<p>Why would you as a parent ever advise your child to less than their best? As a parent of a high achieving daughter in her 2nd year of a top 25 college and an underachieving junior in high school, the only thing I ever ask of my son is to try his best. If after doing his best he chooses to go the CC and state flagship route so be it. Sounds like economically it’s in YOUR best interest for him to follow that path. And that is fine, if the economic realities are laid out clearly for your son.</p>
<p>It is not worth it if he only does all the work and activities because he wants to go to a particular college. If he enjoys the classes and activities and is learning from them - go for it. If that helps him get into a college also - fine.</p>
<p>I am generally one of CC’s strongest advocates for the less-selective state school route, but using that approach as a rationale for achieving less than his best in H.S. would do him a disservice once he gets to university. Academic preparation and personal discipline will in large part determine his success in postsecondary education, and the time to develop those competencies is now.</p>
<p>That being said:
If he is spending 6.5 hrs/day in class plus 4.5 hrs/day studying at home, that works out to 11 hrs/day on schoolwork (or 55 hrs/wk). That is too much time for this schedule. He needs to take a look at his study habits - work smarter, not harder.</p>
<p>This is the beginning of sophomore year. You’ve got time to worry about college.</p>
<p>If he’s doing this because he wants to get into Harvard, then I’d worry about burnout. If he’s doing it because he loves the challenge, then I wouldn’t worry about burnout.</p>
<p>As intparent said there are a lot of options between Harvard and CC. There are many, many schools beyond the top 20 where smart, motivated kids will be challenged in classes with other smart motivated kids. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily change his schedule, but I’d try to dial back the college pressure.</p>
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<p>There is a lot of truth in Mini’s answer, although I believe that qualifying his (or her) cryptic answer might be yield a few surprises. </p>
<p>My take is that “all” the work in high school is NOT worth doing it. Actually, a lot of the work that presents itself is not worth spending anytime on it. Example? The panoply of silly clubs plenty of students join or, even worse, start. And especially in the last two years. Depending on the sports, some high school sports are not worth the time and effort, if (and that is a big if) the same sport is played at a higher level outside the school. Example of this would be soccer and baseball in Texas. Participation in varsity teams does not add much to the “select” soccer scene in terms of recruiting. Obviously, this is different in other regions and other sports. </p>
<p>Regarding the work, one has to learn to be selective, and avoid huge time sinks. Certain classes do NOT reward spending a lot of time, and there is little difference between a 99 and a 95. The key is also to develop a great organization. For instance, athletes do usually well in balancing their activities as they have learned to follow strict timeslots, and avoid wasting time. </p>
<p>And, most importantly, many err in spending too much time on perfecting the high school pedigree and not enough on the standardized tests such as the PSAT and SAT. A perfect GPA will never undo the negative impact of a low SAT or ACT, safe and except in states that use a HS rank as the sole yardstick for admissions (such as Texas.)</p>
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<p>However, lower test scores are more easily fixed at the later stages of the game (late junior or early senior year) through test-specific studying and retaking, while lower GPA (as in <3.5 when applying for the most selective colleges, <3.0 for moderately selective colleges – NOT “oh no, I got one B so my GPA is only 3.94”) is not as easily fixable.</p>
<p>A lot of the work in high school isn’t worth it. And the truth is you can get into a top 20 school without taking every AP your high school offers, or participating in every sport or doing a kajillion hours of community service. You need good enough grades (say top 2-5% in a typical public school), excellent scores (xiggi is right on the mark there, but they don’t have to be perfect - both my kids had writing scores under 700), and some interesting activities done at a pretty high level.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids did any sports at all. Both got state level medals at Science Olympiad, a fairly time consuming activity from about October to March, but not so much after that. They both only did community service summer before senior year, except for some not too time consuming projects related to their interests. Younger son was in two orchestra all four years. Older son spent hours every day playing with computers (sometimes for pay and sometimes as a volunteer helping scientists and sometimes just for fun.) Younger son parlayed a hobby of making origami into a small business selling at a local gallery. Neither took AP English. Only younger son took AP World, and only older son took AP Chem. They both took APUSH, AP Bio, AP Calc BC, and AP Physics BC. Younger son had a boatload of B’s (Latin, Chemistry) and just missed top 5%.</p>
<p>With that record older son got into Harvard and Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. Younger son into U of Chicago, Tufts and Vassar. They got 8 hours of sleep every night and played way too many video games.</p>
<p>My answer would be definitely yes, and my other answer would be the over-riding goal should definitely not be getting into a “great school”. That’s a recipe for disaster and heartbreak. My kids worked very hard, had great stats, were rejected by some “elite” schools, got into some fantastic schools and graduated at the top of the class at their college. Point is if they put the work in now and truly are intellectually curious they are going to be very well prepared for whatever school they get into and I am sure will be very successful.</p>
