<p>Here is a situation. There are people at my school who are in the top 10% of my class who don’t deserve it. They have cheated their way to senior year earning themselves a high rank and GPA… One of them is applying to Cornell and I pray that she gets screwed if she goes there because she doesn’t deserve an acceptance letter to any college.</p>
<p>There are people like that at my school also, but what good does it do you to wish ill upon them? Their cheating butts won’t be able to handle that studious atmosphere there or possibly after that, if they cheat in a profession after college it will be like an ENRON situation. Essentially, that acceptance letter is doing more than any ill you could wish on them because they will end up kicking themselves in the end because they cheated their way through high school and you will be golden in the end if you just worry about yourself and do the best that YOU can because in the end that’s all that’s going to matter. Why worry about someone else’s situation when it doesn’t affect you directly? I completely understand your frustration and I feel it too, but I just wanted to share what I have learned this year.</p>
<p>i’m mad that it appears my school counselors seem to do everything in their power to mess us up (by us i mean me and everyone else in the honors program in my school) for college. here’s the different ways that they do it:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>they fired the only person in our school who was actively helping us for college. he was in our school and worked for this organization that helped disadvantaged students prepare for college. he was taking us on FREE college trips, letting us know about really good programs, and giving us free stuff(paid for by the organization he worked for) like laptops, graphing calculators, books to prepare for state standardized tests and the SAT . this man helped us more than our high school counselors. and after all of this, my school fires him and replaces him with this lady who hasn’t even met with us yet and it’s almost December (the other guy would have met with us from September).</p></li>
<li><p>they discourage us from doing sports and other EC’s (besides NHS) just because we’re in an honors program and have to keep our grades up. it’s like they don’t know that colleges don’t want to get the idea that we just work our butts off in school, then go to one club, go home and stare at the wall for the rest of the day. I still joined other EC’s - i don’t care about what they have to say at this point.</p></li>
<li><p>They force us into these stupid, pointless programs/classes. For example: writing. are they serious? and i didn’t even learn anything new in the class (nothing against the teacher, he was a cool guy). it was all just a ploy to keep us in school longer. they won’t even help us for college and get in the way of EC’s that mean more to us than these stupid classes. and then they have the AUDACITY to tell us otherwise, and we would be foolish/wasting time to not take them. it’s a waste of time taking them now! because of this, i have to take some of my required classes in senior year when I could have been done with them now. I could be taking more challenging and interesting classes by then. And I stay in school much longer than I should, which got in the way of the sport I played and enjoyed (i couldn’t even play in many games). </p></li>
</ol>
<p>because of my school counselors, i feel i’ll be at a severe disadvantage when competing with other students (esp. on this site) next year at top schools. this is exactly why i’m glad to have more freedom in choosing my classes in senior year and i won’t listen to them when they talk to me about more “good” classes or programs for me. i’m making my schedule challenging, but more open to sports and my current EC’s no matter what they tell me.</p>
<p>wow, this was one hell of a rant, but i’m glad i can get this off my chest.</p>
<p>Please, please, give me a chance.</p>
<p>I know how very unrefined my essays are; too bad I’ve already sent 'em so there’s nothing I can do. I know they sound colloquial. I can, by the way, string complex sentences, but if college want to see the real ‘me’, then let them see ‘me’!</p>
<p>This girl claims she got into Yale. Lies! Yale doesn’t release decisions until mid-December; I checked the website. Also, she takes no AP or Honors classes, has an SAT score of 1390. I highly suspect she is lying, but I somehow cannot help but feel jealous and vindictive.</p>
<p>^ You can get a “likely letter” from the Ivy’s in October which is essentially an admission so you can theoretically “get into Yale” well before the December admit date. This is most commonly seen with recruited athletes but some exceptional other individuals get likely letters too.</p>
<p>That being the case, people lie all the time about the admissions they got but chose to turn down. I have seen it at my kids’ high school even said by Ivy attending students. We interviewing alums typically know the number of kids admitted (if not the names) from each school. Don’t feel jealous unless she actually matriculates to Yale (if even then), just feel sorry for her.</p>
<p>My Latin teacher who I loved throughout highschool just gave me an 85… There goes 4 years worth of work and any possibility at getting into HYPSM</p>
<p>I hate how I tried relatively hard (okay, maybe not so much), am extremely intelligent, and still ended up in the second decile. I hate how a 2320 on the SAT puts me solely in the top 15 scorers in my grade (out of 580), and how a 4.35 GPA puts me well out of the top 10% despite taking 11 APs in my high school career. I hate how it’s likely I’ll get rejected from even my matches because super-qualified peers are applying to the same schools and even though my statistics (except for rank) are well above the colleges’ averages, they’ll compare me to my classmates.
