110 replies to this topic

[Esau of Isaac]

As someone who wasted their time coasting through high school, absolutely do not just fuck around and go through the motions. Get involved, and use it to help prepare you for what comes afterwards.

Like damn, if I could go back in time nine years and do everything properly...

[Sangyul]

High school is really nothing worth panicking about. Just live and don't do anything stupid. Make friends, meet people, be on good terms with your teachers. Learn stuff, study hard. Don't do drugs or other people. Don't worry about being popular or anything. Pretty much, just live your life. High school is a part of life, but it's nothing worth freaking out over.

[MagicLugh]

Make a small group of real friends(do not limit yourself to this). Do not be a yes man. Some people might ask to copy your homework and try to be on the lesser end on both ends of the spectrum(letting others copy and doing it yourself). Trust me, copying is like drugs. Once you start to slack off, it's hard to get back to the right track. If you choose to copy and stop paying attention, let your first failing test be a wake up call. Hope it doesn't come to that.

Like others said, HS is not that hard but you should definitely invest in your HS grades. But don't go overboard and do nothing else. Be involved in extracurricular activities and have something to put on your resume. Oh and do well on the SAT's.

Edited by UberLughFTW, 14 July 2012 - 07:38 AM.

[Phoenix Wright]

Some terrible advice in this topic.

Social success -> Don't give a shit. The less you care, the better off you'll be.

Academic success -> STUDY STUDY STUDY. High school is a joke compared to college, and getting high grades shouldn't be very difficult. Remember than the GPA you earn your first year is difficult to change significantly later on, so aim for the 4.0 your freshman year.

EDIT: And no, do not enjoy yourself. High school is overrated and terrible. Boring, insecure, dumb people all over the place. Throwing away a six-figure salary just to "have fun" with eventual checkout helpers and professional alcoholics is a poor investment.

I'm not quite sure how serious you are, as you seem to be pretty extreme in this 'advice.'

Look, academics are important, and he should strive for a...let's say, 3.9 - 4.6 (or a 3.7 - 3.9 UW), better if desired, to get into a good college, but it is simply not worth four years of misery. Admissions are much too random and biased.

Your outlook of how these people are is a disgusting generalization of what this new student is likely to encounter. It's extremely important to make friends, to be sociable. A life of academia is no way to live, unless the person actually wants that (and the vast majority do not).

I'm willing to respond to you more articulately if you want to debate this. I know someone in real life that is JUST like you, seemingly (don't want to jump to conclusions, because I'm sure there's quite a few differences).

[Furetchen]

Social success -> Don't give a shit. The less you care, the better off you'll be.

Academic success -> STUDY STUDY STUDY. High school is a joke compared to college, and getting high grades shouldn't be very difficult. Remember than the GPA you earn your first year is difficult to change significantly later on, so aim for the 4.0 your freshman year.

EDIT: And no, do not enjoy yourself. High school is overrated and terrible. Boring, insecure, dumb people all over the place. Throwing away a six-figure salary just to "have fun" with eventual checkout helpers and professional alcoholics is a poor investment.

this is seriously the worst advice

Don't let yourself swing like a pendulum trying to get approval. NOBODY LIKES PEOPLE WHO DO THAT. (That said, it's one of those things most people who aren't total psychopaths do a little, but you should at least feel guilty about it :p) That said, you don't want to be all alone

Academically it all depends on your priorities; besides, I don't know the US system.

Westbrick thinks everything is about money. Well, sure, if you purely want money, then slave the fuck away, be my guest if that's what genuinely makes you happy. But you can be happy in any job, not just one with a 'six-figure salary'. I like how condescendingly he talks down to 'checkout helpers', too. You can tell he never worked part-time a day in his life.

Finally, in moderation, cigarettes are okay, drugs are okay, sex is okay, drink is okay, but don't succumb to pressure. If you don't want to smoke/take weed/fuck/drink, then don't; it's that simple. But if you do, well, be comfortable with yourself.

Edited by Furetchen, 14 July 2012 - 01:09 AM.

[SeverIan]

Make a small group of real friends(do not limit yourself to this). Do not be a yes man. Some people might ask to copy your homework and try to be on the lesser end on both ends of the spectrum(letting others copy and doing it yourself). Trust me, copying is like drugs. Once you start to slack off, it's hard to get back to the right track. If you choose to copy and stop paying attention, let your first failing test be a wake up call. Hope it doesn't come to that.

Make sure people who are copying are not the dumbs. A guy wanted to use my notes but couldn't read them b/c my handwriting is horrible; I typed them up and he just printed them out and handed them in typed up. I didn't get in any kind of trouble and I don't remember if he did, but it was pretty stupid, since he never used a laptop in class. The teacher was definitely suspicious of him, at least.

(The class was health, obv really easy, but the teacher was an idiot and graded our notes at the end of the semester; naturally this kid didn't know the notes were being graded and didn't have any.)

Finally, in moderation, cigarettes are okay, drugs are okay, sex is okay, drink is okay, but don't succumb to pressure.

This is seriously the worst advice, all of these are much better when pushed beyond reasonable limits (except sex I wouldn't know about that).

Edited by L1049, 14 July 2012 - 01:29 AM.

[CrashGordon94]

Finally, in moderation, cigarettes are okay, drugs are okay, sex is okay, drink is okay, but don't succumb to pressure. If you don't want to smoke/take weed/fuck/drink, then don't; it's that simple. But if you do, well, be comfortable with yourself.

