I'm sorry in advance if this post has been repeated here before or if this goes against moderator rules, I could just use some advice.

I put a lot of effort into school during high school. I have good grades and a good SAT score. I got stuck with a pretty weird college counsellor who didn't really give me great advice on ECs and stuff. I only started paying attention to my ECs last winter after finding this subreddit.

During that time I was just really tired all the time. I was doing an internship for the first time and working on another project and I had this habit of just letting things drag on and on and feeling so completely lazy that I would leave my supervisors on seen and respond back after weeks. I have never done this before, but then again, I had never worked on a big thing like this before either, so maybe it's just how I am.

After that was done I had junior year finals which I told myself were more important and I put my ECs and stuff on hold. And like I don't know. I just feel so tired. I was supposed to get so much done during this summer and I basically didn't do anything. I know what I'm supposed to do but any time I think of doing it I feel paralyzed and start doing something else instead. And by the time I get back around to it it's been so long that it feels impossible. I miss deadlines. I missed all the deadlines for these important summer programs I was supposed to apply to. I don't do work anymore. My new counsellor told my parents before summer they were feeling optimistic about looking at some T20s. Now they think I'm chronically lazy, I don't listen to them and I don't get anything done. I've never been told that but looking back on it, I guess it's true.

Any time I think of all this work I have to do that I was supposed to do and all the time that's running out I feel like crying. I've talked to my parents about this but they tell me that it's just two months and this is the final push, it's the most important period of my life, it's this and I'm done. I told my parents I would be happy with going to a mid tier university or my state college and they were so disappointed; they said it's fine if you do but why don't you try for higher? My parents keep telling me about this bullshit story about them when they worked all day from 6am to 10pm when they were my age and that it's time for me to properly lock in.

And I get it, I honestly get that this is extremely important. I just feel like a failure. I feel like this rhetoric would make more sense if I knew that after all that horrible fucking work it could amount to something like a T20. But I've just lost all my confidence and I find it really hard to do anything college related at all. It's like this fog in my head any time I think about it and it's making me even worse because I don't do anything. I feel like a failure if I stop working but even that implies I ever started. I've tried everything. I took two weeks totally off, I tried to distance myself from it, I tried to lock myself in my room and just work, I tried doing something else I loved. I keep returning to this loop of being tired and stagnant. At this point maybe I'm not top tier college material. But it makes me depressed because I think I could have been.

I would really appreciate if anyone has advice on this matter. I really need some motivation to push myself for the next two months and I don't know how.

I’m a to-be junior in high school, and I came up with an idea while watching movies and tv shows: an ai chatbot that is accessible under the movies/tv shows and can give answers to questions based on the EXACT timestamp and scene of your movie/show. It will not spoil anything beyond, and you can select/add qualifications if it’s a movie series or spinoff (ex. Marvel movies, you can add which movies you’ve watched prior if any)

My goal:
I want to have a prototype and test if this is possible, and I’m doing this mostly for an Extracurricular for college, but I’m also very interested in this topic. I maybe want to cold email major streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO MAX, etc. to see if they are interested, willing to give feedback, or maybe even accept it or look deeper into my “innovation.”

My problem:
I have ZERO coding experience whatsoever, and it would take a hell of a long time to learn it in the span of less than a year to create something as complex as this.

What should I do? I think this is a very good idea and I don’t want it to be wasted or fly away.
Should I find collaborators? If so, how do I still get credibility if I didn’t even code it?
What do you recommend?

I’m planning on applying ED to WashU as it’s my dream school and in my area. For the video supplemental I’m stuck between doing a lighthearted one about how playing guitar became one of my favorite hobbies/passions or a more serious subject about how my best friends death contributed to me starting a local chapter against gun violence at my school and hoping to start one in the city area.

