@aspiringgirl They don’t do anything online except Chinese But thanks!
@sternyc I’m not sure if Personal Finance is something that’s just required by my school or by my state But I don’t even really know what it is to be honest. At my school you don’t technically need to have the prerequisites done for AP classes, but you have to fill out a waiver and stuff but my counselor still probably won’t let me do that. I just really hope they’re offering AP Art History next year because then it would look kind of bad to take an AP freshman year and not take one sophomore year :s
Is anyone else in a small, all girls religious private school? There are only 80 girls in the ninth grade and about 15 of us are super competitive with our grades. I am one of the only people with Ivy/ivy caliber ambitions. Generally, most students go to a CUNY school (with or without honors/macaulay), or Yeshiva University. While I would consider CUNY, especially if I get into Macaulay, I would not be a fit for YU. Is anyone else in a similar situation?
@bfpoodle123 So far for the colleges that I am for sure applying to I have
Stanford University (DREAM SCHOOL!!!)
Boston University
Oklahoma State University (State school has a program where you can go there for 3 years then go to the graduate school of osteopathic medicine)
University of Oklahoma (state school)
Vanderbilt University
Howard University
The Ivies!!!
Duke University
John Hopkins University
There is another huge list that I am also narrowing down, it’s too much to name.
and after that I am going to narrow down this list again.
Uh…as freshman with goals, most of us probably don’t go to your typical high school party(with alcohol, drugs, etc.). That doesn’t mean we don’t hang out with friends; we’re just more likely to do our homework/ECs first, and then hang out. We’re efficient with our coursework, so just because we’re the top in our school (by rigor or grades), doesn’t mean that we spend hours on homework.
In addition, we consider the challenge of hard classes to be fun, a heck of a lot more fun than a hangover. Most of us aren’t doing the most rigorous load our school offers because our parents want us to do it. We either have a burning desire to not be bored to death by simplicity, or we want to get into a really good college, or we might want to become valedictorian.
I have found out the amazing Financial Engineering program at Columbia SEAS. That is very useful, with the benefit of being analytic/economic/financial/mathematical. Plus, you get to take Chemistry courses! Now, my dream school. Any advice?
@HazedAndConfused I pretty much agree with @sternyc . Honestly, I like a challenge in school If it’s easy, where’s the fun? Also, I do hang out with friends a lot AT Extra Curriculars (band and debate stuff, mostly). But other than that, yes I hang out with my friends almost every weekend lol. We’re smart and we work hard, we’re not robots. And honestly, partying does not sound very fun… I mean I enjoy hanging out with a few friends, but I have no desire to go to a party with alcohol and drugs and whatever else! Plus, I’d just like to point out, very few freshmen go to parties whether they’re smart or not…
@HazedAndConfused I don’t mean to sound rude but if you have so much awesome partying to do what are you doing reading this thread? (don’t mean to sound confrontational but if your reading this it shows you have a large amount of ambition and you probably care quite a bit about your school work)
@HazedAndConfused Yeah, very few freshman are important enough to get into the junior/senior parties. Otherwise, the frosh-soph parties are just a group of friends getting together and watching Netflix.
There are definitely some people at my high school (competitive, high-Asian population, IB, SoCal school) who are practically robots. They would be the stereotypical piano and violin playing, tennis-playing, computer science/robotics nerds who have zero communication skills and will probably be very depressed when they realize that colleges don’t favor cookie-cutter Asians (no racism, I’m Asian myself), and that their fun-less, deprived teenager life has all gone to waste. But that’s not me. I love a bit of healthy competition (especially being a girl, and winning STEM stuff against the cookie-cutter boys), and yes, I do get disappointed if I lose a competition or something, but not depressed. My life is more focused on doing what I enjoy in order to get into college, and I’m nearly 100% sure that while communication skills are important, your ability to hang out, chill, and party, isn’t going to be judged by a college. The partying time, for me, would be in college, where I could study on weekdays, and socialize on weekends, and where a 4.0 UWGPA wouldn’t be absolutely necessary.
@bfpoodle123, ORM? What do you mean by that? EDIT: Just realized that that is over-represented minority.
Hmm…I have a very strong background (made the national olympiad this year) in math, which is unusual for a girl, definitely. I’m also planning on doing something in chemistry (some oly), along with personal investing that I do for fun. I don’t really have any “hooks” (typical Asian upper middle class girl from SoCal), but I’m planning on maybe entering some photography competitions as a sophomore. I also intern (I guess that’s what you call it, since I work under a professor) at UCLA Math Department, so maybe that? What about you?
ORM= over represented minority. I’m Jewish. I really don’t know how I’m going to make myself stand out. I know I have no chance at HYP and I’m barely thinking about them. I hope to be a physician and biology is (currently) my passion. I’m wasting this summer in sleepaway camp but the next two summers I will be working in labs. I’m also not a genius. I’m not saying this to get compliments or anything, it’s just the truth. I’m reasonably smart and I’m willing to work hard. I actually enjoy test prep so I hope my test scores will help me a lot.
The problem with that is that test scores only make you higher in rank in school, and make you NMS Finalist or whatever for the PSATs. It doesn’t get you into college.
I know that I probably have 0 chance at HYPSM unless I do really well in the MO that I’m currently on. If that works out, I’d have a chance at MIT and maybe Harvard, and that’d be it.
I have zero clue what to do over the summers. This summer, I’ve applied for some nearby leadership camp that’s pretty selective. I have no clue what to do over the next two summers, though. I’m planning on Engineering as my major, and then an MBA, and I have no clue what type of ECs show that I’d be good at Engineering.
Working in labs and maybe interning at a local pharmaceutical company might work for you, @bfpoodle123.
But thanks! 
But I don’t even really know what it is to be honest. At my school you don’t technically need to have the prerequisites done for AP classes, but you have to fill out a waiver and stuff but my counselor still probably won’t let me do that. I just really hope they’re offering AP Art History next year because then it would look kind of bad to take an AP freshman year and not take one sophomore year :s
If it’s easy, where’s the fun? Also, I do hang out with friends a lot AT Extra Curriculars (band and debate stuff, mostly). But other than that, yes I hang out with my friends almost every weekend lol. We’re smart and we work hard, we’re not robots.