This is awful advice! Like everyone previous to him has said, just avoid drugs and stuff completely, you'll be much better off.

[eclipse]

Do your homework, whether it be the stuff that's assigned by teachers or research on the college you want to go to/trade school/whatever. Don't know what you want to do after high school? Now's the time to start thinking about it.

[Furetchen]

This is awful advice! Like everyone previous to him has said, just avoid drugs and stuff completely, you'll be much better off.

That depends on the person. I never took to cigarettes or drugs, but the people who did are... you know, regular people, and for them it affected them positively (aside from the whole 'cancer eventually' thing, but eh).

... And are you supportive of abstinence-only sex ed? I mean, it seems to be what you're implying. More a 'yeah just don't' than any form of acceptance that these things, bluntly, will happen.

[Bluedoom]

You can have fun without doing drugs, smoking, sex and other stuff.

Just sayin'.

[Furetchen]

I never implied otherwise?

[CrashGordon94]

It really doesn't matter what they did, you shouldn't be encouraging people to do dangerous, addictive shit!

That's the worst, most dangerous advice you could give someone in the TC's position, I genuinely hope he ignores you entirely.

[Furetchen]

I never encouraged him one way or the other. I merely said not to be pressured into OR out of it, and to do whatever he genuinely enjoyed in moderation. With regards to drinking, I'd add supervision to that. Might I add that I don't smoke, don't take drugs and vaguely plan to wait until marriage?

[CrashGordon94]

The thing is, he SHOULD be pressured out of doing drugs. "Thinking for yourself" isn't inherently good, sometimes the people forcing you not to do the thing you like have a point.

[Furetchen]

Sometimes, I guess? But, uh, not here. What, per se, is your problem with drinking in moderation? I'm stressing the 'moderation' part here. Assume that they aren't surrounded by drunkards. Assume that he hasn't followed Westbrick's advice and is drinking with people who he knows, can interact with and trusts, at least one of whom is sober (don't say this is unrealistic; this is the case most of the time, if only because of driving).

[CrashGordon94]

Forget drinking, let's talk about drugs. This is perfectly right, he should never ever do drugs or smoke no matter how happy it makes him ever.

Everyone but you that posted before said he shouldn't do them, too.

[Furetchen]

I like how much logic you're backing this up with.

[Westbrick]

I'm not quite sure how serious you are, as you seem to be pretty extreme in this 'advice.'

Look, academics are important, and he should strive for a...let's say, 3.9 - 4.6 (or a 3.7 - 3.9 UW), better if desired, to get into a good college, but it is simply not worth four years of misery. Admissions are much too random and biased.

Depends entirely on the quality of school he's going to, but a general rule of thumb is a 3.8+. That should put you in reasonable contention for the upper-echelon (top 20+) universities even with an only above-average SAT.

Your outlook of how these people are is a disgusting generalization of what this new student is likely to encounter. It's extremely important to make friends, to be sociable. A life of academia is no way to live, unless the person actually wants that (and the vast majority do not).

"Being social" is fine to a degree, but high school kids are boring, insecure people for the most part. Not at all worth throwing away a high GPA for. Find a small group of close friends and buckle down.

I'm willing to respond to you more articulately if you want to debate this. I know someone in real life that is JUST like you, seemingly (don't want to jump to conclusions, because I'm sure there's quite a few differences).

If you want to be successful, then you have to make sacrifices. High school is the first time in a person's life when decisions made affect your career long-term, so throwing this away on dumb high school parties or trying to "fit in" isn't the best use of your time. Of course, that's an if. Maybe a person is more satisfied having a fun time in high school, then having a fun time in college, then making an average salary. I wouldn't recommend that, but different strokes.

I never encouraged him one way or the other. I merely said not to be pressured into OR out of it, and to do whatever he genuinely enjoyed in moderation. With regards to drinking, I'd add supervision to that. Might I add that I don't smoke, don't take drugs and vaguely plan to wait until marriage?

I'm a cigarette smoker in the middle of trying to quit, and yes, I would pressure him out of it. Nothing good comes from smoking, and there are healthier ways to deal with stress. I'd say the same about pot, although more for legal reasons (if you get caught, you could be in big trouble). Moderate levels of sex and drinking are fine.

Westbrick thinks everything is about money. Well, sure, if you purely want money, then slave the fuck away, be my guest if that's what genuinely makes you happy. But you can be happy in any job, not just one with a 'six-figure salary'. I like how condescendingly he talks down to 'checkout helpers', too. You can tell he never worked part-time a day in his life.

This is really naive. Most anything you can do in life that's in any way related to academics demands being successful in school. Whether that's business, law, medicine, teaching, or plenty of other fields. There's no free pass to "do what you love."

Edited by Westbrick, 14 July 2012 - 04:46 AM.

[Agro]

US high schools must suck serious ass or something. I had loads of fun in high school and did everything I wanted to--theatre, music, academia, etc. and still managed to get a 98.00 (so I was in the top 2% of the state) for my ATAR. Involve yourself with heaps of stuff and make heaps of friends or something. I was friends with most of the people in my year level but it was mostly because I just mingled with everywhere because my interests/subjects were so broad.

[Thor Odinson]

Take 10 AP classes. They're easy and depends on where you go could save you some money, since I entered college as a sophomore :B

Don't develop too high of caffeine tolerance yet, save that for college (again, depending on the major)

Edited by Zhuge Liang, 14 July 2012 - 05:17 AM.