<p>Having checked the OP's back posts in the archives, I do wonder if the OP is a troll who's taking us on quite the ride. Even if he's for real,he doesn't seem like someone who's interested in advice that's based on the facts about college admissions.</p>
<p>Ah yes, I remember that post in the premed forum. The HS kid who wanted to "play God."</p>
<p>
But you AREN'T an admissions officer, and that probably is for the best. Because someone with a real view of himself is valuable. He doesn't lie, he doesn't pretend to be something he isn't, he is pretty straightfoward. Now most people are pretty much in denial of what they are.</p>
<p>For some reason, I want to say I doubt a lot of what you say you've done. Maybe it's the way you talk, or the way you say that everyone isn't going to get into such and such college because they don't live up to your paper perfect expectations. But it's something.
Actually, I thought the OP sounded pretty narcissistic.</p>
<p>I'm far from perfect (contrary to many students on this board, I've never won awards in anything, nor am I regionally, nationally, or internationally renowned :rolleyes:), but I'm not a liar, nor am I citygirlsmom in disguise. I'm not going to waste time trying to convince you, but if I had been lying, I don't think I would've posted a fake chances</a> thread with the same fake achievements a few days earlier to cover my ass in case I needed to debate it with you later. Considering that I have 800+ posts on this forum, and that some of them contain information that makes me very easily identifiable (by the father of an alum of my high school, among others), I think I've left a decent paper trail.</p>
<p>My view of myself isn't any less real because I'm not a cynic.
I didn't want to "talk to old people" either before a couple summers ago. Then, to get necessary volunteer hours for school/college, I sort-of-unwillingly went to work at a nursing home. After a couple days, I loved it!
I had the same experience volunteering at a local hospital. :)</p>
<p>Lol, you guys paint me worse than I paint myself.</p>
<p>First, "troll who's taking us on quite a ride" I have to say is more offensive than anything else anyone has said about me on this thread. Though narcissistic is pretty bad, too.</p>
<p>Citygirlsmom, you seem to think I'm trying to covertly begin a conspiracy on College Confidential. I have run 10 miles this year, when I was doing cross country and I had less of an illness (I was still missing school once or twice a week). Running makes my stomach hurt, but I find it fun at the same time. It's a nice feeling having run ten miles in the middle of the night with your feet blistery, stomach aching, ears numb from cold, and shins feeling like they're going to split. And don't call me a massochist now. I used to run everyday, but my mom made me stop, because she thought it made my stomach hurt. Apparently it didn't. Now it's winter and I don't really have anywhere to run (I prefer trails). I might still run now, with stomach aches, I really can't say for sure though.</p>
<p>I touched on not going to school in this thread, but I thought it was kind of irrelevant to Extracurriculars.</p>
<p>You say I'm lazy. I'm not lazy, I am just confident in my talents and aware of where I stand. Other people study all night for every test because they don't think they'll do well... they believe they'll screw up and forget everything. I believe in myself enough to not have to waste time with those things.</p>
<p>You say it's ironic that I say poor people are lazy and expect a free ride because I'm poor. Well I've worked hard enough to justify a free ride, and I'm not going to give up 30k a year just because I don't necessarily deserve it. Rich students with good stats get scholarships, too, I don't understand why you think I shouldn't. </p>
<p>You seem to think that I think poor children are lazy. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think poor children's parents are lazy, and the poor children deserve a chance. I also think that lazy parents are likely to have lazy kids... I was lazy until I got to high school, where it's closer to a meritocracy than the world is ever going to get, and I stopped being lazy.</p>
<p>I never said I wanted to play God. I said I found the idea of "playing God" interesting. I don't know if any of you have heard of the game Deus Ex (Latin for God Machine I think), but it has to do with biotechnology, bioterrorism, nanotechnology, and stuff like that. That's what I'm interested in and that's what I want to go to college to do.</p>
<p>Now, you all think, "Why did you say you wanted to be a doctor and now say you want to do biotech, etc?" I said I wanted to be a doctor because I do want to help people. I just don't want to help people who refuse to even attempt to help themselves. I've noticed since that "EMT" post that I probably shouldn't be a doctor and I should help society in some other way. I want to provide smart kids with poor parents a chance to get a good education and have a good life. I want to help people who were born with diseases/deformities/other stuff to be "normal." But I'm not going to give money to some drunken hobo or anything like that.</p>
