As a rising sophomore fresh off freshman year, there are certain things that I wish I’d knew sooner—without needing to go through the hassle of figuring it out on my own.
Hi, my name is Leo, and I’m sure that after reading this guide, you’ll be well on the road to a great 4 years of overachieving in high school.
These are the 5 things that I wish I’d known before freshman year of high school.
1. Grades matter from day 1
GPA counts from day 1. Unlike in middle school, most colleges see all 4 years of your high school grades.
Besides, building a strong GPA in freshman year takes stress off of sophomore and junior year. Think of it like this: high school is like a construction project. Freshman year is like the foundation of the building.
With a strong foundation, you can afford some slight impurities or mistakes in later stages of construction. At the end of the day, even if a window breaks, your building is still standing.
You wouldn’t want to bomb your freshman year GPA so badly that you spend your next 3 years trying to recover it. So, grades do matter even in the early stages of high school.
However, it’s also important to not get too over-absorbed in your GPA. At many schools, including my own, there is a really tight race for valedictorian (top GPA ranking of the graduation class).
Getting obsessive over your GPA and taking the valedictorian race too seriously leads to a really toxic and stressful academic environment, potentially leading to a hard burnout.
Coming from my sister who graduated from top 20 college UC Berkeley, the title of valedictorian really doesn’t matter that much in college admissions.
I’m not saying don’t strive for the top—just don’t obsess over it!
2. Get involved – take the open opportunities you’re given
Although it sounds cliché, it’s very important to not reject opportunities to get involved in school.
Join as many clubs, sports, volunteering assignments as possible—even if you’re unsure if it really fits you, or if you’d stick with it throughout the entirety of high school.
Freshman year is the year to try new things. Sophomore year and beyond is when you start trimming out the activities you don’t like.
You need to give yourself activities to fall back on. If you join only one club in freshman year, and you decide it isn’t for you, and cut it out your sophomore year, you’ll not be in a club anymore and not be as involved as you could be in your school community.
Although it’s not necessarily late to join a club your sophomore year, it’s beneficial to be in a club all four years if you want to eventually earn a leadership position in that club.
Taking full advantage of opportunities in freshman year is a strong way to get way ahead of everyone else.
3. Put yourself out there
Trust me, it isn’t worth it trying to be that one nonchalant, mysterious smart kid who only speaks when spoken to lol.
In many cases, it’s the charismatic smart people who get selected for leadership roles in school, such as student body president. You can be a really intelligent person, but no one is going to acknowledge that for you.
Say you run for a leadership position in a club you really care for, and you know a bunch about the topic of that club. However, you rarely speak during meetings, and you’re going against a person who knows equally as much about that topic, but he is constantly telling jokes and socializing with everyone.
People love him, and respect his knowledge—he is 100% winning that election.
You need to put yourself out there with self-confidence. Combine this with humility, and people will respect your character and your intelligence.
In 5–10 years, you aren’t going to remember that one time you got embarrassed in high school from speaking at a club meeting.
It isn’t worth trying to put on a persona. Instead, you could end up looking back, regretting you didn’t talk as much, or didn’t experience high school to the fullest later on.
It’s mentally tiring to be someone you aren’t. Just be yourself.
4. Social stuff is not that serious
It is not worth getting in drama in freshman year—or any year.
It’s time and energy consuming to beef with people over stuff that really doesn’t matter in the long run. Would you rather not put the time into hanging out with friends that actually make you happy?
Invest your time in something else, like an extracurricular activity, or preparing for college.
You only get 4 years, so use it to the fullest—not getting in dumb drama.
5. High school is a short window – spend it wisely
I think this is the most important point of all: these four years are crucial in transitioning from one chapter of your life to another. For many of us, this next chapter is college.
Think about it like this: you will never have the chance to prepare for college ever again after these couple of years. College is not just higher education—it’s going from a kid within the comforts of your home next to your parents to getting a taste of full-on adult life.
Working hard in high school sets the stage for a successful college experience, which points to a successful career. Exploring your interests, advancing in extracurriculars, and studying hard starting as early as your freshman year gives you a huge head start.
However, don’t orient your entire life around college preparation. I know it sounds contradictory, but you want the full high school experience—not just all-nighters pulled studying.
To be honest, I did fall victim to the intense college “grind-set” when I first started freshman year. I felt like social life could be put second, and that once I got into the Ivy League, I could go out with friends and socialize more.
However, the more I thought about it, if you spend your entire life preparing for the next chapter of your life, looking into the future, you’ll never genuinely experience the present.
You spend four years preparing for the next four years, and repeat. That’s not how I wanted to live.
I thought I couldn’t have fun without getting distracted from my academics, but I realized: it’s okay to have fun, it’s not okay to be lazy. There’s a difference. So go out with your friends on weekends, have some fun 🙂
Ultimately, high school is what you make it out to be.
You could slack off academically your freshman year and get into irrelevant drama, or you could lock in, work hard, put yourself out there, and get ahead early.
The world is your oyster haha—you got this!!
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