I really don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Do you have depression? If so, you should talk about all of this with your counselor. If not, it’s perfectly reasonable to tell you to dig in and deal with it. I’m not sure what you mean by “resolve inhibition in your life.”
Entitled to a good education, hmm. I think this is something any good parent should try to provide for their children. In some ways, going to an underfunded schools gives a sense of perspective, I get that I guess. I don’t think that’s there reasoning behind any of it though. I think it more has to do with their unwillingness to provide me with a drive to school. On that note, I figure I should clarify that I’m on the younger generation of my grade, and won’t be able to get my license until senior year.
Why the toxicity? I literally said the opposite. Read over my posts and you’ll see that I’ve gone out to say that I think private school is overvalued and that my best option is to attend public high school.
Yes, I’m sure high school was the same 60 years ago. Great example, thank you!
So let’s think about the situation here, you had a parent who was highly education and presumably valued prestige and competitiveness. I have parents who are genuinely good people, but don’t spend much time with me and don’t care about the quality of my hs. How exactly do you understand what I’m going through?
I don’t consider myself as having depression, that was just used as an example.
No, I’m just saying that when a problem is deep enough the solution isn’t as simple as just “dealing with it.”
I know that you think I’m using certain vocabulary to be pretentious or something, but it’s honestly just the way I talk.
You should see how immature you look right now. When someone reaches out to you in a completely fortrite manner, you don’t respond by making fun of them. The post is not about my grammar. I’ll listen to your suggestions because I believe in self-improvement, but no one likes a grammar Nazi.
@nick3162, I’ll try to say this as gently as possible because I can tell you’re upset.
Attacking posters who are trying to help you is not productive. The people you’re going after have been here a long time and have helped countless students. What they’re saying may be hard to hear, but if you don’t want honest feedback this isn’t the place to vent.
@nick3162. I am sorry that you appear to be struggling so mightily with your current educational environment. I am sure that it must be very frustrating for you to feel as if you are in situation that will, in your perception, fail to provide you with the tools that you believe that you need to suceed. I think what most of us are trying to tell you is that your current academic environment is not going to hold you back from attaining your goals. Opportunity abounds all around you, if you take the care to seek it out. Changing your school is a simplified solution to your “problem”. Colorado School of Mines is a fantastic school and certainly attainable if you set your mind to it and work diligently.
I am not poking fun at you nor was I being a grammar/spelling nazi. I want you to see that there is room to grow and improve, now. You don’t need to change schools to make considerable strides to reaching your goal. Again, ultimately, it is not your academic environment that will hold you back.
I believe that the posters on here (mostly the parents) tend to show hostility for whatever reason. The students most the time are more understanding and can see eye-to-eye with me on my frustrations.
I do actively think that the parents have been kind of hostile.
There have also been genuinely helpful comments on this post, which I think I’ve done a good job of owning up to.
You mentioned that I might be getting upset. I wouldn’t really say so, but fine, I do think it’s valuable to be able to recognize when to take a step back if you’re making a fool of yourself.
I don’t consider the advice of “just dealing with it,” to be helpful. That has never been the remedy for serious issues, no matter what sort of spin you tie on it.
If you don’t have depression, I don’t know why that comparison would be appropriate. People say you can’t tell someone with depression to just “be happy” because their brain chemistry literally prevents them from doing so. If that’s not your situation, then it’s nothing like depression.
Fair enough, that was not a perfect analogy. What’s valuable about a forum like this is to take in multiple perspectives. And I think that’s really where I’m getting frustrated here. Certainly, maybe I come across as entitled. If you met me, you might think differently- I consider myself to be a pretty humble guy. I don’t think it’s productive to value the content of someone’s character based off the 2000 word impression you have of me. I’ve heard the perspective multiple times that “dealing with it,” is one solution, and I will respect that. What are some other ways I can think about the situation? The way to open up a myopic mindset is not too overload it with ANY one viewpoint.
@nick3162 I’m not sure why all the hostility towards you but I have not read a lot of your other posts so I can’t say.
With that said you did say one thing that resonated with me:
“There’s come to a point where our school reputation has been repeatedly tarnished by shooting incidents…”
As a parent I put education and safety high on my list of priorities for my kids and one of the reasons I moved out of LA unified school district to a very good public school system where I knew my kids would get an excellent education and my W and I would not have to worry about our kids safety each day, teachers disciplining kids in class, etc. Not all families can do what we have done but I would sure hope they did at least some planning ahead of time.