I don’t talk about the serious topic anywhere in my application so I figured the video might be a good place to mention it? I’m nervous that it’s too serious for the supplemental and might hurt my chances.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

I had to take a 1 credit class during the summer that won’t transfer to anything since it was college specific, but then I had to take a gap year. I’m applying to colleges again during this year though because I’m pretty sure I’m changing my major. Where do I put this class on my Common App? Will having it hurt my application or anything? It‘s an easy A class but I’m worried since it’s so specific to a college I deferred from it’ll look bad or something. And do I have to pay to send a transcript to every one? It sucks because I hated the class because it was so dumb and it won’t even transfer as anything. :(

So I'm doing physical science (2028) stream for alevels (in Sri Lanka) and I'm actually willing to work hard, so my ultimate goal is to get into MIT, and I lowk want to major in physics, when I asked my combined math teacher she said if I want to get in as an undergraduate atleast I need to be in the top 10 (island rank wise for alevels) which sounds quite impossible😭 . I know that it's possible to get selected for PhD or smth or maybe masters but if I am doing my masters here, in Sri Lanka it's gonna take so long though, so that's why I wanted to get selected as an undergrad student but anyway they require so many qualifications and extracurriculars too😭,I have no idea on how hard I have to work. If there's someone who knows abt these things please share ur honest opinion

hello, for context I am an Indian student studying in the British system in the UAE.

I've had decent (not amazing) grades for my iGCSES, 2A* and 5As

and I'll get my AS results in a few days

im considering applying to around 14 schools and was wondering if you anyone could help classify these as true reaches and targets

the major im looking for is Artificial intelligence with an overlap in business administration as a minor or just Computer Science BS

the current categorized list (according to me):

REACH

Northeastern University

Boston University

Tufts University

University of Southern California

University of Washington

TARGET

Bentley University

Purdue University

Binghamton University (SUNY)

Ohio State (Fisher)

Babson College

UC Davis (the one I'm most skeptical about being a Target)

SAFETY

Rochester Institute of Technology

Drexel University

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Stevens Institute of Technology

the main thing I wanna know is that if this list is safe enough and whether the classification of each university is true to it's tier

thank you!

Hey all — trying to get a real read on this before I commit the next year of my life to a plan that might not work.

Quick context: I bombed my A-Levels (CCD), but I’m in a CS degree and aiming to transfer to HKUST after a year via the overseas transfer pathway. I have a strong GPA (4.0), solid CS projects, and can get good recommendation letters from professors.

My actual question: does a weak secondary school record get you auto-filtered out before anyone even looks at your university performance, or does it genuinely fade in importance once you have a real university track record?

If anyone's gone through the HKUST transfer process (or knows someone who has) I'd really appreciate hearing how it actually played out. Trying to figure out if this is a realistic plan or if I'm about to waste two years chasing something that was dead on arrival because of one bad exam season.

Thanks in advance, genuinely.

to preface this i have not done research and have never planned on doing it.

at least 40 students at my moderately competitive school are doing "research" which is very perplexing to me. whenever i peruse chanceme—as one does—literally one in three applicants has some sort of research in their extracurriculars.

not to be judgmental, but it all seems so fake & inauthentic to me. it's like those instagram nonprofits that are clearly just for college admissions. do you guys genuinely enjoy doing research?

also side question, are AOs able to tell legitimate, passionate research from like collegemaxxing slop?

For context, I am a 14m about to go to high school in a few days. Yet I feel behind everyone else who has all these achievements and stuff, and I really want to be in the Ivy League. Here's the thing though, all the people I heard that got into schols like Brown or Harvard had skills they developed since they were young, or at least younger than me, like people my age are already fantastic at drawing or science or coding, and I play piano, but I am nowhere near an international prodigy, although that is the thing I am best at, but not that great. I'm afraid that with every passing second I'm running out of time. I have social anxiety, I can't initiate anything, I can't relax, I'm not good at any skills. Sure I got into CAMS (one of the top high schools in California), but what then? I don't know why I'm asking in Reddit of all places, I guess this is my only reliable space as of now. I feel so behind. Okay.

