The “dumb” part was posting the docs, which I deleted. Your future self may thank me since everything is forever once posted on the internet. The site is called College Confidential for a reason.
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as a not-too-dumb rising senior: yea IQ tests do look nice on paper but it’s been proven that there are multiple kinds of intelligence and IQ tests… you know… don’t really prove much. you’re a freshman. nice to see you’re concerned about the future but GO LIVE YOUR LIFE. you’re 13? 14? please it will not hurt for you to wait a year or two and then get gray hairs worrying about this kind of stuff.
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thanks. I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic. ur right.
I’m glad you’re doing the piano because you love it. Then it is totally worth pursuing even if it doesn’t tie in specifically with your intended major later on, because it will just make your life richer. About anxiousness (but from the parent side), I was a total wreck back in the fall, thinking my kid wouldn’t get in anywhere because she hadn’t done anything/connected with teachers during the pandemic (she isn’t due to attend college until 2023). We’re not even talking T20 schools; I wasn’t sure she’d get in a T150, and I just felt desperate to know she’d get into any school I’d heard of and thought was midly respectable. Since October I have done three things to try to chill out, and I’ll say that only one of them really worked. 1. I hired a private college counselor; this was not so much for her or to game the system to get into a ‘better’ school as it was for me to hear some tell me that she’d get accepted SOMEWHERE, even if that’s just our local state university (which would, in fact, take her; she’s a good student). 2. Did a ton of online reseach on websites for individual colleges, plus big sites like Niche (eventually ending up here on CC, lol; this is the most entertaining). 3. Read a bunch of books, the best of which were “Who Gets In And Why” by Jeffrey Selingo and “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be” by Frank Bruni. Reading those books was the best thing I did, and far cheaper than the private college counselor (especially if you check them out for free from your library), so that’s what I’d advise you to do. They may help put things in persepctive and ease the anxiety a bit so that you can enjoy your HS years. Good luck!
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Either you didn’t read the post from MIT before asking that question or you need to go re-read it!
Love this- it is the single best, most ‘real’ thing you have posted so far.
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Hi!
I’m also interested in coding and do USACO as a fun side activity. Another EC to consider is creating your own app. Going through the process and having my own product on the app store was one of the most rewarding and exciting things I have done in high school.
Also, you might enjoy taking advanced courses at a local community college in addition to what you do in high school; for this, taking advanced courses early on in your high school career really helps. I was able to knock out APs in calculus, physics, and computer science in my freshman and sophomore years, which allowed me to take college courses in these areas as a junior (all of which were infinitely more interesting than my high school classes, even though I struggled a bit in Optics and Data Structures lol).
In short, do ECs and courses that you really enjoy. You’ll be getting two birds with one stone: you’ll get a lot out of it for yourself, and it will also look good for colleges.
Best,
MITHopeful22
I was going to post a link to the MIT “applying sideways” blog until I saw that @collegemom3717 had already posted it. You should read it and take it seriously. It describes pretty much exactly the approach that I used that got me into MIT for my undergrad. I did nothing at all for the purpose of getting into MIT. I did what I wanted to do because I wanted to do it, and therefore did it well.
Keep your grades up. Take every class seriously. Participate in the ECs that you want to participate in and do each of them well. Remember that “leadership” is specifically NOT about getting your way. Leadership is about making an activity better for everyone who participates in it and for everyone who is impacted by it. Leadership almost always also involves listening because the sum total of everyone who participates in an activity always have more good ideas (and more bad ideas) than any one specific person.
Admittedly this approach got me into top universities (one for my bachelor’s, a different one for my master’s) many decades ago. However, it also got a daughter into a great graduate program to start this coming September. Therefore the approach does seem to still work. Also, if you do what you want to do, then even if you do not get into MIT or Stanford you still will have done what you wanted to do, and you still will be able to attend a very good university that is a good fit for you.
I have had the good luck to work with a few people who are genius level. None of them ever mention it. They focus on what they are trying to get accomplished. You can let your accomplishments speak for themselves.
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I wouldn’t count on making USAMO. You are likely to make AIME, but making USA(J)MO is very difficult. I know many smart (DYS) kids who never made USA(J)MO despite being really good in math and making AIME when they were in the middle school.
Have a look at the AoPS competition boards and see for yourself how much math those who don’t make USAMO know. IQ and talent will take you only that far.
If you are really serious about USA(J)MO, then explore the AoPS competition classes as well as their regular classes (intermediate algebra, probability, and number theory are all very useful for a competitive math). You will also notice that there are AMC12 classes, AIME classes, and then WOOT for those who score well on AIME. It’s a steep hill to climb and making USAMO isn’t something you can count on.
As for USACO, making USACO Silver is quite easy. Getting to the Gold level is also doable though it requires some work.
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