College Confidential has changed my life

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>Hey CC! As a freshman, I was ignorant. I remember for my math class, I turned in around 50% of homework and attained straight Bs for the whole year. To put a long story short, I made a 3.5 cummulative UW GPA for freshman year when I knew I wasn't living up to my potential and could easily be making 4.0. No matter how much my parents and family said they were disappointed in me and threatened me with punishment, I paid no heed. I simply dismissed their complaints as the average parental nagging. Then something happened. College Confidential happened. As a rising sophomore, I found this site and I truly mean it when I say that finding this site may have been the most life-changing experience of my life. I had always known and told myself that I wanted to attend a prestigious university such as MIT, yet my academic decisions did not represent this desire. After going through a couple of "Chance Me" threads, I realized that if I continued down the path I was going, I would not attain that which what I wanted the most. In that instant, I knew what a horrible mistake my freshman year had been. If I could go back and make 4.0s for that year, I would unhesitantly do so. Unfortunately, I could only look towards the upcoming high school years. After some quick calculations, I concluded that assuming straight 4.0s for the next 2 years of high school, I would make a measly 3.83 cummulative UW GPA. Probably not even competitive for top colleges especially as an unhooked Asian male applicant. However, maybe through my tears and sweat, I would make it somehow. So far, I have gotten 4.0s in the hardest classes my school allows, procured a 224 PSAT sophomore score (I know it doesn't matter much), and have been actively looking for something that might distinguish me in the college admissions game. A hook if you willl. If all goes well, I might be barely competitive for a top school. I hope to qualify for ISEF this year, so wish me luck. I know that this path I have chosen will not be the easy one and that there's a good chance that I won't even make it to my dream school, but I can't explain it. I just have to try. To revisit my original point, College Confidential has changed my life forever. Before this site, I would've had no chance of attaining my dream and I wouldn't even have known that I had no chance! (confusing right?) Now at least, I have a chance no matter how infintesimal it may be and that's all I need to convince me that I'm making the right choice by pursuing it. Do any other members have any similar stories? Or am I the only one?</p>

<p>To freshmen,
Get good grades througout your ENTIRE high school career. It may not matter now to you, but believe me, it will when you apply to a top college. It will bite you in the butt like a rabid animal. Don't make the same mistake I did.</p>

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<p>I believe 3.8+ is enough, even for unhooked Asians.</p>

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<p>It’s a crapshoot. Seriously. Nothing is guaranteed.</p>

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<p>I had a similar experience. It was not College Confidential for me though. I changed from a chemistry class. I was also halfway through my sophomore year when I had my epiphany. Congratulations! I know from personal experience how liberating it feels to make that transition.</p>

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<p>Yeah, even though I joined CC last year I put in 0 effort and came out with Bs. </p>

<p>Now, I actually care, which is a good thing.</p>

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<p>while its really great that you had your epiphany in sophomore year (usually many students, including me, experience a huge slump), paragraphs please @<a href=“mailto:-@”>-@</a>. it was touching to read, but at the same time very difficult to concentrate on.</p>

<p>and honestly a 3.75+ GPA is good for any top school-candidate, even if you’re an unhooked asian male. hell, i’ve seen more 3.75-3.99 GPA kids get into good schools than 4.0 kids because they spend less time studying an dmore time being active in their schools and such</p>

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<p>I know how you feel, but I discovered this site in the middle of Junior year. Since then my grades have been very high. I was planning on applying to Stanford but since changed my mind.</p>

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<p>I discovered this site at the end of my junior year, right after I had taken the SAT for the first time. I wish I had discovered it sooner. </p>

<p>I’m glad I outgrew my Ivy obsession phase within a couple months, though. It seems every CCer goes through that phase.</p>

9

<p>CC changed my life too. I now have an inferiority complex.</p>

<p>jk. Sort of.</p>

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<p>CC disheartened me… Mostly because no one here seems to adopt my philosophy of “do what you want/love during high school, and when it comes to college apps take a week or two and put onto paper what you have done and let the cards fall where they do.” I joined CC is a moment of hypocracy when I shunned this philosophy so I should not have thought any one else would adopt it but it still the reason I pretty much stay in my cozy corner of HSL.</p>

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<p>asianese, I pretty much feel the same way. I’ve only been a member for a few weeks, but already I can see an improvement in my “academic life.” Before I found CC, I thought that a 4.0 GPA, good SAT scores, and high class rank was all it took to get you into one of the top schools. I was aiming for Columbia or Brown, and I thought that the fact that I was getting straight A’s meant that I would be guaranteed an acceptance. </p>