<p>In answer to someone's question, I haven't posted since yesterday because I had to get off the computer after my second post, and haven't gotten on again until now. I'm very surprised there's 80 some posts...</p>
<p>Many people are saying "you can't get into HYP without ECs." I never said I wanted to get into Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Truthfully, I would prefer a community college over those, simply because of the condescension/pretentiousness intrinsic in most Ivy League schools. If you look, you'll notice I said I want to go to MIT or Caltech most.</p>
<p>Citygirlsmom, you portray me as someone who never stops reading books. You call me "booksmart." The truth is, I haven't read a book for probably two years. I just listen in class or read peoples' notes and figure everything out. I read sparknotes for LA.</p>
<p>I haven't played video games in over a week, because I have work to make up in school, I have to "study" for SATs, and they don't seem that fulfilling to me anymore. I've stopped playing poker for largely the same reason--also, because it got too easy.</p>
<p>Citygirlsmom, I saw your point on my "Abysmal attendance" thread, but here, you're just spitting out whatever negative connotations you can find in my words to support your own unlogical, narrow scope of reality.</p>
<p>Sorry if I'm a little random and left out some stuff.</p>
<p>your stupid if you let somebody stop you from running because your stomach hurts.</p>
<p>I've run varsity for four years and if somebody tried to impede my training, even my mom, I wouldn't have it. </p>
<p>Btw, why don't you count running as an EC? It's probablly my most important EC.</p>
<p>so what is this passion for learning then...I don't get it...nothing you say shows any passion or love of learning....</p>
<p>wow, haven't read a book in two years, yet claim a love of learning</p>
<p>I am so confused I surrender</p>
<p>so when someone said, well, he can talk about the great books he is reading, well, guess not</p>
<p>this is the strangest thing I have ever read, and the inconsistencies are just bizarre</p>
<p>as for genuine, I never saw and still don't no matter the excuses made</p>
<p>I wish you luck, and if you read anything from MIT or Caltech websites, that I shared, you will see, tests and grades are not everything</p>
<p>And sparknotes</p>
<p>So all those that saw a real lover of learning, there you go- sparknotes, hasn't read a book, yet claims to love learning</p>
<p>at that I bid adieu...anyone who claims to love to learn and hasn't read a book in two years, oh nevermind</p>
<p>Citygirlsmom:</p>
<p>I thought it was you who said that there was far more to learning than books...Make up your mind. You ridicule the kid when he claims he has a passion for learning and tell him that if he truly has a passion for learning that he shouldn't be reading books all the time...Then when he says he doesn't read books all the time, you get on his case about that...</p>
<p>For someone who a couple posts ago discounted me as just having "booksmarts," you seem to put a lot of emphasis on reading books. You apparently oppose whatever I have to say so greatly that you contradict yourself just to slander me.</p>
<p>I learn more from sparknotes. When you read a book, you don't get everything from it. For example, we just read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in US Humanities. Sparknotes gave an analysis on Twain's satire of Romanticist thought, slavery, religion, and society in general. It pointed out the irony in Tom Sawyer citing Don Quixote, a satire of Romanticism itself, to justify his Romanticist actions. I would have never learned as much without reading sparknotes.</p>
<p>Books aren't the only source of knowledge. Books don't explain themselves when they provide a seemingly illogical argument. Books can't tell you only what you don't already know, they have to give you all sorts of review, whether you like it or not. People are much greater sources of information.</p>
<p>pmcharkins, there's really nothing I could do... My parents are conspiracy-theorists... If I were to not stop running, they'd hold it against me, saying I wouldn't stop because I want stomach aches, so I don't have to go to school.</p>
<p>at least at that point we thought he was doing SOMETHING, and he needed to do MORE, but niow we find he hasn't read a book in TWO years and gets all his learning through others notes and sparknotes</p>
<p>I see NO passion for learning whatsoever, though the OP claims it...just finding ways to get by, and that is worse</p>
<p>IF he at least had the claimed passion, he could add to it, but he doesn't even have that</p>
<p>My points still stand, I was talking about doing more than just book learning, and we find he doesn't even do that</p>
<p>Doesn't read books all the time, he doesn't even read books AT ALL, and basically cheats his way through using sparknotes and other peoples notes</p>
