I put my extracurriculars. I’m not ashamed of what I’ve accomplished, but I’ve just never had the vision that some people apparently have. I never knew it was possible for high school students to do the kinds of things I’ve heard about on here until I came here.

I’ve played a few sports here and there, I’ve been elected to some positions in some organizations and I’ve worked 25 hours a week throughout high school, but I just felt like I absolutely paled in comparison to the top applicants.

Hmmm for me I would have stopped procrastinating in freshman year and worked for more achievements (-__-): eg. studied 10 hrs/ day for the IBO or ICO. lol. The point is, I wished I worked harder so I can have more time for other ECs now.

my interview…
I am sure that my extra curriculars and SAT and competetitveness of school make up for the mediocrity of my GPA… however, my interview was one that I will never forget. One stupid answer can break the interview, which sucks. However, I hope they saw my carelessness/bad joke as just that and not stupidity or immaturity.

Still I would rather take it back and avoid the whole thing… haha. definitely intervie

I personally know I could have done better in my classes and done more EC’s - but I didn’t. Instead, I chose to blow off classes I didn’t like (History, English, Language) and didn’t do EC’s outside of my sport because I lacked the time and liked to just relax way too much.

In retrospect, this has killed me. I could have been better, more prestigious, but I chose not to be. It’s always a choice.

However, I think the least legit thing to change is SAT scores. Everyone wants to raise theirs, but, for everyone, there is a limit. You can prepare for it as much as you want, but the SAT, unlike HS classes, relies MUCH more on innate intelligence.

I would have to disagree with this:

“[…] the SAT, unlike HS classes, relies MUCH more on innate intelligence.”

think so. Getting a good score on the SAT, just like it is with any other standardized test, just takes time and effort. The “innate intelligence” merely determines from which rung you would have to climb the score ladder. The courses you take, however, are much more related to how prepared you are for them. How well you absorb new material and how fast are the major factors in determining your grades. Unless, of course, you take EASY courses.

My ECs. I’m just a junior, and haven’t taken my SAT or SATIIs yet so I don’t know if I’m going to want to change those, but I’m pretty sure that the thing I will regret the most is not having done any extra curriculars. I’m not too social and kind of lazy… lol. And going into high school, I wasn’t too informed and didn’t know that they were so important.

I wish I had applied to Georgetown as a French major, not Polysci. I applied EA and got defferred and then sent them a letter changing my major, but i wish i’d done it from the get go. i also wish i had visted more colleges (i.e. shown more interest) and i wish i’d had an interview at wash u.

Mainly, i wish i had applied EDII somewhere i had a shot of getting into instead of hoping in vain i’d miraculously get into UPenn/Brown/Georgetown and wasting the opportunity. instead i got into my bottom three when i might have had a chance with EDII.

i also wish i’d studied more for my math/spanish finals last year. they seriously affected my GPA.

Well, I did get into Stanford… but I’ve always felt insecure about my ECs:
-I’ve never won any contest… though I’ve advanced to the semifinalist stage in both of the only two I have entered, the Young Playwrights Festival National Playwriting Competition and National Merit Scholarship.
-I can boast no athletic talent or accomplishment, besides being one of the founding members of a now-dissolved community fencing club. Unless being the worst varsity XC runner in Western Washington counts for anything… which it doesn’t.
-I’m not, nor have I have been, an elected officer or founder of any school organization. I’ve never run for office–ASB is a joke at my school. I am Drama Club Treasurer, but that’s only because the Drama Club Dictator (the adviser) has mandated that everybody in the club is either treasurer or secretary.
-Drama is among my top 3 ECs (along with foreign languages and creative writing), but even there I’ve only acted in one play and was a volunteer stagehand in a second. After I submitted my Stanford EA application I became the head audio technician for another play and secured the lead role in yet another, but Stanford never knew about those.
-I haven’t done a significant amount of community service at all, though I do enjoy volunteering a great deal. Me enjoying it doesn’t matter though; actions are what count.

…So I said I’d change my ECs. Not that I guess I needed to.

with all due respect, i think you should have perhaps added one more caveat… such as if not the application but the process because then I would have just said: “The entire system”.

i don’t want to change anything about myself. my abilities and character are what they are. i just wish i could have lived my high school years to the fullest, instead of living for what i thought the colleges wanted me to achieve. my generation has evolved into nothing more than a bunch of “college admissions pleasers.”

i think A.P. classes should be wiped off the face of the earth. i think more colleges should be built to accomodate how many students are applying. i think they should completely re-vamp admissions standards. how about a lottery system? colleges should have all kinds of us students, with a range of abilities. i mean, that’s the way the world is. you don’t get hired in a company that just has brainiacs. there should be no more homework on the weekends, holildays, and summers. way too much pressure.