Well as a older college grad let me put some things in perspective for you.
First I am coming up on my ten year anniversay of graduation from college. I went to CSULB, an inexpensive state university.
In job interviews, I have never been asked where my degree was from, what my GPA was, or what my SAT scores were. These things do predict somewhat your chances of success in college, but not nearly so in life.
That being said I would say the biggest issue I would consider in this day and age with regard to college is the cost. College grads are making more than ever but the economy for white collar workers is less secure than ever as well.
In the 70-80's a lot of blue collar jobs were bid down wage-wise and so the answer to making a decent living was...go to college. College grads had retained their earning power compared to blue collar workers and now more than ever a college degree guaranteed a decent wage.
As a result of so many people feeling college is a good investment, the cost of going to college has been raising faster than the rate of inflation for about 20 years. College is becoming so expensive it might never pay off. Today you see the same thing happening with college/white collar jobs as what happened to blue collar jobs in the 70-80's. You hear of constant pressure from emerging economies in China, India and other countries where there are boatloads of inexpensive, highly, technically trained people willing to work for cheap.
I have seen dozens of college grads come out of school with degrees, but also mountains of student loan debt. In this day and age with this "new" economy, it is something to consider. The national average for student loan debt is about $10-12k. I have seen plenty of people come out with $40k+ of student debt. A friend of mine has her law degree and also doctorate of education from Harvard. She is also chronically underemployed and has mountains of loan payments.
I would recommend attending a reputable school that is also inexpensive (likely a public university).
I would recommend that if you are a very responsible student, (and by the very mature posts here on this board it sounds like many are) you purchase a bit of a fixer house and rent it out to fellow students along with paying your own rent to yourself.
At the end of four or five years, you will have a degree that will get you the job you want. You will have added some sweat equity to your home and gained 20-40k and also some intelligence of dealing with issues that aren't just books. (This truly is invaluable)
Additionally houses appreciate at a rate of $500-1000 a month. At the end of four years that is between 24-48k dollars in your pocket(above the sweat equity) to go buy the house of your dreams in a new town or even in the same town.
Leaving school with little or no debt and from 44k-88k in equity or in the bank will put you in a great position regardless of what position in class you graduated, GPA, etc.
So to sum it up, I have never been asked what my college GPA was, but I have been asked what my credit score is and also how much cash do I have on hand to deal with real life issues. (like house down payments, business loans, you name it)
It sounds like many of you here have been really intelligent about planning for your college years. I hope you put as much thought into the years after college as well. They are the ones that truly count.
for college, go to an enviornment you will like, f_ck seeking out schools because of a name - you're too young to start making sacrafices of your happiness cause you wan't to go to "INSERT_BIG_NAME_SCHOOL"; you can make those sacrafices for the rest of your professional life... be happy now. Second: smoke weed, screw some chicks, and drink too much now... it's a waste to get out of hand when you show up on a college campus... although it aint a bad idea to screw some college chicks when you get to the dorms too
Here's my advice, as a college freshman just finishing my first semester.
Fact: Almost everything that is said about college by everyone before you go there is a complete lie. It doesn't matter if they are faculty of the college, faculty at your high school, counselors, whatever. The only exception is your parents. In some cases, they will remember the ancient times back when they were in college, and they'll actually tell you what it was really like.
That said, I'll move on to my real advice. First of all, I don't think that going to a big-name school is very important for undergrads at least. If you want to go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc etc etc, go for grad school. But don't go to a slacker school for your undergrad years, you won't be able to get to a nicer place later. I am enrolled at the University of Minnesota, which is so big that it pretty much encompasses all sorts of interests. You can take slacker classes, or really tough classes, and the U of MN is good enough that big-name colleges won't laugh at you when you want to apply.
I got a cumulative GPA of around 3.6, an ACT of 31 and an SAT of 1310. I was only 84th percentile due to rabid competition among masochistic students who all wanted 4.0s. I would suggest staying away from that sort of crap - all these kids I knew were working their asses off to get a 4.0, while I relaxed all the time and sailed by with a GPA only slightly worse. As far as I know, unless you're trying to get someplace really nice, you don't need a huge GPA, just a good one.
