<p>And I have had real life experiences with people like that. Just last year a kid from the same university I attend was accepted into MIT as a transfer student, he too had the average high school record. Now by average I don't mean F or D, I mean GPAs ranging from 3.0-3.5</p>
<p>Of course on college confidential it is common to see students with GPAs of 3.8s and above and SAT scores of 2200 and above. I want to put the spotlight on the average kid. </p>
<p>Do you think that a kid who graduates with an average high school GPA will miss out on opportunities in college in the long run and as a result of his high school mess up, miss out on some of the top grad programs even if he turns it around in college?</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Top high school grades open doors, but you have to want to walk through those doors. Willingness to work hard, getting along well with different types of people, and a strong sense of self are also important. If you belong at MIT and you are admitted, terrific. If you belong at MIT and you aren’t admitted and go instead to RPI or another school, you can and probably will do just as “well” in life overall. You’ll have missed out on one experience, but you’ll have had another experience instead. Life lasts much longer than college.</p>
<p>Graduate schools will not look at your high school record. They are more concerned about how you did in college. Even if you go to a lower ranked college, if you work hard, do really well, take advantage of all they have to offer, and extend yourself, you will have wonderful grad school opportunities. People realize that it takes some kids a little longer to grow up than others.</p>
<p>Interesting question. I have one of those high GPA/high test scores kids, but I certainly don’t think a hs GPA of 3.0 to 3.5 is “messing up.”. For some kids that level of performance takes a lot of hard work. But I assume you’re asking about the kid who COULD be the 4.0 student, but just never really “works it.”</p>
<p>In my case, my daughter isn’t a mega-genius. She’s bright, but her success is equally due to her unusual degree of focus and her work-ethic. The results (stats-wise) are mainly helpful in terms of her getting into a Princeton Review Top 370 school (though not an Ivy, that’s never been her goal) and, equally important, in the scholarship money those stats, combined with great ECs, bring.</p>
<p>If she were a B or B+ student, she would probably do fine at a less prestigious school, because that’s all we would be able to afford …our EFC would be too high for much need based aid.</p>
<p>But I do think there would be lost opportunities. Even more, I think the rigorous path she’s taken in hs has prepared to do very well in college. I think it would be difficult for a kid who didn’t hone strong time mgmt and study skills in hs to figure all that out in college.</p>
<p>Bottom line, I don’t think being a B or B+ student in hs ruins your chances for success in college, but I don’t think it does anything to increase your chances of success – again, unless that’s truly the top academic output a kid is capable of.</p>
<p>I have trouble thinking of students with B to B+ GPAS as “messing up.”
While such students might not get into the most selective schools, they would get into plenty of good schools where they would get a solid college education that would prepare them well for grad school.</p>
<p>Just cruise the 3.0 - 3.3 and the 3.5 threads and you’ll see where the B to B+ students are heading! There is a vast difference between a B student who took tough classes , the B student who cruised and could have been an A student and the B students who took pretty easy classes. They are all going to have different choices of colleges. Once all the kids are in their respective colleges it’s a new “game” yet again and success in college and toward grad school will be once again dependent on the individual. Many grads school look closely at college GPA and the various entrace tests and the high school days have little bearing.</p>
<p>I am talking about students who didn’t reach their potential. Like those who could have been A students but made mistakes earlier on, basically what some call “late bloomers”.</p>
<p>Well yes, Techerdz, the vast majority of B+ kids ‘coulda/woulda/shoulda’ been “A” students. The reasons are all across the board. College is a do over for everyone. Some of the A kids won’t make it and some of the B+ will do extremely well. There’s “stories” all over these forums. So to answer your question directly, No, every kid in college as the ability to excel and achieve otherwise they would not be IN college and no they won’t “miss out” on anything if they work hard at a goal. College is not Grade 13 anywhere.</p>
<p>If you mean the real long run, like “the rest of your life”, it doesn’t matter at all. In the matter of going to a 4-year college immediately after high school, it makes a big difference. If you intend to go the “go to CC, get As, and then transfer to a 4-year”, then you might be out of the running for some of the most exclusive schools (I think some of the Ivies don’t accept many transfers), but you’ll still be able to get into lots of great schools, because at that point they’ll be looking more at your college grades than high school. (Might get less financial aid, though, so it does impact you in that way.)</p>
<p>I had D’s and F’s and it hasn’t impacted my life in the long term at all (except that I think experiencing those ups and downs made me a better counselor to young people). There is no asterisk on my diploma.</p>
<p>then there is the “B” student who is just that; works hard but is a “B” student…is he/she destined for failure??
