Recently, I’ve been swamped with a series of poor test scores in several AP classes. As a junior, this is my last full year to show colleges my academic chops, as well as the last chance for my grades to be factored into my cumulative GPA and class rank (which comes out in the summer before senior year).
Currently, I feel like it’s fruitless to work very very hard just to boost my overall average by 1 point (our school’s system is from 0-100, not weighted). Right now I’m currently getting 97.xx, but it doesn’t seem enough as other people are getting 98.xx and 99.xx averages. At this point, my predicted class rank is in the low top 10 (7-8 ish).
However, historically, only the top 5 ranked students (out of 300) in each class go to HYPSM (which is where I want to go) whereas top 10% have a good shot at Cornell and schools of that caliber.
I feel mentally drained, tired, and just really sad. However, at the same time, if I worked less hard, I’d just be watching more Netflix or listening to more music instead of being truly productive.
You can very easily make yourself miserable by comparing yourself to others and setting unreasonable standards. A top 10 finish will make you an excellent candidate for many wonderful school, maybe not HYPSM, but still many school. Mental health is important and life is a marathon. Get help with the sadness and talk with people IRL such as your parents and school counselor to make sure you are not being too hard on yourself.
Selective schools (in fact most schools) look far beyond GPA and heavily consider “rigor” of study. Not all schools offer the same classes (AP, DE, Honors), but college AOs want to see how willing you were to push yourself within the context of your school. Did you take the most challenging classes available? It’s not just the number that correlates with your GPA. They know an AP on your scale only provides slight boost. That’s not the point. The point is you were willing to work your butt off. That is a very important indicator to their gauge on your ability to succeed at their school.
Keep on fighting and prove to them you have what it takes. You won’t just get a higher GPA (albeit modestly higher), you’ll get into a fine school!
You are working hard to prepare yourself to do well wherever it is that you end up next in life. This is not simply about getting into college, or into a particular college.
Since you are feeling unhappy right now, go find someone to talk with about your sense that you are mentally drained. You may be able to work more effectively and not be exhausted if can get some advice about more efficient study habits.
If you are this unhappy now comparing yourself with other students in your high school, how will you feel if you go to Stanford or MIT or Harvard and most of your classmates were #1 or #2 in their high school?
There are a LOT of very good universities in the US. I think that you should spend some time looking for a school that is a good fit for what you want to do, and not a good fit to what makes the USNWR rankings happy.
I think the best cure would be to spend some time with the Princeton Review college guide and college search websites. Build the rest of your college list, not just your reach schools. When you look around, there area lot of great choices out there. If you’re really stuck, post on the search and selection board about your academic and extracurricular interests and what sort of campus vibe would make you happy. There are some clever college list builders around.
A school that routinely sends its top 5 students to HYPSM must be a very intense, competitive place. Most high schools do not have any sort of record like that. Being in the top 10 and having a 97 in such an environment is nothing to be ashamed of. Nor is being worn down by that level of rigor and competitiveness. There are many paths to happiness and success in life. Don’t narrow your vision of what is possible, expand it.
HYPSM are not the end all, be all. There are TONS of great colleges, some you would most likely be happier at and which would provide a better undergrad experience. Don’t get into the HYPSM or bust mindset. Relax a little and know that even if you slip a smidge, you WILL get into a great college and you WILL be successful. Give yourself a break. You have one life to live and it shouldn’t be filled with anxiety and stress and a constant state of tiredness.
Work hard on an essay due for English class because you want to learn how to craft a terse, well-written paragraph. Study for a math test because you want to solve equations and learn how to view the world through numbers. Go to a review session for your history class because you didn’t understand something in the reading and you want to know why.
If you run your own race you will ALWAYS win; you will ALWAYS walk away with the trophy, and will ALWAYS have the satisfaction of what you’ve achieved.
There are about 100 colleges in the US which “fit” into the “top 25”- that’s how robust the higher ed system is in the country. Focus on learning for its own sake, figure out a way to reduce your stress and anxiety, let go of the compulsion to compete for an extra half point. It will set you free.
This is a good lesson for life. There is more to life than studying for that last but, and there are many more good colleges than HYPSM. This can go on and on – in college, in grad school, and in work. Most people would say that being a complete workaholic isn’t a great way to spend your life. Do your best, then spend some time on an EC or with friends & family.
Only a small minority of the entering class submit class rank at the colleges you listed. Specific numbers are below. The slight differences in rank you described are not a big deal.