Anyway, that's all the advice I have time for. Good luck.
EDIT: I just noticed Grad Student's post. He's totally right. Can you believe that when I came to this school they said that you should probably spend two hours of study for every hour of class? Total bullshit!
Averages mean almost nothing but good ones don't hurt when it comes to opening doors. Right now, my province is switching from a 5 year HS program to a 4 year program, and coming September will be the first year of 4 year students and the last year of 5 year HS students. We don't use SAT's in Canada. As you can expect, competition will be twice as tough for the next year, and probably the year after too (as some students give it another go). Cut off averages are the highest since my freshman year. Lots of students will feel lots of pressure. Try to relax. There's a way to work every system. It's the only plausible explanation for my acceptance to a university and eventual completion of not one, but two degrees, and a half-hearted start on a third.
I know a few HS mates who broke their backs in HS, very conscientious students who always did very well, but nonetheless had a lot of trouble in university. As far as I can see, HS performance doesn't seem to be a great indicator of university potential. A lot of people branded as terminal losers (yours truly) are still in the game, and a lot of model students couldn't hack it by 2nd year.
It comes down to a maturity level and an ability to learn and THINK on your own and for yourself.
This is my heart felt suggestion: DO NOT stress yourself to get that dream college. Strive, but don't stress, if you follow my intention. If you don't get what you want, consider applying to part time status and transfering later on, or even re-applying, though I don't neccessarily recommend that. I'm not sure what the US college system allows, but often the info from HS guidance is highly inadequate. Look at schools you like and apply to alternatives that might make a transfer easy. You don't need to jump full-bore into freshman year, you can ease in. A year of acclimation, something at half speed, a year of growing up in other areas -- can be very good for you.
As it stands today, high schools love to scare you; hold your future over your head and all that, but it ain't nothing so dramatic. Keep your witts, slow and steady wins the race. If you're 22 or 23 or 24 when you finish, you've still got the better part of a 40 year career ahead of you.
<strong> Don't worry about grades or SATs, because in my mind those things are purely subjective and discriminate. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Of course they discriminate. They discriminate between people who try and those who don't. Granted there's an innate factor, a great deal of it is effort.
No, not really. SAT's do not measure a person's effort. The measure a multitude of pointless attributes a student might have, like,
Ability to pay for Prep Courses
Ability to do well on Multiple Choice Tests
Ability to memorize prefixes and suffixes, without really gaining a better vocabulary.
Just a few. I am not saying that the SAT's are worthless, but they really do not show a person's effort. My best friend, excellent at taking standardized tests, had a 2.8 gpa, got a 1500 on the SAT's the first time he took them. He put no effort into his school work, and even struggled to understand some subjects. I do not think the SAT's were an indicator of his effort.
<strong>No, not really. SAT's do not measure a person's effort. The measure a multitude of pointless attributes a student might have, like,
Ability to pay for Prep Courses
Ability to do well on Multiple Choice Tests
Ability to memorize prefixes and suffixes, without really gaining a better vocabulary.
Just a few. I am not saying that the SAT's are worthless, but they really do not show a person's effort. My best friend, excellent at taking standardized tests, had a 2.8 gpa, got a 1500 on the SAT's the first time he took them. He put no effort into his school work, and even struggled to understand some subjects. I do not think the SAT's were an indicator of his effort.</strong><hr></blockquote>
hey i didnt know you knew me <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
heh actually, aside from the understanding of school subjects (im usually pretty good with that) that is an accurate description of me <img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" />
<strong>My best friend, excellent at taking standardized tests, had a 2.8 gpa, got a 1500 on the SAT's the first time he took them. He put no effort into his school work, and even struggled to understand some subjects.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I got that beat. I have a friend that is getting a 2.0 in high school and got a 1560 on the SAT!!!
