<p>Okay guys. Here's the thing: I think, after first semester midyear reports come out, I stand absolutely no chance at any of the top colleges (HYP and Dartmouth) that I applied to. Even though I'm horrible at math, I took the hardest math class in school this year, AP Calculus BC, and I'm going to end the semester with a B on my midyear report. Coupled with 2 other B+'s I got in AP Calculus AB last year, my GPA is gonna end up around 3.94, which puts me outside the unweighted top 10% of my class by the tiniest margin, I think like .005. Though our school puts a weighted GPA on the transcript as well, they report percentiles for the class using unweighted GPA, which KILLS my chances at pretty much all my dream colleges.</p>
<p>I can't even explain how frustrated this makes me because I've always taken the hardest courseload possible, with 15 AP/IBs and at least 2 courses in summer school every single year. I've worked unbelievably hard. I suck at math but I've taken every math AP available, which is more than a lot of my smart math classmates have done. A lot of those kids with higher unweighted GPAs have only taken AP's in their strongest academic areas. As for me? I made myself miserable trying to do it all. The past three and a half years have been filled with blood and sweat and tears. All-nighters and almost unbearable stress. And all for what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.</p>
<p>I don't know. I hate that I'm so frustrated. I hate that college admissions has become a time full of stress and competition. I hate that all my Asian family friends' parents are going to look down on me as the one kid who couldn't get into an Ivy League, when I've taken more/harder classes than any of their kids. I hate that I can't even graduate with summa cum laude anymore. Most of all, I hate that my fun senior year has turned into a mess of frustration and stress.</p>
<p>I know this is more of a rant than a request for help, but if you have any advice...stories of success outside the Ivy League...immature jokes...anything...I could really use some reassurance right now.</p>
<p>I know it seems important but in the end it doesn’t matter as much as you think. I didn’t get into any of the schools I originally wanted to get into, but at the same time, I don’t think I liked them for the right reasons.</p>
<p>At least from what I can tell, your stats seem good enough that you’ll get into a good school regardless, don’t worry about some arbitrary distinction like the Ivy League.</p>
<p>There’s always graduate school too.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to chill and not become too fixated on a specific goal, since education/life is a continuous process; you don’t want to get burnt out just from getting into college. And by the same strain, you don’t want to work so hard in college that you get burnt out for post-college life, etc.</p>
<p>I am sad that instead of enjoying your high school years, and taking rigorous courses that you like, you are consumed with what “looks” good so that you will get into an “Ivy League school” – when you have given us no information that indicates that any of these HYP or D schools actually FIT you. Since my D and S have visited most of the Ivys and my D researched them in-depth, it is always shocking to me to hear of students who apply to HYP, D, Penn, etc. – several of them are indeed “similar” depending on certain majors, campus feelings, etc. – but all of them??</p>
<p>Many VHP colleges want to read an application that tells a cohesive story. Do the classes you take (one piece of the puzzle) fit in with your extracurriculars (puzzle piece #2) and do either fit in with your teacher recs (piece 3) and your guidance counselor rec (piece 4) – then add in your Common App essay (puzzle piece 5), does that somehow tie back in with any of the prior puzzle pieces?</p>
<p>If all you care about is whether or not you get into an Ivy League school – regardless of whether or not it is even the right fit for you – you may end up at a school for which you are very unhappy. </p>
<p>With regards to your B+s, slow down – many seniors who had straight As prior end up with one or more B+s mid-year, especially those who failed to realize the workload of taking more than 4 APs/IBs senior year on top of filling out college apps. I hope you filled out your "wish list of colleges’ with at least 3-4 schools that accept 25% or more and whose test scores were within your range, and 1-2 safety schools as well. And that each of these schools were ones that you could be happy at.</p>
<p>This is crazy talk… 99.9% of the people who are successful in their careers and lives did not go to Ivy leagues. You are in a bubble of people who think it is the be-all and end-all. And that .1% who got into Ivy league schools? They would have been just as successful if they had gone to a school a notch or two down the ladder. I hope you feel like you personally have gotten something out of your studies besides just a grade on a transcript. If not, you ought to think long and hard about what you want to spend your time in the next four years studying that is meaningful to you.</p>
