<p>It’s not like most people end up with the career they wanted in high school anyway. They’ll probably turn out okay.</p>
<p>A lot of people are like that. They have no idea how hard it is to get into the Ivies. I have met a senior who couldn’t even graduate high school (she’s a super-senior now) and she wanted to go to Harvard! Just leave them alone, they will find out eventually. I mean, people don’t have to go to the Ivies to reach their dream. ;)</p>
<p>SERIOUSLY!! The TA for my honors English class was telling everyone how you could get into Harvard with a 3.0 because we go to an arts school. Um, no.</p>
<p>I see the same thing at my school, but not to the Harvard level. There are several girls here who want to attend UNC, but their SAT scores tend to be below its 25%tile. Though my school in general tends to be highly uninformed about colleges and the like. The administration here sort of glorifies weighted GPA as the “key” to get into colleges. I know they are trying to get kids to work hard and take as many honors/AP as possible, but they are giving kids unrealistic expectations. Many of them think the SAT is worth squat in admissions, and many of them are completely ignorant of the low acceptance rates of high-profile schools such as MIT and Harvard.</p>
<p>Awks… This kind of sounds like me. I get A’s and B’s, take honors and AP classes and plan on applying to Cornell, Princeton and Harvard along with other schools of course. I don’t have too many EC’s yet and i’m taking the SAT in March, but I still think I’ve got a fighting chance. And yes, I have a friend who is taking all average classes, no AP’s and Honors and got average scores on her PSAT and wants to get into to all of the UC schools. And her excuses for not taking advanced classes is that she asked her counselor, but he never got back to her. I mean seriously, if you really wanted to take AP classes and challenge yourself, you would have tried a little harder. How do you show academic rigor when you’re in the same classes at 3/4ths of our class? But hey, no matter how big, I guess everyone has a chance.</p>
<p>This thread is just so wrong. You guys are such great friends…</p>
<p>“Some of the best students you know in high school will fall apart in college.” Oh gosh. It sounds like you’re decribing me :S I’m not even done HS and I’m about ready to fall apart from the stress. Aish.</p>
<p>I overheard this guy (he’s not very intelligent) telling his friend that our guidance counselor was stupid because she told him that it’s unlikely he’ll be accepted into Boston University and that he should apply to some other colleges. He told his friend that he’s applying anyway. He said that the average SAT score for Boston University was about a 1350, and that he got a 1400 on his SAT’s. I started thinking, “No, there’s no way this guy got a 1400 on his…ohhhhh.” After he said the breakdown for his scores, I realized that the 1350 average was only CR + M and his 1400 was CR + M + W. </p>
<p>I wanted to say something, but then I realized that it was not my place and kept my mouth shut. My advice to you, OP, is to not say anything, or at least encourage her to apply somewhere else too. It sounds mean, but they’ll figure it out when they get their rejection letter.</p>
<p>Probably the worst combination in personality traits: willfully ignorant, and arrogant.</p>
<p>@shadowmist: that guy is either stupid or does not have good eyes. Lol, seriously.</p>
<p>I have friends who are kind of like that, but I know they’re more capable than what they’ve demonstrated. My friends are brilliant but lazy; they just hate homework, so their grades aren’t reflective of their potential. I’m sure that if they became motivated by what they’ll learn in college, they’ll be able to make a difference in this world.</p>
<p>Around 40% of my class wants to go into medicine in sophomore year. By the time they’re actually applying, that will go down to about 50 people applying. Last year, 2 people got offers from med schools. We have a slightly different system, but the point is that so many people apply for medicine, with almost 0 chances. They all think they’re likely to get in so apply to schools like Oxford.
One girl is set on going to Harvard, but she really isn’t smart, doesn’t work hard and hasn’t even bothered to research the steps needed to apply. She doesn’t know what the SAT is either.</p>
<p>Speaking of professional/grad schools, I do have a share of stories:</p>
<p>*There’s a kid who wants to go to medical school, but he pretty much fails all of his tests and relies on repeated re-tests to actually pass classes. I really doubt he will get into a four-year institution, much less go to med school.</p>
<p>*There’s a girl who dropped AP Bio because she thought it was too hard, and she still wishes to go to UNC, one of the most rigorous schools in my region, for nursing.</p>
<p>*There’s this other girl who never does her homework nor studies and plans to spend most of her college time partying, and then she wants to go to a law school.</p>
<p>I seriously do not blame them. My school district does far too much hand-holding, to the point that failure here is pretty much impossible.</p>
<p>As long as she has a list that includes appropriate matches and safeties, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t have a high reach “dream school,” even if her app is a bit low…
I don’t think it’s your role as a friend to tell her she won’t get in unless she has no safeties and isn’t getting advice from anyone else. I was in that position earlier in the year…our gc’s are clueless, my best friend’s parents are Greek, and she had <em>only</em> Ivy schools on her list. She had a great app, and probably a shot at getting into a few, but this is obviously the worst idea ever, so I talked to her and helped her find safeties.</p>
<p>She’s actually been getting a lot of encouragement from her other friends. I don’t think she’s going to listen to any of my advice.</p>
<p>“Is there a reason why you want to go to Harvard specifically?”</p>
<p>“cause its a top school …why else does anyone want to go to harvard” </p>
<p>“I see. It’s a REALLLY hard school to get into, though. Why not go to UW Seattle? (I live in Washington) There’s a great medical program there. It’d be much less expensive.”</p>
<p>“idk, ill find a way around it. uw isnt really good enough for me… i kinda want change in environment too…(blank) and (blank) told me that id be gr8 for harvard. im really smart.(blank) got into stanford right?? so it cant be that hard to get into harvard”</p>
<p>“Well, you see, (blank) did a lot of other things besides getting good grades, taking a lot of AP classes and a 2350 on the SAT. She also did other things like summer internships at the UW biology labs, and a bunch of sports and clubs.”</p>
<p>“idk. i go to anime club a lot. people have been telling me a lot of diff stuff…i think im prolly going to apply anyways…thanks though.”</p>
<p>“There’s this other girl who never does her homework nor studies and plans to spend most of her college time partying, and then she wants to go to a law school.”</p>
<p>So? Aren’t there non-selective law schools?</p>
<p>^Few people tend to aspire to go to a non-selective law school. The one she has in mind is probably selective. Most law schools, even if they’re fourth-tier, still require taking the LSAT and achieving a specific score.
Considering the work ethic that Ach7DD described, she probably won’t bother preparing for it, and will likely do poorly enough that she won’t be able to get in.</p>
<p>It’s always interesting to see this, because people suggest to me that I have the opposite problem. One of my professors suggested I had imposter syndrome since I admitted that I thought it was a fluke I got into my college. My friend is the same way. When I mention that she should apply to a certain top grad program, she says she thinks she won’t get in, even though people in the past with very similar credentials to her got into all of the grad programs they applied to. When I mentioned one such person, she said “well he’s really smart and got these two prestigious awards”. She had also won one of the very awards she had just mentioned!</p>
<p>Honestly, I can sympathize with your friend , OP.
People consistently have had low expectations of my abilities and my intelligence.
“I never thought of you as someone who was good at math, to be honest”
“I don’t think you’re grad-school material…”
“Are you sure you want to take APUSH? It’s a very hard class and I’m not sure you can handle it.”
Even though it’s not likely for her to get into Harvard, don’t mercilessly crush her dreams and self-esteem.</p>
<p>I know a chick with a 21 ACT who is applied Duke and Vandy.</p>