<p>Hey guys I just wanted to start this thread so we can share some of our blunders regarding possible college admission factors that we made in high school, This way, we can help others prevent these mistakes and learn from others ourselves.</p>
<p>So my big mistake was actually pretty common: I joined all the clubs in my fresh and soph years as I could, even if I had little interest in them. I ended up having quantity and little depth of quality. I also dropped most of them junior year. What a waste right?</p>
<p>My biggest mistake would be that I don’t start thinking about university (as well as SAT and all those tests) until the end of junior year. When I realize, the time is passed and I feel that there are so many things that I should have done but didn’t (i.e. SATII or more essay preparation).</p>
<p>Another one would be that I only applied to my match schools because I didn’t want to get rejected letters. Even now I got accept to the college that I will be going, I always feel that I should have applied to some reaches even though I have small chance of getting in.</p>
<ol>
<li>Not caring about grades until it was too late. I was satisfied with the grades I got because I felt that they were high enough given the amount of effort I put in, which was absolute zero.</li>
</ol>
<p>You cannot even imagine how insouciant I was in school–all of 3 years too. I may have to pay a hefty price when those admission decisions (more accurately said, rejection letters) come around.</p>
<ol>
<li>Being oblivious to SAT testing until October of my senior year. Even then, I did not prepare for it as much as I could have or even half as much, because I was, dare I say, satisfied with the results because they were sufficient.</li>
</ol>
<p>If there’s a lesson to be learned from my high school career, it’s that one should always carry a little more insatiability in their affairs than what would be usually required.</p>
<p>-Not knowing the PSAT was also the NMSQT
-Not really looking into colleges until nearly the end of Junior year
-Not studying for the SAT
-Not buffing up on ACT math
-Not taking any SAT II’s</p>
<p>Small stuff, mostly. I didn’t horribly screw up anything.</p>
<p>Mistakes? Freshman year. Not putting myself out there in terms of ECs, internship opportunities, etc. I just wasn’t aware of what kinds of things you could do as a high school student and how much ECs affected admissions. I remember last summer I was telling my mother about a friend of mine who had done a summer internship with NIH last year. “You should have done that, too,” she said.</p>
<p>I explained that you generally needed connections to land a spot there. Her response?</p>
<p>“Oh, I have connections.” Facepalm. Of course it’s not like I definitely would have gotten the internship, but that’s not the point. I have a mother who’s a professor at a top engineering school. Why did I not take advantage of that, again?</p>
<p>I’m pretty passive; that’s my biggest flaw. That said, the mistake I’m really kicking myself for now (since admissions turned out okay, despite everything [grin]) is not applying to more financially generous T20s. I really shouldn’t have thrown out my whole list after I got into Chicago–at least I should have also thrown in an app at Cornell or Rice or Grinnell, etc. I was just in the starry-eyed stage and didn’t want to have a reason not to pick Chicago. XD Thankfully everything seems to have turned out okay.</p>
<ol>
<li>Forgot to mention anything about playing the French horn anywhere on my application.</li>
<li>Never played any sports. Didn’t even really take PE.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>I should have kept on playing viola as much as I did in Soph. year. I probably could have submitted audio if I had kept practicing and gotten better. Now I have to describe viola as something I “just do for fun.”</p></li>
<li><p>Worked harder in math. I thought I was working hard, but in late junior year I realized I had never really tried that much in anything and I had sort of come to accept that I was a B student in math. Same thing with 1st sem chem, but that one B, when I got an A in 2nd semester, did well on a regional contest, and get straight A’s now in AP isn’t something I consider a “big mistake.”</p></li>
<li><p>The Chem SAT II. I took it this year, sr. year. I took Chem AA in soph year, so I’ve forgotten most of the stuff and I had only been enrolled in Chem AP for a month and a half when I first took it in October. I got a 670, had to retake, then got a 640, since there were a ton of equilibrium constant questions. I should have either studied much, much harder for it, or taken it at the end of soph year, after some studying. I also could have had time to take the SAT I again and perhaps gotten up to Presidential Scholar level, or I could have just not had to take every sitting of the SAT I/II from May to November. I have three SAT II scores way higher than this one, so it only counted at once school, and I got in there. Since it didn’t affect me, I guess it wasn’t a “big mistake,” but a 640 feels like a really lousy way to end my relationship with the SAT, which began when I was 11.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Switching languages! Not for the reason you’d think either, but because my old teacher was right next door to my new class. Whoops. Quite awkward.</p>
<p>Taking an elective Concert Band class sophomore year. Didn’t get along with the teacher, lowered my GPA, and was miserable in it.
Getting all A’s, A+'s etc. first two quarters of sophomore year, only to get straight B’s at the end.</p>
<ol>
<li>Not getting involved sooner</li>
<li>Thinking that just because I was smart, I didn’t have to do a single assignment (though I got through all of freshman year like that and at the end of the year was ranked 6th). Now as a soph I study and I try and I’m doing even better.</li>
<li>I haven’t tried to make friends.</li>
</ol>
<p>Taking regular foreign language instead of honors.</p>
<p>I could have easily handled the work load, but my parents didn’t think I could. As a result, I am essentially out of the running for most of the schools I like…I regret this so much.</p>
<p>Your school has honors foreign language? My school does but only for level 4 and 5 and it’s not an option. It’s either honors 4 and 5 or no language at all.</p>