<p>You always hear that students who graduate number one in their class will eventually become doctors and CEOs. You always hear that good grades in high school determine what type of car you will drive in the future and what type of house you will live in.</p>
<p>On the other hand there are people who manage to go to average colleges, excel there and transfer or people who do poorly or average in high school but get their act together after high school and end up doing good in college. Eventually they go on to the top grad schools or transfer to respected universities.</p>
<p>You have people who are the best in high school but then when they get to college they burn out, they either end up flunking out or they just can't handle the work. </p>
<p>I have known people who did bad in high school (a friend of mines graduated with a 2.9), went to a regular tier 3 university and then transferred to a good school (friend transferred to Georgetown). One of my teachers wanted to encourage us so he showed us his report card from his days in school. He had all A's at the tough magnet school I attended (currently I am a college student) but at the end of the day he was living in his mom's house and driving a torn down pickup truck.</p>
<p>Anyways enough of me, I want to hear your opinions.</p>
<p>Academic excellence does not exist at high school! Getting A’s in HS is about memorization and regurgitation of doctrine not academic potential…</p>
<p>By the time we graduate from high school, we have accomplished nothing in our lives. Academic excellence in high school means nothing.</p>
<p>Academic excellence in high school only serves to build a starting point for higher education. Performing well in high school has almost no correlation to intelligence whatsoever.</p>
<p>A family friend of ours never got higher than a C all through high school. He got his stuff together…he’s now a professor working at a top 30 university. Moral: it’s not important.</p>
<p>Well here is my view on it.</p>
<p>Academic excellence in high school gives you a leg up on the competition because obviously someone who gets high grades and high SAT scores would end up at a good college like MIT or Harvard. It also gives you more opportunities but the problem is, our high schools are so different. I attended a difficult magnet school where A’s were tough to come by and I lived a rough life. </p>
<p>A lot of the C students at the magnet school I attended could have easily been A students at a lot of the regular public schools (one of them flunked out first semester and had to attend their zoned school, now they are an honor graduate at their zoned school). </p>
<p>Doing good in high school gets you into the good colleges but from there on it gets tougher and there are people who burn out when they get to college. </p>
<p>There is too much of a disparity when it comes to high school and not to mention the tough upbringing kids have.</p>
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<p>I would like to modify that to Moral: It’s not important, but it opens options far earlier for you than would be there otherwise.</p>
<p>I am a kid who graduated high school with about a 3.7 GPA. In college admissions I had a 3.5 as my GPA. </p>
<p>My SAT score was a 2190 (far below the one people on this site get). I had a lot of rough times in my life so my grades were not up there for Yale and Harvard (my dream schools). </p>
<p>I was accepted into some out of state schools but couldn’t afford to go because of the costs. </p>
<p>Currently I am a freshman at Armstrong Atlantic, I have a 4.0 GPA while two kids I know (valedictorians at their high schools) do not even have a 3.5 GPA. I look to transfer to Yale or Stanford but anyways it proves the disparity between high schools.</p>
<p>If you guys want, here is my full story, read it, I am sure it may entertain you guys.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/465387-success-stories-bad-hs-record-w-great-college-record-26.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/465387-success-stories-bad-hs-record-w-great-college-record-26.html</a></p>
<p>No. It can also mean that you are privileged, have time to care about grades and have a stable life in which grades are all you need to worry about. Plus who is to say that teachers don’t give you grades because they like you?</p>
<p>No, I think that there is a large disparity between high schools and the number of opportunities they can provide. Being successful in getting good grades does not guarantee you a place as a CEO of a fortune 500 company or a six figure job, as I said, it gives you a leg up.</p>
<p>Getting good grades is not even that tough at some schools, at some places you just do the work and there you have it, the good grades come.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>80% of Ivy applicants are qualified academically. Getting good grades and SAT scores is more of a prerequisite than an advantage for top school admissions.</p>
<p>"Getting good grades and SAT scores is more of a prerequisite than an advantage for top school admissions. "</p>
<p>Extra curriculars like joining the math team and winning championships and other things like volunteer work would count towards “academic excellence” in high school in my book because it is more so of a complete package.</p>
<p>Ooooo im scared, HSLMod sits behind a computer screen and bans people, he does not afraid of anything.</p>
<p>and I was being serious, I am scared of you </p>
<p><em>hides under table</em></p>
<p>You need to define what academic excellence is</p>
<p>I don’t think academic excellence in high school correlates too strongly with how successful you will be in life, but it really depends.</p>
<p>For example, the kids who screw around in high school, don’t take their classes seriously, show up to class high, and get straight F’s… yeah, you probably get the point… obviously, they’re not going to go anywhere in life, unless they start taking school seriously. </p>
<p>There are then those people who aren’t considered actually “intelligent” yet they spend every waking hour and minute studying to get straight A’s. I know several people like this and they may be really good at memorizing physics formulas, but when it comes to street smarts and common sense, they are completely lacking. So what are they going to do when they are thrust out into the “real world”? this is not meant to generalize anyone who works particularly hard in school, by the way. Just my observations.</p>
<p>I myself am an OK student who did well enough to get by in high school, but I am by no means pigeonholing myself into the “failure” category just because I’m not valedictorian or Harvard-bound. I know that I am smarter than what my GPA shows, and while it’s unfortunate that many of my friends see GPA as your true worth and merit in life, I know that there’s more to life than the grade you got in high school algebra II.</p>
<p>So, long story short, no, I don’t think that academic excellence means everything. There is more to a person than their grades.</p>
<p>Academic Excellence</p>
<ul>
<li>high GPA</li>
<li>good ECs</li>
<li>good high school resume</li>
<li>good test scores</li>
</ul>
<p>I say that academic excellence is certainly not the main factor that determines success. However, someone who makes poor grades, has a poor resume, has poor test scores, and does nothing is not likely to be successful unless he/she changes his/her attitude towards achieving goals. Academic excellence reflects ambition and hard work, but it’s the ambition, hard work, and risk-taking that determines success…or so I think.</p>
<p>I don’t feel like reading through all the comments, but to me, my reasons for being “academically excellent” is to be successful FOR MYSELF.</p>
<p>Intrinsic motivation FTW.</p>