<p>My break starts this Friday… All the teachers are cramming everything into this week haha which is nice because I can be worry free over vacation. Anyone got special plans over break?</p>
<p>Last day of school before break is Thursday. I’ll be going to a party at a friend’s house Friday, and then just chilling, working on a couple of essays, and a couple hours of volunteer work over break.</p>
<p>I’m finishing up semester exams…I have my hardest two- French and pre-calc tomorrow. On the flip side, none of my teachers have assigned homework yet, so I’ll actually have a break!</p>
<p>Hey fellow freshman. Wanna help me with my course selections for next year because obviously you will give me better advice than anyone else on the site.</p>
<p>So, we have 3 credits we can use for electives.</p>
<p>2 of them are: Honours French 2 and AP Microeconomics (also, is it smart to take an AP class just for the sake of taking an AP class?)</p>
<p>I can’t decide what to use my last credit on. Algebra 2 (this would be my second math class next year, but I’m gonna try to take geometry over the summer so algebra 2 can be my required math course.), Chemistry (it would be my second science course of the year but algebra 2 is a prerequisite that can be taken concurrently so if I pass geometry over the summer I could take chemistry) and my last one is Choir. I’m also taking choir this year and my chorus teacher said that if I took it all 4 years that looks good for college.</p>
<p>Wow this is long. Well, which one do you think I should pick?</p>
<p>UC bound in 2016</p>
<p>@ Diabete I am going to take Algebra 2 also as my second math class if I can’t find any Geometry classes over the summer. Math is really important and it would look good on your transcript to double up on math. It won’t be easy though, so think it through.</p>
<p>@ Diabete: I say take Algebra 2, definitely. Are you sure you want to take it over the summer? I mean you’ll only be meeting for a few hours daily, but you perhaps may be interested in other summer programs. Also this might seem silly, but look into how each class is weighted. It’s counter-intuitive, but if you decide to take choir all four years it could bring down your GPA if it’s a non-weighted class.</p>
<p>I don’t know, I would like to take at least 1 fun class next year and I love chorus.</p>
<p>Then take chorus.</p>
<p>@ Swinter - We’ve got 4 weeks in June, 8.5 weeks end-year (well, school starts on a Wed) We’ve got 40 weeks of school, 10 weeks each term. </p>
<p>And school is coming so, so soon! I’ve got my finalized schedule, we’re getting to know our form class soon, and some of my extracurriculars have already started. I never thought it’d be so soon, it’s like - I haven’t even done anything during the holidays! Volunteered a bit, then went on a family trip overseas, but that’s about it! And then it’ll be 9th grade, which in our school (7-10 grades) is infamous for sleep deprivation, missed meals leading to gastric, and generally being notoriously hard. Still, it’s also the year when you start getting a bunch of opportunities, so it’s also exciting in that way! :)</p>
<p>Have any of you thought of what college you want to go to?</p>
<p>I wanna go to either Tufts, or Pacific University (Oregon).</p>
<p>@BurningIce I now know why Asian countries are beating Americans academically. I don’t know if this is for all schools, but for all the ones I’ve been to, we only have 36 weeks a year. And, even though my school is ranked in the top 100 in the US, freshman year hasn’t been that difficult.</p>
<p>^ I have no clue whatsoever. I guess it’s a good thing I’m still a frosh.</p>
<p>Speaking of colleges, how many colleges have you visited/been to? I’ve been to UCSD, University of Cincinnati, University of Toronto, Xiamen University, University of New Mexico, New Mexico Tech, and New Mexico State. None of these seemed to have particularly captured my attention.</p>
<p>I’ve visited one - my state university.</p>
<p>I’ve actually visited none lol. I plan to though, it’s just that I don’t want to get myself too excited, just to go back to high school and wait for 3-4 years.
I’ve been thinking about my state universities and Duke or Tulane.
Happy holidays by the way!!</p>
<p>^ Swinter - I suppose it doesn’t help that my school is known to be one of the best (and also hardest) schools here, but it does pay off because we send the most kids to Ivy Leagues outside the US 
I know one year we had 80 to Cornell, much fewer to each of the others but it’s a decent number overall. And we produce quite a lot of International Olympiad medallists and the like. I guess that’s why people choose to come to our school. </p>
<p>But then again, just because there are amazing people from my school doesn’t mean the school’s going to make me amazing. I’ve got some really overachieving friends who make me feel really, really small. There are quite a lot of tiger mothers here too 
Thank goodness my parents aren’t like that! And after hearing about some crazy lengths my friends go to (in 8th grade), my parents are like, forget it, you’re never gonna do that, don’t even think (realistically) about HYPS (though we’d be glad if someone you got in). I mean, people in 8th grade aren’t supposed to sleep 4 hours a night, and neither are 7 year olds supposed to start dreaming about Harvard (and working like a maniac towards that life goal). </p>
<p>Oh well, with that in mind, I hope I actually survive next year. It’ll be a tough, tough year.</p>
<p>^ I haven’t visited any universities yet, not in the US anyway. If local universities count, I’m living in one because my parents teach here </p>
<p>But yeah, I’ll probably end up in the US because I’m an American citizens and local fees for non-citizens are rising like crazy. Like, non-PR non-ASEAN people pay like $1000 a month in fees if they wanna come to our school (a PUBLIC secondary school). It gets worse in Junior College, and University fees will be completely horrible. Thank god I actually have a few grand in scholarship per year, else it’ll totally not be worth it (maybe) to go to my school. </p>
<p>Maybe we’ll fly to the US one of these years and throw a couple of universities into the schedule, else I’ll probably have to rely on online pictures / recounts / videos / etc to apply, and then when I’m accepted somewhere maybe I can go for accepted students week or something. Else I’ll be pretty much applying blind :</p>
<p>I’m new here to cc but does anybody know what their GPA is and what universities he or she may want to attend. I’m pretty much failing at my school right now its hard and everyone is either getting straight a’s low 3’s or straight out failing. My school is top the best prep school on the west coast according to Forbes but I’m really worried that my GPA will seriously bring me down. I have a 3.2:/ but hopefully I can bring that up…</p>
<p>Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using CC</p>
<p>^ Welcome to CC! </p>
<p>I’d say you shouldn’t worry too much if your school sends bunches to good schools, are is known by the good schools, and if 3.2 is an above average score there Like in my (top-ranked) school, only a handful crosses the 90-marks line for any subject so I don’t worry too much about that though people on here have crazy averages like 96% (then again we have no extra credit, homework doesn’t count, etc. so maybe that figures) </p>
<p>As for universities, I’ll be applying to a few top ones, and then the rest will probably be schools that are around the Top 30-40 in US News rankings (though of course I won’t use those rankings much for my - yet nonexistent - list)</p>
<p>I haven’t visited colleges yet.</p>
<p>This is so random but has anyone done anything really interesting so far? I feel like my ecs are so freaking bland.</p>
<p>^would you mind elaborating a bit?</p>