<p>Then I found this site, spent a few days browsing through all of the chance me and early decision threads, and realized how naive I was about the college admission process. I saw and met all of these people who had a 4.0 GPA, 2400 on the SAT, and were val, and still weren’t getting into their top schools. Then I looked at some of the ECs and hooks of the people who were getting into Ivy Leagues, and I was shocked. These people were so dedicated, had so much leadership experience, and had achieved so much on a national and regional level. I was absolutely stunned that it was actually humanly possible for someone to maintain great grades, great scores, and great ECs. I’ve never been particularly good with time management, so it shocked me that someone could manage their time so well. So a few days after joining CC, I knew what I had to do. I knew that if I wanted to get into a top school, I had to stop with the slacking and get involved.</p>

<p>It hasn’t even been a month, but already I can feel an improvement, not in my actions per se, but in my attitude. I used to have a list of all the clubs I wanted to join, but now I’ve reduced the list and changed the title to all of the clubs I want to want to join and excel in. I’ve also made a list of all the after school activities I want to dedicate myself, and all of the things that I hope to do in order to not only build a strong college app, but also so that I can find a club or activity that I really like, and hopefully it can turn into a hobby. </p>

<p>This is turning into a novel, so I’m going to stop here, but I agree completely with you and I really want to thank all of the people who have replied to my help threads and provided all of us bright-eyed freshmen with advice and suggestions on how to excel during our high school career. I’m already positive that when it’s my turn to apply to college, I’ll have four years worth of advice for the incoming freshmen or sophomores who will just be joining the site. So yeah. xD I know that my journey on CC is just starting, but thank you to everyone who’s helped me so far. And good luck everyone!</p>

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<p>Huh. I can’t say CC changed my life but it’s definitely been a positive aspect. It definitely gifted an inferiority and prestige complex on me (trying to get rid of those) but it’s still an excellent source of information. I’m the first kid to go to college in the US.</p>

<p>If you approach CC with the right mindset it pushes you to accomplish more, do more, be better—but intelligently. I realized I didn’t constantly have to grind my way through the varsity sport/musical instrument/every single AP class ever combo. Obviously I’ve been worrying about my GPA more since I found this site and I studied three times as much for the SAT as I normally would’ve, but I ended up doing less clubs and really throwing myself into extracurriculars (in and out of school) that are meaningful to me, things that I’ve realized I love doing and I’ll probably continue doing after admissions decisions come back.</p>

<p></p>

<p>Okay, fine. I now know the names of all the Ivies.</p>

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<p>i like hsl because its a haven from the gpa freaks</p>

<p>well actually hsl has its fair share of freaks</p>

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<p>^LOL</p>

<p>asianese, I feel the exact same way. Now that I’m a junior I feel more… idk, enlightened? Without CC, I wouldn’t know what the heck “self-studying” was (honestly, no one knows what it is where I live), what books to get to help study with, what “hooks” were (I guess I have 3 lol), etc. Before I joined CC, I thought I was screwed for college because my only ECs were band and orchestra (granted, I’m first place in my region on two instruments), I wasn’t good at math like I believed everyone in my class was, and so on and so forth. Now I have a better outlook on the entire process and can’t wait to start applying to colleges next year. :)</p>

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<p>CC has helped me become more acquainted with the whole college admissions process. Whenever I hear other Asian parents *****ing about something that’s utterly, utterly wrong, I can stop them and make them look foolish because of CC. OK, that’s not the best use of this site, but CC has definitely changed the way I look at both college and the world: I’m glad that there are other people that care just as much as I do about grades and ECs and college.</p>

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<p>@314159265: Same.
A friend of mine believed that her 4.0 (well, it’s a 3.9 something now) and perfect test scores would make her a shoe-in at Yale, even though she doesn’t participate in any school clubs and has ~15 volunteer hours. She believes that minorities (including Asians) don’t “deserve” to be competing with her for Yale next year, and that she’s the one who deserves to be admitted to Yale. Needless to say, CC has most definitely confirmed how wrong she is. :slight_smile: It’s a shame we’re not friends anymore because of this, but oh well.</p>

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<p>I joined CC because I was obsessed with prestigious colleges (really original, right?). Since I’m the equivalent of a sophomore in the US, I still have a while to go in HS.
I think I have a wider perspective now. One thing that annoys me is that people make it seem as if all the acceptees are living their HS years just for the college of their choice, when I think that numerous talented people (CCers or not) got into their dream schools by doing what they loved.</p>

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<p>^If you’re a sophomore, shouldn’t your location be “Land of 40 million sheep '13–> somewhere new '17”</p>

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<p>Will you rub the likely rejection in her face, provided you are accepted into a school that’s just as prestigious?</p>

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<p>@314159265: Most likely not. Since I don’t agree with her on the “minorities don’t deserve to be admitted into Yale” thing, she avoids me at school; rubbing salt into her wounds wouldn’t exactly be the best thing to do lol. Although, someone else might.</p>

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<p>If I were you, I’d make sure I find her once she gets rejected and laugh at her. Unless she’s really popular and you don’t want to deal with being a pariah.</p>