I’m a 16 year old, sophomore in a public high school right now and it is my dream (as it is for many others) to go to one of the "Big Threes" or even Ox-bridge (oxford/cambridge) for the matter. However, it seems, at least for me, that all that I am doing will not be enough to get a second glance from the admissions office. Any recommendations to get that spark I need to be accepted?

[I am not trying to show off, honest....I just desperately want to know if there is something else I need do/am missing to make my application be noticed/accepted] so….

I have/am in…
-4.0 unweighted (though it might not stay that way by senior year, idk :/)
-IB (for those of you who understand, 4 HLs in English,History,Spanish, Chem; 2 SLs in Mathematics, Socio-Cultural Anthropology)
-At school: In a Key club (but it is really bad/disorganized), Spanish honor society, (and I want to be in National Honor Sociey but it’s upperclassmen only)
-Part of a Youth Advisory Council for my community, we are liasons between youth and community/help develop and lead service projects (so service hours are not a problem)
-I teach underserved middle school children in my community in the summer (this will be my 2nd time)
-am going to the Brit. Virgin Islands to do service projects and for a sailing adventure (so excited!)
-I Kiteboard, Dance(ballet, jazz,etc), play Piano
-fascinated with anything that has to do with medicine/anatomy-physiology/world culture
-Am trying to convince my parents to let me join one of those missions to central america to help the needy (I LOVE community/international service)

Bad things D:
-I have not won any competitions club/essay/etc. (I get really nervous)
-Probably won’t be president for any school clubs, but I will be president for the community youth council
-I heard the ivies are BIG on sports, varsity in particular, I only kiteboard out of school
-I’m asian —>big competion for college and no I’m not that great in math
-There are probably better prospectives out there (I feel that my passions are generic)
-Don’t know how SAT will come out. (I just know that it will most likely be over 1700)

ALSO: My family has absolutely no legacy or ties to any Ivies, and we are middle class, parents are not helping me financially. Any ways to get financial aid/scholarships/grants?

I know it’s probably still ages to come or maybe you’re already a bride/groom.
But you must have dream about your PERFECT WEDDING before,right?
if not then this is the time to think about that, come share it with the others..

my perfect dream wedding will be in a grand ballroom, very elegant and exquisite,everything white and pinkish also litle bit of gold cream colour,lots and lots and lotsssss of rROSES,chandeliers and candles with live jazz and romantic piano songs.

OKAY this is the unique part. I want this wedding to be a SURPRISE for my hubby!
so instead of us planning together, i’ll just plan the wedding myself,of course i will ask him about the decor but just so randomly from time to time, so he won’t get suspicious.

there are lots of other details in my head!

Now ur turn…*cheers* for happily ever after…. ^ _ ^

I love weddings, and I love reading and responding to the questions in this section, but I’ve noticed that some people place a lot of importance on one day in their entire life.

I’m looking forward to my wedding (8/28/09) and it will be great, but I’m not turning it into a spectacle at all. I’m thinking of it as an opportunity to profess my love and faith in our relationship to the one I’m going to spend the rest of my life with in front of our family and friends. Then afterwards is the celebration with good food and drinks. I’ll wear my grandma’s dress which means more to me than anything, maybe my grandpa will play some good jazz on the piano for us, but no real bells and whistles.

I hear of couples having their bridal party take dance classes for choreographed dances, brides being pulled up to the church, paying ,000 on a dress but only having a cocktail reception.

What causes women (not to be sexist, but it seems men don’t do this as much) to focus so much on one day out of thousands of days and out of hundreds of important events that will happen to them throughout their life?? What do they feel entitles them to be catered to???
Great answers so far!!!

