<p>Hey,
I got senioritus...that's b/c I got into Caltech and MIT ED and now hanging waiting to hear from Stanford.</p>
<p>My parents think I'm a slug and threaten to send me to my financial safety rather than pay the big bucks at MIT or Caltech b/c they swear my slug-ness will spill over to my freshman year. They even suggested I get professional help-- said I have depression. I'm just bored and prefer to play video games and relax until I start college...what is wrong with that???</p>
<p>I'm pulling Bs now..and I even failed PE second quarter...HA HA HA...but thankfully it averages in and I will not need to repeat / make up the quarter...Guess I'll put on my shorts for now on...get a C then...</p>
<p>Seriously--- any advice...should it matter if I get good grades? Should I try to get rid of my affliction!<br>
I had straight As first quarter when ED mattered...straight Bs (except Calc-- A+) in second quarter ...and hope to pull off Bs for the year so I don't risk being rescinded.....no Cs yet...but it is TEMPTING to do nothing. None of these schools are going to give me AP credit anyways-- so that's pointless too...I enjoy my AP classes...the other classes required to graduate are painfull.... I still have my ECs...but once home...I have no interest is stupid HS homework and assignments.</p>
<p>So for those of you at MIT, Caltech, and the like....did you have senioritus and are now fine as a freshman?</p>
<p>How did you get your parents to back off...</p>
<p>Yes, your work ethic could very well spill over into next year. You sound similar to my nephew, who had senioritis; he was more interested in his video games. His university even threatened to rescind his acceptance, but he pulled his act together enough to attend. He floundered in college, and was eventually thrown out as a 5th year senior due to his poor GPA. You need to cultivate self-discipline now, and keep working at it, because there will be plenty of excuses you can find when you’re in college to do something other than apply yourself to the hours of work you have in front of you. I completely agree with your parents. Why should they waste tens of thousands of dollars, like my brother did?</p>
<p>I could, like you, offer anecdata to support my point. After all, two students in my small graduating class of 203 students had their acceptances rescinded due to poor scores. But I’d much rather provide evidence that is at least a little bit harder:</p>
<p>Yes, it is very hard to get your acceptance rescinded. Warning letters are far more common. But I’d rather not lull prefrosh into a false sense of security by saying, “colleges do NOT rescind acceptances”.</p>
<p>Dude, you got into MIT and Caltech EA. Lots of people who DON’T feel like slacking off senior semester would kill to get into MIT or Caltech. Stop complaining.</p>
<p>What sort of student are you, really? I imagine MIT and CalTech admitted you because they believed you to be smart/creative/hardworking, the sort of individual whose work is often excellent because you are genuinely interested in learning and motivated to do your best. But maybe this isn’t you. What have you been working for, or who have you been working for, all along? Your parents? To impress your peers? And if your earlier academic achievement hasn’t resulted from a serious internal drive of yours, what makes you think you’d be happy at a place like MIT or Caltech?</p>
<p>Personally, I think these questions are more interesting than the simple: “Will my admission be rescinded?”</p>
<p>Well I’ll have to chip in here, because my personal experience says one can have been very uninterested in class throughout high school, but enjoy attending lecture at a school strong in the technical fields. When I was in high school some years ago, I worked hard to get A’s across the board, but I can guarantee that it wasn’t out of interest in a majority of the cases. Whereas in college, I have found so many lectures an incredible pleasure to go to, because there is so much to select from. </p>
<p>The reason I worked to maintain high grades back in the day is that it’s a staple most good schools require one to have, probably largely as a sanity check. But by the end of senior year, I was flatly ignoring most classes and just reading math books. I think what’s worrying is that the OP insists on video games and is not doing so much of the reading cool stuff part, not that (s)he doesn’t care about failing classes ;)</p>
<p>So I’d figure out something interesting to do and do the bare minimum to stay afloat and out of danger in terms of class, if that’s what makes you happy.</p>