"Granted there's an innate factor, a great deal of it is effort. "
two sentences: this was the second.
Personally, I've never been very good at school work. School work is mostly a measure of propositional and auditory thought. People who are intensely visual, like me, have to work a lot harder to get the same place, GPA-wise, but we do seem to do well on standardized tests for whatever reason. Analyzing mathematics, analogies, reading comp, etc in a purely visual context is very rapid. Sorting it out logically (propositionally) is much more time intense.
Getting a 91 in high scool (Highest GPA was 95) was a task for me, yet SAT's were always cake. For some of my friends with 94's and 95's, the inverse was the case.
So the combination of SAT and GPA is usually a good indication of where you lie, innately and as a measure of effort.
Did I even get a 70% in HS? Mebbe not, but then again, I might have gone to half my classes and possibly submitted some of my term papers. Ah, those sweet slacker days...
I don't think 90's or high test scores amount to much, at least not until you get into tests for very specific disciplines, MCAT, GRE, LSAT and the like.
I pretty much mailed it in throughout HS and most of my BA too. But I think the difference might be that even as I shirked most of my classes I kept learning about the world beyond beer and backseats. Possibly because I couldn'e get any beer and no-one would get into a backseat with me! <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> A rebel nerd, is still a nerd, iGuess.
<strong>for college, go to an enviornment you will like, f_ck seeking out schools because of a name - you're too young to start making sacrafices of your happiness cause you wan't to go to "INSERT_BIG_NAME_SCHOOL"; you can make those sacrafices for the rest of your professional life... be happy now. Second: smoke weed, screw some chicks, and drink too much now... it's a waste to get out of hand when you show up on a college campus... although it aint a bad idea to screw some college chicks when you get to the dorms too </strong><hr></blockquote>
now this is a man who knows what he's talking about.
life is supposed to be fun. people should remember that. cuz if life aint fun, then why bother? hs should be all about gettin it on and gettin hi when you cant stick it in someone. but then again, tha shit is still shitbags of fun in college.
one thing that i have learned so far in this whole undergrad game (i'm currently a junior at boston university) is the importance of keeping your options open. what you're into now isn't necessarily what you'll be into later (and of course, what you major in may not have anything to do with your eventual career).
my university has a wide array of concentrations which has proved invaluable. i went into college pretty gungo-ho about comp sci. however, after two semesters i decided that while i liked to program, i didn't want to do it for the rest of my life (to the disapointment of my father). i stumbled into art history through my love of furniture (yes, furniture) and now i am a very happy art history major and japanese minor.
i would have been screwed if i chose a university that had a great comp sci program, but was poor in other areas. of course, i didn't really have a choice... BU was the only place that accepted me... incidentally, its by the museum of fine arts, which has a great collection of japanese art. one of the best in the country, i believe. it all worked out for the best.
i'm doing the college application process RIGHT NOW and its hell, for me.
My school is a good school, one of the top catholic high schools in NYC but, well, they don't really send many kids away or to big name schools.... most of em just go to SUNY and CUNY schools and maybe iona, marist, manhattan, holy cross, etc. So its been hard for me because I DO want to go away and despite not really having a high average and outstanding standardized test scores I am trying to make Ivy leagues and other high profile private schools.
It's been the most stressful start of a school year i have ever experienced. i have a headache everyday now.
advice based on what i didn't do?
1. take SAT IIs early... like freshman, sophomore, junior years.... i didn't and had to take 3 yesterday and I bombed them all because with everything else going on i was onloy able to open a review book friday night
2. get involved with community service... i have none... it sucks but i never really had a chance to either
3. take AP classes.... as many as you can. I have taken the maximum i can in my school for me, and that's just TWO. if i had had slightly better grades i could have taken 4 max in my school. people i know are taking 4 in one year!
