I think the more choices you have the better. don't limit yourself
- sam425

Well it seems your on the right track. Just do good on the SAT and continue to do extra carricular stuff. I noticed the colleges you listed where very selective and ivy leagues. Yes your GPA and SAT scores matter, but what really gets you into those types of colleges are the extra stuff you do cause everyone applying to those schools are going to have a 4.0 just like you. You have to distance yourself and show them what makes you diffrent.
- grantl345

u live in oregon? get out while you can! there is so much more in the us not to mention the world. seriously. lewis and clark is pretty cool if u have to go in state. what school district are you in? do you go to an alternative school like ACMA or something? if u happen to go to aloha take as many APs as possible and suffer, because it'll be exactly like college and when everyone else is dying from college homework you'll only be in mild pain. i think if u have the means (if u don't have the means, get them) apply as many great places as possible and you stand the chance of getting into one of them hopefully, just pray it's your favorite :p
- hopeful2getin

um yeah, i live in philadelphia, as in pennsylvania. um what made you think i went to an ACMA or whatever? cuz my school just happens to be the second oldest public high school in the country that puts a lot of emphasis on academics is all. so yeah, all that
- JMT228

you listed lewis and clark, a fairly unknown school in oregon, along with reed, a hidden gem of a school, also in oregon. as to your high school, i was confused by your description. "where if you don't plan on going to college you should go here." didn't get that. ACMA is a school that puts emphasis on the arts and a lot of students end up bieng artists/musicians/actors without regular degrees or anything.
- hopeful2getin

Lewis and Clark is not a fairly unknown school in Oregon sorry. I used to Live there and everyone knows about it.
- sam425

um sorry about my school description. i meant to write "if you don't plan on going to college you shouldn't go here". it's just that kind of school, we even have circumstances where u can receive an actual degree upon graduations. i think we're one of the only schools that does that.
i found out about lewis and cark college through the princeton review.
and reed is pretty well known actually, they've keep sending me info on them and i kinda like them, as opposed to the other schools that send me info.
- JMT228

everyone in OREGON knows about it. didn't i see you yelling about how this site is useless? why are you still here if u feel that way?

JMT, that makes WAY more sense, thank you. Reed is mostly known through academic sources like the PR and letters to prospective students. it isn't quite as famous as other schools. my school offers a program where you get your associate's degree and your high school diploma in the same amount of time. 1 in like 50 schools does stuff like that; it isn't all that uncommon.
- hopeful2getin

actually there is something unique about our degree, but i don't remember what it is.
- JMT228

my school is very flexible. we have a lot of very bad students, but we also have 40% of each garduating class taking 5 or more ap classes (in a total of 4 years). it's good for everyone. while we have a huge chunk going into the army or community college, we also have a fair number (like 30-50) of students that go to very prestigous universities along with 100 or so that go to other great (but not insane) schools. we have a lot of options i guess haha. i'm taking 11 APs in 4 years for instance. we have like 22 or something so it's not about taking hard classes, it's about taking hard classes you LIKE.
- hopeful2getin

yeah, i could not handle all that. I'm probably going to end up with 5-7 AP classes total, plus a bunch of honors classes.
- JMT228

we don't have honors designation on most classes. you can do honors frosh english, but that's all that shows up on your transcipt.. if u consider honors classes the classes before ap, i've taken 1 frosh year, 2 soph, 1 junior, none senior year (the lack of them in junior and senior year is because it's all APs).

i'm taking 9 classes and 11 tests (maybe 10, i have to decide whether i feel like doing ap psych on my own).
- hopeful2getin

damn. i've taken 4 honors so far. the highest class you can take frosh year is G, for the mentally gifted program. do you have to test into your AP and honors classes? We do
- JMT228

no, you have to get above like 85% in certain classes and your teachers for those classes have to say that they think ur ready. the classes are really hard too. 5 As tops, 10 Bs tops, the rest are Cs and Ds. some classes end up with one A, if that.
- hopeful2getin

last year (junior year) i took AP E-lang, US, and Bio. I also took the music theory test. waiting to hear back. I know i got a 5 on all except bio, i'm not sure about that one, 4 or 5 regardless.
- hopeful2getin

yeah same here. on top of the test to get into AP and honors, we have to have a high B in all classes plus teachers have to recommend us. Then there is a space issue because usually there is only 1-2 classes for whichever subject your trying to get into. And if your grade slips to just below the mark, they'll kick you out and possibly put someone else in. It gets a bit messy sometimes.
- JMT228

