@HappyFace2018 stats were extremely low. I haven’t even started college yet. A lot of things have happened so I had no choice but to take a gap year.
It’s already been said by some posts but start studying for the ACT or SAT early!!! At least sophomore year and sooner if you can stand it. Take advantage of having the luxury of time. Read, and keep reading. Anything you can get your hands on. It all helps.
I would have been more relaxed about my D’s decision to NOT apply ED (and buck the “trend”) because she couldn’t make up her mind. She landed in exactly the right place that wasn’t really on her radar screen in the fall with a fantastic financial package. And she’s happy and doing well.
I would only apply to my ED school and save a ton of stress and money.
I would improve my extracirriculars. All of my objective stats are very good, and I don’t think my extracurriculars are bad at all, but not on the same level as a lot of top peers’.
25 hours a week? That is damned impressive.
I wouldn’t have applied applied to MIT EA; rather, I would’ve applied to Yale SCEA. Also, I would’ve started this whole process with a better game plan (participating in USAMO instead of USNCO, etc)
I would have bribed my son to make honor roll and study harder earlier than senior year. It wouldn’t have changed the college he went to, but it might have increased his merit aid.
It’s not listed, but…
I wish I made better friends…I feel into a really bad group, and they made me feel academically “safe”, as in “Oh, you got a B? That amazing, you’re so smart, I wish I got a B, I got a D+ lolololol”…They weren’t “bad” people, but remember there were instances where they would be happy if I failed a test because it was “proof that she’s normal”, as they would say. I never wanted to just be normal…and I didn’t realize the damage I had done until I met a new group of people…people who pushed me to be better, to aim for that A, and to not be happy and settle with a B.
So maybe that would fit into GPA…but honestly, it’s more than the number. I wish I could have spent four years with these friends…not the old group.
chemist76: Community colleges have their definite benefits but also drawbacks. I was an apathetic student in HS (though I think bright (I ultimately attended graduate school and received a doctoral fellowship)). I was an unmotivated B+ student through the end of junior year (not bad, I realize), but when I didn’t get accepted into the U. of IL Urbana/Champaign, all the wind went out of my sails, and I quite literally bombed senior year.
Thus, CC was the right option for me. I actually attended immediately after HS but dropped out by Thanksgiving (and had the F’s to prove it! (I didn’t officially withdraw from classes)). I worked for two years in retail, and when I realized how important college was, I went back. I maintained a 3.7 GPA at the CC, found my major (English), had two professors write amazing letters of recs, and even though I still applied to UIUC, it was no longer my dream choice; I instead transferred to an in-state CTCL school. None of that would have happened if the CC hadn’t provided me with the time and space (and the ability to save money) so that I could attend college when I was ready to be successful. My family had almost no history of attending college, so I was on my own.
The downside, of course, is that CCs can be depressing places to attend school, and I went to a pretty well-ranked one in the Chicago suburbs. There’s zero school spirit, as CCs are by definition commuter schools. Class quality also varies wildly. The English department at my CC was very solid, providing me with the experience I needed to handle such classes at not just the 4-year level, but at the 4-year private LAC level. But other courses? Yikes! I know this can be said of many colleges/universities, but it’s much more of a mixed bag at CCs.
That said, to answer this thread’s original question, I would have been a more serious student in high school. I am realistic. I know that no amount of devoted study or devoted test prep would have made me an Ivy candidate. I’m okay with that. But to take a shot at Northwestern as my reach, Macalaster or Whitman as my matches, and perhaps my own alma mater (which I’m quite proud of, so it’s not an issue of truly wanting to do things over) as my safety, well, that would have made the college application process more enjoyable (hectic, but enjoyable). I missed out on that. I didn’t have the traditional college search process. In HS I applied to UIUC and nowhere else. As a transfer student, I applied to two CTCL schools (these were my top choices) and two large public universities. Oh, that’s the other positive of CCs. It is so much easier to gain admission as a transfer student, and one doesn’t need a super-high GPA either.
Extra curriculars, I would have wanted to show that I actually have initiative for my passions instead of just thinking about them.
Taking more AP classes.
Not gotten any B’s freshman and sophomore year, really could have been avoided with a little more effort but at the time I thought it was fine. Also, maybe not loaded up on the AP’s junior year because I spread myself thin and instead of doing amazing in a few AP’s, I did decently in many AP’s and got a lot of B’s junior year. If I had taken even one or two less AP’s, I probably could have gotten straight A’s.
I would have remained in student government class instead of trying to be valedictorian.
Although it makes me sound like a bad person, I would have volunteered less and done a math based club or something. I tried to volunteer because I was actually passionate about helping out my area, so much so that I even started a 501© but I am starting to realize colleges don’t care about that that much
I wished I could have found a way to help my child re-create the group of friends he had at his old school – they made it cool to be smart. Social influence was a bigger factor than school rigor in determining my child’s success as a student. Parents: choose high schools with this in mind.
I was a bright but apathetic student in HS, so I would have taken classes more seriously. Oddly, though, I am quite happy with where I went to college (a CTCL school), so I would not have been a stronger student in order to get into a “better” school (read: more highly “ranked”). No, I would have been a more serious student simply for learning’s sake.
i would have done way more baller ECs… for real, from my town EVERYONE DOES SPORTs so I just devoted all my time to sports, which I don’t care about AT ALL… I didn’t actually find out that not all high schoolers are 3 sport athletes until i came on here and saw ppl who had lab research, published works, start-up companies and stuff. Like damn, if I was from an urban area and knew these impressive opportunities and achievements were even possible I would’ve learned so much more (and strengthened my apps)
@PragmaticMom ,
So true, a social aspect of a high school plays important role in a child’s developmental stage than some adults would give it a credit to. A friend of mine move to a new town so his kid could attend a new school. At the old school, his kid hung out with friends who made the kid felt that being smart was not cool. He started to dumb in down to fit in. So the move was made. He is happier in a new, much smaller school with peers like him.
Cared less about grades and class rank and focused more on developing healthy friendships/relationships with my class.