With all of my personal responses, I took a really creative angle and wrote some really unique essays… Except for one essay, where I resorted to the traditional “race/ethnicity essay” and got rejected from the schools that I sent it to. If I could change one thing about my application, I would have steered completely clear of the common topics all together. Best of luck to all you future applicants!
I would’ve never taken an AP science course…
i will study harder
I don’t have a say in this as much as many of you college freshmen, but I will say this:
I already wrote 60% of all my supplementary essays and it is still July. I intent on clicking that submit button and being satisfied with who I am and what I’ve accomplished. I’ll be blasting music and reminding myself that the past four years WILL get me into the place best suited for me. I’ll be satisfied with what I get, and I’ll be satisfied with who I am.
Sure, my dream is Princeton, and sure my chances there are practically 0%, but I’m trying my best. My GPA is fine (3.97 UW), and I need to polish my ACT score up a few points (currently a 32), but I won’t stress myself for a college any more than needed. I’m applying to a lot of schools, and the only stress for me right now is just finishing the essays.
After that, I’m gonna breeze through my senior year and enjoy the ride. You Only Go Through HS Once!
Applying to schools starting next weekend (YIKES I SAID IT…THE COMMON APP IS COMING OUT 2016!)…
Overall I am happy with everything from my 3 years of HS. I took on a bunch of leadership roles, had 2 jobs, officer positions in clubs, awesome GPA. But I wish my Critical Reading score was as high as Math & Writing, although I realized there wasn’t much else I could do.
If I could do one thing I would have filled in that last bubble I knew the answer to on my first SAT in the reading section and gotten myself 10 more points :’)
Good luck everyone!
Over three years of high school, I have amassed very solid grades (don’t think I could have done any better), hard course rigor (almost as hard as willing to go), decent extracurriculars (ones that I was passionate about and did as much as I could without screwing with my academics) and very good leadership (captaincy, vice president, and founder of a club). If I could change one thing, I would want to have completed more volunteer service and have held a summer internship for a couple of years. A higher SAT score wouldn’t hurt either. Overall, though, I just wished I hadn’t stressed so much about this.
My grades… 2.5 gpa because family issues.
If it was just ONE thing, I’d say my GPA. I wish, like most high school students at the end of their high school career, that I had tried harder. To just make that B+ an A-, or that one grade into something else. My unweighted GPA isn’t terrible but it’s low for the schools I want to get into, so that blows. Hopefully other parts of my app like test scores and ECs will make up for it, but I realize the transcript is so important.
Other smaller things would probably be doing more things over the summer, like internships or prestigious programs or at least a good paid job. Maybe more writing awards. But overall, yeah, that GPA doe… stay motivated kids
Investing more time in my extracurriculars
Worked harder during freshman and sophomore years
well absolutely nothing. In fact, when I come to think of it, I think people come to identify me with my app details. u see, I cant change my identity. I don’t want to, in any case. if they accept me, it shud be the way I am. hell no, i wudnt change anything. anything.
My SAT socres, espicially critical reading
gpa. 3.6 UW, hopefully 3.63 by the end of this semester. But nothing I can do now, so I’m not gonna stress.
My son should have taken more APs!
I REALLY regret not making high grades and not having a rigorous curriculum (AP, IB, etc)
I wouldn’t apply to so many schools. My parents were pretty adamant about me applying to a whole bunch of top-tier schools and programs. I’m going to end up applying to almost 15 colleges, which is a lot for me because a lot of the schools have separate applications for specific programs and scholarships. So, overall, I will end up completing somewhere around 20-25 applications, including special programs and scholarships. If I could go back, I would pick my top 5 colleges and only apply to those.
I regret not doing more community service and ECs.
class rank.
Studying harder for my ACT/SAT examinations. I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking, but I definitely could have done better if I took the time to sit down and do a couple of practice questions. Bummer, but what can 'ya do? I won’t hide the fact that I’m a little disappointed in myself, but overall, I’m happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish.
I would have liked to prepped more for the SAT and ACT as my test scores were not as high as they could have been. I would have also taken AP classes in subjects I like rather than just taking them since they are AP. Finally, I would have liked to have one more letter of recommendation. But thankfully I am going to a great college 