You sound like a very good student, and as others suggested, prepare for and do very well on the SAT/ACT and you will have good options for college, with or without your parents help. Someday you will have a family of your own and see that it’s not as easy and simple as it seems. Good luck to you…
@nick3162 I think you might have gotten better feedback if you had begun your initial post by saying you needed to use this space to vent. It’s clear that you harbor a lot of resentment towards your parents for forcing you to attend this public school that isn’t fostering high achieving students. It’s also clear that you’ve resigned yourself to the situation. Hence the need to vent - which isn’t necessarily an unhealthy exercise.
I will tell you it’s not uncommon for a school that offers AP classes to not adequately prepare its students for the AP exams. In fact, one might say that’s not their purpose. Maybe that’s a topic for debate all by itself. But in your case, it’s apparently true. So you can either focus on just getting good grades in your advanced classes and probably not do so well on the AP exams, or you can supplement your classes with self study to prepare for them.
For what it’s worth, I don’t see the upside in alienating those responding to your thread. They really are just trying to understand and help.
Mr. Cowboy,
I do definitely hear what you mean when you stress that my “academic environment,” is not going to hold me back. It’s true that we probably need to draw that distinction there. I’ve been focusing mostly on how my school is subpar in terms of academics, but ultimately, I’ll admit that isn’t the reason I should consider switching schools.
I alluded to this earlier, but I really do feel isolated in my community and at home. It’s hard to grapple with the conflicting emotions I feel all the time. Coupled with lack of ECs and my hesitation towards LOR, those would be the reasons in the end that I feel I need to switch schools.
Do you think it’s practical at this point in time to try to graduate early?
@socialdad2002
I really appreciate the fact that you can relate to my situation. From what I’ve gathered, most of the parents on here tend to be high-income and send their kids off to well-ranked public or private schools. What’s particularly frusterating about my situation is the fact that my parents have the resources to send me to a better public high school (only 0.3 miles away) but have made it clear that isn’t an option because I wouldn’t qualify for district bussing.
The hostility I think stems from the fact that people are getting the impression that I want my parents to send me to some fancy-pants boarding or private school. I really don’t care for an enviornment of entitelment, and that’s not an option I’m interested in what-so-ever. The ideal situation for me would be a selective public school which advocates for diversity and equal opportunity. I might even consider dropping out of my public hs, pursuing a digital diploma, and heading over to community college. Most of all, I want to be in a community that takes initiative- which I simply don’t find in my current school enviornment. The people here are genuinely nice people, but I don’t feel like they take action over their own success. They aren’t “go-getters” so-to-speak.
Thanks for your insight
Good grief, you can walk to that school.
“I don’t feel like they take action over their own success. They aren’t “go-getters” so-to-speak.” ???
Well let me preface by noting that I apologize if I’m “alienating those responding to [my] thread.” I’ve heard from people in real-life too that I tend to be pretty intense to talk to.
Perhaps my high school is not as uncommon as I think it is. But as the old adage has always said, “just because something is a certain way, that doesn’t make it right.” When I have a world of resources at my fingertips- a wealth of knowledge on the Internet waiting for me- it’s so painstaking to sit through unindividualized learning in an enviornment where students don’t take command over their future.
I’m interning with a military software company right now, and I participated in screening prospective applicants. These were men in their 50s, 60s with years of technical experience, but often times with no degree or relevant educational qualifications. Then on the other side of the spectrum, there’s kids in my high school who are fine with mediocracy and leach onto the system for as long as they can. First it will be their HS diploma, then their bachelors, and maybe someday they’ll find something they’re really passionate about. Do I want to end up a narrow-minded 50 yr old man sitting in my basement and coding all day straight- not exactly. Do I want to waste my parents’ cash paying for expensive tuition at an overpriced university for 4 or 6 years until I finally discover what my passion- still not quite. The public high school system is meant to churn out students in an assembly-line fashion. It is not meant for active learners who think they know how to reach this “goldilocks” zone in their life.
Not quite practical because it’s a very urban area meant more for driving than walking. Walk would be about 60 minutes (we’ve investigated)
I don’t see how walking .3 miles could take 60 minutes. But if it’s so unsafe, get an Uber.
Honestly, you’ve given several conflicting reasons for wanting to switch schools and now I’m totally confused.