High School/College Advice

[Timepass]

Hey. I also graduated sophomore year in high school this year, and I too have to choice of having only one more year of school. I rejected this. Why? Because I want to get into the highest college avaliable. I have a 4.1 gpa like you also, and I have a SAT score of 2100. (which I have plenty of time to get up if I take 2 more years of high school)

You said you wanted to apply to these colleges:

Penn State
Berkley
UCLA
Pitt
Penn (looonnnnggggg shot)
UC Santa Barbra (film/photo route)
Miami (possible internship with ad agency in Miami)

with a 4.1 berkley and penn and even UCLA are long shots. (People who apply to these schools get 4.3+, but if you get a high SAT score, anything can happen ) I am not familiar with Pitt and Miami, but I am sure you could make it into UCSB.

High school is fun. enjoy it while you can.

Like I said earily collage dont care about the + grades you get for you AP class. taht 4.3 at best is a 4.0. They dont want the grade adjusted because all high school do it differently.

For example the HS I want to our GPA would based out of 100. the AP class only gave us a +5 points to our GP. Other school it was a letter grade.
It only useful for class rank. For colleges THEY DONT CARE AND DONT WANT IT. They want to see you GPA with out it being adjusted since it makes things a least a little more even across the board.

Yeah they are going to look at what you took and see how you did and compare you to others who took the sam class but they are not going to look at the grade adjustments because it not a fair way of doing it because every HS in the nation does it differently.

 

[sushi]

Stay in school and enjoy your time as a teenager.

It will also give you more time to determine the path for you to take in the future.

Besides advanced studies, look at extra curricular activities with emphasis on leadership and personal development. For some institutions, these can be very important admission considerations in addition to your grades (GPA).

 

[xparaparafreakx]

Stay in school all four years UNLESS you do not fit in with your class and have more friends that are upper classmen which then you should go ahead and graduate ealry.

 

[steve jr.]

stay in school! i don't know where you are from, but take post secondary classes. i'm in ohio and we have what is called the post secondary education program where high school students can take college classes for free at participating colleges/universities, and it is 100% free as long as you pass the class (and in some cases are easier then AP classes of which i took 2 this year). i already have 12 credit hours, and they are guarenteed to transfer to any school that i decide to go to (and since i start college this fall, they already have my transcript of college courses, and i have my 12 hours).

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

Finish early - that looks really good, and you still have a year to decide on college.

See I know colleges probably appreciate him finishing early, and I'm sure that he'd have plenty of time to decide on college...

But High School isn't all about the education. Trust me, I've taken plenty of AP classes and graduated with high rank and all that crap, but when I look back at my high school career I don't recall the awards or the banquets, I recall the fun times I had with my friends, the awkward dates I had with girls I liked, etc.

You need to attend four years of high school - not only will colleges appreciate the fact that you took more AP classes (and are thus more prepared), but you'll appreciate it further on down the road.

Good luck - you sound like a smart kid, so you'll make the right decision regardless. (Oh, btw, don't listen to iGary - he has no idea what he's talking about )

 

[sushi]

But High School isn't all about the education. Trust me, I've taken plenty of AP classes and graduated with high rank and all that crap, but when I look back at my high school career I don't recall the awards or the banquets, I recall the fun times I had with my friends, the awkward dates I had with girls I liked, etc.

Well said.

As my uncle used to say, go to school but don't let it interfere with your education.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

Like I said earily collage dont care about the + grades you get for you AP class. taht 4.3 at best is a 4.0. They dont want the grade adjusted because all high school do it differently.

For example the HS I want to our GPA would based out of 100. the AP class only gave us a +5 points to our GP. Other school it was a letter grade.
It only useful for class rank. For colleges THEY DONT CARE AND DONT WANT IT. They want to see you GPA with out it being adjusted since it makes things a least a little more even across the board.

Yeah they are going to look at what you took and see how you did and compare you to others who took the sam class but they are not going to look at the grade adjustments because it not a fair way of doing it because every HS in the nation does it differently.

