Being a senior is great. Being a freshman is not. BCA did not end up like how I thought it would, so here are some helpful tips so you don’t die of stress midway through.

1. Don't be afraid to drop things

I used to think quitting an extracurricular or dropping a class meant that I was lazy. I thought that I should be able to succeed at everything. This is incorrect and will make you waste more time later struggling with things you may not even be interested in.

Take advantage of the drop period at the beginning of the year (you have a week or so to drop a class and change it with a different one). This especially goes if you think a class is above your pay grade. Everyone ends up at around the same place anyways – if you’re worried about taking Spanish I-II instead of Spanish II, don’t be! Both lead you to take Spanish III sophomore year. Don’t take BC Calc knowing full well you already struggle with math. Just settle. An A in an "easier" class will help you more (and make you less stressed) than a B in a "harder" class.

This also applies to extracurricular activities. Don’t join a club just because you think you should, join it because you are actually interested in whatever it is about. Especially don’t spend three years in it and then become President when you don’t care about it. That doesn’t help you or anyone else in the club.

2. A lot of stuff is a bigger commitment than expected

Sports, EMT school, 3 bajillion clubs – it’s a lot, especially all at the same time. If you get home at 8 instead of 5 each day, it will affect your homework, sleep schedule, and overall well being. I am not saying you should drop activities that you care about and are interested in just because they take a lot of time. However, be aware that everything will take more time than you expect. That is why you should focus on only those things that you are genuinely passionate about AND you shouldn’t overload yourself at school.

3. Talk to upperclassmen

Nothing beats actually getting tips about teachers and stuff from people who are taking the classes you are interested in. I didn’t really understand what the differences between various courses were and over/underestimated their difficulty because of this. Try to find an upperclassman from your academy as well, since they will have an idea of the base coursework you already have. Talking to guidance counselors and stuff is great and all but they will not really have an idea of the student experience of a class.

Not being friends with any upperclassmen is not an excuse. Just DM them on insta or something and they will be happy to help. And if they aren’t happy to help? Oh well! They don’t even know who you are anyways so if they think you’re annoying it really doesn’t matter. Being proactive is the best thing to be (and this applies to literally everything)!

4. The purpose of BCA is not to get into the best college

I (and my parents even more so) thought that BCA was some mecca where every child goes to Harvard. This is not true. BCA does not exist solely so you can get into college, so you shouldn’t treat it as such. You need to take advantage of the BCA experience while you are here, because it is true that there are a lot of things that we have that other places do not.

Take for example research. Lots of people come to BCA because they want to do research, however the reason you want to do research should not be “I want to win a competition so I can get into college”. You should do research because you actually LIKE research, and if you are actually liking and are good at research then you can go ahead and do the competitions. If the only reason you are doing something is because you think you should for college, you should not do it. If you did it, you would not be interested and therefore you will probably be bad at it and it will not help you in terms of college anyways!

In my opinion the purpose of BCA is to gather you around people that think the same way as you. That isn’t in terms of politics or college choices or even passion for your academy, it’s just the general sense of camaraderie among students. Everyone wants to do well in class and has their own interests and that’s great because you can just talk to anyone about a lot of stuff. This is the aspect of BCA that you should take the most advantage of – gather people around you with similar interests, and make some really good friends. BCA is a great environment for more than just getting into college.

That is the end of the letter. Hope it was useful.

Thanks,

Senior Student