<p>How do you know everything about MATHCounts if you've never participated?</p>
<p>Maybe the lower tiers of mathcounts, but I'd be very impressed if you could answer one question right on the national level.</p>
<p>As for thinking about college too early: who cares? In the summer of freshman year, I decided I wasn't going to slack off. Now I don't have to post "Is it ok if I had a bad freshman year?" threads because I had foresight and am now in a position people would kill to be in. There is nothing wrong with planning ahead a little bit, especially in the case of the OP, where he asks an innocent question and gets bombarded with "YOU'RE THINKING TOO EARLY!"</p>
<p>Arti, I definitely understand your point, but I think my point was that those who really belong at elite universities are those that don't have to tell themselves "i'm not gonna slack b/c i want to go to a great school", they are the kind who could not even imagine slacking in the first place.</p>
<p>Kids at elite universities aren't superheroes or something. Everyone is susceptible to procrastination. Just because you have to make a conscious decision to work hard doesn't mean you're not worthy.</p>
<p>I agree with Arti. In the case of ECs, it can be very hard to find your passion (be it volunteering, the arts, or whatever) if you don't go out and find it early. A lot of time all you need is the first burst of motivation to find something that you love. I don't think that people who sometimes need a nudge are second-class citizens and therefore don't "deserve" to go to the top schools.</p>
<p>cause we had "training" (old state level problems) for it to see who was better at math. I usually scored in the top 8, but I was not given one of the 8 spots in teh end since they said I may not have had the "proper training" since I was not in the "elite" math class cause I had just moved ot the district.</p>
<p>I see. At any rate, if you only finished in around the top 8 (maybe you got first all the time but you didn't mention it; in which case my point is invalid) either A: you were competing against amazing kids who, by your rationale, should have killed everyone or B: you didn't do quite so hot all the time, which means you probably shouldn't knock the difficulty.
I don't mean for this to come off as a personal attack, so please don't take too much offense.</p>