What were you in highschool?

[PlatyPius 5]

High School in Brazil is VERY different from the US schools. We don't pick our subjects, we take them all, and there's no such things as drama class, pottery class, auto shop, home economics, Foods, Criminology, etc etc etc etc. We take Portuguese, History (ours and world), Geography (ours and world and geopolitics), Literature, Chemistry (organic and inorganic), Biology (all of it), Math (algebra, geometry, trigonometry), Physics, English (some schools have French or Spanish as foreign language choice, the common is English), P.E.. And then some schools have a year of Computers and a year of Arts as less serious classes.

High School lasts 3 years in which we cover everything in those subjects to prepare us for the University Entrance Exams, as our grades in school are usually irrelevant for University choices, you take a separate Entrance Exam for each University you plan to apply to, and they're graded differently depending on what course you chose.

Also, we leave High School straight to University, meaning we don't take Biology for 4 years in a college and then go into Med School, we go straight into Med School. We go straight into Law, etc. We don't have general classes that we can take until we choose a major or whatever, you apply to Med School you take the exam and if you pass you're then studying to be a doctor, period.

It isn't set up so you "take classes until you choose a major".... US colleges/Universities are obsessed with the idea of a well-rounded education. Want to be a Physicist? Well, ya gotta take 100 and 200 level English courses, Sociology, Belly Button Lint Harvesting, and Philosophers of the Dark Ages. I think that most majors only have maybe 18 hours of classes dedicated to what you're actually studying; the rest is "well-roundedness training".

That's why I quit. I was working 60 hours a week to pay for 3 hours per week of actual, useful learnin'. The rest was all BS.

[scandal 951]

High School in Brazil is VERY different from the US schools. We don't pick our subjects, we take them all, and there's no such things as drama class, pottery class, auto shop, home economics, Foods, Criminology, etc etc etc etc. We take Portuguese, History (ours and world), Geography (ours and world and geopolitics), Literature, Chemistry (organic and inorganic), Biology (all of it), Math (algebra, geometry, trigonometry), Physics, English (some schools have French or Spanish as foreign language choice, the common is English), P.E.. And then some schools have a year of Computers and a year of Arts as less serious classes.

High School lasts 3 years in which we cover everything in those subjects to prepare us for the University Entrance Exams, as our grades in school are usually irrelevant for University choices, you take a separate Entrance Exam for each University you plan to apply to, and they're graded differently depending on what course you chose.

Also, we leave High School straight to University, meaning we don't take Biology for 4 years in a college and then go into Med School, we go straight into Med School. We go straight into Law, etc. We don't have general classes that we can take until we choose a major or whatever, you apply to Med School you take the exam and if you pass you're then studying to be a doctor, period.

It isn't set up so you "take classes until you choose a major".... US colleges/Universities are obsessed with the idea of a well-rounded education. Want to be a Physicist? Well, ya gotta take 100 and 200 level English courses, Sociology, Belly Button Lint Harvesting, and Philosophers of the Dark Ages. I think that most majors only have maybe 18 hours of classes dedicated to what you're actually studying; the rest is "well-roundedness training".

That's why I quit. I was working 60 hours a week to pay for 3 hours per week of actual, useful learnin'. The rest was all BS.

Um, yeah. That's why the pre-eminent US universities are still ranked highest worldwide and attract foreign students from all corners of the world.

My kids are in a Brazilian school right now... a private "American" school, with English language instruction.

None of them plan to attend university in Brazil. I hope that all of them come to the US or Canada for their university.

I would prefer they come nearby to me at Northwestern or UIUC or UW-Madison or U-Chicago. My oldest has his heart set on either Waterloo or UofToronto. Those are fine schools too. An acceptable compromise. UFPE (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco) is not quite what I have in mind for them, sorry.

