It's That Time of Year Again...

Grades and homework - who needs them when college is so near?

Second semester seems to be a little troubling for some senior students. The lack of motivation to me seems to be the anxiousness to go to college after being accepted. I know for a fact that majority of my fellow classmates feel as if a weight has been lifted off their shoulders once that acceptance letter has hit the mailbox. I, myself have a bad case of Senioritis. I feel like an illness has struck me and that has been my excuse to not do or finish my classwork/homework - well, that's Senioritis for you. 

Some if not, most of teachers know that second semester is the semester that majority of their seniors slack off. Depending on the teacher, the quality of the work may vary. Some teachers maintain the amount of workload to students and expect the same effort from students. While, some teachers know that second semester is the time to slack off and understand why students don't want to work as much as they did for the past three years of high school, and don't give much work. Then, there are teachers who don't give a smack and dump a ton of work to the students.

There may be parents that have same perspectives as teachers do. I know for a fact that my parents would not care if I had Senioritis or not, they would tell me to work harder. Unfortunately, that does not work in the real world to some students. They think that they are now eighteen, they can decide for themselves. Well, I can tell that some decisions are not the right decisions. With that said, having Senioritis and not having the motivation to do your work so you can pass your provision statement, is not the right decision.

This may help, it may not, but now that we have been accepted to a college, we should not neglect our workload in high school. We say we are ready for college, but are we really?! I think we say we are ready for college is because we want to be done with high school and not have to worry about all that workload in college. Wrong, in college, we are on our own. In high school, our teachers have been spooning us with loads of information and expects us to know the information, while us students, we take that information and we regurgitate it, as if we know the information. I heard from a friend that in college, professors HATE it when their students regurgitate information. It tells the professors that we have not learned anything.

We may have Senioritis now, but will we have Senioritis when we are in college? Second semester is to prepare for exams and get us prepared for college. If we are like this, how will we ever learn our mistake and move on? We should keep doing our work and keep our focus. Just because summer is coming up is no excuse for us to slack off. I don't think we would be very happy if we were to fail a class and our dream college has revoked our admission because of Senioritis. This goes for me as well, so don't worry if I'm calling you out. With only three to four weeks left of senior year, I have to figure a way to get all my assignments in, study for AP exams, final exams, and most of all, placement exams. Wow... Now that I see how much I have to do, I regret slacking off. Don't you?

Let's work together to better our habits, now that we have had our fun, let's be serious now! I hope all my fellow classmates can get something out of this blog. Remember, in my last blog I said, "Your actions are what describes you", I mean it! You don't want your dream college to see that you have tried all three years and now you have failed to please them with your second semester grades. Let us finish these last few weeks with a bang, have fun on our summer vacation, and start a new life in college!

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.
                         
                             - Og Mandino

What's next?

It's that time of year again, where high school seniors are receiving their acceptance and rejection letters. For me, it does not matter what schools I get into or turned down from. As long as I am continuing my education, that is all it matters. There are some intelligent students out there that go to a certain college because of it's "prestige" name or to brag. I used to be one of those students, except, I wasn't intelligent compared to them. My parents would always tell me, "Why do you care so much for those colleges that are full of prestige? Schools like UCLA, UC Berkeley, or even Stanford have ambitious students surrounding their campus. If you were to get into those schools, are you willing to compete with them? It's not a matter of prestige that you should go to those schools."

I have came to realized that what my parents had said to me is very true to heart. I have a little story to help why I agree with my parents. My cousin graduated out of high school with a 4.32 GPA. When he applied for colleges, he applied to UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, Stanford, Yale, and Harvard. Luckily, he got in to all the schools he applied to. He went to UCLA to continue in his education and of course, because his parents wanted him to. After graduating from UCLA and applying to Medical School, he was not fortunate into getting into Medical Schools because of his GPA. By the time his Junior year came, he took his MCAT (Medical College Administration Test) and scored a 30 (meaning it's the minimum of what is required of students to score). Although his MCAT score was average, his GPA was not. By the time he applied to medical school, he earned a GPA of 3.2. Because of his low GPA, he was not accepted to get into any medical schools he had applied for. For an bright guy going to a very well known school, why did he get such a low GPA? The competition at prestige schools like UCLA is no joke. Due to the competition, he was not able to get into Medical School.

Now that I have applied to colleges, and get accepted into prestige schools like UCLA, I know that I should not go there because of its fame and my abilities to succeed. I will go somewhere I know I can compete with other students and rise above them. A lot of students and parents have different perspectives. Majority of my fellow friends tell me that they will be going to UCLA, but they think they will not pass. I always tell them that indeed, it is a great school, but they should always go somewhere they know they will be able to get ahead and do well.

We should all think through where we fit in, not where our parents will brag about where we go. I mean, we all get the same education if we go to a school like UCR or RCC. Why need to go to a prestige school like Stanford when you know you can succeed when going to UCI?

Prestige gets you nowhere, your actions are what describes you.