<p>I'm a freshman in high school and I am experiencing situations that I have never gone through earlier. I am taking 8 classes: Enriched Geometry, Honors Algebra II, Global History, Chemistry I, Biology, Spanish II, English 9Enriched, and Health online. I don't have a lunch period because I take a class during lunch. I feel like I am taking too many classes, but I really don't want to drop any, because it is already the end of the first quarter. I know that I study a lot, yet I am not getting the grades I want. What should I do? Should I talk to my counselor about dropping a class? I really am scared and depressed. Please help me! Is there anyone else out there going through the same thing?</p>
<p>You may ask why I am taking all these classes. My answer: I want to be valedictorian, and since I have just moved from a different school, everyone here seems to be ahead of me because my other school didn't offer high classes. I want to catch up with the others, and do even better.
Please help me!</p>
<p>If you’re not getting the grades you want and feel miserable, drop them. Don’t feel an obligation to be valedictorian and kill/overload yourself. Plus, it’s only freshman and you guys haven’t even gotten ranks yet why do you have to catch up?</p>
<p>Today was the last day of the quarter and I just found our that I have really bad grades. I can’t drop anything because it is past drop date. I don’t know what to do… I found out that I could have gotten a 4.33333 if I got an A+ but I only got like 1 of those and I also just found out that an A- is actually a 3.667, and I got two of those. I am such a failure. </p>
<p>Will I ever be able to reach Stanford medical school?</p>
<p>Agreed with Animefan1998–take it easy. You’re in a new school environment, it’s only your first quarter, it’s understandable that your grades will fall below your normal standards. Also, don’t get too down about an A- or two; getting all A’s, especially in a school you deem harder than your own school, is nothing to scoff at and certainly does not make you a “failure.” :D</p>
<p>You do have a schedule that’s more packed than regular freshmans. But as others have said, take it slow. Its freshman year and you can explain in your college essay that you’re adapting to a new environment. I’m sure Stanford won’t just look at one quarter, but semester grades. So if you get decent grades next quarter, then won’t that even it out?</p>
<p>Take it easy. Having an anxious mind about getting an A- is good, therefore motivates you to do your best, but don’t overdo it.</p>
<p>Stop thinking that you have to be valedictorian or else you are a failure. That is your biggest problem. Not sure where you got that idea, but it’s pretty destructive. You need to find self-esteem some other way than being #1 in grades.</p>
<p>Realize that Stanford medical school will neither see nor care about your grades in high school, and most doctors didn’t go to Stanford medical school anyhow. They accept about 90 people in the world every year. Are you really going to go through the next 8 years of your life feeling like you just have to be one of those 90 people and if you don’t you are a failure? </p>
<p>Not sure where all this pressure and misinformation is coming from but it’s worth thinking about why you have these ideas and who they are coming from. Setting yourself up not to be able to eat lunch and meet kids in your new school sounds like a recipe for unhappiness–who signed off on that idea? If getting some quarterly grades of A- is scaring you and making you depressed, then yes, I think you should seek out some counseling. Preferably from someone who didn’t already tell you to be in class instead of making friends.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who answered. I raised my grades…except for one history class that I just realized that I didn’t even need to take at all… My counselor never told me I didn’t have to take that class!</p>
<p>Anyway, to those of you who have told me that I need to take it easy, that it is only freshman year- I just want to say: freshman year is high school. 1/3 of our GPA is determined by our grades in this year… And an A- is considered a 3.667…
Is there anyone else out there with the same problem?</p>