I would imagine that some of the leaders of today and tomorrow were and are “B” students…I know this is a cliche but grades are not everything…</p>
<p>and ,as we know, not every “successful” person goes to a school like MIT (or the like)…each person’s version of “success” is very, very unique…</p>
<p>No wonder kids are burnt out and depressed. Thinking that an overall GPA of 3.5 is messing up, thinking that not getting great grades when you were 15 or 16 years old will ruin your prospects for life, thinking that only a handful of highly selective colleges are good enough…this is all destructive nonsense.</p>
<p>Try to be a good person. Try to take your responsibilities seriously, but try to relax and enjoy life. You don’t have to go to a “top” graduate school to be happy and earn a decent living. </p>
<p>Focus on health and contentment. Let go of the hype and the competitiveness.</p>
<p>I recently stumbled across a high school classmate of mine. Solid B (not B+) student in high school. After school flipped burgers for awhile, working himself up to assistant manager of the burger joint. (And, in high school, that was his life’s plan.) At age 25 decided he wanted to do something more. Went to college, working himself through. Got a Phd in some sort of biology from UCBerkeley. Did cancer research. Now, at age 50, runs the lab of a pharmaceutical company doing cancer research.</p>
<p>If you have a particularly short sighted definition of “long run”, yes, not having a stellar high school career means you probably won’t get to go to an Ivy. (Having a particularly stellar high school career doesn’t really guarantee that either, but whatever.) However, if by “long run” you mean 30 years, and by “messing up” you mean something less than being a convicted felon, well no, messing up in high school doesn’t mean you can’t have a successful, rewarding life.</p>
<p>Anyways I am just looking back right now, as a second year college student with a 3.9 GPA and a competitive SAT score. I finished high school with a 3.6 GPA but unfortunately I had a 3.2 when I was applying for colleges. Lets just say that even though I have been through a lot in life and the past two years have been a total joy for me (had 2 girlfriends in college after having non in high school).</p>
<p>I have made it into some tier 4 universities but something just keeps following me telling me “you shouldn’t have rebelled against your parents in the 9th and 10th grade and you should have tried your very best”. </p>
<p>I guess high school is one of those things that every now and then haunts you. My desire was to go to an Ivy straight out of high school but I have been getting a feeling that I may get into Cornell as a transfer.</p>
<p>Also, the only Ivy which doesn’t accept transfers is Princeton, don’t know why.</p>
<p>I did consistently better as I got older. I did OK in HS, better in college, better in grad school, and better in each decade of my professional career. If I can only live to be 100 I’ll really do some great things.</p>
<p>I am just at shock, I made into Georgia Tech as a transfer when in high school I would not have been a competitive applicant for it. I am going to go to UConn if the Ivies and other top schools don’t work out for transfer.</p>
<p>I am going back home and in my heart that whole news has really made my life a lot better in a way. I am going to get out of here, people may love the south but I honestly hate life here from weather to slow pace to lack of diversity.</p>
<p>My heart is set on UConn but I really can’t wait till may when I hear from Columbia, Washington U in St Louis, Georgetown (professor keeps telling me I will make it in), Cornell, and Penn.</p>
<p>I was a mediocre high school student B- with flashes of excellence. I went to a public college, a CUNY, graduated Phi Beta Kappa and went on to a PhD from the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>My son who will be entering a public university this fall, likely UMass, reminds me of me.</p>