So far, I've only taken Chem AP (soph year). I completely bombed the test. Junior year I'm taking AP Physics and U.S history, plus honors English 3 and Pre-Calc. Hopefully I'll get into Calc and English 4 APs in my senior year, plus 1 or 2 elective APs.
- JMT228

frosh year i took AP human geography (easy 5)
soph year ap us history (5)
junior year bio, us history, english language, music theory
senior year physics, calc, am-gov, english lit, psych, and maybe something else idk i just loaded up the hardest classes i could think of.
- hopeful2getin

do you sleep at all? i couldn't do that. everyone on this site seems so smart and together. i can't handle half of what some of these people do, including you.
- JMT228

it's about being organized. it's about not complaining about ANYTHING. think of everything as an oppurtunity and as a means to an end (the end being columbia, or princeton, or wherever i decide i like best).

exclusing the fall (i have no idea how i got it all done with a 4.0) i'd do it like so:

6:00 - get up and go to 0 period jazz band
6:30 - school (during school you can get a lot more done than you think)
02:30 - gym (right next to the school so it's convenient) or amnesty or forensics (speech and debate)
03:45(ish) - homework
07:00(ish) - dinner
07:30(ish) - more homework, or if i managed to get it done, SAT studying.
08:30 - practice/write/listen to music
09:30 - bed.

total of 8.5 hrs sleep, 4.25 hrs homework (i don't need much time because in class time is available in at least one class daily to work on things. i'm also good at just getting the sh1t done), and around 3 hours of music time (jazz band, wind ensemble, and the 8:30 music time, which is my recreational time usually.

also listening to music is great for homework, but ONLY do it for busy work. not for studying stuff you don't altogether understand. ex: advanced spanish + kanye west = bad. pre-calc problem sets + kanye west = good. HA.

use your time well. i don't have much and i manage to get an hour if not more of my homework done in the scraps of time i get throughout the day. I gave up my lunch to be able to still do wind ensemble, but if ur not in that situation, grab a bite for like 5 mins and use the rest of it to do busywork or something (i wouldn't recommend u use this for trying to understand something). studying for a test during this time works out pretty well if u have a good study guide or organized notes.

also if u get headaches take excedrin. best. pill. ever. it knocks out ANY headache in 5 mins or less and has a tiny bit of caffeine to keep you awake. it's your job to stay involved and interested.

also jump off the page like no other on your apps. if u can while ur doing this stuff do something VERY unique and if possible extraordinary. my friend and i have just decided now to write a huge amazing wind ensemble piece. that'll hopefully jump off the page, but idk. we have this huge chunk of time called summer. i'd use it. I'm working out way more, writing a paper for some of my APs next year (a lot of our APs do that now), writing the w/e piece, volunteering, and a lot of other stuff.

wow i just realized i typed a LOOOOOOOOT. sorry? lol.
- hopeful2getin

*excluding
- hopeful2getin

that's fine. but...
1. My school is 30+ minutes away
2. The place I volunteer at is currently under renovations for another 2-4 weeks
3. See my original post and it says it has been a bad year. And by that I mean there was some sh1t that caused me to be slightly unfocussed with my schoolwork
4. What are some good test prep sites or books that your using?
5. What could I do that could possibly jump off an app? It's not like I can write music. I don't have any real special talent.

HELP ME!! Now I'm starting to get paranoid. I hate getting paranoid.
- JMT228

1. i walk to school and it's 45 minutes away.

2. that's rough about the volunteer place, but consider doing another more flexible thing until that is reopened. My volunteering is just random projects and construcion related stuff unless i'm at doernbecker's (children's hospital). just ask around.

3. i had a bad third quarter frosh year and a terrib;e third quarter soph year. what will distinguish you is rising from that and being excellent, because everybody has the capability, they just don't really get that they can be better.

4. i use(d) the big giant blue book for the SATs along with all the princeton review study guides. those are the best for AP exam studying. end of story. i picked one up like 2 weeks b4 my ap euro exam in soph year and I got a 4. since then i've been getting them around march/april and i get 5s every time. they actually know how the test trips ppl up like my friend got a 3 because he didn't know how they were tricking him and I got a 5 and we're both A students.

5. i think the best thing would be to expand upon your newspaper stuff. i know ur an opinion editor but you could get into writing stuff that's more interesting to schools. you would do this by reading a lot of newspapers (i know it sounds kinda stupid but it works) like NYtimes, Wall street journal (soooooo boring), LAtimes, stuff like that, then try to find things in your area that you find interesting or think ppl would find interesting. write a piece on it, then go looking for internships summer b4 senior year. If you get a good internship and actually publish something in your area's paper you'll have a good plus and if you can be like a regular contributor for that summer (like 10+ pieces in 12 weeks) you'll really jump off the page. you have to work really hard at this though. I suggest start framing this now and fill the info in after your ap exams and stuff when you have a little more time.