<p>I completely agree with calalum, your attitude is clearly not where it should be and not what these universities thought it was. You have a great opportunity to learn more that the half of the world living underneath the poverty line would kill to have and you are to lazy to do your “stupid HS homework?” IMO it sounds like if you go to one of these schools this attitude will come with you, and you will only be wasting a spot that someone else could have used to do good. If i were you, I would have a good think about what I want in life</p>
<p>Sorry, but working is not the same as learning, and there’s a difference between learning because you have to and actually learning to contribute to something bigger than yourself, and I’m pretty sure the latter is closer to what the great schools look for. </p>
<p>I think the concern is justified because the individual seems flatly not working at all, but don’t quite agree with the precise reasons. I mean, sure, taking it easy is fine, but appearing to have no concern to do something stimulating is not great.</p>
I disagree. Work ethic is completely self-imposed - If you recognize the need to do work (graduate college with a high GPA and thus have better chances at top grad schools) then there are no boundaries when it comes to work ethic. If you recognize that there are no real benefits to working hard in the second half of senior year, you can limit your work ethic. Would these thousands of kids who have the work ethic to make it into the Ivy League have the same work ethic if the college admissions process suddenly became quite literally a lottery system?</p>
<p>Let me clarify…I play lots of video games AND I read lots of physics and math for fun…plus watch the MIT shareware lectures. I am still involved in all my ECs – FIRST Robotics, coaching youth sports, playing an instrument…it’s when I get home…I really don’t want to sit down to 4-5 hours of homework every night anymore.</p>
<p>I got 2 Bs and 2 As…that’s my senioritis …and was commenting that if I did little of the homework I might pull a C the next quarter…and said so what…
I was actually more alarmed by my parents’ reaction- -they don’t see me doing homework 4-5 hours a night anymore and think there’s something wrong with me…</p>
<p>I just wanted to know what’s wrong with not pulling straight As. I’m not a total slug…my parents think so b/c I don’t study all the time anymore…</p>
<p>Reality- I’m probably too scared to get a “C”…never had one…cannot imagine how that might feel. But it would be easy to sit in class, take tests, and not ever do what is IMHO a useless coloring exercise…posters with book reports, colorful history time lines, economic posters… creativity is in my programming, in reading physics, in solving math problems (which I do in math team)…but not in coloring…</p>
<p>The only class I failed was PE-- I had no time to make up all the missed classes and the teacher didn’t take too kindly… big deal…no GPA impact…and no one will ever see the F anyways - it’s not on my mid year transcript…I just thought it was pretty funny.</p>
<p>Slacker-- no not at all…just not doing my coloring homework …
senioritusyep is online now</p>
<p>Then you’re doing fine, and I think you should just watch yourself for sanity’s sake in case some school gets hard-nosed about your total lack of caring for your official transcript grades :)</p>
<p>Everyone worries about grades to an extent for college, but there are more meaningful things to stay stimulated, and I think you’re doing the right thing, aside from being a little lax about school given you don’t want trouble!</p>
<p>There’s nothing pathological about slacking off 2nd semester senior year. And it doesn’t mean you’re not truly interested in science. People who put themselves under a lot of pressure take breaks sometimes.</p>
<p>Colleges won’t rescind for B’s. I don’t know about Caltech, although I’m sure they won’t care about B’s in non-science/math classes. You’d have to ask someone from Caltech if they would care about B’s in math/science.</p>
<p>It’s untrue that colleges do not rescind. Most of the time, though, the colleges that rescind are big state universities. But don’t get "C"s or lower.</p>
<p>Irregardless of rescinding, I suggest you raise your science grades to A-level, if you are getting B’s there. It will help you when you are taking classes next year, which will be much harder. Also, you don’t know what is going to happen freshman year. You may have a crazy roommate, etc., or the college transition may be hard for other reasons. You want to be as prepared as you can in terms of math and science classes going into freshman year.</p>