<p>Would someone tell me whether my son, who is not accustomed to studying for hours, has a possibility to survive in top Ivy schools?</p>
<pre><code> - He came here in the U.S at his 5th grade, so he always does not speak English at home. Now he is junior at just normal public high school. From 10th grade, he has been taking AP classes. Briefly to say about his information, one time he became a national finalist for science competition and organized the National Event, for which he founded school club with teacher. His GPA and Standard Tests’ scores are enough to enter the Top Ivies.
- The problem is he did not study harder. I have to fight him the amounts of studying at home. I always said to him, “Please study every day for 30 minutes before the athletic season starts at Feb. Of course he does homework, which mostly he did at class. Every final test, I think he studied a little more. But he did not study all the time.
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<p>And so I requested him to study 30 minutes every other day, but now I gave it up finally.
Actually, He has a skill to read 100-150 pages of book in 30 minutes. He did very well in AP U.S history by just reading. However, he is not good at and hates to memorize test like French honor vocabulary (200 words) test.</p>
<pre><code> - I saw a recent article written by a senior at Magnet school in California area, who was early accepted at ivy school, but has studied very hard for 5 hours every day. She also mentioned that she learned the studying habit in Harvard summer school. Can such a student like my child survive there?
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<p>Any advice and comment will be highly appreciated.</p>
<p>Why are you so concerned that he study so much? Some people really don't need to study that often... All kinds of people are different. I would get off his back. If he is really that smart, then I'm pretty sure he does not need to be studying so hard/often. If he is making good grades already, then he doesn't need to be studying any harder/more. Don't worry about it. Some people need to study more than others. It's just a fact of life.</p>
<p>The majority of students who apply to places like Harvard would be able to graduate if admitted. The graduation rates at top Ivies are 95+ percent of entering freshmen graduate within 6 years. Those who don't are likely to have transferred to other excellent schools or will return and graduate from their original school later.</p>
<p>So, if accepted, more than likely your S would graduate. The problem, though is getting accepted as most applicants have excellent credentials, yet at Harvard last year about 7% of applicants were accepted. Even fewer will be accepted this year since at least 5,000 more students applied this year than did last year, which had more applicants than previous years.</p>
<p>I also agree with soxfan. Some people don't need to study that much. If your S's grades are fine, back off.</p>
<p>Top test scores, excels academically, speaks more than one language, national science finalist but not too one-dimensional to keep from being an athlete. Yup - sounds like the classic Ivy candidate to me.</p>
<p>Your son sounds like he would do very well at an Ivy, but please understand that there are so many applicants, if you son is not admitted (to an Ivy) it won't be because he didn't "study" enough. There are just not enough spaces for all the qualified applicants.</p>
<p>What everyone says is true. Lots of students at the Ivy League colleges didn't need to study in high school. Some will find that college requires more work than they are used to, and most of them will learn to do what it takes. Others will find that they can continue their old bad habits and still get good grades. </p>
<p>As others have said, the hardest thing is getting in, staying in - not so much.</p>
<p>I think the biggest attribute that our son had was his ability to focus on the task. Often times we worried that he spent too much time on a single project/assignment and would never know when to close it out.</p>
<p>(Didn't get into Ivys but got into something better.)</p>
<p>I have had that fight for years with my kids, and yes, it did become a big problem in college. It does not have to be an ivy league school to be an issue. College courses are often grades heavily on the final exam. Someone who does not know how to study but is smart and has a good memory can often do well on the quizzes, participation, homework, papers, etc. The problem is that when you get to college, those things are often not counted heavily if at all. If there is a problem in studying for the final exam, it can have a major impact on the kid's grade. </p>
<p>I am seeing this problem with my sophomore in high school to some degree now. I noticed that his mid year exam grades were lower than his quarter grades. As a high schooler, the teachers recognized his consistent effort and gave him a higher semester grade in most cases. That may not happen in college. This is something he is addressing now and it is difficult.</p>
<p>cpt, how are you addressing it? My daughter has this problem too. She starts out well, does the homework and does ok on the quizzes, but does not seem to be able to hold it all together for the final, so I worry about the college style final is everything grading that she will encounter next year. Any suggestions on how to prepare - I know for her it is a little late, maybe not too late.</p>
<p>I think the OP might be worried not just that a top college would require more work than HS but that if son is getting As without working in HS that could mean either that he is brilliant or that his school is awful.</p>
<p>Thanks all for reply. He has been taking AP classes by skipping honor classes and AP class, which the high school strictly requires. His standard test scores were 99% or 100%. Whether his high school is awful does not matter to him. Actually he has been learning there as he is in private school. Every year, I heard that the school sent one student into top Ivy such as Princeton and Yale. Thanks.</p>