5(cont'd). Easier things for this first article would be the opening of an exhibit at a museum or something like that. do a little research, try to get in to beforehand and write a thing on it (just take some quick notes) and pray that nobody at the places you're gonna intern at is doing it. with respect to that you might want to look into a few different things to write about just because there's a chance someone will write on it. And if they are ask for the internship anyway because if they like your writing they'll accept you (but try to find something else to write about). oh like a business closing out for an interesting reason like taxes or getting shut out by a larger business would be good too. either way you'd have to do at least a few hoursof research and interviewing b4 you write on it.

don't be paranoid.

1. list what you want to get accomplished
2. figure out a reasonable calendar and daily schedule for it
3. do it (ha)

it's that simple. you know it has to be done, so why procrastinate.

this would be me:

1.
a. lose another 10 lbs for drum corps
b. study more for SATs so i get a 2350
c. do this annoying paper (i should probly get on that here lol)
d. practice my arse off for drum corps
2.
08:00 - breakfast, shower, etc.
09:00 - gym
10:15 - research and read and write ad junk for paper
11:45 - break (VERY IMPORTANT)
12:30 - lunch
01:00 - Study for SATs
02:00 - practice for drum corps
03:15 - break (important, but not VERY IMPORTANT lol)
03:30 - compose with friends (omg it is soooo hard writing music for a wind ensemble it takes freaking forever to get it right)
04:45 - chillax.

and if i have volunteering i just work do it and start from where i left off.

3. did it (ha)

listen to nike: "just do it" ha
- hopeful2getin

the thing is, with the whole newspaper thing, i really only got started in it around april, somehow i still got the editorship. also, i have no interest at all in actual journalism, that's why i went into opinion. i really want to be a doctor. i mean the idea is good, but i want to impress colleges because i'm doing something i love you know?
oooo, and what are those books that you studied from called exactly? i could use help like that.
back to imressing colleges. i really don't want to do any research projects or anything. i mean i could go for a leadership position in my BBG chapter (a jewish girls youth group), but i literaly just started it. i read way too much, but libraries near me are filled to the brim with volunteers. i work in the school library, but it's summer. there is the hospital i sometimes volunteer at, but i like to work there on half-days during the school year because it's near my school. plus my mom works there so she would drive me and would be stuck there ALL DAY, like 8am to 4pm all day. besides i never really like it. i really want to help out with some AIDS advocacy, but so far i havent really found much. i was also thinking about helping out with a TEENLINE kinda thing, but again i haven't found anything. and working for the red cross, honestly, is a bit cliche. i ould use a job, but no one in my area is hiring right now.
oh, and when i mean my year was bad, i mean seriously sh1t. family drama, school drama, mental drama, tons of tears, mental breakdowns, so bad wishing to never get up in the morning kind of bad.
well i guess i got a sunject for my essay.
i think i might start to hyperventilate.
damn
- JMT228

hey JMT228

Ok first, relax. What you are doing now is great actually; trust me. Some of the kids that I tutor have it really bad regarding to school. I am sorry to here about the drama; I really hope that it gets better for you. Remember; getting into college is only a speck of our lives. There are so many better things that you will do after it. What matters is what you do with your life, not what college you got into or what GPA you had in high school.

Do not narrow; expand. The more the better right now.

Another important thing: make sure you do what you love. Truly express it in your transcripts; it shows. I wish you the best
- Mr. Bassist

thanks for trying, but i'm a naturally nervous person.
- JMT228

I'm just trying to make you feel better. Forgive me for sounding rude, but what are you nervous about? From your stats, I think you're fine if thats what it is
- Mr. Bassist

boring!
- brit-chick

if u want to volunteer in something related to medicine, you can fundraise in your area for nothingbutnets, which is a malaria prevention thing.

malara is a god disease b/c it's going to be the next disease most likely that the international community wipes out of existence. they did it a while back with smallpox. there's a guy at princeton who is developing the vaccines to kill the most violent malaria. his name is italian or another latin-sounding thing and he has a ponytail, so look him up in mol bio at princeton. try to do something with his research. you won't get to take part in it, but he might be happy to have someone outside the research team interested and he might send you some info or like video of stuff. but yeah get into malaria and then do some fundraising stuff that gets into it on a molecular level. that will look good. just an idea. jumping off the page is hard btw it's not something you just go out and do.