[jundp 191]

In high school I was...the choir nerd, the artsy chick, well read and good at my subjects but didn't care enough to put forth any effort (at school). I was marching at the capitol in Baton Rouge, starting an Amnesty International chapter at my high school, wearing lots of torn jeans, flannel, Docs or plain ole Army/Navy Surplus combat boots, recycled leather peace earrings, and tie dye. And, my boyfriend was the tie-wearing, Young Republican-belonging, BMW-driving rich kid.

Guess who is now more conservative (though still an active member of AI), works at a Catholic school and goes to church regularly? Guess who owns a catering company in Colorado and is a rather liberal ski bum? Hee hee.

Sidebar: As an educator I have to say there is great value in not only 11th and 12th grades of high school here in America, but also in have a well-rounded curriculum at the university level. A mathematics major might not find value in taking a liberal arts class, but learning to effectively communicate (Liberal arts), use critical thinking and reading skills (lib arts/social sciences, math, and science), higher level thinking (all the disciplines), appreciate beauty (music/art/liberal arts), use logic and reasoning skills (all the disciplines), remove emotion and discern facts (science/math/some social sciences) (etc) are all necessary for a human being to thrive in life and society. Of course people can get by without these aspects and do very well and be very successful, but there's a reason the first year and half to two years include more basic or general classes than the last two years (and grad school). I thought undergrad was more difficult because I was taking classes that I had to work and challenge myself in: science and math predominately. But I am surprised by how much I appreciate the well-rounded education I received.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

In high school I was...the choir nerd, the artsy chick, well read and good at my subjects but didn't care enough to put forth any effort (at school). I was marching at the capitol in Baton Rouge, starting an Amnesty International chapter at my high school, wearing lots of torn jeans, flannel, Docs or plain ole Army/Navy Surplus combat boots, recycled leather peace earrings, and tie dye. And, my boyfriend was the tie-wearing, Young Republican-belonging, BMW-driving rich kid.

Guess who is now more conservative (though still an active member of AI), works at a Catholic school and goes to church regularly? Guess who owns a catering company in Colorado and is a rather liberal ski bum? Hee hee.

Sidebar: As an educator I have to say there is great value in not only 11th and 12th grades of high school here in America, but also in have a well-rounded curriculum at the university level. A mathematics major might not find value in taking a liberal arts class, but learning to effectively communicate (Liberal arts), use critical thinking and reading skills (lib arts/social sciences, math, and science), higher level thinking (all the disciplines), appreciate beauty (music/art/liberal arts), use logic and reasoning skills (all the disciplines), remove emotion and discern facts (science/math/some social sciences) (etc) are all necessary for a human being to thrive in life and society. Of course people can get by without these aspects and do very well and be very successful, but there's a reason the first year and half to two years include more basic or general classes than the last two years (and grad school). I thought undergrad was more difficult because I was taking classes that I had to work and challenge myself in: science and math predominately. But I am surprised by how much I appreciate the well-rounded education I received.

Liberal Arts FTW!

[Niels Bohr 72]

Sorry about the OP. I was in the National Honors Society back in high school. Applied to MIT. Got rejected. Same with 400 other valedictorians. How did I found out that 400 valedictorians got rejected? At Staples a long time ago, I met a couch who couched MIT (Division 3) students. He said, "don't worry, there were over 400 valedictorians who got rejected."

Ha!

Now, I work alongside an MIT student at the job. They are no more skilled than I am. Nothing special.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Niels Bohr

[Nessa 23]

Um, yeah. That's why the pre-eminent US universities are still ranked highest worldwide and attract foreign students from all corners of the world.

My kids are in a Brazilian school right now... a private "American" school, with English language instruction.

None of them plan to attend university in Brazil. I hope that all of them come to the US or Canada for their university.

I would prefer they come nearby to me at Northwestern or UIUC or UW-Madison or U-Chicago. My oldest has his heart set on either Waterloo or UofToronto. Those are fine schools too. An acceptable compromise. UFPE (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco) is not quite what I have in mind for them, sorry.

you know, i don't want to be bashing brazilian education, but when i started to learn more how things work here in the states when it comes to education, i said to myself "that's why this country is so successful''.