<p>eh, and he wants to go to MIT,</p>
<p>and Lin, you know EXACTLLY my points, I never said to NOT read, not to book learn, I just said it would be better to do more, and others said, well he is sooo busy reading etc he has no time, well, you don't even read</p>
<p>you are so smart, guess using sparknotes will get your through college as well</p>
<p>pretty sad that you don't even read the book to see if sparknotes is correct or if you even have your own opinions and insights with regards to the writing</p>
<p>so are you saying that all through your AP english and Lit classes or honors or whatever you never read any of the books? and this love or learning comes from what, cheating</p>
<p>egad, I truely now give up...it is just sad that you think doing sparknotes is enough and that actually reading is a waste, and you haven't read a book, just for fun even in two years, yet you claim this love of learning</p>
<p>wow,</p>
<p>If reading notes was cheating, I would seem even smarter.</p>
<p>I don't take notes and don't study.</p>
<p>I just hear and remember.</p>
<p>Getting extremely good stats is "just finding ways to get by"?</p>
<p>I don't have the resources to learn much outside of school.</p>
<p>You seem to be assuming I have an absolutely perfect life, and I get to decide to do whatever I please.</p>
<p>You needed SparkNotes to get through Huck Finn? Seriously? In my English class, we actually had to analyze the text by ourselves.</p>
<p>And considering that a great deal of what one "gets" out of the book is related to the dialects and phrasing, I don't really see how you can appreciate it without, y'know, actually cracking open the cover.</p>
<p>I'm not slamming or judging you in any way, because I really have no desire to be drawn hip-deep into the truly bizarre argument that seems to be going down here, but, wow. To claim a love for learning and then confess to using a shortcut to avoid the comprehension and analysis that reading entails strikes me as odd.</p>
<p>We didn't read books in AP Comp. We read one or two page stories.</p>
<p>SparkNotes is not cheating, my teachers don't even care. I get more insight from them than my teacher would ever give.</p>
<p>Again, books are not the only source of information. Stop repeating the same untrue statements.</p>
<p>And you're obviously not going to give up, because you want to get to 4000 posts as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Okay, so your school kind of sucks then. Sorry about that. (Doesn't mean you can't take a little initiative though.)</p>
<p>And considering that I've only posted twice in this thread and I only have 55 posts total, I'm really in no rush for 4000; or are you confusing me with someone else?</p>
<p>Sparknotes tells me the dialects and phrasing. And I did read Tom Sawyer back in 7th grade... I know what Mark Twain writes like. He's a realist.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom and invertedcommas, by your logic, I should have derived the Pythagorean Theorem and reinvented calculus on my own, because I might see it a different way than Newton and Liebniz.</p>
<p>I was talking about citygirlsmom...
You keep posting while I'm typing, lol</p>
<p>I was talking about citygirlsmom...
You keep posting while I'm typing, lol</p>
<p>I've taken as much initiative as I can. As I said, I've doubled up on math and tripled up on science just so I could take three courses at a college for free my senior year. Only three other people at my school are taking college courses senior year, and they're each taking one. I've done as much as I think I can. It's not like there's biotech and nanotech facilities everywhere.</p>
<p>Ah....no. Because math and literature are different subjects, and therefore require entirely different skill sets. Also, no one said that you should ignore the established body of work on a subject - just that it's best to use a first-hand source when one obviously exists.</p>
<p>Although, we did spend half of my math classes deriving formulas, so maybe it wouldn't be the worst idea. I find the idea mildly horrifying, but I know that my math-inclined friends love deriving things and hate classes where they're just expected to memorize formulas.</p>
<p>But at any rate, I honestly don't care that much, so, once again, best of luck. It's cool that you're taking a lot of interesting classes.</p>
<p>PS: Ever thought of joining the debate team? You might enjoy it.</p>
<p>Bah, everyone sucks at debate, because no one actually listens to what other people say. I know I'm making a generalization, but it's largely true.</p>
<p>People just adamantly state their opinion repeatedly, never thinking about what other people have to say... Reminds me of someone whose username rhymes with wittygirlsmom.</p>
<p>I enjoy debating to an extent, but it is frustrating when you listen carefully to what other people say, but they could care less when you start talking.</p>
<p>Very nice idea for an EC though... thanks anyway.</p>