<p>I see a lot of people regretful of not doing so well on the PSAT, but why? The PSAT is not a weighty factor in admissions (not even close), and the National Merit Scholar is not as great as everyone makes it seem. The scholarship money is very low, and it does not stand out to college admissions since they’ve seen it so many times.</p>
<p>things I regret:
-getting senioritis junior year.
-having seven Bs. **** ALL YOU PEOPLE COMPLAINING ABOUT A MINUSES!
-not studying at all for the SATs. I got a decent score but I feel like I might’ve been able to raise it fairly significantly had I actually made an effort.</p>
<p>things I’m glad I did:
- joining crap because I wanted to, not because I’ve been building the perfect application since I was fourteen. I worked hard at my extracurriculars because I actually enjoyed them and I feel that I’ve been rewarded for that… I did a varsity sport for four years and ended up as captain. I felt passionately about having a voice in the way my school is run so I joined student government. Now I am vice president of NHS and student congress. I kept up my music and am going on a four year streak in first chair in my orchestra… I’m proud to say that my involvement is genuine because I certainly wasn’t thinking of colleges when I got three Bs junior year. </p>
<ul>
<li>somewhat retaining a social life.</li>
</ul>
<p>aryus: I beg to differ about the National Merit scholarship money. It really does depend on what school you choose. I agree that it doesn’t matter much with “elite” schools, but plenty of very good schools offer significant scholarships to NMF.</p>
<p>don’t think I made many mistakes… it was highschool and I always planned to attend grad school. As long as I got into some decent college I knew I had a shot at any of the top grad schools.</p>
<p>graduating highschool with a 2.0</p>
<p>I procrastinated too much. :(</p>
<hr>
<p>Danny
University of California, Berkeley '09 (B.S.)</p>
<p>@proud_mom: I apologize for not being specific. I agree with you, many universities would look gladly upon the National Merit in scholarships and admissions. I was talking about the T20 when I was saying it wouldn’t make much a difference.</p>
<p>^ It wouldn’t be the deciding factor, but it helps.</p>
<p>Ah… nobody is going list “ignoring good advice about <fill in=”" the=“” blank=“”> from my annoying but wise parents" ? Give it a few years 
</fill></p>
<p>The list is a great idea! Guidance counselors should print it and post it on their doors.</p>
<p>I should never have given up hockey when I moved down to the states from canada. That was so stupid of me. I love the game, and it would’ve been easier to make new friends my freshmen year if I joined.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Having NMF means I will graduate from my T10 school with $8k less debt than I would have otherwise. I don’t know about you, but to me that’s a pretty significant difference.</p>
<p>have you ever known anyone who did average in high school (graduated with below a 3.4 gpa) and still managed to do good in college, transfer to a good school and go to a great grad school?</p>
<p>paying way to much attention to my sport freshman-mid junior year and then realizing i had gotten nothing out of the 12 years id been doing it.
not taking enough AP’s.
for all freshman and sophomore reading this:
PAY ATTENTION, DONT SETTLE, TRY HARD!! I know how much it sucks sitting in class and all the stress, but believe me, you DONT want to be the one not getting to apply to colleges or applying to schools that are not “good” when all your friends are applying to these really exciting schools, as much as filling out applications sucks, those acceptance letters are worth every hour you spent working on the apps and every hour you spent studying or doing hw or missing out on parties bc of school stuff…believe me, to many people realize this to late and you cant redo high school, you only get one chance.</p>
<p>I regret not interrogating my parents about where we stand financially and how much they’re willing to contribute, taking a study hall freshman year instead of something interesting, and taking AP Physics and Calculus BC when math is not my subject.</p>
<p>My biggest regret was taking Spanish instead of French. The French program at my school was really terrible, but I had absolutely zero interest in learning Spanish and it really sucked that I ended up stuck with that for three years and if you didn’t factor it into my GPA I would’ve cut my rank in half (it was 14/495, but I was definitely one of the 10 smartest kids graduating).</p>
<p>My next big mistake was opting to not take math instead of taking Calculus BC. If I had just taken BC and passed that test, my college GPA would have 8 hours less of “C” from calculus dragging me down for jobs and awards. I did not realize that if you want to have any major that people want to hire right out of college, you’re pretty much going to need calculus and I was actually above the class average when I got those C’s.</p>
<p>I did a LOT of coasting in high school, but I don’t regret any of that. I ended up with a really sweet resume and rank in the top 3% which was good enough to get me where I probably would have gone had I been valedictorian and my SAT score was pretty rockin. I do wonder what it would have been had I studied for it, though.</p>
<p>Sure. To answer the OP…</p>
<p>Not having a girlfriend is my biggest regret. </p>
<p>Seriously. Kinda a choice I made after inadvertently screwing up REALLY BADLY with a girl back in JH. Since my school’s so small, it is not really common to have more than one girlfriend over your school career. So, I should have tried outside of school/ at a job/etc. more or mended relations with her. Oh well…</p>
<p>Anyways, to the overly self-absorbed (sp?) CC’ers out there - take your social life seriously. HS is really the best four years you’ll have, like it or not. Make them your best :)</p>
<p>^College>>>>>High School for social life. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for. God, most of the kids I know are really… blah.</p>
<p>My biggest regret was being sick.</p>
<p>I got a B in PE. It could’ve been a 4.0 =</p>
<p>Not caring.
Not sleeping.</p>
<p>I didn’t read the whole thread and I’m still in HS and have a year left to go, but my biggest problem by far is idleness/laziness. I don’t think it’s justified, but I just had things going on, just didn’t feel like working and putting in the effort and lagged behind for years. I somehow maintained good grades until this year, where I slipped, but eh, with the right explanations and such hopefully I don’t think it’s over.</p>