EXACTLY!!!! I cannot emphasize this enough - colleges could not give a damn less about one's weighted GPA.

They do, however, care about class rank - which is based off of weighted GPA.

I was the Student Body President last year, and my class was split fairly evenly on this issue - should kids in AP classes get a higher weight than they do if they take regular classes?

Personally, I say no. The motivation behind taking an AP class is: taking a class you're interested in, preparing for college, and ultimately getting college credit.

The motivation should not be getting a weighted GPA - kids who take AP classes for the weighted GPA always do terrible on the AP tests, and it drives me NUTS because colleges disregard weighted GPAs anyway.

At my school, AP classes receive a 6.0 weight, whereas Honors classes receive a 5.0 weight. I KID YOU NOT - I graduated with above a 5.0. And you know what Colorado School of Mines did? Absolutely nothing - my scholarship was based solely on ACT scores, and they completely disregarded my meaningless GPA.

GOOD FOR THE SCHOOL OF MINES. (sorry I'm so intense - I've spent many hours pushing this issue...it drives me crazy!)

 

[adk]

I have no idea why you're so eager to escape the easy ride that is high school/college. Sit back and enjoy it, you don't want to have a cubicle any sooner than you absolutely have to.

 

[CubaTBird]

Well, I have a pretty important descion to make by monday, and what a better place to ask than MacRumors!


Ok so I just finished my sophmore year in highschool. I'm in the top 10% of my class, with a GPA around 4.1. I took my SATs, but haven't got any results back yet. Right now I have the option to skip my junior year of high school and graduate next year.

I have no idea what to do.

If I decide to graduate early, I have to take 2 classes this summer. One class is at my local college, and the other is at my high school. I'm not really looking foward to these, but I'll take them if it's the right thing to do.

So I'm not sure what would look better to a college admissions director and future job employers;

graduate high school in 3 years
or
graduate high school in 4 years, with a lot of AP classes my senior year

I figured there a lot of members that are already in college and others that are already established in their careers. I'm thinking about either going into bussiness or dentistry, but lately I've had this crazy passion for film/photography production, and am really enjoying it.

So anyways, I need to decide by monday (first summer class starts) and right now I have no idea.

Any advice would be awesome!

Jake

just do it.. graduate early. you have already proven yourself, you have no need to stay in high school one more year. and plus you will get a leg up in college by getting there a year early before most (and possibly finishing younger than most)

 

[WildCowboy]

They do, however, care about class rank - which is based off of weighted GPA.

The number of high schools that give class rank for their students is now under 40%...it's not a valid stat for colleges any more.

And because they different schools weight honors and AP courses differently (some make no distinction while others give ridiculous amounts of weighting), colleges have their own weighting schemes...they'll look at your individual unweighted grades and apply their own weights to them to find a standard GPA to compare against other applicants from other high schools. They will also look at the high school to evaluate the quality of the school and thus get an indication of the relative value of the grades earned by students at different schools.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

The number of high schools that give class rank for their students is now under 40%...it's not a valid stat for colleges any more.

And because they different schools weight honors and AP courses differently (some make no distinction while others give ridiculous amounts of weighting), colleges have their own weighting schemes...they'll look at your individual unweighted grades and apply their own weights to them to find a standard GPA to compare against other applicants from other high schools. They will also look at the high school to evaluate the quality of the school and thus get an indication of the relative value of the grades earned by students at different schools.

I did not know that - good to know

Mines, CU, CSU, and DU did look at Class Rank - and those are the only schools I'd even think about applying to in CO - but it varies by region more than it varies locally.

Sorry!

 

[sushi]

I have no idea why you're so eager to escape the easy ride that is high school/college. Sit back and enjoy it, you don't want to have a cubicle any sooner than you absolutely have to.

Hey, what's wrong with "Cubicle Life"?