<p>I might change sm74 wording (but not her meaning) just a bit. Your goal should not be just to get into a “top ranked” highly selective school. There are a lot of great schools. Doing work that your proud of and being successful create rewards that go beyond being accepted into …University. They give you self confidence, opportunities for scholarships, and choices. Is it worth it to do your best. Always.</p>
<p>I’m also going to go with yes, it’s absolutely worth it.</p>
<p>The work ethic developed now will make the transition to college level courses easier. Learning to be ‘lazy’ and take it easy now may be a habit that’s hard to break when it’s necessary to handle a college work load.</p>
<p>Being in the most challenging courses now will make the transition to college level courses easier. Taking an easy high school curriculum may lead to being unprepared for college level courses (many colleges indicate that high school students are coming in unprepared for the courses).</p>
<p>Being high achieving may not be a guaranteed doorway to an elite school (and let your son know that Harvard rejects some students with perfect grades and test scores every year), but can lead to merit scholarships at very competitive schools.</p>
<p>The AP courses now may equate to completed courses at college which can amount to tuition saved, lighter courseloads, or an opportunity to take elective courses for enjoyment.</p>
<p>Unless he seems to be struggling, there’s no reason to discourage what he’s doing.</p>
<p>However, the point some have made is to use one’s time and effort effectively.</p>
<p>Putting time and effort into getting top end grades, top end test scores, and an extracurricular that results in a high level of recognized achievement is generally considered worthwhile, as long as the student is not overwhelmed.</p>
<p>But some other uses of time and effort can be of dubious value (unless the student actually enjoys them a lot), or negative value if they reduce the time available for more worthwhile things, or things that the student would just rather do. For example:</p>
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<li>Extracurriculars where one does not have much chance of a high level of recognized achievement (e.g. third-string bench player on a high school sports team that is the local league doormat).</li>
<li>Self-studying “AP lite” tests that are unlikely to give useful subject credit or placement in college.</li>
<li>Joining a lot of clubs that do not really do much.</li>
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<p>I guess that depends on how you are defining “worth it.” My D was the worst swimmer on a doormat HS swim teams. She did it because she enjoyed it, but in addition she learned a lot about all those things sports teams are supposed to teach you–teamwork, time management, sportsmanship. She also got a very nice college essay out of it. Despite the fact that she had no “recognized achievement” (not even most improved player), it was a great experience and in her eyes, definitely “worth it.”</p>
<p>Ucb I agree with you. There are a lot of good reasons to take on new challenges and work hard but the reason I would most definitely not agree with is to get into Harvard. If you work hard and pursue your passions you will get into a mighty fine school and you will stand out.</p>
<p>I learned shorthand in high school. Definitely not worth it.</p>
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<p>It was worth it for her because she enjoyed it. But if she did not enjoy it to the level of wanting to be there most or all of the time, but were just doing it purely for the purpose of helping her college applications, it would have been a lot of time and effort for relatively little gain in her college chances (she could have instead spent the time perhaps playing a sport that she liked more).</p>
<p>(Yes, this has implications for the tiger parents who insist on specific extracurriculars even though the student may be much more self-motivated in other extracurriculars.)</p>
<p>If your son is getting to bed at 10:30, he’s doing far better than the top kids at our high school, who seldom can hit the sack before 12:30 AM and are often up even later. His schedule sounds just fine to me.</p>
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<p>Ah, but had there been AP Shorthand–that would have been another story entirely.</p>
<p>I learned to use a slide rule in HS. That was worth it for a while. Then it wasn’t.</p>
<p>I think you hit the nail on the head. When he was younger (even up until last year as a freshman) school came to him so easy that I figured pushing him a little bit was not a bad thing. Now that he is really in the mix of things, I guess I am just not used to actually seeing MY kid having to work hard. I think your post is insightful of how people change over time. It’s funny because at the same time I am seeing the changes in my son’s study habits and worrying about it, I am telling his fellow classmates how hard they have to work. I don’t know, maybe I am just caught up in the moment or maybe I am nuts lol. Thanks for your post</p>
<p>Btw, he says he loves doing all the work, he finds it challenging.</p>
<p>If he likes the academic challenges and enjoys the sport and any other extracurriculars, let him continue.</p>
<p>However, you should assess what you can contribute to his college and tell him what you will contribute before he makes his college application list, so that he can make a college application list that will be suitable financially.</p>
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<p>I also learned shorthand in high school. I considered it the most worthwhile class I ever took.</p>