High School Advice

When I went to high school, I had a lot of fun. Maybe a little too much fun for my own good. I can still remember going to parties and staying out late with girls I liked. We would sneak booze in soda bottles wherever we went. I played a few sports and did alright based on my natural talent. School wasn’t too hard and I got A’s and B’s with just a couple C’s over my four year career. By the end of my senior year I was ready to move on to a new chapter in my life with college. My 3.5 grade point average got me into most schools that I applied to. My SAT and ACT scores helped also since they were pretty high. However, when it came time to visit the financial aid office, my high school resume wasn’t enough for me to get a good scholarship. Of the 6 colleges that I had applied to and was accepted, I could only go to the one that offered me the most amount of money to attend their college. It was depressing and only then did I realize that I had made a big mistake during high school. What you do in high school can more or less set you up for success for the rest of your life. The most important thing to do in high school is concentrate on getting good grades. My grades were pretty good getting mostly A’s with a few B’s. I did this while just sliding by on being smart but didn’t push myself. I think if I had studied every night and put forth a good effort I could have had straight A’s. I honestly believe that it’s not hard to get an A in a high school class since everyone is placed in their respective levels. Whether you’re in an advanced placement, regular, or remedial class doesn’t make a bit of difference. Colleges (and more importantly, financial aid offices) look at your GPA for the most part and don’t concentrate too much on the actual levels of classes you take. If you try hard in the classes you take and get help from the teachers when you need it, you’ll find great dividends not only in college but for the rest of your life. Spending an extra 30 minutes to an hour every night on homework can save tens of thousands of dollars on college tuition. It may also even get you a better job when you’re out of college. I can not stress how important getting good grades are once you start ninth grade. Now that being said, there are other things that can help out with your personal development and wellness (and they don’t look bad on college applications either). I think having a job during high school is extremely important for a number of reasons. Working in high school can start to teach responsibility. I’m also not talking about babysitting or doing chores for parents but working at a grocery store or any other number of real jobs that require you to submit paperwork. You’ll learn to balance your time between school and work and that skill helps out in college and even later in life. It’s very important to be able to manage time. Getting paid helps financially and you can either choose to start saving money for a car or to help pay for college or you can but clothes you want. Learning about opportunity costs and which ones are the smart ones are something that everyone goes through in life. It’s better to start to learn how to make the smart decisions with money early in life. Having a job also looks great on a college application and it’s just a smart thing to do. I got a job my senior year of high school and wished that I had started when I was a sophomore. It was one of the more fulfilling experiences I had plus it felt good to have money in my pocket. It was good for me to learn how to be responsible with money. These are just two of the things that many fail to do during high school but they end up having a profound impact on peoples lives for a long time. It’s hard for kids to fully grasp how important it is for them to do well when they enter the ninth grade. They’re usually busy trying to fit in and make a name for themselves. However, this is the most important year in high school. It’s where you can start helping yourself be successful in life and taking pride in what you do. Working hard to get good grades in high school will lead to working hard to get good grades in college. And it may only be out of habit which is not a bad thing. That combined with the ability to balance your time and have a job will lead to great things the next four years of your life and beyond.