 

[mariahlullaby]

The number of high schools that give class rank for their students is now under 40%...it's not a valid stat for colleges any more.

And because they different schools weight honors and AP courses differently (some make no distinction while others give ridiculous amounts of weighting), colleges have their own weighting schemes...they'll look at your individual unweighted grades and apply their own weights to them to find a standard GPA to compare against other applicants from other high schools. They will also look at the high school to evaluate the quality of the school and thus get an indication of the relative value of the grades earned by students at different schools.

Colleges do care. While what you said about refiguring GPA is definitely true, they wouldn't ask for it if they didn't care. If you're in the top 10 of your graduating, especially 1 or 2, that will help. But you are right that class rank is on a downward trend and doesn't have much weight on its own. Colleges do care if you are in the top 10%, 50%, etc. as it gives validation to your GPA (as in you have a 3.5 but are in the top 1% of your class versus someone with a 4.0 in the top 30%). And colleges care most about your workload; they want to know that you're capable of challenging yourself and succeeding, not getting great grades in classes below your intelligence level.

Again, don't graduate early. Why? Colleges, employers, etc. won't care at all. They'd rather see someone who has accomplished great things and succeeded -- proven examples of ways they will succeed at their workplace or school -- more than they would like to bet on someone who has one less year of experience under his belt, who is competing against people who have had a whole extra year of accomplishment, and who only MIGHT be better at succeeding but has yet to prove it.

 

[thedude110]

I have no idea why you're so eager to escape the easy ride that is high school/college. Sit back and enjoy it, you don't want to have a cubicle any sooner than you absolutely have to.

Life is hell for high schoolers. You don't understand yourself, your hormones are all over the place, and, in good districts, expectations are almost always higher than you can attain.

Such that:

High school is hard. Life in a cubicle is hard.

All is suffering, etc.

Go Brewers.

 

[rhsgolfer33]

Life is hell for high schoolers. You don't understand yourself, your hormones are all over the place, and, in good districts, expectations are almost always higher than you can attain.

Such that:

High school is hard. Life in a cubicle is hard.

All is suffering, etc.

Go Brewers.

This made me laugh so hard, lol.

High school for me was easy, it was boring, I didnt care and I was lazy as hell. 95% of the students were immature idiots and couldnt pay attention for more than 5 minutes, even if the teacher was great and the material was interesting. For the first 2 years Id hardly raise my hand at all, but then I got annoyed by all the waiting around for the 95% of kids who either had ADD, didnt care, or were just plain dumb, so I started raising my hand alot of the time to answer the last 2 years. High school students were annoying(although High School overall was fun), I just hope going to a smaller private college and the fact that you actually have to want to be in school to go to college will help weed out some of the immature idoits that were in high school.

Oh, and go Redsox!

 

[homerjward]

Life is hell for high schoolers. You don't understand yourself, your hormones are all over the place, and, in good districts, expectations are almost always higher than you can attain.

Such that:

High school is hard. Life in a cubicle is hard.

All is suffering, etc.

Go Brewers.

as a high school student, i disagree. maybe my district's not a good one (NEISD in San Antonio, TX if anyone knows [of] it), or maybe my state's more backward than i think, but i find the academic expectations to be ridiculously, disappointingly low. i'm looking forward to next year when i'll be taking a lot of ap classes that hopefully will be challenging/interesting. and standardized testing is just the same. first of all, they're easy, and on top of that you only need something like a 55% or 60% to pass most sections of the TAKS (i dont believe any sections are >=70%). they're dumbing down the curriculum so the lowest common denominator can easily pass. it's retarded. no child left behind means no child gets ahead. the reason our district doesnt subsidize ap test costs? they dont want gifted students to have opportunities less gifted students dont have. this means i'll be paying something like $900 to take ap tests (12 tests at 75 each)

socially, i agree. it's hard

and maybe it's different other places.