In Brazil if you're a C student all your life and then the last months before vestibular* you get tutoring, plus go to all your classes and study your a$$ off, then on the vestibular date you happen to be having a great day, you get to be accepted.

Now if you're an A student all your life and on the vestibular day you get so nervous that you can't even remember your name because all the As you've gotten during your entire life will make no difference but 1 dayum test will define the rest of your life. Then you don't pass the test and you have to wait half to 1 year to apply again and maybe this time when you take the test again you'll remember to take some lorazepam prior to it and maybe have a chance to relax and remember what you've spent all your life learning.

Then there's another problem. You get into your college of choice to study the major you decided just to find out after a couple years that you don't want to be an architect, you want to be an accountant. So you wait for the next vestibular for accounting school. So those 2 years architecture education will mean nothing when you finish college and apply for jobs to be an accountant. It was just 2 lost years that you could've been making money working instead of spending money on your education. And something else, those majors you choose are either 4, 5, etc years. There's no such thing as AA, BA, etc. If you apply for engineering school and it's established 4 years to get a degree, you have to finish 4 years to get an engineering degree. And if by any chance that semester prior to you finishing college you can't afford to pay, guess what, you don't get a college degree. You'll apply for jobs and say i studied 4 years but i can't prove because I couldn't finish paying for college so i didn't get my degree. There's no option to get a 3.5 years degree because that's all you've paid, even though u studied 4.

I was an A student all my life. I got extremely nervous during vestibular. I didn't pass the test for a federal university, i only passed to all the private universities i applied. i got into college for business admin. After a year i decided i want to study communic/advertising, so i not only lost 1 year of my life in business class, i lost another half a year waiting for the next vestibular to enter to study communications just to find out after 3 years that i don't want to work with advertising, i want to work with computers. By this time I'm so in debt I can't keep going to private university anymore, i have to apply for federal university again.

It's really complicated, I'd prefer our education system to be exactly like it is in the states. In here you'll have a bunch of smart kids not being able to get a college degree because of the circumstances, lack of money, lack of time, because after trying for so long to get a college degree they just can't afford to keep trying because you have to get a full time job to pay the rent . Then you'll have a whole bunch of dumba$$es, that were able to finish college, due to circumstances, like getting lucky to enter in the first place, could afford to finish etc.

*vestibular: the test you take to get into your university of choice to study what major you want to graduate. This test is taken in a certain date and if you don't pass, you're gonna have to wait half to one year to take the same test again, depending if that class starts in the middle of the year or only starts in the beginning which is most of the cases.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Nessa

[Ladylethal 12]

That is true Nessa. But the Enem is becoming a more frequent thing now though (the Enem is a program that gives X number of admission to top grade students without having to go through the Entrance Exams).

Platy, during the first year we do take those sorts of things, Philosophy, Antropology, etc.

I'd say I like how our High School works better, but college/university in US has a very good system, only thing I dislike is not having access to grade A PUBLIC universities.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Ladylethal

[Nessa 23]

now to answer the OP.

- I was an A student.

- I hang out with the crowd that partied all the time'. We'd sit in the back of the classroom. We'd skip classes quite often, especially on fridays to go to this pub where all of the same crazy people used to hang out to smoke, drink, play pool, etc. We were the popular group, but we were an eclectic group. It's not like in the States where the popular girls are just like that ''mean girls'' movie. here popularity isn't defined by being dumb and dressing like barbie.

- I had extremely long bright red hair that would get everybody's attention and used to wear black clothes, not gothic crazy, more like rock n'roll/bike chick. A couple more people in my group would dress the same. Some would be more ''sporty''. Some would be more ''patricinha'' (that's when you wear design clothes, lots of make-up, like when you dress like you're in a fashion show)

- I had an older bf that would come pick me up in his motorcycle and that was one of the reasosn i was so popular, because nobody else had bfs like that lol

- I was great in sports, always the top choice to play.

