<p>Before you got into Stanford, honestly tell me how you spent a typical day after comming home from school. Please don't exeggerate, I want the truth. If you really did sleep, please tell me. Don't substitute it for jazz band or something. </p>
<p>The reason I aks is that I feel Im spending too much time reading and not spending my time in ECs.</p>
<p>well AshwinSundar, I had no sleep. i busted my butt because you have to work hard to get into Stanford. but it is important you do ECs cuz Stanford doesnt just want a bookworm.</p>
<p>^ . . . I too sleep late and wake up early. But what you said didn't really help. I already knew you needed to work hard and all . . .
Can you be more specific?</p>
<p>ok a typical day:
-wake up at 7:30 for school which starts at 8:30
-go to school etc until 3:15.
-After school, go to rehearsal for a play im in (I do a lot of acting outside of school. it's my primary EC). rehearse from 3:30-8 ish.
-get home after 8 or so. eat dinner.
-Homework until 11 or 12 depending on how much I have.
-Shower
-Sleeeeeep!
...and do it all over again the next day.</p>
<p>is that the specificity you're looking for? I'm not sure.</p>
<p>However, reading IS a significant and very valid use of time. I'm sure if you emphasized it in your app, it could definitely help you not hurt you. Admissions committees just want to make sure people are doing SOMETHING outside of school that is intellectually stimulating. What that activity is will be different for each person.</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>^ Thanks! Just what I was looking for. btw, did you get into Stanford? Just curious.</p>
<p>Yep! and im attending! im SOOO excited! less than 90 days!</p>
<p>glad i could help.</p>
<p>tell me if this is rabidly offensive but...</p>
<p>whos willy did you nibble on to get into Stanford after doing only an hour of home work a night? </p>
<p>or are you like the next big thing to look out for on Broadway?</p>
<p>He said he got home at 8. Eating dinner would take, lets say at most, half an hour.
Thats 8:30 to 11- 12 . Thats 2 hrs and 30 min to 3hrs to 30 min</p>
<p>I dont think peachie said that he/she did one hour of homework a night and even so, one hour is fine. For me, I'd probably participate in an extracurricular activity after school till about 3:30 and then I'd do my homework/study for about 1-2 hrs. After that I'd just read/learn about new things and also go on CC lol, sometimes even doing both at the same time.</p>
<p>SCEA Stanford... can't wait.... those graduate studies in medicine seminars better be worth wild!</p>
<p>can't wait to APPLY!</p>
<p>I will be applying in the fall, so I don't know if what I do will be an accurate gague for what you're looking for, but hey! it can't hurt. Basic stats too, to give you some context: 1/360, 4.0 UW, 32 ACT composite, taking the most challenging classes, debate captain, etc.</p>
<p>School- 8:15 - 1:45 on a 'normal' day(I have a free period and I"m only taking five classes, but they're all IB). school's out 2:30 on one day of the week, and 12:20 on another.
Work (after 45 min of transportation) - 2:20 - 3:30 or 4. I'm a lab assistant in a neuroscience lab.
Depending on the day, I go to dance class (ballet, contemporary), or the gym (If I time it right, I can watch Stewart/ colbert while working out! It's great)
Homework in the off time.
I've teched for several school plays, and so a few times a year, my schedule gets completely cleared for 50 hour weeks in the theater.
Debate tournaments twice a month for 1-3 days from October to April.
I do all the debate scheduling while I avoid and proctastinate doing my actual homework.
One of the big timesavers this year was that my math teacher never checked homework, so I never did it. It was like a sweet 30%-of-my-grade point free for all.
Even though I'm only taking five classes this year, I've taken a lot of classes off campus, so I have MORE credits than the average person in my grade. weird, I know.</p>
<p>The approach that I've taken, which seems to work for me (everyone's different though, so each to their own), is to allow yourself to focus on a few things and to do them really well. That means first, take care of yourself: eat, SLEEP, get exercise, and don't go mentally insane too often. Seriously, if you've gotten enough sleep, everything else becomes so much easier, because you can focus and retain more information.</p>
<p>I'm usually in bed at 10:30 and asleep by 11.