<p>So here is the thing… you are now past your mid-year report exams, right? And your apps are all in, right? So NOW is a really good time to relax a little and enjoy the rest of your senior year. Don’t slack a lot (wouldn’t want to be rescinded from the colleges you get accepted to!), but ease up a little and enjoy some time with your friends.</p>
<p>By the way – my younger kid with a 3.7 GPA and no hook got into U of Chicago, Swarthmore, and Harvey Mudd last year. Being in the top 10% of your class is not an absolute requirement for top school admission. So you could still get into one of your reach schools (and they are reaches for everyone).</p>
<p>Here is the other thing. If you don’t get into a reach school, then go and excel at another school. My older kid decided to attend her safety because she really liked the school and got great merit aid. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and got a great job (via an alumni connection) after graduation. She has been promoted already (1 year in), and is being considered already for another promotion. Her great performance in college helped her get the job, but now that she is in it – no one cares where she went to college.</p>
<p>Your other posts indicate that you have been admitted to Michigan as a Michigan resident. Assuming Michigan is affordable, then you can stop stressing and just go there if you are not admitted anywhere else, or if you decide you like Michigan better than any other school you get admitted to.</p>
<p>“but if you have any advice…stories of success outside the Ivy League…”</p>
<p>Are you serious? You live in America - in the Midwest, even! - in the year 2014 - and you aren’t aware of anyone with any life success who didn’t go to an Ivy?</p>
<p>Try this. Open your phone book. Go to the listing of doctors and lawyers, the majority of who are living pleasant upper middle class lives. Very few went to Ivies.
Drive down the street of the nicest neighborhood you can find. Ditto. </p>
<p>Where did you get the notion that there is no success outside the Ivies?</p>
<p>And your parents’ friends’ opinions are meaningless.</p>
<p>“I suck at math but I’ve taken every math AP available, which is more than a lot of my smart math classmates have done. A lot of those kids with higher unweighted GPAs have only taken AP’s in their strongest academic areas. As for me? I made myself miserable trying to do it all. The past three and a half years have been filled with blood and sweat and tears. All-nighters and almost unbearable stress. And all for what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”</p>
<p>You seem to have thought that elite schools wanted a mold of something , and you diligently worked hard to prove to them you were in that mold. Learn from this - it’s better to spend time in things you love, and excel, versus trying to gut yourself through something that isn’t you.</p>
<p>The expectations have obviously been instilled in the OP for a long time by his/her family. And yes, they are stupid.</p>
<p>Go to Michigan and kick butt and become successful in life. That will be the payoff and the upside of this short-term “setback” (at least as you and your family perceive it).</p>
<p>Stay hopeful…fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Stay focused on what you can impact; there’s still transfer possibility if you are really not happy at whichever school you attend.</p>
<p>You have not shamed your parents or yourself.</p>
<p>You have honored them by taking the hardest math courses and the largest number of math and AP courses that you could.</p>
<p>Give your parents the chance to see that before you doubt them. They deserve that much from you.</p>
<p>If your parents or their friends cannot see that right away, you must learn to see it for yourself. Sometimes the child must await the wisdom of the parents.</p>
<p>Anyone who can get a B in AP calculus is not “horrible at math”. Not all your parents’ friends’ perfect children are likely to get into Ivy league schools either given how many 4.0 2300+ SAT applicants are rejected (and who cares if these silly people “look down” on you; what kind of terrible people do you know?).</p>
<p>What’s sad is that you are a senior in high school who apparently hasn’t learned anything you value over the past 4 years given that you seem to believe that the only point of high school is to get into a college in a particular northeastern athletic league. There are people who graduate from Ivy schools who are failures at life, you know (or maybe you don’t) those schools don’t have any special magic.</p>
<p>You absolutely need to get some perspective and stop being such a status-driven snob. You really are old enough to know better.</p>