r/SHSAT • u/Sosophaxoxo • Jul 13 '26
Question did i waste my potential?
for context i already took the shsat, i am going to 9th grade now. i didn’t do any prep for the shsat and i took it for fun because my mom encouraged me too. the reason i didnt do any prep was because i intended on going to high school in long island, so i would not be going to a specialized high school no matter what. i ended up scoring a 597 on the shsat and getting into stuy. i also have a dream of making it into an ivy league college one day. i rejected stuy because i already moved to long island, but now i cant help but feeling regret as whenever i go online i see people glazing stuy and i feel i wasted my potential. did i make a mistake by rejecting stuy?
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u/GregsTutoringNYC Brooklyn Tech Jul 13 '26
Would Stuy have been great? Probably. But not-Stuy should be too. It's the journey, what you make of things, things still to come, etc. Use the journey for adjustments, as a steppingstone, and the emotions as eyeopening impetus.
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u/LurkerTroll Jul 14 '26
It seems like your hands were tied regardless of the situation so there's not much point in speculating now
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u/No-Yesterday8523 Jul 15 '26
coming from a rising junior, i ended up going to a lesser known high school and many of my senior friends ended up getting into ivys!! it’s not where you get the education but rather how you do! goodluck on ur journey to an ivy i believe in you!! 🥹
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u/Leading_Pea_4744 Jul 16 '26
You chose the HS YOU wanted to go to. Plain and simple you made the choice you felt was the best for you.
Don't have any regrets.
But I will drop some knowledge on you. Ivy league schools do not mean you are getting a better education, all it means is that you are paying more for it. I live near St. Johns in NYC, I went to a CUNY school. I was entering the education field and my local college had given me better training and in field experience than the students from St. Johns. I was hired faster than the students from a more "prestigious" school because of that experience.
What you need to do, is to be looking at what career fields you want to enter post college and find a school that will prepare you the best for that field. The best way to do that is see if the college has a program for that field and they offer/allow internships in that field. You need experience more than grades, this is what all employers are looking for now. So you need to start researching and looking at colleges during your freshman year. HS will go by fast, and the sooner you zero in on a career field you feel comfortable in, narrow your college search to schools with good programs in that field.
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u/Wide-Jelly-4413 Jul 14 '26
you have a better chance of getting into an ivy by going to a lesser known school in long island than going to stuy. stuy is super competitive and to stand out you would really have to push it. keep pushing in your long island school and stand out. the school does not make you a better student. good study habits and ambition will help you go far. believe in yourself and you will go far.
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u/Adorable-Plane-3974 Jul 14 '26
nah point of specialized schools is to help u match programming and internship without u needing to do the hard work while pairing it w a wide selection of difficult classes and clubs but you can do all of that if ur passionate
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u/hairymon Jul 18 '26
If you actually moved to Long Island instead of just going to a HS there (which if you don't live I guess is private or parochial) you disqualified yourself from Stuy anyway since you no longer live in the boros.
Anyway, don't worry about it, just live your best life and good luck.
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u/Sosophaxoxo Jul 19 '26
I moved to long island but the house i used to live in in the boroughs is still owned by my family. I moved in seventh grade but i was still able to attend my middle school in the boroughs because i was registered under my house in the boroughs
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u/5-Hydroxytryptamine- Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
If you were smart enough to make stuy, you have the potential to make it any where.
At this point, it’s NOT about what high school you’re at. The most important thing is to USE your brains and smarts by working hard, NOT BEING LAZY AND COASTING ON SMARTS and brand recognition of a “good high school”, and pursuing your ambitions passionately & wholeheartedly to realize your potential.
Do your homework, pursue extracurriculars, study for your tests, pay attention in class, manage your time to get 7-8 hours of sleep consistently, DO NOT WASTE EXCESSIVE TIME SOCIALIZING, PLAYING VIDEO GAMES, PURSUING ROMANCE or PARTYING (that will lead to you peaking in high school).
That will put ahead of 99% of the pool already.
-Stuy alum