College students and grads! What is the best advice you would give to a high schooler?

What do you think were the most impressive/important highlights of your high school career? If you were to give advice to an incoming sophomore in high school, what would you say?





If you don't mind me asking, if you went to a college with a scholarship or were accepted to a prestigious college, what do you think your best asset was?College students and grads! What is the best advice you would give to a high schooler?
You should know that it's not just one asset that makes a person good -- it's the overall well-roundedness of such a person that gets them into the finer of institutions.





College admissions folk will tell you that you shouldn't view high school as a game -- you should extracurriculars just because you like to do them. Stanford's Dean, for instance, suggested such a thing. As good advice as that is, you really should go out of your way to stack -everything-.





Take every hard course within reason, do as many extracurriculars without it looking outrageous (you don't want to be presidenting 50 clubs), and study your butt off.





My best asset is that I was 4th of 316, minority status, essay reflecting such a status, extracurricular activities, and leadership. My SAT scores were pretty lousy -- 1370.





Hope this helps.College students and grads! What is the best advice you would give to a high schooler?
The best advice I could give you is to always be true to yourself and put your best effort forward in everything you do.





To a sophomore in HS I would say, ';Do not let your friends distract you! Focus on what you want to be and do with your life. Even though you are young, it all starts now. Make sure you give your best in everything so that you never become disappointed in yourself. The worst feeling in the world is being disappointed in yourself.';





I think that if you are looking to impress a prestigious institution then make sure you take courses that apply to what you plan on doing, courses that are challenging, make sure you get great grades, make sure you participate in some extra curricular activities, but not just in school, also in the community. And demonstrate confidence in yourself!!! :) Good Luck to you!
Make sure you actually read your book .. and your best asset is how well you can sell yourself !
cptcharcoal has said almost everythign that I wanted to, however, I'll add something to the ';Don't get distracted by friends'; thing.





I'm a second year college student now, and as such I have stayed away from my family for a cumulative period of around three years now, in different places.The one thing I advice to people when they are moving to a different location is to remember what you are there for.





You need not force your way into things, should not try to make things hapeen when those things happen on their own. For example, if ou can open up to strangers or talk to classmates whom you've never known before, you'll make friends in a very continuos manner. The problem is, people just dont get it. They approach people with the intention of making friends, make it awkward for them and then end up hurting themselves.





Take that as a metaphor, even for studies. ';You have to study your butt off'; - I agree with that, but study in a manner which relates to you. If it's an additional task, you won't want to do it anyways! So, for example, if you are studying calculus, don't just limit yourself to doing a hundred problems a day. Change your surfing habbits - try to read related info about it. There are hundreds of challenging problems archive. Even if you read just one such problem a week, over a course of time, it'll just change your way of thinking. The thought process will change.





ON similar lines, if your course is related to screenplay/storytelling etc. why not remember that when you watch television. For example, I can tell u for sure that most of the time, the story in a good/bad movie/series can be very similar, its just the treatment and presentation that makes the difference. So, you might watch Dr. House M.D. once, and then when you watch something else try to recall if its saying the samething as House, and try to find out why the impact of the dialogue/story etc. wasnt the same as House.





Extracurriculars are there for you to break free, to do what you want to. Only advice I can give you is not to use them to distinguish yourself from others or for additional points on the resume.