<p>Not applying to more schools</p>
<p>2080 SAT … 3.1 GPA… weighted … ■■■! Thank God for Junior College(a second chance) and transferring to pretty much any UC I want next Fall!</p>
<p>I’m seeing a lot of people say they didn’t take the PSAT seriously…</p>
<p>I took it sophomore year and got a ~220ish… then took it junior year (the year it counts) and got a much lower score. I still got national merit finalist. Don’t worry about it as much as people say… just make sure you actually show up with your head screwed on right. Don’t stay up til three the night before like I did. And tudy vocab if you don’t feel confident. IMO, the vocab on the PSAT is always much worse than SAT vocab.</p>
<p>Also, I took the SAT once. Without studying at all. I got a 2190 (770 on math). I just didn’t want to take it again, so I didn’t. I did the same thing for ACT and got a 35. Tests aren’t that big a deal if you just look up questions strategies the night before. Look at some strategy guides. That’s the best you can do for last minute prep- don’t try to cram the night before other than strategy. You’ll tell yourself that you’ll study-- I did, and I ended up looking at the study guide after the test.</p>
<p>Test prep isn’t the biggest thing to worry about. The way I rationalized this (so I wouldn’t have to get up at 6am for a stupid test again) was that if a college is going to reject me for a bad test score, it isn’t the college for me.</p>
<p>I’d say my biggest regret was taking college courses at the local research uni from sophomore year. It separated me from my classmates, and I suffered socially because I wasn’t there for anything. Even so, it made me meet the people I’m close friends with, and it opened up a lot of opportunities that have made me who I am, so I can’t really complain. Otherwise, I can’t really regret much because I got into UChicago. If I had gotten deferred or rejected, I’m sure I would have had many more regrets. I know what they would be, too.</p>
<p>My big piece of advice is the following: don’t be too ambitious with your college list. I would be going to state U if it weren’t for Chicago because I slacked off first semester senior year. Do have a lot of match schools, but don’t forget to have a reach school or two. Just don’t have five reach schools (out of nine applications) like I did. I thought my match schools would be duke and emory… boy, was I deluded. Have a safety school, at least 2 match, and at least 2 reach. And be very REALISTIC about your chances. Your guidance counselor might not be frank with you about it.</p>
<p>Not taking HS seriously until now
Not doing any EC’s besides a sport which I’m not even doing to focus on my grades
Not doing community service (will over the summer probably)
Doing crap on my sophomore year PSAT…
I’m taking my 1st SAT as a soph 12 days from now. We’ll see how that goes.</p>
<p>Next 2 years + these months = serious biz.</p>
<p>And yes, I’m well aware I’m a sophomore in HS posting in College Admissions.</p>
<p>Things I have heard my son’s friends say…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Wish I had taken the SAT/ACT earlier. Most took it once as a junior and once as a senior. Some wished that they had taken it once as a freshman or early in their sophomore year.</p></li>
<li><p>Wish I had done more college visits so I would not have had to wait until midway through my senior year to have a better idea of what I wanted in a school.</p></li>
<li><p>Wish I had applied to more schools, and yes, I should have had a backup. </p></li>
<li><p>Wish I had given up that party or that night out with friends to apply for one or two more scholarships. My loan payments might be lower.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>A parent here…</p>
<p>kids not taking the SAT IIs until senior year. I know NOW that it’s better to take them right after the course being tested, no matter what year that is.</p>
<p>Studying >3 hours for any exam until 10th grade :P</p>
<p>The biggest, by far, mistake I did in HS was not putting any value in the PSAT. There is <em>massive</em> scholarship money associated with performing well on that test, and relatively little in performing well on the SAT (sad, but true).</p>
<p>This is a great thread! Let’s see…
- Not finding this site sooner
- Not applying ED to stanford, being a double-legacy and all. apparently my legacy-ness doesn’t count now?
- Not taking a summer course in math to get another year ahead and be able to take AP Calc BC
- Not studying hard enough for SAT I and II (french…burned…)
- Not self-studying the APUSH exam
- Not getting involved in leadership until soph. year
- Not competing more in piano.
- Not spending more summers being…awesome.
- Not keeping a job.
- Taking AP Physics over AP Bio
- Um…getting A-s in math 1st sem soph year…
- Not trying harder on the PSAT
- Not doing essay prep before. Actually my essay was very spur-of-the-moment and fairly decent.
