萨尔曼·可汗的故事：让高中生活变得有意义

so what did I do in high school that I guess optimized my college application and I could talk about it now in hindsight well you know more than 20 if I'm getting old more than 20 years after the fact but I will say especially earlier on in high school in ninth and 10th and 11th grade I really didn't fully appreciate I actually didn't know what was good or bad but now I think I have a better lens on what actually did help you know even entering high school I had a strong interest in math and science and frankly I was just curious in general I just liked learning things and so I was always eager to take the the most challenging courses that that my school had to offer so I think that was really important one that prepares you for college but it also shows admissions officers that you're you're up for stepping out of your comfort zone and stretching yourself and as I got into my later years in high school as I kind of maxed out a few of the math classes that my high school offered I went to the University of New Orleans and I took classes there and I think once again and I I think I actually even met a few folks from my University later they said no that that really made your application look good that you continue to challenge yourself you didn't just say oh I did as much as I could do with my the resources at hand you looked for new ways to challenge your so I think that's always a good idea whatever your circumstances try to push and figure out and pull resources that allow you to either grow on the extracurricular side some of y'all might have guessed I was on the math team I was I was the captain and which I enjoyed and you know it's it's about math but it's also about leadership it's about motivating other people it's about mentoring other people so I think that reflects well in an application but it wasn't just about math I also was really into art and so we had a school newspaper a very good school newspaper actually and so I became the art editor of it eventually the guy who writes the cartoons and or draws the cartoons and does a lot of the layout and you know one I didn't do that to get into college I did that because I just really enjoyed it it was one of the best experiences I had in high school I learned a ton but I think it did help my my my application you know I other things I did extracurricular lis I ran for class president my junior year and lost so that was just a I guess a good experience I didn't think it was a good experience when I lost and I said I don't know that actually helped my application because I don't I think I was too embarrassed to write that I lost but in hindsight I probably should have written I could have probably written a pretty good essay about just what I learned from that experience and then the last piece is on the standardized tests which are clearly an important part of applying to college I think what really helped me is I didn't I didn't wait until the last minute to take the SAT and the a CT I took them I left a little bit of room so I took them once earlier in my career you know before my senior year and I got ok scores but I felt that I could get better scores and so I had room so I could take him again before the actual college applications were due and in in both the cases of the ICT and the a CT I did much better the second time so I think it was really important that I left that that flexibility open so yeah that's my best guess of of what what helped my college application