 

[rhsgolfer33]

as a high school student, i disagree. maybe my district's not a good one (NEISD in San Antonio, TX if anyone knows [of] it), or maybe my state's more backward than i think, but i find the academic expectations to be ridiculously, disappointingly low. i'm looking forward to next year when i'll be taking a lot of ap classes that hopefully will be challenging/interesting. and standardized testing is just the same. first of all, they're easy, and on top of that you only need something like a 55% or 60% to pass most sections of the TAKS (i dont believe any sections are >=70%). they're dumbing down the curriculum so the lowest common denominator can easily pass. it's retarded. no child left behind means no child gets ahead. the reason our district doesnt subsidize ap test costs? they dont want gifted students to have opportunities less gifted students dont have. this means i'll be paying something like $900 to take ap tests (12 tests at 75 each)

socially, i agree. it's hard

and maybe it's different other places.

I agree. Standardized tests in CA are rediculously easy. Our high school exit exam is a joke, but everyone screams that it's racist and what not, honestly, if you cant pass it you shouldnt be graduating, take it as the truth from someone whos taken the test. I could have passed the test easily in 8th grade.

I blame the dumbing down of standards and curriculm not only on the politicians(both left and right) but also on parents and the kids. It seems to me that there's no emphasis on schooling, its more about a job, sports, and having fun. Alot of parents now days seem to either not care what their kids are doing in school or just dont know how to lay down the law. What's even more distressing is most of the kids dont seem to care either, I mean we had 600 kids in my graduating class and to get in the top 200 you barely had to have a 3.0 gpa, the majorit of kids had a in the 2.99-2.0 or lower range, thats scary. The parents and immature kids are a large part to blame in addition to this NCLB law.

As for the AP Tests, Im on the schools side with this one, with the tight budgets they already have, having to pay for AP tests for students would only make it tighter. Besides, $900 for 12 AP Tests is almost what one unit costs at my college, a 4 unit class is around $2900.

 

[homerjward]

As for the AP Tests, Im on the schools side with this one, with the tight budgets they already have, having to pay for AP tests for students would only make it tighter. Besides, $900 for 12 AP Tests is almost what one unit costs at my college, a 4 unit class is around $2900.

i agree that it would cost them a lot of money, and it's probably best that they dont--it's just the reason they cite i find ridiculous.

 

[Timepass]

See I know colleges probably appreciate him finishing early, and I'm sure that he'd have plenty of time to decide on college...

But High School isn't all about the education. Trust me, I've taken plenty of AP classes and graduated with high rank and all that crap, but when I look back at my high school career I don't recall the awards or the banquets, I recall the fun times I had with my friends, the awkward dates I had with girls I liked, etc.

You need to attend four years of high school - not only will colleges appreciate the fact that you took more AP classes (and are thus more prepared), but you'll appreciate it further on down the road.

Good luck - you sound like a smart kid, so you'll make the right decision regardless. (Oh, btw, don't listen to iGary - he has no idea what he's talking about )

Exactly. yeah I was among the kids who took harder class. And yeah I knew I took them but my memories of HS are of the people i ment and my friends. I hardly rememeber the awards banques. Heck the only reason I rememeber 2 of them very well was not because of the banques but some over this surrounding it. The only speech I really rememeber is one that stuck home to me and the one I gave because of the emotional meaning behind it. (only reaon I really rememeber the banque much. I dont remember what it look like but I rememeber being with my friends and enjoying my time with them. I rememeber the things I did with my friends more than anything else. I dont remember the classes. I dont rememeber the marching contest. I dont really remember the football games.

I rememeber the times with my friends and enjoying myself not the classes

For me my last 2 years of HS where the best 2 years of it and I wouldnt trade those years for anything. Are they the best 2 years of my life HELL NO. there was a lot of stuff from those 2 years I regret and wish I never did. Some thing I wish I did but I wouldnt trade thsoe 2 years. But they are imporant years of my left and from the friends I made during that time now here 5 years after I graduted from HS I still keep in close touch with 2 of them. College is a different world and right now you have it easy.

