<p>eh, but it’s a nice change from the suburban atmosphere I’ve grown up in.</p>
<p>It’s nice to have dreams (and I mean it), but just to warn you, you’d get burned out by Junior year (as I’m sure many other people would agree with me here). </p>
<p>Even if you do keep up your success streak all through high school, you’d still have many years to go. It’d be impressive for anyone to go through so much stress and not burn out for more than 4 years.</p>
<p>I never said there’s anything wrong with aspiring to go to an Ivy. In fact, I plan to apply to about 4 or 5 of them myself when my applications go out in a few months.</p>
<p>The only difference is that I’m a junior, and I’ve made these decisions these past few months as I’ve been looking around and seriously considering where I would like to go to school. I’m not years away from applying. And there’s nothing wrong with your wanting to go to Harvard. But getting obsessed and spending the next 3.5 yrs being neurotic and studying super hard will just burn you out. </p>
<p>Also, I will not be devastated if I don’t go to an Ivy. Would it be nice? Certainly. Would I survive if I go somewhere else? Absolutely!</p>
<p>“Also, I will not be devastated if I don’t go to an Ivy. Would it be nice? Certainly. Would I survive if I go somewhere else? Absolutely!”</p>
<p>Exactly how I feel!</p>
<p>Yes, it’s a little strange that I’m thinking about college as a freshmen, but I honestly feel that more people should. Sometimes it’s too late to scrape together an application late junior year (especially for top colleges). Which is why I want to be prepared. </p>
<p>As for the burn out issue, I’ll make sure that I take breaks ;). I don’t think I’ll push myself so hard that I collapse. I’m up for the challenge. :D</p>
<p>^I concur. I didn’t start to get neurotic about this until Junior year. I’m in first year right now and I’m already all burned out. Don’t think I could last another 3 years and aim for an Ivy grad school… already been through this admissions chaos once and don’t want to go through it again (but again, I don’t regret going through it once and it is a good experience to have).</p>
<p>Edit: Blah. StudiousMaximus beat me by 3 minutes.</p>
<p><.<</p>
<p>freshy</p>
<p>lolz</p>
<p>aim for the moon, if you fall short at least you’ll be on the stars.</p>
<p>^lol I included that saying in one of my posts. It’s a great motto to live by!</p>
<p>It is.
Here’s what I have to say.
Do your best. Have your #1 college choice in the back of your head, but aim for those perfect stats and great EC’s. (Do not kill yourself doing this).</p>
<p>Study for the SAT’s. Make your teachers your friends, or at the least, get to know them all.</p>
<p>Make sure that you are still a great person, do not ram your grades into people’s faces.
(I have a pal that gets 98s on tests and cries over it. If i could strangle… grrr)</p>
<p>But aim HIGH!!! Do not let people stop you. CC (this site) is full of crackheads who will fill you up with bad info. But then there are some great people on here who would love to help you. Do not live on this site. Run away from your laptop when you think you are being pulled to this sight.</p>
<p>aks questions. After a while you will know who the ■■■■■■ are, who the nice people are and who the great people on here are. Listen to them at times.</p>
<p>ummmm… what else…</p>
<p>Oh yah! Make sure to Live! Breath!Laugh! and Love!</p>
<p>That is all. ^___^</p>
<p>p.s. (this is a respnse to what you said about all the perfect stats you saw, some of them are fake. Of course there are tons of smart people on here, but there are some fakes as well. That is all)</p>
<p>Don’t live for college admissions; there are bigger and better things out there.</p>
<p>Anyway, here’s my advice: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/admissions-hindsight-lessons-learned/1099647-billymc-s-advice-future-applicants.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/admissions-hindsight-lessons-learned/1099647-billymc-s-advice-future-applicants.html</a></p>
<p>On the “Aim for the moon” quote:</p>
<p>It is very, very corny. But it is definitely sound advice. I shot for the moon (Yale), missed (rejected ='[), and have landed smack dab in the middle of three, very bright stars (Rice, Vanderbilt, and UVa) that I probably would not have hit had I aimed straight at them.</p>
<p>Just saying.</p>
<p>Thanks all, for the sound advice. It’s nice to know that some people really want to help.</p>
<p>BillyMC: I’ve already read that post! I thought it was very illuminating. Thanks for all your contributions to CC.</p>
<p>FallenAngel: Congrats on the wonderful acceptances! A few of my friends were really set on Yale; none got in. I’ve seen how it can hurt. But the colleges you’ve gotten into are fantastic! Where do you think you’ll attend?</p>
<p>Tough choice; every day I have a new favorite. But the point wasn’t to brag about my acceptances, just to provide anecdotal evidence as to why such advice, despite being corny, is very sound advice to follow.</p>
<p>The definition of first-rate depends on what you’re looking for in a school.</p>
<p>Although Ivies certainly have fantastic educational opportunities, there are other schools who are equal to and better than them. For instance, I’ve heard of this practice called a “gentleman’s degree,” where a rich student will get a C even though they’re failing just so they’ll graduate, and Daddy/Mommy will keep donating money to the institution. It’s a disgusting practice, a mockery to higher education. On the other hand, take a college like Reed College (not to sound too hipster, but I bet you’ve never heard of it). Practices grade deflation, doesn’t normally show grades, and won’t even let you go onto senior year before passing a grueling exam (called the Qualifying Exam, Qual for short). Yet, they produce more PhD students than every single Ivy, and are ranked third in the country for this statistic. 10% of Reed alumni are or have been CEOs. Yet, these statistics may be completely irrelevant to you if you don’t want to go onto graduate school or own a company (but many Ivy kids do 
)</p>
<p>Anyway, college is about more than academics. If you don’t think you’d fit into the Ivy atmosphere, even if you’re qualified academically, I wouldn’t go there. Find a school where you feel comfortable in ** all ** aspects. Is there heavy competition among students? Do student even know their grades? How open are students to newcomers (how a student body treats its prospective students tells you how it’ll treat its freshman)? Are professors and students truly engaged with each other, both in and out of the classroom? Are the activities going on around campus/off campus appealing? What’s the political atmosphere? Drug scene? Finally, does it feel right when you’re on campus? These aren’t always things you can find online; you have to experience them for yourself.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with aiming for Ivies as long as you realize a) that there are other institutions, b) that those other institutions are NOT second-rate, or anything less than Ivies as long as it’s the right fit for you.</p>