<p>“You completely understood the assignment given to you and went above and beyond what was expected but I’m not going to give you a 100 because I don’t believe that anyone is perfect”</p>
<p>I’ll list the most frustrating things about my high school (won’t apply to everyone):</p>
<p>-Not allowed to have my phone on me at any point while I’m in school, including before school and after school. This results in two detentions and demerits if caught.
-No water allowed all day, except during lunch
-Not allowed to go anywhere except the cafeteria during lunch
-No girls at my school
-Have to wear a blazer, tie, dress shirt, slacks, dress socks, dress shoes, and a belt every single day
-Some of the teachers turn the AC on during the winter because they want us to “stay awake”
-Completely incompetent guidance department despite paying for an elite “private school”
-Not allowed to choose ANY part of my schedule. I placed out of math and Spanish so they are a year accelerated, but those are the only classes you’re allowed to accelerate in. No APs are offered, but my classes are still tough with the amount of work my teachers give. Unfortunately, all of the courses are designed around completely different curricula so there’s almost no carryover between my courses and the SAT2s or the AP exams, even though my classes are just as tough as almost any AP class.
-Not allowed to go to the bathroom at all during the school day, except for lunch.
-Random busy work assignments with ridiculous rules (hand-write an outline for this entire chapter of the textbook due tomorrow, etc.).
-Have to miss time during the school week for required private music lessons.
-Exams that are unreasonably long (150 scantron questions and two 5 paragraph essays in 90 minutes for one of my most recent exams)</p>
<p>I’m sure I could come up with other ridiculous rules and procedures at my school that are annoying as hell, but that’s a start. I think high school in general has everything backwards. You spend all day sitting and taking notes, and then they expect us to stay awake and be energetic and participate. The environment isn’t really conducive to that and it actually causes the opposite.</p>
<p>@livelaugh7, well, home schooling is not for everyone. For me it was/is good - what I needed intensive learning in was math, and my mother was an incredible teacher in that. English I could pick up mainly on my own with good resources. I’m just saying that there are some positive things about it. Glad you got something good out of your years in public school.</p>
<p>I went to a small private school (<365 students in total, grades 9 through 12)</p>
<ol>
<li>Low budget. The bathrooms, ceilings, and other similar school facilities could have used better maintenance.</li>
<li>Busy work. If I remember correctly, Geography and Algebra were simply worksheet after worksheet.</li>
<li>Party culture.</li>
</ol>
<p>@albert69 Yeah. It’s good that your mom is a good teacher. I think the fact that my mom only speaks Arabic and is weak in English wouldn’t have really worked out well…</p>
<p>@livelaugh7, that’s awesome, you must have had some good experience with a different language there, while I’m sitting here plodding through boring Spanish. Anyways, interesting thread. </p>
<p>@albert69 Honestly, it makes learning english and spanish such a pain! They are my worst subjects.</p>
<p>@livelaugh7 I guess they wouldn’t offer Arabic at most high schools, but if you took it at a college or something as a foreign language, it might give you an edge and make you look unique. I mean, it’s like sooooo many people probably take Spanish as a foreign language that it’s hardly exciting. (Yeah, I know I’m doing it, but that’s because it’s not as hard as other languages and I’m only doing it because I have to take a language in high school.) </p>
<p>@albert69 Thats a great idea! I might actually do that 
</p>
<p>One thing that bothers me is how much all the well-doers in high school have to berate and talk crap about all the other kids who dont do as well as them. We get it, you are sooo smart and perfect and amazing. Right. No. Get over yourself. If anything, keep up your self-praise but do it in a way where you aren’t having to sh*t on other students who werent as motivated or as fortunate as you to achieve a 4.5 gpa and a 2350 SAT score. And to the people who complain about “stupid” people who get good GPAs: seriously? Must every person with a below-average test score have a GPA which reflects it, and vice versa? Jesus christ im sorry but get over yourself. So many people dont realize how fortunate they are to have had the resources and the home environment to have encouraged and motivated them to do so well in school-dont assume people dont do well in school merely because they are too lazy or inconsiderate to. There are so many factors, even just growing up in a household in which delayed gratification was not instilled can be the difference in a student doing well or badly in school. I am SO sick of all my classmates at school who think this way–just focus on your own achievements.</p>
<p>I went to very “elite”, small private school and the worst part was the social hierarchy and the number of social climbers there were. And yes, of course I was the dork. -_-</p>
<p>The most frustrating thing is probably that all the brilliant kids at my school get a 96 in an AP class and say they’re failing. They go to the teacher and ask for a drop test. I would die for a 96 in AP Bio!</p>
<p>I am just using 96 as an example, but anything below a 100 and they freak out. I’m good with anything in the 90s!</p>
<p>@Qwerty568 people in your school look down on UMASS Amherst? You must have really crappy classmates, then.</p>
<p>@lbad96 People looked down on our Salutatorian for choosing Tufts last year…When I told people that Rice was my top choice, a lot of them told me I should aim higher. it’s ridiculous. To be fair, though, my high school is in MA, so UMass is seen differently here than in the rest of the East Coast.</p>
<p>@Qwerty568 That’s ridiculous (about Rice and Tufts). Rice has the same acceptance rate as Cornell. </p>
<p>@Qwerty568 your high school’s location doesn’t excuse your classmates being such horrible snobs.</p>
<p>@lbad96 my classmates think UC Riverside, UC Merced, and UC Santa Cruz (along with most CSUs, including Long Beach) are bad schools. It happens at high-achieving high schools, especially ones where a lot of people get into highly selective schools every year. </p>
<p>@topaz1116 my high school is fairly high-achieving; we’re top thirty in the nation according to Newsweek. But even then, no one makes fun of other people’s schools unless it’s either the local community college or a lower-ranked in-state public.</p>
<p>I wish it were cooler to care about academics at my school. On the other hand, there was a huge furor when class rank was released, which I don’t really care about.</p>
<p>I also wish that my (relative) academic success in high school were not solely attributed to my Chinese heritage. 
</p>
<p>The SAT!! It was a bunch of nonsense!! </p>