but yeah nothingbutnets.net is the site. u can fundraise in your area (this works well at school but start small at hospitals or something you'll raise probly a couple hundred bucks maybe b4 school starts up again).

don't do cancer because there are way bigger ppl and companies doing that, and however bad it sounds, AIDS isn't interesting to ppl anymore, cancer took its place. but malaria is equally as devestating but is close to being 100% cured they just have to develop the vaccines for the hardcore strains and distribute all the vaccines (why the UN will probly do what it did with smallpox or whatever it was and get virtually 100% of the world vaccinated).

also bassist is right, there are a lot of things other than preparing for college. if u are interested in the malaria thing go with it, but otherwise don't do anything that you don't really think is cool.
- hopeful2getin

i like how your talking about volunteering for a cure for these deseases like i'm buying a car.
like "ooo don't buy that one there's too much wear to it."
i actually find it kind of funny.
can you give me any more info on that guy because i have a feeling if i look up "italian or latin guy with ponytail who works in a lab at princeton" on google it might actually go "your kidding right?"
plus i think more people care about AIDS than you think.
but honestly, malaria isn't as interesting to me as AIDS. But I also would't mind doing some campaigning for contraversial issues, like Pro-Choice or Stem Cell Research. You got any info on that?
Thanks for all your help, really.
Oh, and hopeful2getin, sorry about making fun of you. couldn't resist.
- JMT228

lol on the disease thing. it's like that. i tried to do aids and a guy who has raised millions for it told me that and said if it's for college stuff don't do aids. then i tried to do cancer and found myself mildly outshined (lol just MILDLY...not) by all these research groups who need million of dollars, not hundreds or even thousands.

geez i just read the whole thing, that last part had some sting, damn i'm trying to help you. i cared and still care more about aids because it's hundreds of times more devestating, but we're not talking about that. we're talking about you accomplishing something significant and easy at the same time to put on an app.

the ponytail guy is easy enough to find on princeton.edu. his name is Manuel Llinas. with an accent on the last a.

follow this link to get an overview of what he does:
http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=220

basically in the lifetime of the paraite causing the disease there r many changes and developments and he wants to develop something that disrupts the process so that the disease can't actually occur. so you would study this and write something on it while fundraising through nothing but nets.

there is a lot of good stuff you can do with stem cell research. it boils down to: does the end justify the means? you could definitely do some stuff on that, but ur on ur own after that little burn in there. idk why i'm still helping u if ur gonna be ungrateful and not understand what i'm doing. i never said not to care about aids or that i didn't. i just said malaria is easier to do if u want your app to look good. short of going to africa to teach awareness to at-risk peoples you can't do much with aids.

prochoice is difficult, because the opposite sides aren't even arguing about the same thing. pro-life is talking about saving a life, while pro-choice is talking about a woman's right. if u can figure out a good solution and document it (although this would be more legal than medical). that would stand out if it was noticed by a university in your area.

but yeah i don't need the attitude no one does.

you could have searched molecular iology on princeton.edu, clicked faculty, then scroled down to look for someone with long hair and a latin sounding name. not all that difficult.

on the disease thing, i have every reason to suggest malaria. it's close to being cured and you can do more to aid prevention than both cancer and aids put together. also have fun finding research half as interesting as Manuel's that is leading somewhere.
- hopeful2getin

i apologize if i upset you, i didn't mean it. i just feel like we've been talking so much on this, that i started talking to you like i do with my friends. i mean i'm always up with the sarcastic remarks. but i apologize cuz my friends are more than used to it and you aren't. i didn't mean to give you "atitude", just being funny, in an overly bitchy kinda way.
i'm not saying that malaria isn't devastating, i've read up on it a bit, but like i said i wanna do something that mean something to me.
i understand the cancer thing though, it's hard to say "hey i'm helping too" when have the world is saying the same thing.
i'll take your advice on the AIDS thing too.
but i would like to do some work with Pro-choice or stem cell research. but i just don't know where to start. i mean, i suppose i could blog, except i know the second i start blogging i'm gonna get side-tracked and start talking about the most recent book i read, or some song i listened too, or how my brothers p1ss me off.
i really want to get stuff done this summer. i just feel like i'm wasting away, i haven't even done any test prep yet.
damn it again.
oh, and i am sorry for upsetting you. i really didn't mean it like that.
- JMT228

oh we're cool then. i know how difficult it is to convey sarcasm in text.

stem cell stuff would be more in the field of medicine than pro-choice/life. You could draw up a scientific analysis of multiple cases and weigh them against the cons of stem cell research and present it at some point. if you really want this to stand out, you need:

-power points of all the research.
-maybe interviews with a researcher if possible
-a LOT of lab reports detailing what's happening
-detail HOW in each case the stem cells are fixing the problem.
-and a lot of other crap that you can figure out b/c i am REAAAAAAAALLY tired and don't feel lik thinking about this when i have to study for SATs in a minute.

btw the book is called "The official SAT stufy guide" and at the top it has the collegeboard logo next to "SAT" and the "study guide" part of the title is an orange stripe. but it's blue and says collegeboard on the top.

anyway yeah I don't actually have a plan set up for stem cell research, but you can google it maybe? idk. if i become less tired sometime today I might find a good source and let you know about it.
- hopeful2getin

yeah i should've written sars* or something next to my writing. i think i will google it though.
unfortunately the closest research center i live to i full of students from my school already because of a certain class they take.
i guess i'll figure something out.
- JMT228

sars isn't too hard to treat, it's just difficult to contain in mass povertous areas like hong kong and junk. figure one out. you can always fall back on malaria too ;) but u were interested in stem cell stuff. find out about that. it's interesting how they do it from start to finish and its benefits are amazing.
- hopeful2getin

um, i meant sars as in short for sarcastic. sorry you misunderstood me.
- JMT228

oh lol. never seen that abbreviation.

ANYWAY lol. what r u gonna do? seems like the 1 ur most interested in and can do is stem cell stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tawEuTNRmVA

listen to that btw. it's some random tahitian guy playing guitar. very relaxing lol. i think also too relaxing to get work done but it's cool all the same.

i'm feeling wierd as you can see. for some reason i slept in til 12, which is really wierd, and i have a deadline in 4 hours which should bother me but it's not.
- hopeful2getin

oh i have weirder sleeping patterns. the other day i couldn't fall asleep at all and eventually i fell asleep at like 10am. i woke up at 6:40pm. the following night i didn't fall asleep until 6am and then woke up at 9:30am, and couldn't go back asleep. and i wasn't doing anything either, just watching some television hoping it would help me get to sleep. i can't sleep in the dark at the moment, a doctor who episode kinda freaked me out a bit. yep, i'm a total geek. shut up.
i have no idea what i'm gonna do yet. i'll figure somethin out.
- JMT228

lol don't worry about it i have quirks too.
i had to walk inside every 3rd tile or whatever on tile floors for the longest time. couldn't do cracks in the side walk either.

but yeah do what u gotta do. i'm not really interested in the ivies that much, except for maybe princeton and cornell if i find their respective music programs to be adequate.
- hopeful2getin

i forgot to say i like colgate a lot now, and stanford a bit.

my dad wants me to go to the claremont schools, so i'm looking at harvey mudd. i'm leaning towards a cali school now because it's closer to home and for other reasons too.
- hopeful2getin

i'm on the east coast and i would prefer to stay on the east coast except for the 2 oregon schools i like. the only ivy i like is brown, it's the only one that seems to fit me. but i'm probably gonna end up at bryn mawr, johns hopkins, or barnard, which are all good school too.
- JMT228

yeah. i kinda wanted to go to the east coast, but i'm finding cali to be more convenient, although i do like a lot of schools over there. what oregon schools do u like? those schools are definitely good. i like jhu a lot.

scratch harvey mudd. if i go claremont i'm doing pomona. they actually have a decent music program.
- hopeful2getin

look at my original post to see all the schools i'm interested in.
- JMT228

oh yeah lol. idk much about either but i like l+c a lot. reed has a lot of bad reviews about the ppl and social stuff. but it may be slander.

my former section leader goes to reed so if i see him i'll ask him. the academics are pretty tough. he's mexican and he was taking like sophomore spanish as a freshman and reading shakespeare in spanish. just think about that. it's pretty crazy.
- hopeful2getin

yeah, i heard it was hard academically. i can't do languages, i'm really bad. we only have to take 2 years of a language if we want and that's where i stopped. i was not good in spanish. i'm thinking of trying to get into latin 1 senior year though
- JMT228

that would be good. some schools strongly suggest 3. so yeah. i couldn't fit spanish my frosh yr so i started soph year. it helps that my elementary school was half taught in spanish lol. the % of non-english speaking kids was over 60% so it was easy to drop into spanish.
- hopeful2getin

not me, i didnt start until frosh year, which i blamed a lot on why i had so much trouble with it. if they started us early it would've been much easier for me i think.
- JMT228

yeah i just got lucky. just follow your passions and excel in school. apply where u wanna go and be done with it.
- hopeful2getin

thanks.
- JMT228