Do you guys have any tips for success in high school? 
I just graduated so I have a few tips that I feel are helpful so just bare with me through this
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Take every grade level seriously. Basically a lot of kids think they can slack off Freshman/Sophomore year and just pull up their grades Junior and Senior year. While it is possible to bring up a low GPA colleges really don’t like seeing a whole bunch of Ds.Fs, ad even Cs. I know thinking about college in freshman year can be seen as worrying too early but many colleges take in consideration you’re entire highschool performance not just a good junior/senior year. Slacking off early can lead to harming your chances at getting into a dream college. I feel like this is important to state just because I saw so many kids in my grade being crushed by the fact that they didn’t get into their dream school and they kept blaming their freshman/sophomore year self for just messing around and not trying hard enough/ taking school seriously.
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TIME MANAGEMENT. It’s very easy to feel like there’s not enough hours in the day to do everything you want. You might find that you can’t go out with friends any more because you have so much homework. Or that you’re going to bed a little later because there’s just so much work that has to be done. You don’t have to give up your favorite club, or sport, or after school activity, you just have to learn how to balance the time you spend studying/ doing HW and projects, with the amount of time you spend doing all the other activities you love.
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Prioritize what is important: This kinda of ties in with time management but it’s a little different. Basically you’re going to have to make sacrifices. Maybe you have a project due Monday and your friends want to hang out over the weekend but you really need the entire weekend to do the project. You have to turn down your friends and reschedule your plans. I know it will suck not being able to go out with your friends all the time, but you have to prioritize your school work. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t have any fun at all. That is NOT what I’m saying. I’m saying you have to be mature enough to say “well how about I finish the project this weekend, turn it in/receive a good grade on it because I worked hard, and then next week I can celebrate with my friends by going out”
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Take classes that you can handle not what “Most kids” are doing. Basically if you can handle taking one or many APs than do it. But don’t sign up for 6 APs because another student in your class did the same so you feel like you have too. Highschool is about figuring out a work load that works for you and challenging yourself within that load. If you feel like you can handle taking 6 APs and doing volunteer work and a sport, then great. But if you feel like you can only have a max of 4 APs before your grades start slipping then do that. Keep in mind that although colleges do want to see you taking APs they don’t want to see you getting Ds and Fs (and for some schools even Cs). Just take a much or as little as you can handle. Don’t worry about student X,Y, and Z’s workload, worry about yourself.
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If you ask advice from other students ask students that are similar to you. Basically if you want to take an AP History class don’t ask a person who hates history if they thought the class was easy or not because they’re going to be biased. Granted everyone in biased and you can’t expect that but you should ask students that are academically similar to you advice on what classes to take. For example if you’re good at math ask a kid who is also good at math. Try to avoid asking kids that slack off in a class how they feel about it because most times they’ll say it’s hard and could scare you from taking a class. I was almost scared away from taking certain APs because I asked the wrong people, but once I took the class I realized it was no where near as difficult as they had told me it was.
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Enjoy the time you have there as much as you can. Obviously don’t party the night of big test, don’t wait for the night before to do a project etc. etc. But highschool isn’t forever so don’t get caught up in the drama, and just enjoy these 4 years of always seeing your friends because soon you’ll all be heading off to college and everything is very surreal.
FULL DISCLAIMER.These are just some of the things I wish I was told about when I entered highschool. They may work for some people and not others.
Also make sure you study for your SATs/ACTs and befriend certain teachers/counselors because you’re going to want their help and advice when you start filling out colleges apps.
Your mental health is more important that your pride. If you are having problems don’t hesitate to find your student support specialist and get some advice. Two of my friends ended up hospitalized this year because they didn’t ask for help and took drastic measures. Hopefully this will not be an issue for you, but please be aware and watch out for people