…</p>
<p>Hmm. Surprisingly, I have very few regrets in terms of my HS years, mainly because I always put 100% effort into everything I did. Procrastination was never a huge problem for me as I’ve always been academically motivated. I also did well on my SAT/PSAT (will most likely be named NMSF in the fall), and on the only AP test I’ve taken so far (scored a 5), and excelled in what I loved doing (EC’s and job). Perhaps the only thing I truly regret is not taking SAT II subject tests earlier, but that’s not a huge deal as I’m still a junior and have quite a few more chances ;)</p>
<ol>
<li>Wasting away the summer before my junior year by taking 2 high school classes and doing xc (instead of research/summer internship/job)</li>
<li>Not getting 5’s on the AP Physics C tests </li>
<li>Not studying hard enough for AIME and not taking USNCO/USAPhO etc. </li>
<li>Not doing/finding out about research until junior year</li>
</ol>
<p>^Not like you care anymore, Princeton boy :P</p>
<p>I am in the midst of possibly making a mistake… so any advice would be great!</p>
<p>I am NOT a real math/ science person</p>
<p>but would colleges rather see…</p>
<p>AP STAT and Pre Calc Level 2 and NO SCIENCE CLASS</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>AP STAT and Physics level 2 and NO PRE CALC</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>Pre Calc Level 2 and Physics Level 2 (NO AP IN THE SCIENCE/ MATH DEPARTMENTs)</p>
<p>^ I’d personally go with the third option. AP Stats generally isn’t perceived as a “real” math class, and adcoms see it as an easy AP.</p>
<p>The biggest mistake I made was to slack off during my freshman and sophomore years. During both of those years I had an average weighted GPA of about 2.8.During my last two years I’ve had an average of a 4.6 weighted GPA.</p>
<p>@Drought:
how do you know that’s the reason you got denied? smh</p>
<p>@HonorsCentaur: my college counselor contacted an admissions representative at my college who said my GPA was a tad low. I’ve already had a long argument with collegestress about this, you can reread it if you want to know more.</p>
<p>to echo some posters: depressing thread, but interesting. and definitely comforting! let’s see. the verb tenses in this post are a mess btw.</p>
<p>not switching out of my chemistry class in 10th grade. badtimes.
–the teacher who taught my section made me feel like an idiot and taught to the level of the genius in my class. barely scraped a B- there, for shame. (I think my A’s in every other science course and A+ in adv. phys II cancel that out haha).</p>
<p>not exploring independent study options or more educational opportunities outside of school and the offered activities. basically being more creative with my free time.
–like auditing a class at a local college or doing more things during the summer (my summer’s are quite… empty). though I probably wouldn’t’ve been able to manage my time in 9th-11th, i think i definitely could’ve handled independent study this year.</p>
<p>caring about what other people thought.
–stopped doing that beginning of soph year :).</p>
<p>playing softball in 9th/10th grade.
–bad times again.</p>
<p>things I’m really glad i did:</p>
<p>identified my strengths and weaknesses early, my likes and dislikes.
–i remained opened to things that i wasn’t necessarily great at (i.e. advanced calc last year) but i definitely took courses that were working towards a common goal and interest. and i definitely enjoyed them.</p>
<p>tried out every single club that i was even just remotely interested in.
–didn’t do clubs for the sake of having them look good on my application. trust me, doing things because you like them makes doing them more fun (striking concept, eh?)</p>
<p>attempting to leave my school’s community a little better than when i got there.
–i tried drafting an honor code for my school with a friend. long story. i realized that i cared more about doing the “right thing” than about what my peers thought was “right” (i refuse to believe that hateful comments can ever be right). this was my way of trying to give back to my community.</p>
<p>I would say a regret would be wasting my time doing nothing for the first three years, instead of actively pursuing interests. I would have read more and spent more time trying to learn, because most of what happened in High School was prep and resume building. Independent work is what really matters, because when you get to college that is all it will be. I was and I am still not concerned with grades.</p>
<p>Prior to my admittances, I was extremely worried about a “C” I received in my freshmen year Algebra 2 Honors class. Coming out of middle school, I felt confident in my math abilities, and as a result, I really didn’t study as much as I should have. Though I do regret my ineptitude at that time, it really got me motivated to work harder at math.</p>