<p>You mentioned a Harvard summer class. My daughter is a freshman at an Ivy and, like your son, didn't need to study much to do fine in high school. She did attend a 3 week summer session at Stanford before her junior year (EPGY humanities.) She was surrounded by other kids just as smart, or smarter than she is, and had pretty significant daily reading and writing assignments. In order to participate in class (and not be embarrassed!) she had to put in a pretty big effort. It was a great experience for her: she decided she liked the fellowship of other academically competitive kids, a teacher who asked a lot of her and was excited about the subject, and the discipline of daily mental effort. This became her motivation for applying to the colleges she selected. </p>
<p>This is not a commercial for EPGY by any means, but I will guess something will spark your son to really dig into some academic area. It may not be in high school. Without inspired teaching, the AP track can be pretty cookbook. He clearly has the talent to do fine, even with minimal effort. Only he can decide to choose a path that will challenge him every day. Chances are he will thrive (and study a lot!) once he finds a school and profs who wake him up a little. Not necessarily Ivy, of course. He'll have lots of great options.</p>
<p>Thank you for reply. Actually before I saw the article mentioned above, I was not worried so much as to post here. At summer before sophomore, he did Undergraduate Internship. Next summer, he researched at medical school, which is ranked within top 5 in the U.S. From my prospective, he seems to learn there not studying harder, but the type of a bad habit like to sleep late at night for computer game & chatting and wake up afternoon time every weekend, and not to listen to adult. I think he needs to experience the real college course like Harvard or Stanford summer before going to college. Again thanks all.</p>
<p>The first question in my mind is: Does your son even WANT to apply to or attend an Ivy League school, or is this a parental desire? Please be careful not to confuse your dreams with those of your child (if in fact that is the situation; I apologize in advance if I am assuming too much).</p>
<p>It all depends on the kids and what they want out of the college experience. My two are very different, but fortunately both have a good work ethic in college when it comes to their academics. One was a "studier" in high school - many APs, lots of long hours of homework. Valedictorian of a class of 450. She dotted the i's and crossed the t's on everything she did. Is doing the same in college and is a Phi Beta Kappa now. The other is just as bright as his sister, but hated the daily homework grind. Would do his homework because Mom kept on him, but usually made up for a lackluster daily effort by acing the final at the end of the semester because he DID know the material. Finished in the top 15% of his class. Is going to the same school as his sister and has really excelled as a freshman there, mainly, I think because there is much more emphasis on learning the material and being tested at most 2-3 times over the course of the semester instead of doing daily (to him) busy work.</p>
<p>Maturity plays a big part. Like others have said, most kids rise to the occasion when they get to college, but you probably have to take an honest look at your child and evaluate if this would be true in his case. Consider how much of his success is internally driven vs. what Mom and Dad "push" him to achieve. You may find your answer there. Good luck to him; he sounds like a very intelligent kid.</p>
<p>In many respects, I think the kids who figure out what the bare minimum of work necessary to get the top grade is, and then do it, are the wise ones. Those who suffer from perfectionism and overkill waste a lot of time. If your son is efficiently getting all his work done and getting top grades in less than half an hour a night, more credit to him. I suspect if he gets to college and getting the top grade requires an hour or two or four, he'll figure that out and do it. It's a gift, and that type of efficiency will ultimately be appreciated in many workplaces.</p>
<p>Your son sounds as though he will be one of the many students who needs to improve his study skills when he gets to college.</p>
<p>But I don't think you can help with this by asking him to study more than necessary in high school. He wouldn't have any way of judging whether his efforts to study were effective. If he is already getting good enough grades, how could he tell whether he was really learning anything from his extra study time or whether he was studying inefficiently and not learning much? </p>
<p>It may be better for him to realize that because his high school was so easy for him, he may be lacking a bit in the study skills department. If he finds that he is having difficulty or falling behind in any of his freshman year college classes, he should seek out the resources on campus that help students in this situation. He might even want to look at the Web sites of the colleges where he is applying to see what kinds of help with study skills is available.</p>
<p>It is very, very common for talented students to arrive at college with little idea of how to study because they never really had to work hard to get good grades in high school. Colleges are prepared to deal with this, but usually the student has to take the initiative to seek help, rather than having the help come to them.</p>
<p>Here is an alternative perspective (I'm a prof and used to teach at an Ivy): He may find his prior approach works to his advantage. I have met some kids who were very thorough and 'perfectionistic' in highschool, always went overboard just in case. They never had a chance to learn what they could get away with, or where they could cut corners, and still succeed. Some of them struggle, at least at the beginning of college, because it's very hard to be as thorough and complete with the firehose of college. They have to learn how to cut corners, what not to study, what to skip regarding reading, how to write a paper in a few hours, and basically how to max their grades with efficiency. Sounds like your son may have, by way of his approach, inadvertently mastered such efficiency.</p>