@CaliMex I am replying to the OPs question and all that it infers–including the widespread gaming of the system from applicants calling themselves any URM they can get away with to the SAT debacle (clearly no one is buying tests for thousands to get into a SUNY)–as well as accommodations for school and tests and manipulating their coursework. Again–no one is doing this for average state U. Again–I am replying to the OPs question.
To address the original question–of course work hard, go see the teacher if you’re not getting the grade that corresponds to how much effort you’re putting in,and when you have a chance in the upper years to select classes, pick those that you love and have a significant interest in–your papers will show more curiosity, inquisitiveness and deeper thought if you truly are into the subject matter. To get prizes, I know that’s not the question, get to know your teachers REALLY well. They tend to pick students they like in addition to choosing those based on merit. They’re people after all and can’t help but be human, there’s some subjectivity to this.
^^ I would like to know how much prizes given by a school really matter precisely because teachers usually give them to students they like. And if you’re in line for a prize, you already have good grades. It feels good but is hardly an angle worth gaming.
@gardenstategal it becomes a geometric progression of sorts. to use a sports analogy, if you are the best kid on the 12yr lacrosse team, you play the most, you get on the best tournament teams, you get named captain and so on. At boarding schools the savvy precocious kids get named to dorm proctor, they say the right things to appeal to a teachers agenda or politics-they win prizes or get named captain of a team or president of a club–those kids hang around after class chatting up the teacher…its hard to prove you are a tier 1 lacrosse player if you are a late bloomer–its hard to prove you deserve an A if you dont have the confidence or social skills to play the game. The really smart kids are there but there are few that are truly exceptional–the rest is rife with this nonsense.
Aren’t captains and club presidents voted on by fellow teammates/students?
@doschicos I think club presidents maybe voted, but sports team captains are usually appointed.
Not at my kids’ BS school nor at our local public HS.
@doschicos no the coaches favorites are put up for it or they change selection time to ensure results that are predetermined
Not our experience either at 3 different private schools, 2 boarding, 1 day or at the school my niece attends. How would you “change the selection time”? They vote at practice. I’ve never heard of coaches nominating the kids. The kids vote for anyone they want. I’ve only heard of the coach selecting the captain once, and AFAICT it was because the captain had to do off-season work in preparation for the next year, before the varsity team had been selected. There are some sports where the captain is often a foregone conclusion, such as in squash, where the captain is commonly, but not always, the player at the top of the ladder.
This poll says 62.9% of coaches pick and 37.1% of coaches let the players vote.
But it is the coach who decides to pick or let the team vote. Considering general influence and control a sport coach has over his team, I doubt that the voting can be completely democratic.
At out BS, students choose captains. I was talking about prizes and ime, they are typically won by the kids who are the best at playing up the teacher, not necessarily those who are best in the subject. And they go to a kid who has a good grade, slready on the transcript, in the subject.
I was questioning whether an AO would attach much value to a prize at school. My sense is that they do not. A prize outside of school, yes, possibly.
In any case, getting a prize doesnt change where you stand visit a visit your BS peers.