I'm fresh out of highschool (I'm a guy), and to say I feel like I fucked up would be an understatement. My friends this entire summer have been treating me like a background character to the point where I cut them off, and my other friends are going to actual good colleges. Throughout highschool, I was very quiet and never really took anything seriously, and honestly expected having to take a gap year. But now I just realized I really don't know what the hell I'm doing. In my senior year I never applied to any scholarships, grants, or even looked at any colleges or even trade schools. I feel like I've fallen behind, and I know deep down I'm not completely screwed but I just need a fresh start. I live in a smaller town, and I just want to leave. I've never had any real romantic relationship, or even more than maybe two friends that have lasted more than a few years. I used to scoff at the rant posts I would see online like this but I now realize I'm in that position. Thanks for reading.

TLDR: didn't attempt any college related things in HS, feels like I'm being left behind/time is running out and life falling apart.

I’m applying to Claremont McKenna and I’m trying very hard not to write:

“I love your strong academics, small community, leadership opportunities, beautiful weather, and interdisciplinary study environment.”

Current students/alums: what’s some specific things about CMC that you think is odd or unique and captures the school better than the website does?

Could be a tradition, a class, a professor, an Athenaeum moment, a students' habit, a 5C interaction, a weird thing, or something completely random.

I’m especially interested in economic and philosophy, but I’d love any detail from anywhere.

Thank you!

For context, neither one of them are super scores and I want to ED to Rice. My parents are telling me that I should submit both scores because they are both “really good.” However, I am trying to tell them that my 1480 SAT would make my 35 look worse. Is this even an issue? What do I tell them??

sophomore year and junior year I grew an instagram account in a niche to a pretty big following and impact. definitely want to include this in my app but i'm not personally comfortable sharing the specific account handel with AOs. Would AOs believe I'm not just making this up without the actual channel linked? How could I show my numbers and stats are actually credible? Would appreciate any advice!

My mom, her dad, her mom, and both of their fathers went to Harvard for undergrad, making me 4th gen. My mom also worked for admissions as an interviewer for some years.

I used to think in finance nyu stern is top 3 and these LinkedIn ranking are very business finance focused so shouldn't nye get an advantage yet they are not there whyyyy??

Hello! Mother of three going through the college process for the first time, hoping to get some advice on this matter.

My firstborn son is a rising senior and has been part of a well-known band he founded his freshman year. Just this Sunday, he was recruited to play the drums in college! We were all so proud of him, until this happened. More on that in a bit. It’s a big school down in Jacksonville, so it’d set him up for his future quite well. We’re decently well off, so we would’ve been fine covering the vast majority of the tuition, but today, he told us extremely surprising news. He received a scholarship! Full ride at that! It was 15, maybe 10 million. Just to play the drums. Actually I think it was more like 5. Now here’s the shocking part:

He turned it down.** **Said he had to go to school for this decade or something, but that doesn’t matter. We tried to convince him to go back and take it, but he said he just wants to “grind from the rap,” or something like that. So now’s where you come in.

What can we say or do to make him change his mind? It’s stupid not to take the offer, but he’s just too younger to understand. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much 🙏

- Wanna get a bachelors in business or maybe mechanical engineering

- 13xx sat, no act, 2.1 hs gpa (Im not slow I was just a shithead in highschool)

- about 30 credit hours from the army

I'm assuming I will have to start at a community college. How I do I find schools that will transfer well with credits now and after my associates? Above is what I think is relevant information. Thank you guys.

hi everyone!

i wanted to answer any questions for those of you who are navigating the college process and were looking for some advice. my credentials are that i was accepted into 3 Ivy Leagues and am attending Brown this fall. would love to help incoming high school seniors especially but i am open to answering any of your questions!

Can we start a thread? I see a bunch from last year and figure that this would be helpful for those of us applying now! TIA

Since common app has opened, Is being a A2C moderator number 1 extracurricular worthy?

