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IvyLab

235 members • Free

2 contributions to IvyLab
The truth about college, high school, and success
I understand the stress of wanting to get into a good college, getting awards, getting extracurriculars, and pretty much everything else that comes with the high school college experience. I've heard from a lot of people thay you shouldn't hyper focus on college stuff, but should try to enjoy the high school experience too. Make friends and connections, socialize, have fun, and use those connections to your advantage. If you spend all of your time in high school worrying about college, you might be wasting precious high school time that adults often cherish later in their life. Might as well balance socializing and the college grind or even combine them. If your goal is to be successful, then there's also caveats to college. If you want to go to Harvard or Stanford or any other top school because you want to be filthy rich/wealthy, then you're just like me and I realized something about these schools. It's not the schools that make you wealthy, its the people that they selectively choose to be accepted to their schools that have the potential to be wealthy, therefore building up their reputation. Somebody that has a 1590 SAT, 4.0 GPA, and blazing extracurriculars that have generated a lot of revenue will have more potential to be successful than someone with a 1000 SAT, 2.5 GPA, and no extracurriculars, so obviously they'll pick the person that shows them the most potential (meaning the most return on their investment). Its not the schools, its the people. If you wish to be successful, starting to become the person that has enough innovation, drive, and the skills to create an extracurricular just like that will get you a long way. I would like to mention that this is how Joowan got into Stanford too, since he said his other ventures were kind of mid and that the skool community was the bargaining chip that got him in. They chose him since they saw potential in him creating a successful business, so they let him in so they would be tied to his name in the future.
1 like • Jul 27
I see your point as well as what tanay and aparajitan are saying, and I do think its fine to be motivated out of wealth. However I also feel like you might get further if you do go back to following passion rather than money since once you have a lot of money, you will lose drive if you dont have something else backing you up.
1 like • Jul 27
Also I would like to say that I'm glad you're re-orienting your viewpoint after being exposed to a new (or here, a forgotten viewpoint) way of thinking based on your replies to the other comments. Not to sugarcoat, but thats a nice quality to have
🎉 Welcome, Start Here!
Watch the video & complete the steps below: 1. First, introduce yourself in the comments: type your dream school, where you're from, and what part of the college application process you would like the most help with (stats, ecs, awards, etc)! 2. Make your first post to win a FREE 1-1 consulting session with me! ✌️Joowan
🎉 Welcome, Start Here!
0 likes • Jul 27
Hello, I'm Emilio and I'm a rising senior from Texas, and I'm hoping to get into Harvard or Columbia. Although I'm not too driven to do that since I am satisfied with UT Austin, but I'll at least try it! I'll probably need help for essays and awards
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Emilio Salazar
1
3points to level up
@emilio-salazar-2338
Hey guys! I'm a rising senior hopefully get to a top university like Harvard or Columbia

Active 60d ago
Joined Jul 26, 2025