4. work on apps in the summer if possible and in september and october.... i have to do way too much work now and come down to the wire on every app since i left them all till now
I'm reaching to high probably, especially for the Ivy leagues I'm applying to and Stanford. Stanford is where I want to go, my "dream school". My sat score is low for them and my school average is low for them but I'm hoping for the best, and hoping that me being in their summer program helps a little. we'll see.
now i have to go do my USC art portfolio for the architecture department, part II of their app, and also start work on my stanford app. sigh.....
<strong>i'm doing the college application process RIGHT NOW and its hell, for me.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
applying to colleges now? whats with the stanford web page then? i like the photos from the peninsula creamery, makes me hungry and homesick. and,uh its dark, but... is that matt guy in those pics matt person by any chance?
Apply to many schools, spread it out. Make sure you would be happy at any of the schools you apply to. Take tours, talk to students. See the campus--what are the students doing, the ones that are just hanging around, what do they seem like, are they happy?
What about climate? Can you deal with a school that has snow for six months (can you deal without it--that was a decision I had to make.)
Apply to 6 to 9 schools, generally, 2-3 "safeties" schools that you everything would point that you'd get in. Make sure all of your figures are top 75%. 2-3 "good fits" schools that if things go well you'd get in, your scores are right between 75% and 25%. 2-3 "reach" schools, these are the ivys and, these are MIT or CMU-CS, chances are you're scores will be about the 25% range.
Have fun with college application season. It is really exciting to see where you're going to end up for the next four years, where you're going to be. Enjoy it.
My story:
I'm a sophomore at The George Washington University, a CS major. I'm from a very small town in wisconsin. Most of the people in my school either didn't go to college or went the local state school. I wanted, more than anything to get out. I did it kind of wrong. I applied to many reach schools (3.6, 1250--taken only once and without a prep course) out of a total of 6 schools I was only accepted to 2, and it left me with a rather limited set of options in the spring.
My only problem with GW is that they don't really take their CS department seriously, whereas I came expecting students and faculty who really wanted to do cool things with computers, many of them don't seem to feel that way.
On a side note: For example, I switched to OSX because it seemed to have amazing potential (and it has filled most of my expectations). But so far my attempts to even try to get my CS friends to switch have been to no avail...none of them are willing to really even try something new...it is kind of sad (but hey, Microsoft will have some more drones in five years...)
Sorry that went a little off topic. Anyway, enjoy it, leave yourself with lets of choices.
Comments
<strong>and what the hell does art every do for progress...?</strong><hr></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/codex/"; target="_blank">Philistine</a>.
[ 12-04-2002: Message edited by: Belle ]</p>
<strong>
See what I mean. You people are so cute
was i serious...or not...? <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Well as a older college grad let me put some things in perspective for you.
First I am coming up on my ten year anniversay of graduation from college. I went to CSULB, an inexpensive state university.
In job interviews, I have never been asked where my degree was from, what my GPA was, or what my SAT scores were. These things do predict somewhat your chances of success in college, but not nearly so in life.
That being said I would say the biggest issue I would consider in this day and age with regard to college is the cost. College grads are making more than ever but the economy for white collar workers is less secure than ever as well.
In the 70-80's a lot of blue collar jobs were bid down wage-wise and so the answer to making a decent living was...go to college. College grads had retained their earning power compared to blue collar workers and now more than ever a college degree guaranteed a decent wage.
As a result of so many people feeling college is a good investment, the cost of going to college has been raising faster than the rate of inflation for about 20 years. College is becoming so expensive it might never pay off. Today you see the same thing happening with college/white collar jobs as what happened to blue collar jobs in the 70-80's. You hear of constant pressure from emerging economies in China, India and other countries where there are boatloads of inexpensive, highly, technically trained people willing to work for cheap.
I have seen dozens of college grads come out of school with degrees, but also mountains of student loan debt. In this day and age with this "new" economy, it is something to consider. The national average for student loan debt is about $10-12k. I have seen plenty of people come out with $40k+ of student debt. A friend of mine has her law degree and also doctorate of education from Harvard. She is also chronically underemployed and has mountains of loan payments.
I would recommend attending a reputable school that is also inexpensive (likely a public university).
