before exams.</p>

<p>Art - A (we switch "elective" classes every six weeks, even though we don't get to choose them). 6/24</p>

<p>Core Explore - (We learn about the holocaust, public speaking, etc.) A+ (1/26)</p>

<p>Social Studies - A+ (1/25)</p>

<p>Band - A+ (2/30)</p>

<p>Science - A (4/25)</p>

<p>English - B+ (5/25)</p>

<p>Algebra - B- (14/30)</p>

<p>I'm lucky, I guess, I can't get 'senioritis' (or whatever they call it for eighth graders), because there's this really stupid award thing at the end of eighth grade that I nonetheless want, and you must have all As in every class all three years of middle school to get it. It's silly, this I know. Doesn't change the fact that I want it.
Remember that certain courses--foreign language, and any maths course starting with Algebra--show up on college transcripts. Granted, I'm sure they wouldn't care if a kid got a C in algebra in the eighth grade and then got all A's all through high school, but it does go on your transcripts.</p>

<p>"Granted, I'm sure they wouldn't care if a kid got a C in algebra in the eighth grade"</p>

<p>that's the major reason i got defered...
of course they care, it tells a track of a person, a person who slacks off the end of eighth grade are more likely to be prone to senioritis, i didnt know this, now i do</p>

<p>I didn't mean kids applying to prep school, where the situation would be more comparable to high school. If it is true in other circumstances, I think that it's kind of illogical--a person changes tremendously in character, resonsibility, mind, and basically all other aspects of life. Saying that one grade when someone was 13 is not a very good representation of someone's basic character. With prep school, I guess I could see using that, since it's kind of a microcauism of college, but in most cases I think it's unduly harsh.</p>

<p>i dunno, but my point is just whatever prep school (since most people on this board are applying to prep schools) you get into on March 10th, dont start thinking, "I can drop my books till september"...</p>

<p>I agree with J over the fact that people should be given a second chance. They probably do not know which college they are going to apply to, and therefore will not be preparing for it adequately enough.</p>

<p>I'm just wondering what the letter system is converted to numbers:
A:90-100
B:80-90
C:70-80
D:60-70
F:60-
Is it something like that? The system in my school is numbered. Below 75 is failing and 85+ is honor roll. I just got a 85 on one of my English tests -_-, but I don't think it's supposed to count TOO much. Anyways, is it really necessary to stress for extremely high scores in senior year?</p>

<p>And does foreign language affect too much of your college decisions?</p>

<p>And does foreign language affect too much of your college decisions?
YEs, it's a class</p>

<p>what about in 8th grade?</p>

<p>At our school, you get to decide to take certain courses such as Algebra, Geometry, Language for high school credit.</p>

<p>If you do, it is on your transcript. If not, then it is not.
So I believe it varies school by school.</p>

<p>I have a question: At the end of this year, I will have taken Honors Algebra I, Honors Geometry, and the equvilalent of one year of high school French (I of course realize that the French I have taken is not the caliber of prep school courses, so bare with me here. Also, in my district, they consider two years of middle school French one year of high school). If I go to prep school, will these count as high school credits, even though they weren't taken there? I think the question of credits being counted has come up before, but I didn't really get it.</p>

<p>Yes, J, they will count toward high school credit. You will be placed in French 2, and you'll be in my class if we go to the same school. :) You will also be placed in the course after Geometry, which is, I believe, Algebra II. But I remember my math teacher telling me that I would get high school credit for doing the course.</p>

<p>Most likely you will be given a self-administered placement test around the end of the school year, and your math & language teachers will be asked to recommend a placement. The results of this test and the recommendations will determine your placement in math and language. You are given placement (maybe) to the next level but not credit towards high school course distributions. At least this is how I understand it for 9th graders. Most schools will expect you to complete at least 3 math courses beyond Geometry, and most will expect a minimum of 2 years (usually 3 years recommended) of a foreign language. Because the courses are more rigorous, not everyone is placed at the next level. And during the first month of school, some students will be asked to repeat a class.</p>

<p>Burb Parent is right. If they gave credit for classes, many kids would graduate by just taking a couple English classes. You are placed in a suitable level from your placement tests. The requirements vary by school, but from my experience they are given based number of years taken or level reached, not credits earned.</p>