Let's Talk About College
- Thread starter GhostWriter16
- Start date
Verarde
Pondering Wearing A Hat
Tomorrow, if you don't mind Dommy, I will post some questions that I have.
ZeletDude
The Lion
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2009
- Messages
- 5,490
Thanks
What's a 3.0 in numerical grade? And what's a 3.5 in numerical grade? (Approximate values are fine.)
4.0 is all A's.
3.5 is A's and B's..
So I'm just guessing that 3.0 is all B's
nonconformist
Miserable
Also, Dom, aren't you a libertarian? Why would you want to work for the state?
_random_
Jewel Runner
Fair enough, but its still not something I'm going to do
Oh, I don't plan to either. At this point I'm thinking Theology or Religious Studies with pre-law emphasis. If law is what you have in mind, major in whatever sounds interesting to you, and try to get into a decent prelaw program. A word of advice though: If the name of the major itself is "prelaw" or "criminal justice" it's probably a scam.
GhostWriter16
Deity
Of course, just remember I'm not qualified to answer either
But this isn't my personal thread. Anyone with a college-related question (Or college related info) is welcome to post.
This is kindof a reverse "Ask a" thread, where I and other people ask questions instead of answering
4.0 is all A's.
3.5 is A's and B's..
So I'm just guessing that 3.0 is all B's
3.0 is probably doable, 3.5 possibly but probably not (I can probably get an A or 2, but I don't expect better than a C in trigA.
The state still needs to exist.
Why?
_random_
Jewel Runner
Assuming you're referring to the last part (I hope you've realized I have an above-average interest in theology at this point), it's because the most important thing for getting into law school isn't sharpening your knowledge of the law; it's sharpening your critical thinking skills, so you want to work with something you're willing to put a lot of effort into thinking critically about. Most decent schools will offer a special prelaw program as a supplement to their majors, but it's generally not a major by itself. If it is, there's a very good chance the school in question is a for-profit, and if it's a for-profit there's a very good chance it's a scam trying to prey on people who like the idea of being lawyers but haven't researched adequately. Why a person with poor research skills would seek a career in law is a mystery to me.
GhostWriter16
Deity
Yes, and thank you
_random_
Jewel Runner
So have you gotten any interest letters or emails from colleges? Any of them sound good?
GhostWriter16
Deity
_random_
Jewel Runner
Not yet but I'm still a junior
Have you taken the PSAT or any AP tests yet? That's usually what provokes them. Once they start, they won't stop. So far I've gotten them from a Lutheran School near Columbus, a hippie school in Oregon, Washington University, and the University of Chicago. My distaste for Lutherans, hippies, Missouri, and crippling debt compels me to keep looking.
Spoiler :
and so much mail... Most of the mail for the house is now mine.
Yeah, my ACT provoked most of them. I got maybe 10 things of mail before I took it, then I'm flooded.
GhostWriter16
Deity
Integral
Can't you hear it?
Spoiler :
and so much mail... Most of the mail for the house is now mine.
Yeah, my ACT provoked most of them. I got maybe 10 things of mail before I took it, then I'm flooded.
These'll be the most popular two years of your life.
Spoiler :
and so much mail... Most of the mail for the house is now mine.
Yeah, my ACT provoked most of them. I got maybe 10 things of mail before I took it, then I'm flooded.
I know dat feel.
I end of ignoring most of it (even though my mom wants me to look through them), and instead I'm just going to hit up all the big public universities in the area (which includes Missouri
), plus some just-for-fun ones like Stanford and Chicago.
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
I was half unschooled, half homeschooled for 9th and 10th grade
I finished high school with a degree but I never actually completed high school. I think I had the credits of a sophomore. As a freshman admit I got into the most competitive public school in the world. I was very methodical in my approach and I think I know a couple of things.
Domination3000, your grades are poor, but that won't stop you. AP History is good, an A in it is good, but you need to score high on the test. You said you could do upward algebra 1 in your head. Excellent. I suspect you might have good test taking skills.
Here's what you need to do:
Testing: enroll in a Princeton review SAT prep course. Practice your ass off. I studied 35-40 hours a week for the SAT 1 reasoning test for 2 months following my course, and about the same for the SAT II subject test but for 1 month (I took them a month apart). For the SAT II subject tests, take History and either Literature or Spanish. Buy the princton review literature book, and the both the Princeton Review and the Kaplan history books..
This is a matter of practice
Here's how you study. After school everyday you take half of an SAT test. Use a timer, be strict. Do the practice essay when you do the practice test and use the template provided by the princeton review book. Your intro should read similarly (There are five sentences in the intro, they are applicable to any topic. There are two supporting examples. They do not need to be true, they need to be logical. etc) score yourself brutally.
On Saturday and Sunday do a full test each day.