I would recommend that if you are a very responsible student, (and by the very mature posts here on this board it sounds like many are) you purchase a bit of a fixer house and rent it out to fellow students along with paying your own rent to yourself.
At the end of four or five years, you will have a degree that will get you the job you want. You will have added some sweat equity to your home and gained 20-40k and also some intelligence of dealing with issues that aren't just books. (This truly is invaluable)
Additionally houses appreciate at a rate of $500-1000 a month. At the end of four years that is between 24-48k dollars in your pocket(above the sweat equity) to go buy the house of your dreams in a new town or even in the same town.
Leaving school with little or no debt and from 44k-88k in equity or in the bank will put you in a great position regardless of what position in class you graduated, GPA, etc.
So to sum it up, I have never been asked what my college GPA was, but I have been asked what my credit score is and also how much cash do I have on hand to deal with real life issues. (like house down payments, business loans, you name it)
It sounds like many of you here have been really intelligent about planning for your college years. I hope you put as much thought into the years after college as well. They are the ones that truly count.
Nick
Although I have a full scholarship right now, I plan to go to law school which means $100k in debt. Kind of depressing thought, isn't it?
Fact: Almost everything that is said about college by everyone before you go there is a complete lie. It doesn't matter if they are faculty of the college, faculty at your high school, counselors, whatever. The only exception is your parents. In some cases, they will remember the ancient times back when they were in college, and they'll actually tell you what it was really like.
That said, I'll move on to my real advice. First of all, I don't think that going to a big-name school is very important for undergrads at least. If you want to go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc etc etc, go for grad school. But don't go to a slacker school for your undergrad years, you won't be able to get to a nicer place later. I am enrolled at the University of Minnesota, which is so big that it pretty much encompasses all sorts of interests. You can take slacker classes, or really tough classes, and the U of MN is good enough that big-name colleges won't laugh at you when you want to apply.
I got a cumulative GPA of around 3.6, an ACT of 31 and an SAT of 1310. I was only 84th percentile due to rabid competition among masochistic students who all wanted 4.0s. I would suggest staying away from that sort of crap - all these kids I knew were working their asses off to get a 4.0, while I relaxed all the time and sailed by with a GPA only slightly worse. As far as I know, unless you're trying to get someplace really nice, you don't need a huge GPA, just a good one.
Anyway, that's all the advice I have time for. Good luck.
EDIT: I just noticed Grad Student's post. He's totally right. Can you believe that when I came to this school they said that you should probably spend two hours of study for every hour of class? Total bullshit!
[ 12-04-2002: Message edited by: Luca Rescigno ]</p>
I know a few HS mates who broke their backs in HS, very conscientious students who always did very well, but nonetheless had a lot of trouble in university. As far as I can see, HS performance doesn't seem to be a great indicator of university potential. A lot of people branded as terminal losers (yours truly) are still in the game, and a lot of model students couldn't hack it by 2nd year.
It comes down to a maturity level and an ability to learn and THINK on your own and for yourself.
This is my heart felt suggestion: DO NOT stress yourself to get that dream college. Strive, but don't stress, if you follow my intention. If you don't get what you want, consider applying to part time status and transfering later on, or even re-applying, though I don't neccessarily recommend that. I'm not sure what the US college system allows, but often the info from HS guidance is highly inadequate. Look at schools you like and apply to alternatives that might make a transfer easy. You don't need to jump full-bore into freshman year, you can ease in. A year of acclimation, something at half speed, a year of growing up in other areas -- can be very good for you.
As it stands today, high schools love to scare you; hold your future over your head and all that, but it ain't nothing so dramatic. Keep your witts, slow and steady wins the race. If you're 22 or 23 or 24 when you finish, you've still got the better part of a 40 year career ahead of you.
[ 12-04-2002: Message edited by: Matsu ]</p>
<strong> Don't worry about grades or SATs, because in my mind those things are purely subjective and discriminate. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Of course they discriminate. They discriminate between people who try and those who don't. Granted there's an innate factor, a great deal of it is effort.
