Sophomore Year Panic Attacks...

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm in my sophomore year of high school and during the beginning of the year, i started to think about college. I thought about where i wanted to attend and what was needed. After researching the universities i was interested in, i started to panic because of the prestige and the requirements they wanted to see in an applicant. I'm particularly worried about extracurriculars. I'm basically only in one club that I had joined this year and participating in a research project. I didn't do anything during my freshman year, because my school never announces anything about clubs or tryouts. I really missed out last year and intend to do more activities this year and the summer before junior year. I can't seem to find anything else that is interesting, but when i do, it doesn't coordinate with the time i have after school. I'm only in one AP class and it's my first ap and its kind of stressing me out a bit. I've read on these forums about students who take 8 or 10 AP classes with tons of extracurriculars and are also on sports teams. I don't know what to do and i talked to my guidance counselor about it, but she said to get more involved and not worry too much, how can i not? I didn't get into the high school i wanted to go to because i was ignorant about studying and didn't prepare early enough, this might happen to me again for college. :((</p>

<p>Is there anyone out there that is having the same thoughts or troubles as me?
Any sophomores that are going through this panic stage?
Advice? (any would be helpful) :D </p>

2

<p>@Whitneywong‌: What are your goals? Will matriculation at a highly- or most-selective institution likely enhance the achievement of those objectives? In some cases, the answer is probably “yes,” but in many situations it is just as clearly “no.”</p>

<p>To illustrate, let assume a sophomore really wants to be a great, career elementary school teacher – and “three cheers,” it’s an important job, sometimes not done particularly well, and a dedicated, successful teacher is someone to be admired. However, is an elementary school teacher with his Bachelor’s from Yale or UCLA necessarily any better than one educated at Bowling Green (and I emphasize the same individual entering each of those universities, not the aggregate qualitative differences between the freshman classes)? Probably not, I suggest.</p>

<p>Therefore, with respect, you first need to evaluate if the achievement your goals will be materially enhanced by attendance at one of the handful of “super competitive” schools; if not, there are many fine, fully reputable institutions that will not require you to “play the admissions game.”</p>