My advice for you on you Sr. Enjoy it. Take it easy, take light classes and really just enjoy it. Yeah I took some hard classes my sr and yeah I took some complete blow off classes as well. Just relax and enjoy you last year hanging out with your friends and taking that extra time in dealing with colleges and not having to worry about school.

Heck I have 3 semster left at college right now. I alreayd planed my last sesmter to be very very light just tieing up loose ends. This is giving me more time to deal with job interviews and all that stuff. It the smarter move. You should do the same in dealing with colleges

 

[sushi]

From the discussion, I am getting the feeling that HS used to be much more difficult. It seems that the current AP courses were like the standard level in the old days.

...and the comments about the exams. Wow!

I sure hope that I am wrong...

 

[jamesi]

Well, I have a pretty important descion to make by monday, and what a better place to ask than MacRumors!


Ok so I just finished my sophmore year in highschool. I'm in the top 10% of my class, with a GPA around 4.1. I took my SATs, but haven't got any results back yet. Right now I have the option to skip my junior year of high school and graduate next year.

I have no idea what to do.

If I decide to graduate early, I have to take 2 classes this summer. One class is at my local college, and the other is at my high school. I'm not really looking foward to these, but I'll take them if it's the right thing to do.

So I'm not sure what would look better to a college admissions director and future job employers;

graduate high school in 3 years
or
graduate high school in 4 years, with a lot of AP classes my senior year

I figured there a lot of members that are already in college and others that are already established in their careers. I'm thinking about either going into bussiness or dentistry, but lately I've had this crazy passion for film/photography production, and am really enjoying it.

So anyways, I need to decide by monday (first summer class starts) and right now I have no idea.

Any advice would be awesome!

Jake

i would say either go to college early, or take that extra year in highschool. dont take a year off, you want to give the impression you are working hard to get ahead to take more classes, not so that you can have a nice vacation

 

[Boggle]

Is boarding school an option? The course work is much more challenging, there's all the fundemental social developments of college, the age group is closer. Perhaps for the OP, this might be a best of both worlds scenario. I know that I had a fantastic 4 years, and college was an easy transition. Just putting it out there for the machine's consideration.

 

[scem0]

I'd do one of two things:

1) Finish early, take a year off between HS and College to decide for sure which field you want to go into - be it dental school, art school for photography, etc. By the way, I went to Parsons School of Design in New York City for a short time when I thought I wanted to get into design and I thought it was an amazing school - I highly recommend that you check them out.

2) Complete high school at the normal pace. College is hard enough as is, no need to rush into it risking not being ready. You might not be ready socially, you might not be ready academically, you might not be ready directionally.

I wasn't ready directionally. I thought I wanted to go into web design/computer related design, started school and discovered that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life behind a computer screen. It's been a pain in the ass trying to transfer colleges, not to mention a pain in the pocket book. And I graduated HS in 4 years. So, I can only imagine how directionless I'd be if I had graduated in 3 years. At our young age a year changes a lot.

So, taking your time is never a bad idea .

Good luck!

e

 

[rontheancient]

How are your extracurriculars? If you dont have much of a record in those, then I suggest that you stay in. It looks like you have taken care of the academics and it is good to keep that trend and develop your EC's in junior and senior year. Colleges like UCLA and Berkeley like well rounded students, those with exceptional records in both EC's and academics. My class Valedictorian and Salutetorian (sp?) both had 4.6 GPA's and both applied to Stanford, but the difference is that the Valedictorian was president of three clubs and in the dance team for three years and got in. The Salutetorian was in the Badminton team for two years and in AcaDec. He was rejected.

On the other hand, if your EC's are in great shape, then I suggest that you move on to college.

 

[ChrisBrightwell]

Right now I have the option to skip my junior year of high school and graduate next year.

I have no idea what to do.

Real life can wait. Enjoy high school while it lasts.