Ability to pay for Prep Courses
Ability to do well on Multiple Choice Tests
Ability to memorize prefixes and suffixes, without really gaining a better vocabulary.
Just a few. I am not saying that the SAT's are worthless, but they really do not show a person's effort. My best friend, excellent at taking standardized tests, had a 2.8 gpa, got a 1500 on the SAT's the first time he took them. He put no effort into his school work, and even struggled to understand some subjects. I do not think the SAT's were an indicator of his effort.
<strong>No, not really. SAT's do not measure a person's effort. The measure a multitude of pointless attributes a student might have, like,
Ability to pay for Prep Courses
Ability to do well on Multiple Choice Tests
Ability to memorize prefixes and suffixes, without really gaining a better vocabulary.
Just a few. I am not saying that the SAT's are worthless, but they really do not show a person's effort. My best friend, excellent at taking standardized tests, had a 2.8 gpa, got a 1500 on the SAT's the first time he took them. He put no effort into his school work, and even struggled to understand some subjects. I do not think the SAT's were an indicator of his effort.</strong><hr></blockquote>
hey i didnt know you knew me
heh actually, aside from the understanding of school subjects (im usually pretty good with that) that is an accurate description of me <img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" />
<strong>My best friend, excellent at taking standardized tests, had a 2.8 gpa, got a 1500 on the SAT's the first time he took them. He put no effort into his school work, and even struggled to understand some subjects.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I got that beat. I have a friend that is getting a 2.0 in high school and got a 1560 on the SAT!!!
two sentences: this was the second.
Personally, I've never been very good at school work. School work is mostly a measure of propositional and auditory thought. People who are intensely visual, like me, have to work a lot harder to get the same place, GPA-wise, but we do seem to do well on standardized tests for whatever reason. Analyzing mathematics, analogies, reading comp, etc in a purely visual context is very rapid. Sorting it out logically (propositionally) is much more time intense.
Getting a 91 in high scool (Highest GPA was 95) was a task for me, yet SAT's were always cake. For some of my friends with 94's and 95's, the inverse was the case.
So the combination of SAT and GPA is usually a good indication of where you lie, innately and as a measure of effort.
I don't think 90's or high test scores amount to much, at least not until you get into tests for very specific disciplines, MCAT, GRE, LSAT and the like.
I pretty much mailed it in throughout HS and most of my BA too. But I think the difference might be that even as I shirked most of my classes I kept learning about the world beyond beer and backseats. Possibly because I couldn'e get any beer and no-one would get into a backseat with me! <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> A rebel nerd, is still a nerd, iGuess.
<strong>for college, go to an enviornment you will like, f_ck seeking out schools because of a name - you're too young to start making sacrafices of your happiness cause you wan't to go to "INSERT_BIG_NAME_SCHOOL"; you can make those sacrafices for the rest of your professional life... be happy now. Second: smoke weed, screw some chicks, and drink too much now... it's a waste to get out of hand when you show up on a college campus... although it aint a bad idea to screw some college chicks when you get to the dorms too
now this is a man who knows what he's talking about.
life is supposed to be fun. people should remember that. cuz if life aint fun, then why bother? hs should be all about gettin it on and gettin hi when you cant stick it in someone. but then again, tha shit is still shitbags of fun in college.
one thing that i have learned so far in this whole undergrad game (i'm currently a junior at boston university) is the importance of keeping your options open. what you're into now isn't necessarily what you'll be into later (and of course, what you major in may not have anything to do with your eventual career).
my university has a wide array of concentrations which has proved invaluable. i went into college pretty gungo-ho about comp sci. however, after two semesters i decided that while i liked to program, i didn't want to do it for the rest of my life (to the disapointment of my father). i stumbled into art history through my love of furniture (yes, furniture) and now i am a very happy art history major and japanese minor.
i would have been screwed if i chose a university that had a great comp sci program, but was poor in other areas. of course, i didn't really have a choice... BU was the only place that accepted me... incidentally, its by the museum of fine arts, which has a great collection of japanese art. one of the best in the country, i believe. it all worked out for the best.
