<p>I'm at the stupid school in our town (we had planned to move, but the recession came along đ). Will the college report influence my college application? Our school has a relatively high poverty/minority rate and also has semi-bad AP scores. Our school offers about 14 APs (of which I plan to take 11 - no ab, psych (self) or envsci (self) - and self-study some more).
I will easily be in the top three in the school - and if I don't screw up, I should be valedictorian.
How will colleges view me in terms of my college report? Should I try to take additional classes with my own money (I can afford it)? Or should I try to distinguish myself some other way?</p>
<p>BumpâŠ</p>
<p>What year are you and how are you so sure you will end up top 3? High poverty/ minority rate? Iâm guessing your challenges with college will focus more on maturity.</p>
<p>I was at the highly selective gifted middle school in our town and only a very small number (like 4) from the program came to this high school. Iâm already significantly ahead of my peers in rank because of previously attained credits. And as you can probably guess, Iâm a freshman. </p>
<ul>
<li>and btw, your churlish comment doesnât answer the question.</li>
</ul>
<p>They will most likely look at your accomplishments at your current high school, not your middle school. SO how you do now is what matters to them. You can take more APs if you want; it certainly doesnât hurtâyou should definitely show them that you took a rigorous study/ exam in your field of interest.</p>
<p>As for distinguishing yourself, form a club and/or have ECs etc. But the best way to distinguish yourself is to show a commitment to something that you are deeply passionate about. You have already shown yourself apt for taking rigorous courses.</p>
<p>Hopefully, this answers your question & good luck in your high school!</p>
<p>You say your school offers 14 APs? You will be fine assuming you do self study and get good scores in the AP classes you do take. Since you are a freshman, you might want to read this book by Cal Newport: âHow to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get Into College By Standing Out (Without Burning Out)â. It could give you some ideas on how to spend your extra curricular efforts and help your chances for top college acceptance. It will also help you see that grades are not everything in top college acceptance â there is a minimum bar you want to shoot for, but being valedictorian and taking all possible APs are not necessarily the keys to success.</p>
<p>But I would say one other thing â you need to clean up your attitude toward your current school. Your recommendations will be important, and a kid who is a snot about his current environment will be quickly identified by teachers and administrators. They talk, and they know. Consider whether you want to be someone who adds to your school and works to improve it/lift it up, or someone who only has nasty things to say about it. You donât want to be known as that second kid, so lose the ugly attitude.</p>
<p>@starseraph thanks for the words of advice. I understand that middle school does not count for anything in terms of college apps; that was just a justification to ocm2014âs 
@intparent Interestingly, i just picked up that book a week ago and am in the midst of reading it - I must say it has some very unique and compelling viewpoints.
My âsnottyâ attitude towards the school is mainly a result of the fact that I feel like the environment will hamper my intellectual growth. For example, the other two high school field science olympiad teams that place in the top ten repetitively at state, while our team doesnât even graze the top 40 (we donât make it to state). Our math team is one of the worst in the conference. Etc. Iâm so used to being challenged extracirricular-ly that this school feels like a drag.
I feel like something is wrong when sixth grade was more than twice as hard as ninth grade is. The main reason Iâm self-studying APs, for example, is to challenge myself intellectually so I donât die of boredom. I canât wait until next year when my course load gets harder (Iâve heard that our school has some very good AP teachers for certain subjects, particularly STEM fields).</p>
<p>so basically you feel completely justified with your attitude. You have 25 posts on this site and I can tell you youâre quickly wearing out your welcome. You have four years to irk your HS teachers â donât think itâll be so easy to avoid that.</p>
<p>We get the ranting thing⊠but humble out when youâve been called out on it and asked to ramp it down.</p>
<p>If you do well on your SATs/ACTs and do well on your APs, the fact that you are at the âbad schoolâ will actually work in your favor.</p>
<p>You will have the rigor of curriculum, as reflected in your AP scores (assuming you do well) as well as the grades and class rank (if you donât let yourself get lazy).</p>
<p>Colleges will be impressed at what you will have been able to accomplish in a less than perfect environment.</p>
<p>However, in many ways you will have to be the captain of your own ship, doing a lot of self studying/working with teachers outside of class, etc.</p>
<p>@boysx3 thanks for an actual answer to the question! I see how that works in my favor.
@T26E4</p>
<p>@T26E4 youâre right, I should probably calm down a little :). I couldnât find any other medium to express my discontent⊠My parents get really mad when I bring up anything negative about the school and itâs not really something I can discuss with my friends at the schoolâŠ
Iâll try to change my attitude. Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice!</p>
<p>I do not know what state you are in but in California they allow K-12 to take classes at community college for free, you just have to buy the books. Maybe you can take summer classes at your local CC or even a class or two during the regular school year.</p>
<p>Hopefully you have gotten the message from some of the others. I would also say a school that offers 14 ap courses can not in any way be considered a stupid school.</p>
<p>@jakd59 my district allows you to take college courses as part of your standard course load as a junior/senior. Iâm planning on taking some.
@ocm2014 you canât use the fact that my school offers 14 APs to characterize the quality of its students. My school district makes it mandatory that the same APs are offered at all the schools to âmake them equalâ. AP Comp Sci, for example, only has 4 people in it.
Anyway, it doesnât matter how smart my peers are. If anything, Iâll look even more extraordinary when I make USAMO or score a 2400. :)</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for all the advice!
(And a quick apology to ocm2014 if I came off as offensive or rude.)</p>
<p>OP, I realize that you are pretty young, and disappointed. Just keep your eye on the prize. </p>
<p>Top colleges look for leadership qualities in their applicants, and for sure there will be less competition for leadership spots than in the other high school. But you are going to have to find a way to accept where you are and the intrinsic worth of your fellow students in order for them to accept you as a leader. </p>
<p>Colleges wonât penalize you for what your school doesnât offerâthey are looking for you to take the most rigorous courses available, and with all those APs, youâll be fine.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This, basically. A 2400 USAMO kid who had to go to a low-performing school is more impressive than a 2400 USAMO kid who went to a good school (I donât have any real justification for this, but it seems like common senseâŠthe former had to overcome a bad environment and the latter didnât). For the most part, people have no choice in where they go to school, and colleges canât penalize anyone for going to a bad one when they couldnât have done otherwise.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel any betterâŠmy high school doesnât have a math team/club or a Science Olympiad team, 40% of the students donât go on to any kind of higher education, and last year they offered four AP classes, three of which were (ostensibly) only open to seniors. Iâm probably not getting into any high-ranked schools, but thatâs entirely because of choices I made. If I had come on here when I was a freshman, like you are, and gotten some idea of what colleges are looking for, I would have been able to make myself competitive at top schools the same way kids from good high schools do. The worst thing about going to a bad high school is that no one tells you to care about college, at least not until itâs too lateâŠonce you care, you can figure out everything else on your own.</p>
<p>Like halcyonheather, my kidsâ school only offers 4 APs, also all only open to seniors. They donât have a science Olympiad team at all (although one of my kids did self study for the USA Biology Olympiad, but she was the only person from her school to ever do so). My D2 was accepted last year at U of Chicago and Swarthmore. </p>
<p>Also, what is wrong with AP CS having only four students? Would you rather it had 40? So you get more time and attention from your teacher â that is probably a good thing. Your parents are right to not listen to your whining about your school. The grass looks greener to you across town, but you can do fine from your school if you donât mess up your recommendations with a bad attitude.</p>
<p>@oldmom interestingly, I already became captain of our math team (no competition!). Thanks for the advice.
@intparent the example of apcs was just to show how underutilized many of our APs are. Youâre right though, whining wonât get me anywhere :).
@halcyon youâre right, in some aspects, I should probably be happy that Iâm at an easy school. My course load will be very rigorous over the next few years and I guess thatâll be a positive. (Your school makes mine seem uber-ly gifted!). Actually, for me, itâs kind of nice that we donât learn about college applications until junior year because I can work towards leadership roles before anyone else knows their significance (our math team of 4 people has 3 freshman and 1 junior and the junior couldnât afford to make the âtime commitmentâ, so Iâm captain already - the other two freshmen didnât know the importance. First meet is on Monday, although a full team needs 8 peopleâŠ).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Honey, the only one who can hamper your intellectual growth is yourself. </p>
<p>Look. There are thousands of brilliant students who score perfect or close to it on standardized tests. There are even more who take a gazillion AP classes. If you want to go to a top tier school (and Iâm guessing you do), you are going to need to find some other way to differentiate yourself. I think your school offers a great opportunity to do that.</p>
<p>If academic competition is your thing, why not make it a goal to raise the standing of the science olympiad team? Life isnât a movie. You are not going to have some feel-good ending where you guys win it all, but why not do something to crack the top 20? Get permission to talk to all the science classes. Pitch the school pride angle. Find some like minded folks and then put the work in. Find out where the team fell down before and why the other teams win. Set up practice sessions. Work tirelessly with the weaker members of the team to hone their skills. Enlist scientists from your community to help with certain subjects. See if you can affect change. </p>
<p>If you are bummed out that the AP classes are not well attended, then become an advocate for AP. Talk it up. Many students from poor families donât understand the whole system. Get more people to apply. Start a student tutoring service at your school to help other students who are overwhelmed by the work in the AP classes. Offer tutoring classes before the AP tests in the spring. Basically, use your mad super skills to give other people a leg up.</p>