After you finish each test, immediately score it. Scoring your test and reading why you got your answers wrong is one of the most important parts.
Doing this rose my score from an attrociously low 1580 on my first practice exam to a dramatically improved (but still disappointing for me) score of 2110. I got an 11 on the essay.
When doing the subject tests:
For history: read the princton review book first. It gives you the perspective and the narrative. The Kaplan book gives you the data. Read this book constantly. There's a family photo of me at thanksgiving. I am holding the Kaplan book. I got an 800 on that test.
For literature. The princeton review literature book will teach you everything you need. It's a brutal book. The author is an idiot and gets some of her own questions wrong. When you do the practice tests, if you are like me or my little brother, you will score about 100-200 points lower than when you actually take the test. Something about the book really improves your game. I knew none of the literature I was tested on, and this book saved my butt.
Personal Statement:
The personal statement/essay is huge. Don't kid yourself, this is the most important part of your application. This becomes increasingly true when a school's reputation is secure and they are looking to take risks on potentially extraordinary candidates. In your personal statement you are asked and expected to present your best side. Don't be humble. Don't be obnoxious, of course, but say it all.
You need to identify what makes you unique and what challenges you have overcome. The key word here is "overcome". You were homeschooled and behind. You will catch up working extra hard. This shows your potential. You need to sell yourself as a leader, which means someone who will take initiative and succeed regardless of not only where you go to college, but whether or not you even do.
You want to write about how you are a learned, self-educating person (you could include a reference about reading lots of books, respected newspapers, etc) who will contribute. What are you going to give. Who are you and what do you have to give?
Before you write your essay you need to write a self-brag sheet. Write everything possibly cool about yourself. I wrote a huge one that I referenced for my essay.
Once you write your essay, edit it and re-edit it over and over until you think it's rock solid and true for you. Be smart about every word.
Pick words that engender positive feelings. Express gratitude. Even when talking about negative things think about the connotations of your language and how people emotionally react to those words. This is especially important because you will have your essay skimmed.
Your essay will be read and decided upon in under a minute. Maybe in 15 seconds. But it's the most important thing in your application. That and your scores. Grades matter but they matter the least.
Getting a C- in Calc looks better to a top school than capping out with an A+ in Algebra II. That said it's very important to try for all A's. An A is expected. A "B" is forgivable but dings you, a C is outright harmful. However my little brother got into every school I did and more and had some C's.
I finished high school with a degree but I never actually completed high school. I think I had the credits of a sophomore. As a freshman admit I got into the most competitive public school in the world. I was very methodical in my approach and I think I know a couple of things.
Domination3000, your grades are poor, but that won't stop you. AP History is good, an A in it is good, but you need to score high on the test. You said you could do upward algebra 1 in your head. Excellent. I suspect you might have good test taking skills.
Here's what you need to do:
Testing: enroll in a Princeton review SAT prep course. Practice your ass off. I studied 35-40 hours a week for the SAT 1 reasoning test for 2 months following my course, and about the same for the SAT II subject test but for 1 month (I took them a month apart). For the SAT II subject tests, take History and either Literature or Spanish. Buy the princton review literature book, and the both the Princeton Review and the Kaplan history books..
This is a matter of practice
Here's how you study. After school everyday you take half of an SAT test. Use a timer, be strict. Do the practice essay when you do the practice test and use the template provided by the princeton review book. Your intro should read similarly (There are five sentences in the intro, they are applicable to any topic. There are two supporting examples. They do not need to be true, they need to be logical. etc) score yourself brutally.
On Saturday and Sunday do a full test each day.
After you finish each test, immediately score it. Scoring your test and reading why you got your answers wrong is one of the most important parts.
Doing this rose my score from an attrociously low 1580 on my first practice exam to a dramatically improved (but still disappointing for me) score of 2110. I got an 11 on the essay.
When doing the subject tests:
For history: read the princton review book first. It gives you the perspective and the narrative. The Kaplan book gives you the data. Read this book constantly. There's a family photo of me at thanksgiving. I am holding the Kaplan book. I got an 800 on that test.
For literature. The princeton review literature book will teach you everything you need. It's a brutal book. The author is an idiot and gets some of her own questions wrong. When you do the practice tests, if you are like me or my little brother, you will score about 100-200 points lower than when you actually take the test. Something about the book really improves your game. I knew none of the literature I was tested on, and this book saved my butt.
Personal Statement:
The personal statement/essay is huge. Don't kid yourself, this is the most important part of your application. This becomes increasingly true when a school's reputation is secure and they are looking to take risks on potentially extraordinary candidates. In your personal statement you are asked and expected to present your best side. Don't be humble. Don't be obnoxious, of course, but say it all.
