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High School Advise for Incoming Juniors

I'm not goina lie, Junior year was the hardest year of school ever. I honestly think it was harder than college is going to be. I do not want to scare you, but I'm going to be honest. So lets just get started.

Honors, AP, IB, SAT, numbers numbers numbers you just can not escape them. They are everywhere and you have to not let them crush you, because they can. Like I said in my last post, you are not your numbers. YOU ARE NOT YOUR NUMBERS. Junior year, people tend to fixate on them. I can remember one night crying to my mom in her room because I was going to get a "B" in a class that I was running an "A" in all year because I flunked the mid term. Lets be real, I got the "B" and still got into my first choice college. Did I over react? Yep. Should you avoid getting yourself that worked up about your grades? Yep. Honestly, work hard and do your best. Your grades are going to be a direct reflection on how much time you put into them. What ever your numbers are at the end of Junior year, you take them and apply to colleges that you like that match them. You should not stress yourself out about going to one certain school, or going to an IV. If you do not make it into IV territory, you are in the same boat as 99% of your peers. Honestly, you are. And if you apply and do not get in or do not even have the grades to apply to a certain school, IV or Non-IV, it prob is too hard for you and you prob would have a terrible time there anyway. In college, you want to challenge yourself but you more want to take classes that are going to benefit you in the future or that you find interesting. You do not need to be in so over your head because college is as much about learning how to be an adult as it is getting credentials. You do not have to go to the #1 school to get a good education and grow up. You just don't and you don't have to stress yourself out over it. If you work hard and you do your best and the best school you can get into is ranked #120 that's great! And if you work hard and you do your best and the best school you can get into is ranked #1 that is also great...and everything in between. If you haven't gotten my drift, just stay focused but not anal and do your best and your results will be rewarding.
Managing a social life during Junior year is tough. To be honest, I think this is where I fell down a bit. I really did not put much effort into getting to know people in my school or talking to boys or anything. I focused on my school work and my SAT work and I just ignored this aspect of my life. If you can manage this better than I did, congratulations and I give you so much credit because I did not do the best job of it,
SAT. The three worst letters to put together. ACT.  The other three worst letters to put together. And UGH subject tests. Personally, I only took the SAT because that is what I spent my time preparing for and I felt like I did well enough on it to get into the school I wanted to go to. A lot of people try both or switch to ACT if they did poorly on the SAT. You should do what ever you think is best for you. Everyone does something different when it comes to that because we all learn and test differently. With that said, if you are taking the SAT, I recommend trying the Princeton Review course that is the longer one that meets for like 4 hours I think (it might be 3) on Saturday mornings. I know that it is like the last think you want to do on Saturday morning from November to March, but honestly, it brought my score up more than the guaranteed 200 points and it taught me so much about the test and  helped me so much. I did a lot of different prep methods, but I feel like this is the only one that worked for me. Again, different things work for different people and this class may not work for you something else might, but to me, it was a life saver.
Extra Curriculars. Stay involved because it will save your sanity and be your break from school work. To that end, people do so much stuff that they hate Junior year because they think it looks good for college. Idk about you guys, but this just bugs me so much. Do you and I promise you will be good enough. Do not join a charity club if you are not passionate about the cause and are just going to bring down the energy of the others in the club who are passionate. Do not play a sport if you hate sports and are always going to sit out. Do not become a leader of a group or of the student government if you do not actually want to lead the team. Do not do anything that you are going to be miserable at because you think it will look good for college, all you will be accomplishing is waisting your time and tampering with other's spirit. Take up hobbies and get involved in things that you love and make a difference because you want to not because you want to pretend like you did. If you are not a leader, that is perfectly okay. Not everyone is. It is okay, just continue to do you and do what you love and commit to it. That will look just as good to college as being the leader because you loved it and you committed to it and you can write about it. Trust me, if you hate every activity you do, college application essays will not be fun. You do not want to present yourself to college as someone you are not. You should never feel the need to misrepresent yourself. Do it for love, not for an app.
Flunking the AP test is not the end of the world because you do not have to send colleges your score. Try your best on the test and study and work hard because passing it can only help you, but it certainly will not hurt you if you fail it. If you are at a toss up between studying for the AP test and a class that effects your GPA, I would recommend staying focused on the GPA. The AP score is not as important to your future. With that said, I would certainly recommend taking at least one or two AP classes in High School to get the experience. In addition, if you take an AP in a subject that you are actually interested in, you will like it. I took three AP's in High School. One I did not enjoy because of my teacher but the other two I actually came to appreciate and enjoy because I liked the subject and it was really nice to be in a room of other people with similar interests. Honors and AP and IB (if your school has them) are important to try because it shows college that you care and that you challenged yourself. However, be careful not to over do it to the point where you can not keep up your grades. Like I said in my last post, it happens. Be ware.

Okay, that is about it for Junior year! Check back for my post about Senior year and an upcoming Back to School Outfit Ideas post.
xoxo

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