<p>It's not ridiculous to show colleges a list of all the courses that one did by him or herself. You must realize how competitive college admissions are these days and the sheer number of students taking an incredible amount of AP courses in and out of school (some even start taking APs in their freshman year!) Dedicating time to independent research is simply not enough to make yourself stand out among other researchers... you strive to be incredible in many aspects.</p>
<p>^^ okok, u have a good point (but i still think its best to take full advantage of the school, do extra curricular and get some sleep, you might just end up living a bit longer, lol)</p>
<p>lala56, I totally agreee with you; sleeping more will benefit our health in the long and short run, such as longevity and memory, respectively.</p>
<p>I think this whole issue brings up an important question: Can students in the future become more well-rounded and competitive than the kids are now? A normal human being is only short of "burning out" by taking tons of advanced courses, do hundreds of hours of community service, participate and lead multiple clubs and organizations, join sports teams, do some more extracirricular activities, and try to maintain a balanced and social life.</p>
<p>i don't think it's humanly possible to raise the bar even higher, the sad thing is, at my school because we're so competitive, students take the hardest classes possible and later resort to cheating to get through their rigorous course loads.. it's upsetting because there are still people like me who work they're butts off and sleep in the wee hours of the morning to get the excellent grades, and do the ec's and do the community service.. it got so bad a few years ago they managed to steal the ACT!.. it's so friggen sick!</p>
<p>I hear ya, nada07. But in the long run, you know who's going to get more out of learning.</p>
<p>true but it's hard to watch ppl take shortcuts to get to the top, while i'm not even top 10% and have a 4.08 (w), and thus will probably not get into my dream school</p>