<p>Thank you hmom05! That was exactly the type of reply that I was hoping for.</p>
<p>I will get right on retaking the SAT, I’ve always enjoyed tests like it so that’s not much of a problem.</p>
<p>I think you may be right about the year abroad, I hadn’t fully realized that there really are a ton of students nationwide that can fluently speak Chinese, so it isn’t as much of a competing edge as I had hoped. I also will probably be able to have more interesting study abroad and internship opportunities from a university like Cornell, Brown, UPenn, or Columbia.</p>
<p>As far as Economic/Business related research goes, do you have any advice on how to first get involved in that as a freshman? I of course will go out and do my own legwork to find out where/how to begin, but any experience you may have through your son’s involvement is probably helpful if you’re willing to share it =).</p>
<p>Overall it sounds like I need to really apply myself intensively to my Economics, Finance, Accounting, and Math classes then? Because it seems like in that lies the route to proving myself capable of research positions and creating close ties with my professors in those fields.</p>
<p>Most importantly, thank you for the affirmation that it IS worth it, I feel like everywhere I look there are people saying that pushing oneself hard to achieve great things is the wrong thing to do for a variety of reasons, while it has been a challenge to find people who believe in simple hard work. But I guess everybody has different goals and dreams in life =).</p>
<p>Thank you again for the insight, and if you (hmom05) or anybody else has anything else to share please do! It helps a lot to see the subject from another’s point of view.</p>