play a lot of "bong tonk"...can't remember a single rule, but man we had fun for hours at that game almost everyday
drink a lot
form a band
drink a lot
play more bong tonk
change your major frequently...started in zoology, then theater and dance, then general studies
drop out after 3 years with about 14 credits
wait three years working retail or maybe a bank teller job
fake a degree on your computer...make it something good...like lawyer or doctor
work the next 20 years at a university hopsital pulling in good dough
drink a lot
wait for your kids to get old enough to re-teach you the rules of bong tonk....
g
[ 12-06-2002: Message edited by: thegelding ]</p>
My school is a good school, one of the top catholic high schools in NYC but, well, they don't really send many kids away or to big name schools.... most of em just go to SUNY and CUNY schools and maybe iona, marist, manhattan, holy cross, etc. So its been hard for me because I DO want to go away and despite not really having a high average and outstanding standardized test scores I am trying to make Ivy leagues and other high profile private schools.
It's been the most stressful start of a school year i have ever experienced. i have a headache everyday now.
advice based on what i didn't do?
1. take SAT IIs early... like freshman, sophomore, junior years.... i didn't and had to take 3 yesterday and I bombed them all because with everything else going on i was onloy able to open a review book friday night
2. get involved with community service... i have none... it sucks but i never really had a chance to either
3. take AP classes.... as many as you can. I have taken the maximum i can in my school for me, and that's just TWO. if i had had slightly better grades i could have taken 4 max in my school. people i know are taking 4 in one year!
4. work on apps in the summer if possible and in september and october.... i have to do way too much work now and come down to the wire on every app since i left them all till now
I'm reaching to high probably, especially for the Ivy leagues I'm applying to and Stanford. Stanford is where I want to go, my "dream school". My sat score is low for them and my school average is low for them but I'm hoping for the best, and hoping that me being in their summer program helps a little. we'll see.
now i have to go do my USC art portfolio for the architecture department, part II of their app, and also start work on my stanford app. sigh.....
<strong>i'm doing the college application process RIGHT NOW and its hell, for me.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
applying to colleges now? whats with the stanford web page then? i like the photos from the peninsula creamery, makes me hungry and homesick.
Apply to many schools, spread it out. Make sure you would be happy at any of the schools you apply to. Take tours, talk to students. See the campus--what are the students doing, the ones that are just hanging around, what do they seem like, are they happy?
What about climate? Can you deal with a school that has snow for six months (can you deal without it--that was a decision I had to make.)
Apply to 6 to 9 schools, generally, 2-3 "safeties" schools that you everything would point that you'd get in. Make sure all of your figures are top 75%. 2-3 "good fits" schools that if things go well you'd get in, your scores are right between 75% and 25%. 2-3 "reach" schools, these are the ivys and, these are MIT or CMU-CS, chances are you're scores will be about the 25% range.
Have fun with college application season. It is really exciting to see where you're going to end up for the next four years, where you're going to be. Enjoy it.
My story:
I'm a sophomore at The George Washington University, a CS major. I'm from a very small town in wisconsin. Most of the people in my school either didn't go to college or went the local state school. I wanted, more than anything to get out. I did it kind of wrong. I applied to many reach schools (3.6, 1250--taken only once and without a prep course) out of a total of 6 schools I was only accepted to 2, and it left me with a rather limited set of options in the spring.
My only problem with GW is that they don't really take their CS department seriously, whereas I came expecting students and faculty who really wanted to do cool things with computers, many of them don't seem to feel that way.
On a side note: For example, I switched to OSX because it seemed to have amazing potential (and it has filled most of my expectations). But so far my attempts to even try to get my CS friends to switch have been to no avail...none of them are willing to really even try something new...it is kind of sad (but hey, Microsoft will have some more drones in five years...)
Sorry that went a little off topic. Anyway, enjoy it, leave yourself with lets of choices.