Brown – 25% submitted class rank
Cornell – 26% submitted class rank
Yale – 26% submitted class rank
Caltech – 29% submitted class rank
Princeton – 29% submitted class rank
Stanford – 33% submitted class rank
Harvard – Says they do not consider class rank
My younger daughter had the stats (#2 in her class) to possibly get into HYPS, but she decided to ED at Cornell and had very successful college experience. The Val in her class was accepted to Harvard. She accepted it, but then decided it wasn’t the place for and opted for UPenn. A student in my older daughter class was probably top 20% in their class, and he was the only student who was accepted to Dartmouth ED (he had something special they were looking for).
I don’t think you should work hard just to get into a top college. I tell my kids it should be part of their work ethic - give everything you got, so there would be no regrets later, no could have and should have. Of course, there is such thing about learning for the sake of learning.
My older son turned down Harvard to go to Carnegie Mellon. It wasn’t just that CS is better there. The whole attitude of the place was completely different. (And I’m saying that as a happy Harvard alum. Harvard rests on its laurels a lot. In many many fields you can do better elsewhere.) My younger son I think had a 93 unweighted 97 weighted GPA. There’s nothing wrong with U of Chicago or Tufts which ended up being his top two choices.
College is what you make of it. Honestly, my nephew who didn’t get into MIT counts his lucky stars. Rice was a fabulous undergrad experience. And guess what - he ended up at grad school at Berkley and was sad when his mentor moved to MIT early on forcing him to move to MIT too.
Don’t let the excellent be the enemy of the good. and don’t be in the habit of believing that a grade is the measure of your worth, or your school is the entire measure of your life’s potential.
But most important – in real life, happiness, joy, peace – whatever you call it ---- is so much more important than status or being “the best”. It’s okay to learn to be happy, not just be an excellent student. Nobody dies and at the pearly gates says “wow, I really wish I’d spent more time at work”
Selective schools don’t choose students based on grades and rank. Usually applicants must meet a benchmark for those things, and scores, and then admission is really about other things, mainly the ability to contribute to the mix of a class.
As others have said, don’t get fixed on any one set of schools and make sure to do some research with college guides. Check out the Colleges that Change Lives website.
You might want to check out Alfie Kohn’s books (and Cal Newport too). Alfie Kohn writes about the damage that external motivators do, and how they displace healthier internal motivators. Examples of external motivators are grades and college admission! You may be unhappy because you are working hard for those reasons, rather than actual learning or gaining skills. Grades are a means to an end (evaluating learning) and not an end in themselves.
Young people often go through a transitional period in which they go from external to internal motivators. This isn’t true of everyone but can be a sign of real maturity. The problem is, young people may go through a difficult period of emptiness as the grades become less meaningful, before the real goal of gaining competencies and knowledge kicks in.
Not sure if any of this makes sense to you. Start by ignoring GPA and rank entirely and finding some interesting things to learn or do. You will find a school that fits you.
I stopped the rat race after I got really sick in my junior year- triggered by stress. I didn’t graduate in the top 10 or even the top 10% and have good memories of high school. I went to a top, but not tippy top college and am now in a top-ranked PhD program. Somewhere along the way, I learned that learning was for me and my future… not for a shot at a tippy top college.
Those skills and that mindset have helped me tremendously in life.
I’m a Cornell graduate and so are my daughter and son-in-law. My husband got his doctorate at Cornell. So I’m speaking from experience here.
If you end up at Cornell or a school of similar selectivity (such as Northwestern or Georgetown), I think you’ll be pleased with your college experience, the education you will receive, and your career opportunities.
It’s not the end of the world to go to Cornell. Really. Some people even go there by choice.
What you are saying is life is fruitless if you don’t get into the top 5 out of 3000 colleges in the USA?
Stop that kind of thinking. Think about how to find a college that offers your major, is in the geographic area you want, the rural/suburban/urban area you want, has challenging academics for you, is the size you want.
@fluffybear I feel it’s absolutely pointless to try to graduate as top 3 rather than top 10 GPA wise. Instead pursue ECs and other activities you like. For example, do yoga or weight lift or hike or work. My kid graduated around top 20th (no ranking) and he got into Stanford REA. Other kids who had better GPAs than my kid got into good state schools with scholarships (so did my kid) but all got rejected from HYPSM.
I had around 3.0 GPA in high school and still got into Cornell by the way. I also had 2.9 GPA at Cornell and still got into a top 5, top 15 and top 20 law schools. I ultimately chose to attend the top 20 law school because they offered me an Economic Scholarship (emphasizing “Economic”) because we were poor then. As a kid from a poor family, I went to Cornell and a top 20 law school for almost free. I am thankful that we were poor. To show you how ignorant I was back then, I did not even know Cornell was an Ivy college until one semester later. I only applied to Cornell because someone I knew who was attending Cornell told me to apply because it was a good school. I figured if that other kid went to Cornell, it must be a decent school. Little did I know, it was butt freezing cold there during non-summer seasons. This is why I am now living in Southern CA.