<p>First things first: you’re a freshman; I would suggest coming back to this forum in about 2 years or so. I understand that you want to be prepared, but freaking out about getting into MIT is not such a good idea. You’ll just stress yourself out!</p>
<p>Second: I know you said you love learning and all that other good stuff, but the truth is that there are only 24 hours in a day. Each of those classes will be time consuming and assign a lot of homework (depending on the rigor of your school) and you also probably have to practice for band. I saw in another post that you do crew as well? I have no idea how you have time for all this, but don’t burn yourself out. </p>
<p>There seems to be a misconception that getting into MIT requires being the very best student ever in the whole entire history of the universe. I had B’s in high school, I took maybe a total of 5 AP classes, and am most definitely not going to be valedictorian. </p>
<p>tl;dr: If you’re passionate about learning, great. Follow that passion and come back to this site maybe 2 years from now.</p>
<p>My d self studied Spanish 2 during the summer between Freshman and Soph year (at the teachers urging). She received no grade for it so it is not calculated in her GPA. Her motivation was that she really enjoys learning languages and the teacher recommended that she take on the challenge. As a result she will be in AP Spanish her senior year. </p>
<p>When applying to colleges, do applicants submit AP scores from Soph and Jr years? Is that shown on a hs transcript or is it a paid score report like an SAT score? Or is it just listed on a students CV?</p>
<p>AP scores are self-reported. They do not appear on your high school transcript, and you aren’t required to send them in until you actually get in and need transfer credit. You write them on your application yourself. You don’t have to include scores you don’t like.</p>
<p>Some schools (like mine) did report AP scores on transcripts That said, you only need to self-report for the application, but if you are accepted and want to get credit for something, only an official report will do.</p>
<p>I agree that I am taking on too much, and am quite possibly setting myself up to a lot of stress these next few years. For example: junior year I will be taking the classes I listed plus: astronomy club, tech club, book club, computer programming club, key club, national honors society, crew, badminton, two night classes, researching a unique topic that I have decided will benefit my community, getting an internship at either an astronomy observatory or an engineering firm, and I also have a little secret up my sleeve that will take all of the rest of high school to complete. I can tell you the “secret” if you PM me because I don’t want anyone stealing my idea.</p>
<p>As to the subject of reporting AP exam scores, I find the system rather strange; anyone could lie about their exam scores and no one would notice! I guess the admissions offices figure that if you are a graduating senior, you must be mature enough to be honest about earning your acceptance letter.</p>
<p>I think 4 AP classes and 2 other interesting classes is pretty doable, if the two others are fun and light, particularly if one of your AP classes isn’t in history or something insanely time-consuming. If you put a lot of effort into getting stuff out of lecture for math and science classes, then you just have to work some exercises through the week. Do this at your convenience, and if you don’t have 100 pages of history reading worrying you, together with reading Hamlet in the next 2 weeks, you’ll probably be OK.</p>
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<p>It’s pretty time-consuming, and can hurt your application to a school which doesn’t care much about scrounging out that extra competitive 0.whatever edge to increase class rank.</p>
<p>However, unless you can use that time better in general for yourself, none of this matters :D</p>
<p>@QuantMech, if you were talking about me, yes I took 4 years of Spanish back in the day, although honestly I think at a certain point, one just has to go out and practice using it in an involved way (like you said, the classes give you a foundation, but that’s about it). For whatever reason, foreign language stressed me out, possibly due to a frequent on the spot component.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying, mathboy98! I think you’ll find that even your classroom Spanish is useful to you in the future. (I made the remark in post #19 because your post #17 seemed to be supporting MITobsession’s comment about not taking 4 years of Spanish after all.)</p>
<p>I can definitely empathize with the stress of the on the spot component of speaking in foreign language classes. You won’t get any criticism from me for that!</p>
<p>At the risk of stereotyping, I think that there might be a careful, reflective type of person who excels in science and math, but likes to think things over, to be sure the “answer” is right, before giving it. This make it difficult to have conversations in foreign language classes, when you have an incomplete command of the language, as everyone does at HS level. From an adult perspective, I will offer the observation that there are some situations where letting go of the need to be 100% right before you start speaking may actually serve you well, and developing the ability to do that can be useful, too. (Don’t try it during your Ph.D. oral, though!)</p>
<p>I agree that AP scores alone can definitely not get you in, but there are other factors you can lie about on the application: extracurricular activities and awards. Since MIT admissions are holistic, this seems like quite an honor-bound system and I dearly hope that no one has ever lied on their application although there’s always one person for everything. </p>
<p>About Spanish, I believe I am slowly appreciating the language more and more especially since I am half Hispanic (from Spain). However, this raises another question I have for you all. In the summer between junior year and senior year, I was thinking about taking the whole summer off and going to Spain to help with community service as well as get a better sense of their culture! However, my 4 year plan suggests that that summer I will be taking 3 classes at the local junior college. Which option should I choose? I also really want to get an internship at some science-related job. It seems as if there aren’t enough years of high school to complete all of my goals! Any suggestions?</p>
<p>QuantMech, you are right about the wanting to make sure things are right thing! Presenting about mathematics is to me pretty stressful, even if I have done it often, because of the on the spot questions from people who keep the speaker honest. You can only imagine how much worse, when one has incomplete command over the very language!</p>
<p>I agree I was implicitly (but not necessarily without a sheepish look) supporting that I might have skipped 4 years of language in hindsight, but it is definitely a useful skill, and at times is kind of a fun alternative to other classes.</p>
<p>And yes, I think Mollie is right, since oral quals may deliberately be designed to check how you think through something that is not instantly clear…</p>
That said, you only need to self-report for the application, but if you are accepted and want to get credit for something, only an official report will do.</p>