Hey, so I almost seem to be a misfit on this fourm. I come from a high school of around 1,400 students in the middle of Chicago. Unlike many on CC, it almost maddens me that my classmates seem not to care about college/future. Our school’s average ACT is an 18.5(I scored a 29 with a superscore of 32), with 86% of kids in need of financial aid. Although I must admit, it does feel nice to be class rank 1, but I feel like I have no one to talk to(student wise) about potential “life goals.” I’m afraid to bring it up too often with my friends because many either scored low on the ACT or have low grades. This is why I often find myself on this site. Ironically enough, CC makes me feel like the non prepared student :/. By no means am I trying to make a point that I’m in any means better than students at my school, but I’m curious as to see if anyone else is in this situation.
CC is pretty extremist as far as college prep/applications go. It’s not unusual to see posts from 7th graders like “I’m in AP calculus and working on curing cancer in a lab, but what else do I need on my app to be competitive for Ivies?” So take just about everything you read here with a grain of salt.
That being said, you might be a little preoccupied with all of it. There’s no reason to repeatedly bring up standardized testing among your group of friends you know don’t perform well or don’t care. Why not talk to a GC, parent, or teacher if you’re just bursting at the seams?
Good on you for performing well and having drive, but it shouldn’t bother you that peers in a public high school don’t necessarily put college admissions/school work at the core of their focus.
Most people follow the path of least resistance, whatever that means for them. Kids on this website tend to be affluent and have parents who encourage them to think about college admissions.
Our situation seems quite the same. I also go to school in Chicago with an average ACT of 19. While I am only a rising sophomore, I do feel unprepared due to there not being much variety of 10th year classes in my school, or opportunities where I could stick out from the rest of my peers. Personally, I only have one friend as eager to chat with me about colleges, scholorships, good EC’s to take next year etc… however I’m sure you can find others like you by going out of your way to join out of school programs, or as Novafan said, confide with teachers, counselors.
This place is not normal at all. Of course people people here care about school. They actively sought out a place online to talk about it.