<p>with all due respect, i think you could have perhaps added one more category...entitled: "The entire system".</p>
<p>i don't want to change anything about myself. my abilities and character are what they are. i just wish i could have lived my high school years to the fullest, instead of living for what i thought the colleges wanted me to achieve. my generation has evolved into nothing more than a bunch of "college admissions pleasers." </p>
<p>i think A.P. classes should be wiped off the face of the earth. i think more colleges should be built to accomodate how many students are applying. i think they should completely re-vamp admissions standards. how about a lottery system? colleges should have all kinds of us students, with a range of abilities. i mean, that's the way the world is. you don't get hired in a company that just has brainiacs. there should be no more homework on the weekends, holildays, and summers. way too much pressure.</p>
<p>I regret not participating at presitigious competitions for science/math. I didnt take AIME -_-, or put much effort in science olympiad, or get SemiFinalist for Siemen Westinghouse.. and now i want to go to MIT but i doubt grades/scores cuts it.</p>
<p>The truth about the whole system is such that we dont have much of a choice about their selection process. Colleges look for the most prestigious, best applicants if they can afford to. Therefore to go the top, you have to be the best. Too bad about the whole system tho, but thats the way it is. :P</p>
<p>Mighty - you're wrong. We do have a choice. We could all do better than we do.</p>
<p>I personally know I could have done better in my classes and done more EC's - but I didn't. Instead, I chose to blow off classes I didn't like (History, English, Language) and didn't do EC's outside of my sport, because I lacked time and liked to just relax way too much.</p>
<p>In retrospect, this has killed me. I could have been better, more prestigious, but I chose not to be. It's always a choice.</p>
<p>However, I think the least legit thing to change is SAT scores. Everyone wants to raise theirs, but, for everyone, there is a limit. You can prepare for it as much as you want, but the SAT, unlike HS classes, relies MUCH more on inate intelligence.</p>
<p>"[...] the SAT, unlike HS classes, relies MUCH more on innate[sic] intelligence."</p>
<p>I don't think so. Getting a good score on the SAT, just like it is with any other standardized test, just takes time and effort. The "innate intelligence" merely determines from which rung you would have to climb the score ladder. The courses you take, however, are much more related to how prepared you are for them. How well you absorb new material and how fast are the major factors in determining your grades. Unless, of course, you take EASY courses.</p>
<p>Haa... My SAT scores. More ECs. I mean, I was happy with my ECs but if I learned about the opportunities I know now as a freshman, I could've done better. More well-rounded.</p>
<p>The classes that I took. I should have challenged my school's authorities when they told me I couldn't take an advanced class, even though I was qualified to. I'm so glad I'm leaving that school.</p>
<p>Definately my ECs. I'm just a junior, and havent taken my SAT or SATIIs yet so I don't know if I'm going to want to change those, but I'm pretty sure that the thing I will regret the most is not having done any extra curriculars. I'm not too social and kind of lazy.. lol. And going into high school I wasn't too informed and didn't know that they were so important. :-(</p>
<p>I would change my foreign language preparation because everything else is really good and only lang stops me from getting to the dream destination.</p>
<p>Looking at this really made me examine the way we've all come to look at our high school years. My SAT scores were a little lower than I would have liked, I got 4 B's, I was in 6 EC's, I played no sports. Everyone told me that senior year I should have signed up for calculus and physics, for transcipt sake, but I'm taking AP Euro and Newspaper III, instead. I won't sacrifice classes I love for classes I hate, nor did I spend every spare moment of free-time Junior year studying for SATs. I'm doing all right though, and I have no regrets. I've read a lot of what people have written on this forum; you're impressive, smart, talented, the "ideal" students, but in such competition as that which we create for ourselves, we lose sight of the fact that we can't do it all. And while we all could have taken that harder class or joined that extra math club that we were disinterested in, it's not our job to be perfect, but only to be human.</p>