You need to identify what makes you unique and what challenges you have overcome. The key word here is "overcome". You were homeschooled and behind. You will catch up working extra hard. This shows your potential. You need to sell yourself as a leader, which means someone who will take initiative and succeed regardless of not only where you go to college, but whether or not you even do.
You want to write about how you are a learned, self-educating person (you could include a reference about reading lots of books, respected newspapers, etc) who will contribute. What are you going to give. Who are you and what do you have to give?
Before you write your essay you need to write a self-brag sheet. Write everything possibly cool about yourself. I wrote a huge one that I referenced for my essay.
Once you write your essay, edit it and re-edit it over and over until you think it's rock solid and true for you. Be smart about every word.
Pick words that engender positive feelings. Express gratitude. Even when talking about negative things think about the connotations of your language and how people emotionally react to those words. This is especially important because you will have your essay skimmed.
Your essay will be read and decided upon in under a minute. Maybe in 15 seconds. But it's the most important thing in your application. That and your scores. Grades matter but they matter the least.
Getting a C- in Calc looks better to a top school than capping out with an A+ in Algebra II. That said it's very important to try for all A's. An A is expected. A "B" is forgivable but dings you, a C is outright harmful. However my little brother got into every school I did and more and had some C's.
madviking
north american scum
What kind of scholarship are we talking here? Normally scholarships go to the top people in classes (or in your case, the top home-schoolers). From what I see with your grades, it'd seem difficult for you to get scholarships.
For UVa (very good public school), you'd need very damn good grades. So definitely something north of 3.75/2000 (gpa/sat). For a middle tier school, something better than 3.5/1800.
Scholarships depend on the schools. If you're gonna be in-state for a public school, good luck getting anything. If you're out-of-state/private getting scholarships will be easier (but still dependent on your grades).
3. I've been considering perhaps taking an Honors science next year (Definitely NOT an honors Math, Regents is tough enough there) and how much would doing so help me? With my grades as I said above, would it be worth it or good for me to do so?
There's no escaping calc. But there are definitely different levels of calc (calc honors, calc for engineers, calc for humanities majors), and each focuses something different (e.g. honors focuses on theory).
Depends. But I won't say anything more really since I'm completely unknowledgeable about the law school dynamics.
College admissions is often a crap-shot. Good luck.
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
One last thing
Apply to a bunch of schools
Don't listen to that nonsense of "1 reach school, 3 main schools, and 2 backups". I suggest you apply to 5+ reach schools, another 5+ on the level, and maybe a backup or two. I applied to 12 schools, my older brother to 22 (he ended up at an Ivy), my sister like 14 or so (she ended up at my school but with the top academic scholarship), and my little brother like 7 (he was very focused so didn't apply Uzi-style and now goes to a top tier school but specifically a program more competitive to get into than any single school).
Apply to a bunch of schools
Don't listen to that nonsense of "1 reach school, 3 main schools, and 2 backups". I suggest you apply to 5+ reach schools, another 5+ on the level, and maybe a backup or two. I applied to 12 schools, my older brother to 22 (he ended up at an Ivy), my sister like 14 or so (she ended up at my school but with the top academic scholarship), and my little brother like 7 (he was very focused so didn't apply Uzi-style and now goes to a top tier school but specifically a program more competitive to get into than any single school).
I was homeschooled through most of high school and am on the tail end of a BA in History at a small, but pretty good public university. (This is my last semester.) I'm probably going to jump into the workforce for a year or so after I graduate, but I'm strongly considering both law and graduate school. If you have any more specific questions for going that route Dommy, I'm happy to answer them for you.
Also, I very much second the idea of taking some formal logic classes. At my school, elementary logic fulfills one of the two quantitative reasoning requirements (Which is basically math). But even if it's not, take it. If it's taught by a good teacher it's a really excellent class to take. It helps you understand how to reason properly and can make you a much better thinker and writer. (Once you can analyze your sentences and see the underlying logic of what you're saying, making them both grammatically correct and clearer is much easier.) Even if you just take a class that gets you through basic propositional and predicate logic, it'll be a huge help to you no matter what you end up studying. And if you want to go to law school, it'll be incredibly helpful on the LSAT.
Also, I very much second the idea of taking some formal logic classes. At my school, elementary logic fulfills one of the two quantitative reasoning requirements (Which is basically math). But even if it's not, take it. If it's taught by a good teacher it's a really excellent class to take. It helps you understand how to reason properly and can make you a much better thinker and writer. (Once you can analyze your sentences and see the underlying logic of what you're saying, making them both grammatically correct and clearer is much easier.) Even if you just take a class that gets you through basic propositional and predicate logic, it'll be a huge help to you no matter what you end up studying. And if you want to go to law school, it'll be incredibly helpful on the LSAT.
I've a simple question for you. Why? Applications aren't free.
