High School Student Wondering About the Future

I am new to this website, but I am a high school freshman, and I want to be very prepared for college and my upcoming years. I took 7th grade math in 6th grade, then bumped up a math grade over summer. I then took Algebra 1 in 7th grade, Geometry in 8th, and am currently finishing up Algebra 2 in 9th grade. Over these years I have really been trying to get good grades, and up until this year it was easy. I had gotten above 95% in every class in middle and elementary school, but now I have one B in my AP World History/Geography, and have a couple 92 percents.

My GPA this year has been 4.5 so far for both semesters, and one of my friend’s is a 4.6. But, then another friend of mine is taking two languages, and one is honors, which bumps her up to a 4.8. I have wanted to do something about this, because I want to get into a good college and maybe even be valedictorian. I was thinking about taking online classes over summers or taking night school junior or senior year to up my GPA. None of my friends help, because practically my whole friend group is going after valedictorian, and we are all planning on being in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program.

I had slacked off a little bit this year, but promise to improve and give it my all the next 3 years and beyond. Based off of my username, I have an interest in being a neurologist or a neurosurgeon, but I want to make sure I can get there. My counselor seems to think this is a good choice (but sadly doesn’t seem too invested in my future, she is a little intimidating to be honest), but then again my friends want to be doctors too. I was just looking for some advice from the perspectives of college students or other people who have maybe been in my place on what I should do. To be blunt, I am not going to give up the IB program and valedictorian aspiration, I just want to know the best route there so that I can get it :slight_smile:

You’re still a freshman, so you still have a bit of time. When I was your age I quickly became obsessed with becoming the “perfect” student with valedictorian honors to go to some highly selected university.

Then I realized how stupid this was, and completely out this site out of my mind. This site is nice for discussions, but it allows a lot of people to quickly become obsessed with “chances” or thinking checking off some boxes will you get you into an Ivy League.

My advice is to absolutely do your best in school, but don’t forget to live. Find stuff that you’re interested in and get involved. Being valedictorian is nice, but gauge the amount of time it will take, versus being involved in some clubs. I will 95% guarantee that a university will value a strong list of extracurriculars vs being number 1 in your class.

Once again, you’re still a freshman so I reccomend you come back near the end of your junior year. Don’t fall into the trap of obsession with college confidential :p. Good luck, I’m speaking from experience here so hopefully you’ll take that into consideration haha.

Thank you! It’s nice to get a good perspective :slight_smile: