<p>It's about time again. The time where young HSers filled with anxiety post their stats on college confidential. We elders have all been there before (CC made me so anxious I was actually constantly checking my posts every other minute), but what I beg you all to do is STOP! Kids no one can tell you if you or in or not. There is no magic recipe. </p>
<p>If you look at the past posts you will find kids with nearly identical stats and one gets in and one doesn't. Yes this is currently the most stressful period of your life. But all these chance posts will only make you feel worse and are not constructive at all. Let's give a little anecdote. When I was on CC as a senior I had applied to Princeton, I remember on the thread this regular kid (good sat scores, good aps, good gpa, nothing special about him, not a celebrity/rich/or an alum) asked if he would get in and every other kid laughed at him and said no because he was like every other applicant.The funny thing is the boy got accepted into Princeton and when he announced it the super stars that didn't all were demanding if he had lied about his stats or was the kid of a politician. He wasn't anything. I don't know what got him in but he was a regular Joe in the applicant pool. I got into Johns Hopkins over a classmate in high school that had a higher rank than me. </p>
<p>No one knows what goes on behind these doors. Seriously kids the only things these posts do is feed into your anxieties, mess with your self-esteem and self confidence, and make you miserable. The only way you can possibly know if you have a chance is if an administrator at a school tells you deliberately you are in. Let me tell you the one thing I know about these research schools. If you truly have an academic passion and they feel you can do the work, you have a chance at getting in. Of course this is hard for most kids because very few find a true academic interest in high school and have the opportunities to pursue it.</p>
<p>Touche!
“If you truly have an academic passion and they feel you can do the work, you have a chance at getting in.” hopefully ;)</p>
<p>THANK YOU! Fed up with CC even though it is so addicting.</p>
<p>Here is advice maybe late for some but early for others.
No one cares if you are in high school, if you truly have a fascination and passion for a topic pursue it and you will find many people in the field will want to help you on your path. It doesn’t have to be at a university. If you are interested in Art History and have a local museum, find some way to get involved. Start a correspondence with an academic. The one thing that pleases an academic more than anything is seeing a young eager mind want to explore the topic they are an expert on. A friend of mine’s bf was from Kansas but had a 3 year correspondence with a professor at Wharton. This kid in high school was already enamored with finance and devoured everything he could on it. He reached out to the professor not for anything, but just to start a chat. He had read an interview the professor gave and disagreed with some of the points and wanted to discuss them. The professor was so impressed with this young man that his Sophomore year in high school this professor invited him to be his assistant for the summer. Junior year he spent the summer in Penn again working with the professor. This guy’s grades were great but not perfect. My friend says when it came time to apply for college the professor encouraged her bf to apply early to Wharton. The story goes his SAT scores were way below the desired for Wharton and bursted into tears when he told this professor because he felt there was no way of getting in. The professor’s response was “Just write the truth about yourself on your application.” He did apply to Wharton ED and got in. Not just that but he received two very personal letters from the dean of Wharton and Admission. The letter from Wharton’s Dean said that the professor did not lobby for him besides the rec letter. What got him in was that he showed he had the ambition to reach out to an expert and pursue his passion. That dean stated it was students like him that made the dean less cynical. The admissions dean wrote they were beyond impressed with his research when he was with the professor and even though he was thousands of miles away was still courageous enough to do what he did.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your words of wisdom, Mr./Ms. BlueJayBJ! I highly appreciate the ambiguity of your name. Also that story about the UPenn guy was very touching and inspirational. Bless his beautiful soul.</p>
<p>But seriously, BlueJayBJ, thank you so much for spending the time and effort to help calm down us anxious ED-ers. It means a lot! So bless your beautiful soul too.</p>