<p>i mean, i have a 4.5 GPA (weighted of course) and a 2280 SAT score, as well as tons of community service /leadership, but i come on here and i feel like i should have taken more AP classes and won a Nobel prize to compete with all of these amazing students who take 6 APs sophomore year.
My school only lets you take max. 2 APs sophomore year, and even then they discourage you from doing that...
i'm taking 3 my junior year, all honors classes and gotten straight A's throughout HS (hopefully this continues!) . And then i come on here and start wondering if i'll ever get into UPenn or Claremont Mckenna, as other people have like 12 APs by junior year!! </p>
<p>CC makes me feel like i have to win the Nobel Peace Prize to compete with all these amazing students @@</p>
<p>i think i will. that's actually part of the reason why i stayed away from CC so long a while back. people were like, "oh if you don't take 6 APs junior year you're screwed" and being really mean to other people who didn't. but everybody else is super nice and helpful : )</p>
<p>I completely agree. If I had found CC before applying to colleges, and not been introduced to it after getting into my top college, I would have been a nervous wreck!</p>
<p>A) you're on the internet. you have no idea if these kids have really done all these things and gotten these grades.
B) those who have done the aforementioned things represent an almost miniscule portion of the applicant pool...think about your friends for a minute. How many of them would spend time on a college-themed message board?</p>
<p>A) you're on the internet. you have no idea if these kids have really done all these things and gotten these grades.
B) those who have done the aforementioned things represent an almost miniscule portion of the applicant pool...think about your friends for a minute. How many of them would spend time on a college-themed message board?
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<p>Agreed about (a), but for (b), there are many people I know who know about this forum, so this forum might be a good approximation for the types of applicants you're up against if you're applying to the top schools.</p>
<p>And yes, don't be a nervous wreck because of this forum... I've been there and done that and don't want to go back! I think you're going to be fine, athenegoddess.</p>
<p>Yeah...when I first started lurking here last year it really freaked me out. I've gotten over it for the most part but some things really make you feel like crap...</p>
<p>Only 5000 or so students get an SAT score >2300. That's not enough to fill the freshman class at all the Ivies. It's not even close. Obviously they have to accept students with SATs in the 2200s, and most do accept students with SATs in the 2100s since they care about more than reasoning skills. </p>
<p>Oh yeah, most definitely. It seems like everyone except me is getting likely letters from Ivys, and it totally freaks me out. I'm so scared that April 1st will just be a flood of small envelopes for me. :(</p>
<p>It's all of the ECs stuff that really scares me. I mean I do have extracurriculars and I love what I do but then people come with these huge lists and it feels like nothing.</p>
<p>It's certainly scary to read some of these kid's profiles, but I don't lose sleep over it. My school ONLY offers 3 APs, and I live in a rural area that doesn't provide many extra academic opportunities. They don't even prep us for SAT, and if we want to take the SAT we have to drive to some other location an hour away. However, they do stress the ACT, which can be taken locally. </p>
<p>Honestly, I'm relieved I didn't have those opportunities. I would have spent high school being even more stressed and over-worked. I admire those who can do it, but I don't feel it's necessary. I've been accepted to two good colleges so far without half of that stuff.</p>
<p>Don't think for two seconds that CC is a "good approximation for the types of applicants you're up against if you're applying to the top schools." It's a wonderful, wonderful resource, but there is nothing representative about the people who post here. I don't mean to imply anything positive or negative about CC members, just to say that you can't generalize based on this sample. </p>
<p>High schools are different, colleges are different, regions are different, kids are different, and there's a lot more that goes in to an application than goes in to a "Chances" thread. Do your best with what you have, ask for help when you need it, stay out of the threads that scare you, and <em>balance</em> the advice you get on CC with the advice you get (and info you find) elsewhere.</p>
<p>Use CC to keep your hopes in perspective. Don't let it dash 'em.</p>
<p>well, i guess since my school isn't as competitive as some other schools APwise i can rest slightly easier...i mean, the norm is 2- 3 APs junior year instead of like 5-6 APs at some other schools. but then barely anybody makes it into ivies. i think we had 1 kid go to dartmouth last year, and the year before that 1 kid got into Yale. we do have a bunch that get into UCs though :)</p>
<p>I have a good friend who purposely dropped out of a strong tech school because, on his own time, he was learning scientific breakthroughs that contradicted what he was being taught in class. Through extensive spiritual explorations, he realized the foundations of engineering and science he was being taught - and that are taught as fact at all of the major universities - were fundamentally flawed. When he tried to challenge his professors, they dismissed him as stupid. He dropped out, immersed himself in his own explorations, and has turned theory into practice, having developed working technologies centuries ahead of our time and based on a much higher realm of awareness than our most lauded universities and businesses are conscious of.</p>
<p>In my own life, I pulled back from the mainstream for several years and immersed myself in my own philosophical and spiritual journeys. I came to extraordinary breakthroughs about the nature of humanity, economics, and politics that have the potential to redefine the fundamental assumptions upon which our society is based. I can assure you that neither my breakthroughs or my colleague's would have ever come through regurgitating answers for tests or continuing to immerse ourselves in the current educational system - even at its highest levels.</p>
<p>You have to realize that this site is full of people who have bought hook, line, and sinker into the status quo because the status quo has served them well. They are drawn to this site because it reinforces their self-perception as being superior to others. They WANT schools to assess only hard numbers (test scores, GPAs) because that is where they are strongest and they have incorrectly deduced that intelligence is reflected in being able to regurgitate answers to be rewarded by a high GPA. Little bother that Benjamin Franklin, many of our founding fathers, William Shakespeare, and many others hardly had any formal education.</p>
<p>Freshman year of high school I failed out of an AP history class. The teacher told my dad, "It's really a shame to lose him. He was the only one in the whole class who could think for himself." The educational system continued to reward these students who couldn't think for themselves because they could memorize easily. Their confidence in their peception of a superior intellect grew while mine sank into a belief that I was stupid, despite what I would later find out (my mom kept this from me so I wouldn't get lazy) a top 1% IQ.</p>
<p>In the end though, without stratospheric GPA or test scores, I graduated with honors from the Ivy League. So do many others. Admissions usually look at the whole person because they know intelligence comes in many forms. So relax.</p>
<p>I sort of wish I would have found this site sooner because it sucks when it's senior year and your suddenly cramming in all this important stuff. Maybe I would have found out about things and not stressed as much.</p>
<p>I know that I will never be like the kids you guys are talking about and I'm not going to try. I am going to do the best that I can do and not let others make me feel like a huge loser. I've been accepted into a college, and it's not any Ivy or anything close, but it's MY dream school and I'm happy to be going there.</p>
<p>If people on here saw the stats of my college, they would laugh and say that I'll never get anywhere in life, but it really is a good school despite the fact that the average ACT score is 18-23. I'm one of the 10% that has a 27-36 ACT.</p>
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He dropped out, immersed himself in his own explorations, and has turned theory into practice, having developed working technologies centuries ahead of our time and based on a much higher realm of awareness than our most lauded universities and businesses are conscious of.