High school was pretty awesome. I could make some people's life miserable, like nerds or the rejects that would try to be part of our group. I had fun.

[Ban Hammer 13,335]

I was a D&D nerd whose could only fantasize about dating cheerleaders like Diana Trujillo....sigh.

Were you a thief or a paladin?

Was there a Ranger? I think I was that. My friend was a Paladin, but he sucked at being one because he was anything but chivalrous or lawful good.

yes, that was 1st edition.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Grade A public university:

University of California - Berkeley

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Westpoint Academy

There's a few others...Can't get it off my head atm.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Computer Nerd/D&D addict.

(let's see, the computer lab had an Apple IIC and two TRS-80 Model 2 if I remember right... 81-83)

[Emancipation 2]

I was the band geek, the library rat, the captain of the volleyball team, the track rat and on the student council...

in other words.. I had NO idea where I belonged!!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Computer Nerd/D&D addict.

(let's see, the computer lab had an Apple IIC and two TRS-80 Model 2 if I remember right... 81-83)

I was in the first BASIC computer class at our school (1982).....we had Commodores but they were business/educational models....just green screens...no real graphic abilities.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

In high school I was...the choir nerd, the artsy chick, well read and good at my subjects but didn't care enough to put forth any effort (at school). I was marching at the capitol in Baton Rouge, starting an Amnesty International chapter at my high school, wearing lots of torn jeans, flannel, Docs or plain ole Army/Navy Surplus combat boots, recycled leather peace earrings, and tie dye. And, my boyfriend was the tie-wearing, Young Republican-belonging, BMW-driving rich kid.

Guess who is now more conservative (though still an active member of AI), works at a Catholic school and goes to church regularly? Guess who owns a catering company in Colorado and is a rather liberal ski bum? Hee hee.

Sidebar: As an educator I have to say there is great value in not only 11th and 12th grades of high school here in America, but also in have a well-rounded curriculum at the university level. A mathematics major might not find value in taking a liberal arts class, but learning to effectively communicate (Liberal arts), use critical thinking and reading skills (lib arts/social sciences, math, and science), higher level thinking (all the disciplines), appreciate beauty (music/art/liberal arts), use logic and reasoning skills (all the disciplines), remove emotion and discern facts (science/math/some social sciences) (etc) are all necessary for a human being to thrive in life and society. Of course people can get by without these aspects and do very well and be very successful, but there's a reason the first year and half to two years include more basic or general classes than the last two years (and grad school). I thought undergrad was more difficult because I was taking classes that I had to work and challenge myself in: science and math predominately. But I am surprised by how much I appreciate the well-rounded education I received.

I was that math major and frankly, I enjoyed the General Education courses. I could do things, like challenge the instructor's level of BS to a level I could not get away with in my own department. I grant that bonehead biology was boring. I just showed up for quizzes and exams.

[NickD 202]

Major interest in my high school days, was better than 70% of my class getting married and having kids so the guy wouldn't get drafted. That wasn't even of interest to me coming from a fatherless dirt poor home, wanted a couple of bucks in my pocket first before making that fatal mistake. Even though my sister was telling me either that girl or this girl was very interested in me. Did attend a 10th year reunion, all those girls were fat and ugly and were poorly educated. Did seek a woman with not only a nice looking butt, but brains as well.

Did take two tries, but with the help of the USCIS in making you sign that I-864, really makes you think twice before making that commitment. If I had to do that with my first marriage, doubt if I would have gotten married, divorce certainly teaches a lot about a marriage commitment. Yeah, I was a letterman in high school, still have that sweater with all that stuff on it, but would be dead ashamed to wear it and haven't since.

By the way, eating popcorn and sipping on a coke is fattening and shows boredom as a characteristic, time to get a life of your own.