<p>I'm going into 8th grade and I want to know which classes and extra curriculars I should consider taking in high school. I know that it might be a little early to start worrying about this stuff, but I want to get into Rice or Stanford(they are my dream schools). I know that they are extremely difficult to get into, so I want to start preparing myself now. I am in the Gifted and Talented program at my school and all my classes(ELA, Social Studies, Science, Math) are PreAp/GT. They are the hardest classes my school offers and I make straight A's(mid to high A's) but I know I will have to work even harder in high school. This year I am taking 3 high school level classes; Algebra 1 PreAp(replaces math) Spanish 1 PreAp, and Biology(electives) I play piano and I do regular volunteer work with a group at my church. Does anyone have suggestions on high school classes to take, extra curriculars, study tips, etc.? Any tips that anyone has would really be appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>If you’re taking Alg I this year, are you taking Geometry or Algebra II next year? Your ECs seem pretty good right now; the main thing about Stanford is finding a passion. They seek passionate people more than anything else. What do you want to do? What are your favorite subjects? Base your ECs off of that.</p>
<p>Get off CC and do what makes you happy.</p>
<p>Gah, no, no middle schoolers allowed unless you’re on the prep school board! </p>
<p>In all seriousness though, a few thoughts:</p>
<p>Why do you want to go to Stanford? Why do you want to go to Rice? Why not Pomona? Why not UC Berkeley? Why not Harvard? These are not rhetorical questions. What are the actual reasons YOU want to dedicate the next 5 years to trying to get into these particular schools?</p>
<p>Don’t do anything now to put on a college app. No one cares what you did in 8th grade, they don’t even let you list it on the application. </p>
<p>There is no magic bullet. Everyone on this forum is looking for it, including myself, but honestly, I don’t think it exists. People are going to say things like “passion” and “rich parents” and “the ability to dunk a basketball with two hands” but I really don’t even think that’s true. There are people with those things who don’t go to Stanford. Study and do the things you love and try to excel at them, and if that leads you to Rice or Stanford, so be it. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. There are 3498 other schools out there, and one of them will love the things you do. </p>
<p>End romanticized rant about college admissions. </p>
<p>But seriously kid, it’s summer. Go have fun. </p>
<p>Tip 1: You could create a vaccine for the ebola virus.</p>
<p>But seriously, there are people who study graduate level science in the 8th and 9th grades. I saw a girl on Ellen who did that and created some sort of cure for HIV (I’m not sure if it was ‘cure’ per se but definitely something huge), and went to Harvard. She also won first place in the Intel science competition.</p>