My sister screwed up....

[Lager]

Ok, I have a sister who is genuinely smart, had good grades and had all AP classes until junior year, now got 2.8 her first semester and crushed her dreams of attending UCLA. She also got terrible SAT II scores, around the 550's and has no extracirricular because she was rejected by student government and stuff.

It is just hard to see someone with potential throw away all their ability like this. She said she tried, but all I see is apathy and laziness. She really screwed up and now the whole family is upset.

Have you ever seen someone with so much potential just throw everything away?

 

[Feldenak]

Yeah, me.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

thrown it all away huh? Sounds like she's having other problems. Does she have a BF? Are her friends all drunk? Are they all nerds? You can't just pressure someone into getting things back together.

It does suck though-

 

[amnesiac]

/me breaks out World's Smallest Violin (TM)

What do you want us to do? Write angry letters to the management? Sympathize because she's too smart to prepare for her tests?

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Yeah, me.

Highest marks in the province on most of my final exams in HS. Solid 3.0 average in 1st year honours science. 52% average with 1 failed class second year...

Although I am getting back in this September...

 

[tweakmm]

Heaven forbid that she doesn't get her degree from UCLA and become another cog.

 

[Lager]

Originally posted by: isaacmacdonald
thrown it all away huh? Sounds like she's having other problems. Does she have a BF? Are her friends all drunk? Are they all nerds? You can't just pressure someone into getting things back together.

It does suck though-

No, her friends are very cool. I know some of them and they are very focused on education and stuff like that. My sister is very anti-social this year for some reason, only talking to few of her friends and rarely going out as much as she used to.

No boyfriend.

 

[Kaervak]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Yeah, me.

Ditto. A do over for the past four years would be nice. That way I could go to a real college where the staff & instructors actually care about their jobs.

 

[Lager]

Originally posted by: amnesiac
/me breaks out World's Smallest Violin (TM)

What do you want us to do? Write angry letters to the management? Sympathize because she's too smart to prepare for her tests?

Sorry, I was just hoping for some advice. No I don't expect pity for her.

 

[halik]

ah screw it...pics ?

 

thats life. Those that adapt survive, those that dont fail.

 

[WarmAndSCSI]

Originally posted by: amnesiac
/me breaks out World's Smallest Violin (TM)

What do you want us to do? Write angry letters to the management? Sympathize because she's too smart to prepare for her tests?

You truly have no heart

 

[UglyCasanova]

Originally posted by: coldcut

Originally posted by: isaacmacdonald
thrown it all away huh? Sounds like she's having other problems. Does she have a BF? Are her friends all drunk? Are they all nerds? You can't just pressure someone into getting things back together.

It does suck though-

No, her friends are very cool. I know some of them and they are very focused on education and stuff like that. My sister is very anti-social this year for some reason, only talking to few of her friends and rarely going out as much as she used to.

No boyfriend.

Sounds like she is just in a slump. I can relate. My Sophmore year for some reason I just did not give a fvck about anything. Very anti-social like you mentioned, and didn't go out and do a whole lot. Although it sounds odd, does she have a job? Starting work is what seemed to pull me out of my little slump that I was in, and it could help her too.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

Originally posted by: coldcut

Originally posted by: isaacmacdonald
thrown it all away huh? Sounds like she's having other problems. Does she have a BF? Are her friends all drunk? Are they all nerds? You can't just pressure someone into getting things back together.

It does suck though-

No, her friends are very cool. I know some of them and they are very focused on education and stuff like that. My sister is very anti-social this year for some reason, only talking to few of her friends and rarely going out as much as she used to.

No boyfriend.

to be pedantic, she's probably asocial, not anti-social. In any case, that sounds like depression. I've had similar experiences in the past, but it's especially hard to rationally mitigate as a hormonal teenager. The problem is that your values change dramatically when you're depressed. Things just don't matter the way they used to. As an adult, I would recommend just working it out with yourself, but when you're dealing with such a crucial point in time (pre college), there's not much room for trial and error. Medication to even out the moodswings will almost certainly have a substantial impact. Push your parents + sister in that direction.

 

[ROTC1983]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Yeah, me.

 

[slydecix]

it's not the end of the world...
if in 20 years, she's living on the street with no job, that is lost potential

we all have our ups and downs.

 

[Lager]

She was thinking of getting a job, to make up for her lack of extra-cirricular. She said she will, but hasn't really attempted, just words.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: Kaervak

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Yeah, me.

Ditto. A do over for the past four years would be nice. That way I could go to a real college where the staff & instructors actually care about their jobs.

Well, I lived in a bottle for a few years and was probably a borderline alcoholic. I'm just now returning to school after leaving for 4 years...I'm hoping to graduate in 2 more years (changing majors), I'm currently 29. I pretty much flushed my early/mid 20's down the toilet.

 

[Brutuskend]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Yeah, me.

Ditto

 

[gwlam12]

if she goes to grad school, then her undergrad wont mean much anymore.

also, you can always try transferring to ucla. there is still hope!

 

[Cycad]

She could still easily make it into UCLA if she retakes her tests and does well her senior year. You can't let this get her down there is plenty of time to get back into it. Just be supportive and don't discourage her.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

Originally posted by: Elitebull
it's not the end of the world...
if in 20 years, she's living on the street with no job, that is lost potential

we all have our ups and downs.

that's nice and dandy if there's no scholarship on the line. But that's just a waste if there is. We're talking about an extremely crucial period of time here.

My parents actually had that whole whatever will be hippie attitude. It really screwed me up. I finally managed to squeeze into some ap courses in my junior year, and did reasonably well on my sats. Unfortunatly I had 0 extra curiculars, and mid 1400s + a couple 4s on the APs just don't add up to big time scholarship (esp when my cumulative gpa was like 3.03). I ended up doing 1 year in psuedo ivy league and then my hippie parents decided I should get a full time job because financial aid wasn't covering enough.

I don't blame my parents as people, but I have real doubts about the effectiveness of the wait and see attitude. Kids need a little kick in the pants sometimes.

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Yeah, me.

 

[jsbush]

Originally posted by: coldcut
Ok, I have a sister who is genuinely smart, had good grades and had all AP classes until junior year, now got 2.8 her first semester and crushed her dreams of attending UCLA. She also got terrible SAT II scores, around the 550's and has no extracirricular because she was rejected by student government and stuff.

It is just hard to see someone with potential throw away all their ability like this. She said she tried, but all I see is apathy and laziness. She really screwed up and now the whole family is upset.

Have you ever seen someone with so much potential just throw everything away?

Its her life, let her learn from her mistakes. So what if the whole family is upset it's not her fault. She's just learning the prosse of life, she will come out stronger, smarter, and wiser in the end.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
Heaven forbid that she doesn't get her degree from UCLA and become another cog.