I always thought that I was pretty smart and can get easy staright A’s. But my freshman and my sophomore semsester grades are ratehr discouraging. I take GCSEs (the uk curriculum) and take 10 subjects and received 3B’s last year and 3B’s again for this semsester. My English has improved from a B to a A but this other subject fell down to a B. Man… I’m soo paranoid. 7A’s and 3B’s might look okayish but the comments about me doesnt sound very applealing (it uses adjectives like how my attitude and test scores were acceptable/reasonable). My EC’s suck and I was hoping to make this up thru GPA but I guess its all over.
am i being too paranoid?
watching ppl fuss over getting 1B drives me crazy and it makes me want to give up on everything. All admissions on this site who’s taken GCSE has either been straight A<em>'s or straight A’s and A</em>'s. This sucks… Sorry for fussying around but I’m sure many share the same thoughts. Am I eternally screwed for MIT or Stanford? man, such pressure!!! my parents arent well off and they pay heck of alot of money for my education. They think going to Duke or below is low performance. i think i’m going to confess to my parents that I am not capable of going to such persitigious schools… Sorry for making such a messy post :D.
<p>Hey! No more hammering on Duke...actually, it was ranked 5th by US News...</p>
<p>But still, I have had 11 B's and I applied to relatively prestigious schools, so dont worry too much.</p>
<p>Yeah don't worry about it too much. I mean, I use to be in your position too (worrying that is). I don't have a good transcript, I lack ECS but I figured I'll apply to schools above me for the hell of it. It really doesn't matter as long as you do good in college. My work ethic declined drastically from freshman to junior yr and now im working hard again. Think of this experience now as a wakeup call for college. Besides, this board is full of a bunch of overchievers and/or liars.</p>
<p>It is unfortunate that your parents have such an attitude. Do you even know if Stanford or MIT is a good fit for you? They are so radically different that I can't imagine a knowledgable person applying to both. Sounds like Trophy hunting. I suggest that you take control of your college search process a bit more, and try to educate your parents along the way. There are so many really stellar schools that you should aim at building a nice selection of reach, match and safety schools. If you identify a school that you will be happy at and excell at, then it is a better school for you and your future success than going to MIT. Personally, I'm not a big fan of either for undergrad, so you can take the advice with a grain of salt. I've met tons of dummies who went to Stanford and didn't get very far or were very happy in their careers, and I was really taken by a more recent MIT grad who really couldn't reccomend it as a great undergrad education.</p>
<p>It is really unproductive to be 'paranoid'. If you have weaknesses, then identify them and work on it. Going through a rigorous college prep program should naturally produce some B's, if the school grades reasonably toughly. Easy straight A's does not develop a person ready to be a top college contributor. Learning to work does. Some B's will not rule you out if you are a nice overall package. And being a nice overall package has a lot to do with your interests and the energy you expend in developing them.</p>
<p>Knowledgable people will recognize the fantastic opportunities offered at such colleges as (just for sake of example) Kalamazoo College, University of Chicago, Grinnell, Carleton College, Reed College, Deep Springs, Olin, Babson and dozens and dozens of others that pop up here in discussion. Try to have fun with the process of educating yourself about what these colleges stand for. There's an amazing world out there.</p>
<p>Where did you parents go it college, btw?</p>
<p>They came out from the best college in Korea (national seoul uni.) and a MBA in the US. Because they grew up in rather poor environment and yet were successful in career, their expectations are very high of me. They spend loads for my education and yes, I certainly do appreciate it but I can't seem to be performing at a certain standard. </p>
<p>it almost sounds as if I'm accusing my parent for child abuse of making one study so hard. my father told me that going to a top20 uni in the US is already a success, but I know he will be greatly dissapointed if I did go to colleges like UIUC (sorry for making presitigous uni's sounds so bad and easy to get in; i perfectly understand its not). </p>
<p>"If you have weaknesses, then identify them and work on it.": ya, I always told myself regretting aboout the past doesnt get me anywhere and tried to forget everything and make a new start. But I find it quite difficult, especially reading perfect stats getting deferred.</p>
<p>Well it's hard to have such expectations put upon you especially because in the big scheme of life it does not really matter that much if you go to MIT or UCIC. It sounds like you have a fairly strong profile, but for very selective schools you will just be gambling to see if you get in or not--this is true for the grades you have and would be equally true if you had all A's. Perfect stats getting deferred should signal to you that perfect stats are not the criteria for admission. This should make you feel better, not worse. Do what you can now to present yourself as a overall good candidate who will be an asset to have on campus. Schools often don't want people who are just grinds, studying all the time and not contributing to the school community. This is where the value of EC's and leadership lie. Try to do something to differentiate yourself from your peers (and competitors.) And try to cultivate a couple relations with teachers who might give you good rec's. In the end, realize that you must have your own understanding of what a good school is for you and where you will succeed. Many parents don't really understand that this should be mostly up to the student to determine and they should butt out except when asked for advice. all you can do is develop a good list of reach, match and safety and get a good attitude that you will be happy at any of them. Let your parents live within their own heads if they must.</p>
<p>thank you. I've admitted to my parents that i'm not confident, but surprisinglythey've replied just try your best. i feel so much more relieved now. thnx for the reply; I can picture a much better process of how admission works (although no one truly knows the truth).</p>