 What's up guys it's Josh and we're back again with another video, specifically the next video in my Ivy League Secret series. For those of you that don't know I mainly post Yale vlogs and student interviews but every other Monday I get a chance to reflect back on the college application experience and share some advice to help you guys get into your dream school. Today's video is going to be part one in a two part mini series where I examine each year of high school and give you guys tips for being successful. This means sharing my own experience, i.e. what classes I was taking, what extracurriculars I was involved in and any other relevant details. This week I'll be covering freshman and sophomore year and then in the negative I'll be doing junior and senior year. So stay tuned for that. Before I get into sharing my tips for you freshmen and sophomores out there I want to thank the sponsor of this video, Crimson education. If you've been watching my channel for a while I guarantee you've been recommended at least one of their videos that were created to help students dreams of studying a top ranked college as possible. Crimson's main goal is to connect students with a team of strategists, mentors and tutors that will help them create a successful college application. Whether that be extracurricular and leadership projects, college essay topic, brainstorming and editing, or SAT prep and tutoring, the best part is that it actually works as they've had over 460 offers to top 50 colleges just since 2015. For those of you applying internationally don't worry Crimson has over 25 offices across the globe. If you have ever felt lost in your college applications or just need help standing out in the growing competition definitely get in touch with Crimson to hear about a customized plan that will be affordable for you. A lot of my friends at Yale did in fact use college consulting services like Crimson and they only had great things to say. I'll leave the link below, definitely check them out if you're interested. Alright let's get into it. Freshman year was quite interesting for me. My family had just packed up all our stuff and trekked half way across the country from Herndon, Virginia to Abilene, Texas where I would now be living. I lived on an Air Force base which was pretty wild and I went to Abilene Cooper High School. Shout out to any other Cougars out there. Freshman year was pretty rough for me though. I came in pretty ahead in my math and French classes because I had an opportunity to take accelerated classes while I was in Virginia. But those didn't exactly line up with the classes in Texas which meant that half my classes were with like sophomores and juniors not freshmen. It was rough at first but I got over it and it was kind of cool to have a bunch of other classmate friends. I'll start with my schedule Freshman year. I was taking Algebra II honors, English IX honors, Biology honors, World Geography honors, French II, PE and then I played in the top chamber orchestra. As you can see I wasn't even in any AP classes. It was a pretty typical schedule, nothing special. I might have just been like a year ahead in math and that's about it. In terms of extracurriculars, I immediately tried to get involved with the local Boy Scout troop as soon as I moved in. Scouting has always been a huge part of my life and I was pretty close to finishing up my Eagle requirements so I wanted to join the troop and get started on my project. At school like I said I was involved in the top chamber orchestra. It was a really intense program that I felt pretty unprepared for. I was playing with all the juniors and seniors that just seemed miles ahead of me. As the year went on though I became a lot more comfortable and even ended up auditioning for the district orchestra. I also became pretty involved with the French club there. I had a really great French teacher who would help us plan trips to like Fort Worth to go see like French art museums or French performances. It was a really great time. In terms of how I spent my free time though, it was pretty unproductive. When it came to how I made use of my free time, a lot of it was spent just playing video games with my friends back in Virginia. Which looking back on it was a colossal waste of time. But I was young so whatever. And that was about it for freshman year. I stayed busy but overall it was pretty light. Alright let's get into my tips for freshman year. Like I'll say for every year you need to take the hardest classes that are offered and challenge yourself. If your school offers AP's freshman year, go for it. If you're worried because all your school offers is regular classes. Don't worry, colleges take into account what the classes that your school offers and will only compare you based on what opportunities you had in high school. As long as you're challenging yourself, you will be fine. Also just try to get straight A's. This will be by far your easiest year of high school. You do not want to pull a B in some stupid freshman class that isn't even weighted as high as like an AP or IB class. That could really take a hit on your GPA. Also try to get involved with some extra curriculars in your school. Start developing your interests. Don't be afraid to try new things or branch out. High school is a great time to do that especially freshman year. Your involvement in clubs freshman year will set you up for leader positions as you become an upper classman. So try to go to all the meetings and stay active. Honestly though, don't stress too much about freshman year. You're getting used to high school so just don't screw up and you'll be fine. Sophomore year is where it really starts to pick up. I took my first two AP classes, AP World's History and AP Statistics. Along with those, I took chemistry honors, pre-calculus honors, English 10 honors, French 3 and continued playing in the orchestra. Out of all my classes, AP World's History was definitely the most work. It was a lot of reading and it really showed me how much work it really takes to be successful in an AP class. AP stats on the other hand was really interesting and some of the topics were a little difficult, especially as a sophomore, but the most part it really wasn't that bad. A lot of people will take it senior year, but honestly, take it earlier if you can. It's not that bad. I continued the same extra curriculars as freshman year. I spent most of my winter planning my Eagle Scout project, which I finally completed in the spring and was able to make the rank of Eagle Scout by the end of the year. I was elected secretary of the French club that year. I also auditioned for district orchestra again. One new thing was that I joined my school's UIL math competition team, which was really fun and exposed me to a lot of strange concepts in math. I also began playing baseball again for my school. Once again, though, I wasn't really productive with my free time. One thing that I noticed later in high school was how much you can learn and accomplish just completely on your own. Whether that be reading books, prepping for the SAT, or teaching yourself how to program computers. My biggest piece of advice for a sophomore year is to find something academic that you're passionate about and pursue it independently. I wish I had started teaching myself how to code earlier or gotten more into magic or video making earlier. It's just one of those regrets that I have. Once again, challenge yourself in your classes and try to keep your grades up while your course load is lighter than usual. Continue to grow your extracurriculars. Maybe try to get a leadership position if you can. If you really want to get ahead, you could start studying for the SAT or ACT, but I ended up doing most of that my junior year anyways. Honestly, though, that's about it. Freshman and sophomore year shouldn't be too bad. It's junior year when it really, really gets tough. I'll be tackling that topic in my next Ivy Lea Secrets video, so subscribe to stay tuned for that. Even if you're just a freshman right now, I definitely recommend watching both videos to make sure that you can start planning for all four years of high school. Same thing applies if you're a sophomore. If you're still unsure about freshman and sophomore year or unsure if you're doing is really preparing you for top colleges, I definitely recommend checking out the guys at Crimson. They could give you a lot more help than I could and really help you plan out your four years of high school, so highly recommend that. Like I said before, a lot of my friends had done it and they couldn't recommend it enough. If you found this video helpful, feel free to drop a thumbs up down below and share it with your friends if you believe that they could benefit from it also. Comment down below what you thought or if you have any questions. I'll try to respond to everyone. Subscribe if you're new and I will see you in the next video.