<p>Peachykween: two thoughts. First of all, it sounds like you're involved in a few things that most people consider leisure activities (sports and music), that you look on as work rather than leisure. If you are enjoying them then they are great activities, but if you aren't having fun doing them anymore, then you might consider either changing the way you approach them (consciously starting to think of them as fun hobbies again rather than mandatory college-application material), or let them go. </p>
<p>Second, there are scads of colleges across the country that would be happy to have you whether or not you drive yourself to physical exhaustion over your high school grades - and once you enroll at one of them, no one will ever ask what your high school grades were. Remember that you can twist yourself into a knot trying to keep up in all your classes and outside activities, and still get rejected by your university of choice. </p>
<p>More importantly, though: what is it, specifically, about UPenn's program that makes it worth becoming miserable for? Digital media is a very, very, very common college offering; you can find this kind of program at every institution from Harvard down to the local technical college. Many of my friends are illustrators/graphic designers/animators/etc., and the programs they're always talking about are Full Sail, CalArts, RISD (for a strong art focus rather than computer focus), and occasionally Colorado. I have never heard the University of Pennsylvania program mentioned. </p>
<p>If you can take a rigorous extracurricular/academic schedule and succeed in it, that's great - but don't imagine that this path is your only option. If you do stay in all these activities now, at least promise yourself that you will have some fun once you get to college.</p>
<p>i have the same problem as the OP. I'm taking AP Lit, AP CalcBC, AP Chem, AP Euro (online, in addition to HS), College Colonial History (online, in addition to HS), Theatre 4, an Independent Study course in Theatre and Film, & Theatre Production 3.</p>
<p>My reading comprehension is terrible now because i never sleep and dont eat much... I get exercise (I figure skate, in the spring varsity crew starts again) but I also dont have a lot of time in the afternoon as I'm very involved in theatre/film.</p>
<p>I want to drop AP CalcBC b/c my grade is slipping to the low-80's (a C+ at my school... never even gotten a B in a core class before!) ... (I took AP CalcAB last year and got an A... the only reason I'm doing BC this is year is for Harvard & Columbia!)</p>
<p>Anyways enough about me. Haha. Just wanted to let you know I totally sympathize and that I think a lot of people are feeling this way... especially with college apps...</p>
<p>And everyone who is just telling the OP to "suck it up" needs to lay off. You dont go to her school and you dont know how hard her courses really are.</p>
<p>All the advice I can give is, (from personal experience this year), is that lately I've been trying to do my HW in different places... like usually i lock myself in my computer room... but now instead of sitting in front of Microsoft word for 55643234 hours I sit up in my bed and write in a notebook and then type it up, its better than looking at a screen all day - this also helps with the eye strain i'm getting from reading so much haha ... when its not bad weather i sit somewhere quiet outside... or sometimes i go to a bookstore or coffee shop and listen to orchestral music as i work to tune out any noisy people around...</p>
<p>Thats all the input i have, as I'm trying not to fall apart myself..and am also open to advice to dealing with this!</p>
<p>you should be able to write an essay at around 2-3pgs/hour
i can write a 10-15pg paper (which i have had 6 of this year) in about 4 hours.</p>
<p>stop whining and learn that studying for a test for 4 hours is pointless.</p>
<p>if you need to study for 4 hours then obviously youre not understanding the material in class...which then begs the question if you should even be in the class in the first place.</p>
<p>oh, and if you want to say how your schedule is worse than mine
my schedule: AP Biology, AP English, AP French, AP Calc BC, AP Government, AP Economics, AP Art and varsity basketball.</p>
<p>thats a little harsh however whenever i study for more than 1 hour the stuff becomes jumbled and overdone. 12 hours for an 86 is a little bad. ill bet you would have gotten like a 90+ if you had gone like 1-2 hours tops.</p>
<p>peachykween--- dont listen to the overachieving douchebags on this site. many of the people here are either antisocial psychos who do work and only work, robots, lying/severely exaggerating, or their classes could be much easier than yours (of course there are also normal people so dont get defensive everyone).
i know what you mean. you have a really full courseload. and i also understand how it takes forever to finish things like essays. i procrastinate a ton (hence my ridiculous post-count), and have ADD, so i usually end up spending hours and hours and hours on 3 page papers... and i'm going to be an english/creative writing major! also, as far as the stress, when you just feel like you are going to break down (and sometimes do!) i felt the same way at the beginning of this year (i had like a breakdown at one point that involved me just screaming and kicking things.. but lets not talk about that) but the stress level dropped significantly after 1st term, sincei applied early. youre a senior right? you're going to get into college soooon... just remember IT WILL ALL BE OVER SOON!! good luck! and dont listen to the meanies!</p>
<p>listening to the meanies is the only thing that keeps someone stable and grounded.</p>
<p>if youre constantly surrounded by people cheering you and sugar coating things, your reality is going to become distorted, which will only worsen your outlook in the long run.</p>
<p>i hope you've been taking the advice! you really shouldn't study that much, it's bad for you, not to sound like your mom or anything!
I'm in all IB classes, and I have a ton of ECs that take up a lot of my time, but I'm a realllly bad procrastinator and i have ADD, just like hilary, it's soo hard for me to concentrate. so i usually don't start my homework until really late and I get almost no sleep, it's really bad! but I know that although I am really careful about school, I want to spend time with my friends, so I go out with them because I know that's more important to me than an A vs. A-. Plus it's impossible for me to concentrate on the weekend before like 4 pm sunday, haha.