…</p>
<p>@Stevenf Sorry, it must be very frustrating. With your stats at my school, you will be at the very top of the class. A 4.0 GPA at my school cuts the top 10% (I attend a large public school, btw). Still, based on your SAT scores, GPA, and course-load, you are a very strong candidate for any school.</p>
<p>I hate how my rank is really good (1/45), but because it is a private school they feel the need to deflate grades. Essentially the social sciences are graded on a 90point scale instead of a 100 pt scale. So despite all my efforts I have a 93/100 gpa, and a 85 in AP Latin right now.</p>
<p>Even coupled with 2250 SAT/ 2400 SATII, I’ll probably get rejected by HYPSMC…</p>
<p>@Sheep: Well, I got mostly As and I’m looking at a tier even lower and don’t think I’ll get in…</p>
<p>Honestly guys though whats the point?</p>
<p>Work your ass off for 4 years for a <i>chance</i> at attending an ivy league school (what does that even mean?)! Then work your ass off for another 4+ years depending on your major. If your engineer or pre-med you can bet college will be a grind. And for what?</p>
<p>We are going to eventually join the work force and work 50 hour weeks. I say who cares!?!?</p>
<p>For everyone who is feeling overwhelmed with this college pressure, consider this. Alan Watts is one of my favorite philosophers: [Music</a> and Life - Alan Watts - YouTube](<a href=“Music and Life - Alan Watts - YouTube”>Music and Life - Alan Watts - YouTube)</p>
<p>From an adult’s perspective, most of this thread is pretty funny - all your HS angst will soon be gone and forgotten, don’t worry.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, this post is scary accurate for many of us:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
He said perfect scores and grades. How many people have a 4.0, 2400, 800s on all their Subject tests, and 5s on all their APs? Probably not many, and if they raised the number of required tests that number would go down even more. I’m not saying that this is how admissions should be, but there aren’t many people with 2400s in the first place, and when you add the other stuff it’s probably less than 200 people in the nation.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is really unfortunate. Luckily, in the essay or Additional information sections, you can certainly convey all of this and they will definitely pay attention to it.</p>
<p>i hate schools that do that!! my school was debating on whether or not to do that. Thank goodnesss they didnt</p>
<p>Current Annoyances:
-People with good SAT scores feeling entitled to get into HYPSM. I’m sorry but there are more to people than how well they score on standardized testing…Just because you have awesome SAT scores doesn’t mean you’re a fantastic person or applicant.
-People who say that the SAT should not be studied for. I studied since taking my PSAT as a junior and increased by over 300 points. Are you saying I’m not naturally intelligent? The SAT is like a game that simply just needs to be learned. Not everyone has had the same academic preparation as you have…
-People who complain about not growing up in a rich family. Wow, get over it. I’m sorry but go work with homeless children all day and learn to appreciate what you have. Sure you weren’t born into a wealthy, well known family but I doubt you’re working two part time jobs trying to support your family. </p>
<p>On the bright side, I dont usually experience very many of the annoyances you guys listed. No one at my school even bothers aiming for HYPMS anyway so I never have those discussions hahaha</p>
<p>Mine is part annoyance but also rather funny.</p>
<p>A bunch of kids in my class (we’re now halfway through Junior year) just came to the realization that for the past 2.5 years they’ve been sitting around playing video games, doing recreational drugs, and generally nothing. So they’ve come up with the genius idea to join every club the school offers, to wow colleges with their diverse ECs. I’m quite amused at this point, but if it works I’ll REALLY have something to vent about. Colleges see right through this, don’t they?</p>
<p>@HSClassof2013</p>
<p>Of course. Colleges don’t want to see a long list of random extra curricular activities. Unless you have a prominent leadership role on the activity, it’s almost pointless to list it on the application (unless you have nothing else to put but then you’re really in trouble). Its much better to have one particular activity with lots of commitment and leadership than a bunch of random ones.</p>
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</p>
<p>I partially disagree. If you don’t have “leadership” but have been doing something for a long time and are passionate about it, it is good to put it on your app. Not every EC lends itself to leadership.</p>
<p>Joining thousands of clubs for 2 years, even if they become president of 10 of them, is not going to help them much, and will probably hurt them since colleges will indeed see right through them trying to inflate their apps.</p>