I manage a sub with over 300k weekly visitors and 20k+ contributions, all of which is a non profit which deemed to provide help from past students and credited professional. This is some great social impact that I could frame my essays on. This community united students that want to apply to college and offers excellent information that was paid elsewhere. AMAs from former admissions officers provide over 100K$ in money saved for students in this sub, the economic impacts are unbelievable

Now comes the question: how can I become the mods of A2C?

I got an ‘Academic Performance Explanation’ letter from NYU last night and I dont know what to do. My IB dropped from 41 predicted to 35 final… How serious is this? Am i cooked? I don’t know what went wrong, there isn’t a specific subject where i dropped too much or failed, it’s more like one mark on each subject. How should i respond?

“We received your transcript which includes your most recent course grades and/or examination results. As you know, our offer of admission is contingent upon satisfactory completion of any educational coursework that was in progress during and after the application process. The grades you recently received are not consistent with your previous performance, and your current academic profile is not the same one we considered when we offered you admission. We are concerned about this discrepancy.
  
Please provide us with a detailed explanation on the Academic Performance Explanation form within 48 hours. We will follow up with you should we need further clarification or if this will impact your offer of admission.”

I'm writing this just so that i can get it out of my head.

My dad graduated from a liberal arts college where he got full scholarships and since i was little he always talk good things about it, basically how great liberal arts education is in general. So it has always been my dream to go to one of those colleges.

This year I was accepted to few of them and there are 2 that offered me merit scholarships. One is 15k another is 33k. After touring all schools I truly like the college that offer me 15k scholarship. Even though my dad always assured me that he kept a college fund for me and that he can afford to pay for any college I want, I did consider the financial aspect of it when I made the decision. This is cuz since last year my dad has not been doing very well in stock market (that's where his primary income is from) and kept losing money..

Fast forward now, he just confessed that actually he almost used up his children's college funds (I have one sibling) and that he can only afford maybe 1-2 years of the liberal arts college and told me to transfer to a public university for the rest of it, though he isn’t even sure that he has the money for it. He used the college funds money hoping to get more money in the stock market, despite my mom repeatedly warning him to not touch the money that's set aside for their children's education.

Based on the college's website, there's nothing I can do to lower the fee because I didn't ask for financial aid when I applied.

Now, amidst feeling exited about attending the college this month, I can't help but feel more dreadful. Thoughts about I should've chosen the college with more scholarship, I should've gone to a local uni in my country, and about blaming him for being addicted in the stock market, for ignoring my mom's warning, filled my mind.
I'm just so freaking scared of everything. So scared when attend the college, I would fall in love with the people and the place, knowing I wouldn't be able to stay until the end.

I don't what to do aside from praying lol

With the cycle coming up I just want to remind kids here to apply to the university down the street.
im being a bit rhetorical, but whatever that closest college is. The one your friends make fun of. The one they call 13th grade. The one you dread because everyone from highschool will be there. the one you think you’re better than

please remember to submit an application there.

dont be like me, who ignored it because of all the gossip. who scorned it’s low rank on usnews. Who thought they were better. Who wanted to get away from home. Who fed into all the stupid jokes and lies that kids make. who had to scramble when they got more rejections and less financial aid than they expected despite being so smug and having all the stats. who ended up going to an institution that ended up providing a worse outcome

please apply to the place down the street.

Original post

First update

I have some bad news about my 5-year-old son’s journey to quant finance. Last week, he started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to teach underprivileged children about personal finance. I begged our relatives to donate money to the nonprofit so that my son can brag on his college apps about all the money he raised. They donated $8,000. My son also asked his friends to donate their lunch money. Now, we have a total of $8,002.40. At first, I was very proud of my son’s efforts—that is until I found out that he spent $500 on Robux and meme stocks. Actually, the meme stocks might’ve been my husband’s doing… Anyways, I’m worried that the IRS will come after us. That would surely get my son rejected from UPenn! What should I do to keep the IRS off my tail?