Going for the High School 4.0

<p>I want to bring some advice about high school into discussion. One thing that I believe many people get hung up on in high school is their GPAs. Students sometimes, myself included, have the mindset that it is 4.0 or nothing. They see all of these perfect GPAs on CC that get rejected from top schools, and they are think that a 4.0 is necessary. If they happen to receive a B+ or other sub-perfect score, students can lose hope and let up on striving for academic excellence, thinking that they will never get in at their favorite university anyway. But I have come to realize how skewed this perspective is. You have to realize that not all 4.0s are equal and that schools have very different rigors. Colleges usually consider the difficulty in high schools. In essence, please do not get discouraged because your GPA doesn't align with someone who got rejected from your favorite school. Always continue to work like the excellent student and person you are because colleges look for persistence and because getting into a good college is less important than the potential for a bright future.</p>

<p>Well, many colleges do unweight your GPA and convert the number into an overall score, so regardless of how difficult your school may be, a 1.7 GPA won’t get you in regardless.</p>

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<p>Amen Sister or Brother.</p>

<p>I agree with you 100%. Once you start college the High School transcript is over, done, worthless. </p>

<p>GPA is really more about showing obedience and conformity then learning and thinking.</p>

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<p>No, it’s more about self-control and long-term discipline. There are plenty of original and innovative thinkers who also have high GPAs. Perfection is not necessary, but consistently low marks are not a sign of learning and thinking.</p>

<p>“Perfection is not necessary” (sorry, I don’t know how to do the quotation thing). I suppose this is what I was more getting at.</p>

<p>@MrMom62- I disagree. How many years has it been since you were actually in HS?</p>

<p>I agree with MrMom62 and I am a junior in high school. Your gpa reflects your ability to work hard and learn. Of course, gpa isnt everything, but it reflects one side of things. </p>

<p>Work Hard- Yes. For sure. Learn- Possibly but not for sure. It’s really more about regurgitating the teacher’s ideas than actually learning and discovering. </p>

<p>Obsessing over grades can lead to an Effexor prescription as easily as it can lead to a college campus.</p>

<p>Sorry Mandalorian, but fact are facts, not opinions to be regurgitated. 2+2 = 4 is a fact, not a social construct. Learning and discovering are great, but there’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time a child walks in the classroom - learning about prior knowledge is just a shortcut to getting to the leading edge of what needs to be newly discovered. Discovering the laws of motion is something that took thousands of years, your physics teacher doesn’t have the time to let you make all the mistakes that go with actual discovery.</p>

<p>But learning and discovering on your own time - sound like a great idea. Might even make a nice EC that will get you into a top college, earn you a Nobel Prize, or just the self-satisfaction of being the first to do something. You might even call it a lifelong pursuit.</p>