How did you get into a a good college?

How can I get into a good college?

• Okay, first to start off and give some background, in middle school I was an A student, dreamed of going to Harvard, NYU, MIT, for business administration. I let that dream slip beginning of freshman year, when I got extremely lazy and barely did homework, I failed a couple classes and barely made it to sophomore year, sophomore year I thought things were going to change but they didn't and I ended up failing a semester of a science class. Now that I'm a junior I'm really kicking things into overhaul, I'm working my *** off to get caught back up, I'm in a couple EC's, Marching Band is one of them (have been in band since 5th grade). I know I have no chance of getting into Harvard and NYU, but I still wanna get into a reputable university, I really would like to be in the Los Angeles or New York City area because it's been my dream to become an actor but I need a degree to fall back on if acting doesn't work out. Looking back on my past years almost get me into tears because I know I messed up, I think about it everyday, my mom nags me about it everyday too. The Junior tests are coming up, (PSAT, ACT, PSAE) and I'm gonna try and score High on them, I'm confident but also worried, i feel as these tests are the only thing that can save me. How can I fix my high school career, so I can get into a good college in NYC or LA... Any tips, suggestions, warnings, I'm asking for Any advice your willing to give me, I'm good student, but let laziness get the better of me...

• Answer:

  You seem to be all over the place... get a grip on yourself. Harvard Business School = acting?? Also, you can't put Harvard, MIT, and NYU in the same sentence. Write up enough BS in ur essay about ur academic comeback and NYU will snatch u up. Wtvr image u have of NYU, let's say it's the Hudson City Bank version of JPMorgan Chase or HSBC. Key number one is to get past your past by coming to terms with it. There's nothing u can do about it other than wake up everyday thinking how to improve on what u did and learn from ur mistakes. Don't get 2 hard on yourself because it's unhealthy in nearly every single way. Many ppl crash in college instead. That's much worse. Having that happen in HS is much better in that sense, & guess what? Undergrad is much less important than grad school, but seeing ur laziness, I’m not sure that matters much. But ppl change, so maybe it’ll matter later. Once your not in the top schools anyway, going to Michigan vs Syracuse vs NYU isn’t that important. If anything, it gives u a better opportunity to succeed above everybody else and be the top in your class etc (ergo why undergrad matters less than grad for your career). Even I crashed in the 1st semester of junior yr, it was overwhelming, but I got over it and did my best (4s, not 5s though). I'm not hurting over it, I just try to find new ways to overcome those lapses (I wouldn't say missteps bc that was me, I don't deny it). The reason I said "even I' is bc what u said about middle school - stretch it through HS graduation. If anything to encourage u, understand that ur failures actually are a sign of some level of maturity. Wtvr drove u to fail, you now have that life experience, and unless u're a fool, u wouldn't ever dare to fall back into such a pit. The next time u do, it'll be addictive and u'll most likely find yourself an alcoholic struggling to pay rent or something (pop culture's latest honest demonstration of this was 17 Again... I assume u're not even 17 yet). Another thing you must get into ur head is expelling the empty words "reputable university" from ur head. You go to shitholes only on purpose. You can't do bad with Syrcause, Maryland, even Rutgers, Penn. Just don't go 2 some giant state partyschool like LSU, UC, or any Florida ones. You'd be leaving the key in the door. So the real question is, how do u make it to these halfway-descent schools, since they don't accept anybody anymore? The answer is, clearly, SATs. I hate the ACTs w a passion. If u have a bad handwriting, be sure to secure an extra 5 billion hrs on the test like a 1/4 of my friends did. otherwise, it's very difficult to finish it well. w the SATs, u just gotta get used to their twisted, we're-not-actually-asking-you-a-challeng… logic. Don't go for organized prep; u log enough classroom hrs as it is. Review some book's strategy once or 2x, then just only do as many practice tests as u can lay ur hands on - nothing else whatsoever. U don't seem to have a lot of time left anyway. Advice - try the December curve next yr if ur scores are still not good enough. Then, take a bunch of quality APs in senior year (not BS ones like art history), & work ur behind off proving your salt. Naturally, finish junior yr very very well as well. If you follow this advice, you should be able to even vouch for higher ups, like UPenn, if you tout your comeback story. There r probably many stories of dumb freshmen screwing their lives up and then waking up in the 99th hr, so what u've got to do to stand out is find in urself a source of inspiration. U'd be hitting 2 birds w 1 stone - u'd motivate yourself and avoid procrastinating since u'd feel like you're working towards a goal, as well as provide those college admissions officers with some juicy story about ur personal reawakening and how much u hope that college will help u carry that through. Don't inspire yourself with a Lamborghini, because one day you'll give in to the idea that it's unrealistic. Don't inspire yourself by dressing like Zac Efron or sporting Brad Pitt's late beard, because it isn't you. Find something to do that you find meaningful, from showing your great grandma what you're accomplishing in ur life to doing it so that you can contribute to your community with time and money later in life. Ask around, ask motivated people what's the source of their inspiration. Sure, much of it is greed - they wanna have the penthouse or 4000 sq ft house with MB and BMW, but that's ephemeral. You need to find something to latch on to. I can't expand on that anymore on here. Hope this helps p.s.-everybody dreams of being an actor at some point in their lives. I actually applied to be Harry Potter in the third movie way back when. It's nuts. I really went through all the loops, Now I'm gonna major in Biomedical Engineering in Columbia Engineering and then hopefully move on to Medical School. How do I cope? I always say: If not Med School, then Film School.