Fizzystuff… I was just really asking for the reasoning behind a bride putting on such a big production, thank you for giving some pretty realistic answers

Oh, and just to clarify, I’m not saying that weddings aren’t meant to be beautiful gorgeous affairs someone will remember for the rest of their life, but I’m just saying that I feel some people forget the real reason why it’s so beautiful (hint: it’s not flowers).
Blunt… wow, I never said that I was judging anyone or that my way was the only right way. I love big, lavish weddings. I only wanted people who felt differently, like you, to explain the logic behind a way of thinking that’s different than my own. If someone wants to spend half a mil on their wedding, it’s their half a mil to spend but I’m just trying to figure out why they wouldn’t want to buy a nice house instead.

Right now I’m a sophomore, and I’m a little bit worried if I get unlucky with college applications and acceptances. I know it’s a bit early to start thinking of college, but I think it’s a good idea to start early. So far, I think I’m doing pretty good.

-Top Number One GPA of Freshman year (4.619 average)
-Will be taking 4 years of Marching Band, Steel Drums, Jazz Band, and piano playing for School Masses.
-Member of Key Club, CLC (Christian Learning Community extracurricular), Video Games Club
-Been playing the piano since 2nd grade
-Not doing any sports
-Will be a member of the Academic Decathlon team junior and senior year.

As you can see I’m mainly concentrating on the academics. The colleges I’m looking at right now are:

-UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD
-Stanford (possibly?)
-CALTech

I do not want to exit California, by the way. I know I can maintain a GPA over 4.5 every semester, but how good is that?
I was the top of my class Freshman year.

I plan on being a professional poker player so I wouldn’t really need to do any of these but as a back up I’d like a degree, plus, these areas actually interest me.

Music (Jazz and Classical piano, been playing since I was 5 and I didn’t like it back then but I LOVE it now, I play some other instruments as well for fun and when I need a break from the piano)

Biology (Genetics, love natural selection and cloning and all that $hit, really cool have loved it all my life, love all my science classes)

English (I like writing, at one point I thought about being an author, I still hope to write at least one book in my lifetime)

Psychology (I like to know what people are thinking, their motives. I like to look into myself as well, I just like everything about it, a lot like how I am with genetics)

Hi, I am a Junior in High School, and I’ve been studying piano for eight years.

The thing I I haven’t taken lessons for about four of the eight years and I am not at the level I should be at.

So the last couple years I have been (relatively) working hard to get much better.

But last year in May I started Jazz piano for a few weeks, then I had the summer off and I am still studying jazz.

I was wondering how fast of a pace I was advancing at. Although I know things shouldn’t be rushed, as a Junior in High School I think it’s pretty late to get seriously into a new kind of music.

So Here are the things I’ve learned in ten months:
1. Minor and Major 2-5-1s in all keys in two inversions of the right hand.
2. Alterations on the dominant chord
3. Little on pentatonics, melodic minor scale harmonies, and diminished harmonies
4. Fluent in Upper Structures
5. Starting block chords

Am I going at a good pace?

I love jazz piano. I want to learn how to improvise. I have been playing piano for six years, but I can only do a little bit of improvising. The songs i play are mostly classical and my piano teacher teaches classical. Are there any good books for learning jazz improv? Thanks!

i am very good at playing piano but i have never played jazz before. i am auditioning for jazz band at my school next month and was wondering if anyone had some tips. we have to play a prepared solo, a few scales, and an improvised solo. when playing the prepared solo, are there any ways i could make myself stand out, like a special jazz way to play it? also, any tips for the improv are welcome. thanks so much!

So I really want to learn how to play the piano, and my parents are getting me an electric one for my birthday, and when we went to look for classes we had to choose between classical and jazz piano classes. I’m not sure what the difference is between them though. Basically i don’t know ANYTHING about playing the piano, even the basics! So which class should i choose to take?

So I really want to learn how to play the piano, and my parents are getting me an electric one for my birthday, and when we went to look for classes we had to choose between classical and jazz piano classes. I’m not sure what the difference is between them though. Basically i don’t know ANYTHING about playing the piano, even the basics! So which class should i choose to take?