I have a friend who kind of reminds me of your situation, she takes pretty hard classes and TOTALLY stresses out over them. she has no ECs and sometimes doesn't do assignments because she's so "overwhelmed", i actually don't know what she's doing half the time! i think she's going to regret looking back on senior year, when she spent all her time studying for a bio test instead of going to a party or something. i mean, I know I'm not the smartest CCer here, but I never think back on studying with fondness.
Ok, sorry I've just gone off on this total tangent, I'm soooo tired, I had a history IA due yesterday and a math IA due today!! And I have to work from 8 am-6 tomorrow, it's going to suck!
But I think you should really consider your priorities and ease up on your studying: You obviously don't like staying up so late, I think even if you drop to a B in a class, the colleges won't hold it against you AND your life will improve sooo much!
sorry for my really random post!</p>
<p>Ok bobobob is right, I don't know why you guys are trying make everything less worse than it really is. The poster is spending wwaaayyyy too much time on only 3 AP classes! Imagine what it's going to be like with a full college workload. Think realistically to whether you can handle an even bigger workload once you get into college and try to learn ways you can adapt. I mean 5 hours for a 2 paged essay? That's too much. In college you're gonna have to hammer out even longer ones several times a week. I'm sorry for being so pessimistic, but that's reality. You have to learn more efficient study habits otherwise universities like UPenn will be hell for you.</p>
<p>i really suck at time management, so i used to devise a plan for homework. maybe it could work for some of you (though i highly doubt it; worth a try at least).</p>
<p>x course 4:00 - 4:30
x course 4:30 - 5:30
x course 5:30 - 6:30
x course 7:00 - 9:00
x course 9:00 - 11:00</p>
<p>i put the longer assignments at the end because i could spend more time on it. i know this seems like some stringent puritanical routine, but it was quite effective. of course, this worked for me only during freshman year. didn<code>t really work out in sophomore year (i would go overtime, haha), and as for junior year, this plan is a failure... so far (hasn</code>t worked for me).</p>
<p>I'm back.
Thanks to everyone who has offered their "ideas" for preventing my stress-death. Yesterday I totally just chilled out. I mean, completely. It was wonderful. Well actually, it was right after a 6 hour regional audition experience, but nevertheless, yesterday was a good day.</p>
<p>maryceleste - Closeness is a huge huge thing for me. As well as a university setting. A lot of schools have really cool artsy programs but they're art schools...and a lot of schools have digital media things but they're far away. Penn is 20 minutes away, I fell in love with the campus, and it offers what I want. Last year I had the mentality that I had a good chance of getting in. Then I came to CC. :)</p>
<p>bobbobbob - is the 24075th poster to post these exact remarks, and I don't feel like defending myself AGAIN.</p>
<p>Or maybe I will.</p>
<p>Recap:
1) "I have 2058 AP classes and I get 21830 hours of sleep"
Comparing classes between schools is pointless if you have no idea. Exhibit A - my friend who, in 10th grade, was accepted into Columbia University's advanced writing program - has gotten Cs on papers in our AP english this year. Of course he still has the highest average in the class.
2) "You obviously can't handle it if you're studying for 4-12 hours" - Please refer to the fact that I studied for so long (in AP Chemistry) to understand/LEARN the material due to the fact that I was so far behind from my soccer season. In AP Calc, the tests are insanely tricky.
3) "5 hours for two pages? I took 5 hours for my doctoral dissertation!" - Yeah, I still don't understand how one could ever write so much in so little time. I'm talking about analyzing the topic, brainstorming, outlining, writing it, and rewriting it. The hard part isn't the idea...it's the structure, the linearity, and much much more that I'm too exhausted to type. That's what takes so long.
4) "It's her own fault, nyaaa!!" - I completely agree! And many others in my school are taking more AP classes! But I managed to just take all of the hardest ones. I could easily take AP Government, AP History, AP Biology (the teacher is much easier), and AP....well there's nothing else I could take...but those classes are much more catered to the wellfare of students, if you know what I mean. But I hate AP history/govt and I couldn't fit Bio.
5) "Stop complaining!!" - I was asking for TIME MANAGEMENT help from people like you who aren't completely frazzled (it's too late to tell me I'm too dumb for this all. I can't drop classes anymore). This isn't a blog. Thankfully, most of you were very helpful.</p>
<p>i don't want to be mean, but there are different types of "smart" people:</p>
<p>1) those who study their little buttocks off in attempts to get good grades- tons of those in every school
2) those who are innately smart and only need to study a little in the same classes as category #1
3) good guessers and lucky people and anyone else is lumped into this category</p>
<p>i think we've found ourselves some #1s.</p>
<p>seriously, relax a bit. try to just write an essay without all that prewriting junk. let the words flow from your fingertips onto the page the natural way. try to wean yourself off of studying superhard for the tests and just wing one to really assess how well you can do. sure you might get a few Bs as a result of that "experimentation", but it seems like you're not getting the grades you expect out that much work anyways.</p>
<p>as for time management, just chill a bit and let your intuition do some thinking.</p>
<p>Big physics test tomorrow. I studied on wednesday night because the test was initially thursday, then he postponed it to friday, which was then a snow day. I haven't studied since and I didn't study that much then.</p>
<p>If I get lower than an 85, which would then be a C, I'm screwing this entire thread to hell. Besides, half of ya'll have already made me feel like I have an IQ of 7. Why not corroborate it with a crappy physics grade.</p>
<p>My family has been a farming family since they were in Sicily. No one is a scientist or a lawyer or a mathematician or a CEO, and my parent's SAT scores may not have broken 1000. I'm used to working my ass off for things and I'm going to keep doing it.</p>
<p>Okay, I apologize. A bit of an angry moment there. I know I should just learn to manage my time/not care so much. It's just been so long since I've allowed myself to let go...I'm almost afraid.</p>