Out of curiosity AschwinSundar, what's your schedule like?</p>
<p>Oh, and to add more. The reason I don't think I've gone insane is that social time/ EC's seem to merge together for me. So like, for debate, whenever we have practice rounds, we debate, and then all my friends and I watch a movie or something. And even though tournaments are technically "time spent on extra curriculars", there's a lot of down time between rounds, so everyone chill's out. With plays too, there's plenty of time when people aren't doing anything, so it turns into dance parties in the dressing room, even though we're still overall "doing stuff for the play". Homework definitely fluctuates too. Some weeks there's none, and then it's like GAH! 25 hours spent writing an english paper!!</p>
<p>haha not one hour of homework per night. it's usually around 3-4 hours a night. I eat dinner while i study a lot of the time. and i am also doing homework during any downtime I have at rehearsal. It takes a lot of time management skills but I've gotten used to it after having this kind of schedule for so long. ...just have to learn to make sacrifices. </p>
<p>and yes Tzar, i find it offensive to ask someone:</p>
<p>"whos willy did you nibble on to get into Stanford after doing only an hour of home work a night?" </p>
<p>but i'll just assume that the comment was a miscommunication of some kind.</p>
<p>Alfred,</p>
<p>what do you do as a lab assistant?</p>
<p>not that i am interested in research, if it isn't directly correlated to my career... i'd just like to know... seems interesting.. in canada they won't let me do shiit in a research lab nearby, guess it is different in States...</p>
<p>Yah i am just curious</p>
<p>Hmm . . . me?
I got to school at 7:30 and come back walking to home at around 3:30
then I eat and go to sleep and wake up at 4:50.
I play chess against Fritz and study chess openings till 6
Then I have religious activities with my granddad. He's in India, so we communicate with Yahoo! messenger. That goes till 6:45
Then I do my school work from then on to 9
I then eat and when bored I see George Lopez showw from 10 to 10:30
If I still have work, I do that after eating to 11 - 11:30</p>
<p>Thats about it.</p>
<p>But at Fridays, I go to chess class at 6 and comeback at 10. I also do some engineering activites outside of school, so my teamates and I get together, but thats only for 6 weeks a year or so.
For quizbowl and most of my school ECs, its during school time, so I don't spend it after school.
I also go to the Tech Museum of Innovation for volunteering on Sunday afternoons. </p>
<p>Sometimes in my free time, instead of chess, I practice for PSAT / AMC / SAT II / SAT I
Thats about it.</p>
<p>I would also like to clarify:
When I said "reading too much" earlier, I ment doing school work. Not reading novels, which I do at times.</p>
<p>this is interesting, so i thought i'd contribute. i will be in the stanford class of 2012 as well, woot! and i was admitted SCEA.</p>
<p>my typical day went like this:</p>
<p>645 wake up (i am not a morning person, i spend as little time as possible getting ready for school lol)
745ish get to school for homeroom
8-230/330 classes (MTTh are 330 days, WF are 230 days)
(MTTh at my school have built in 1 hour "assembly" periods during which ECs or study time occurs. i also had at least 1 45-min free period per day for work, or more likely, chilling time)
230/330 somedays go to a club meeting, if not then general chill time (or work if im feeling studious)
330/430-630 sports (i play soccer, basketball, and lax)
7ish get home, shower, eat dinner, etc
8-12ish work/procrastination time on the computer</p>
<p>I see. I must wait for more contributors to make some correlations. Anyone else?</p>
<p>Ambitiousteen: oh gosh, what do I do at work? that's a good question. During the school year I basically keep things running in the lab, cleaning glassware, making solutions, distracting the postdocs... This week (the first week of summer), I've reorganized and refiled the six binders of MSDSs, which is a VERY exciting process in which I had to use tweezers to get the little confetti bits out of the hole puncher. Starting next week, I'll be working on a project with one of the lab members, learning how to do things, how to analyze data, etc. I've also been reading like crazy for background info.</p>
<p>Obviously, the best job would be an ice cream tester in a world where calories are inconsequential, but other than that, I wouldn't want to work anywhere else. Its like, I got to play with neurons! what did you do this summer?</p>