Senior Advice from the Class of 2024
The Pixel Journal extends a sincere congratulations to the OHS Class of 2024! Our seniors have experienced countless lessons throughout high school, and are seen as role models by the OHS community. Before the Class of 2024 departs to the next chapter of their lives, the Pixel Journal collected some advice they had to share—thank you to all those who imparted their wisdom!
We wish you the best of luck in the future; you will be missed.
On academics:
Anonymous 1: Enjoy your classes and engage with them! Don't treat classes as a graduation requirement checklist! Try to find things you can appreciate about subjects you don't like! When you feel like you're doing something valuable for yourself, completing work is easier.
Anonymous 2: TAKE. FUN. CLASSES. Academics are important, yes, and doing things for grad requirements are also important. But taking fun classes saved me (mostly) from senioritis. Read the reviews, talk to people, take the classes that sound fun and interesting, or are known to have awesome teachers. (For me personally, OASTR1/2 with Ms. Tock was the most fun class, and my fav teacher. Take it.)
Anonymous 3: Go to office hours when you have problems and you'll be fine. As of pre-finals spring 2024, I have a 4.0 unweighted and it hasn't been too hard to stay there.
Jacob Bryant: Consistency is key. The curriculum at OHS is particularly rigorous but not impossible to find success in. There are a lot of courses with heavy workloads and large time commitments. The key to finding success in those courses is to be diligent and stay on top of what the course requires. School is stressful when you have so many things going on and then on top of that it feels like you are being pushed to rush an assignment because of a due date. It pays to take the time to get ahead, get on a dedicated schedule, and commit yourself to being consistent with that schedule. This will allow you to go through a course with less unnecessary stress, and giving yourself adequate time to go through coursework will only help in enhancing your learning experience overall.
Ethan Yun: Go to office hours.
Alexandra (Lexi) MacRury: Attend office hours and go to the WTC! I wish I had attended office hours and gone to the Writing and Tutoring Center more in my first year, and I wish I could tell my past self not to be afraid to ask for help.
Isra Boucetta: Organize your priorities, manage your time well and care about learning more than the grades.
Sterling Davies: Don’t stress too much about grades and exams. Start early and you’ll be okay!
On the OHS experience:
Anonymous 1: Try to make friends.
Anonymous 3: Get involved! Outside and inside of the school. Play sports. Run a club. Volunteer. Just taking classes at OHS will not be as fulfilling.
Jacob Bryant: The longer you go to OHS, the more you will truly realize how many resources you have available to you. Whether it be the Writing and Tutoring Center, the Peer Tutors, or just the vast amounts of connections you can make with like-minded peers and decorated instructors, OHS seemingly has an avenue to aid with your experience everywhere. Initially attending OHS, I kept some of my less-than-desirable habits of being too independent which led to inefficient learning and missing out on opportunities because I didn’t reach out. I would recommend leaning towards asking for help instead of straying away from it. If you have a tech problem, don’t spend hours trying to troubleshoot, there is an extremely talented and thorough tech team to help with that. If you aren’t sure how to approach an assignment, reach out and ask. Your instructors might be able to provide a better explanation to you in an office hours setting, or maybe one of your peers will explain their thought process leading to a revelation that you never considered. There is so much you can learn from others and at OHS; you have so much access to those insights that it is best to try and take full advantage of all of these different avenues to information.
Ethan Yun: Sitting in front of your computer 8 hours a day isn't healthy. Find a hobby or an activity that forces you to go outside.
Alexandra (Lexi) MacRury: It is well-known that Stanford OHS has a rigorous curriculum, a supportive and constantly building academic environment, but is also a safe place to reach out and make friends. Send a wave to your classmates!
Anonymous 4: Study with friends.
Isra Boucetta: This is your last year, enjoy it!! Take advantage of all of the opportunities and the activities, senior year is one of the best years ever!
Sterling Davies: Don’t shy away from events and clubs because of the “online” experience. There are so many great events that speak to everyone, so don’t feel like the online space creates a distance between connections with others.
On friendships and relationships:
Anonymous 3: Just get to know people and talk to people.
Jacob Bryant: The OHS community is a truly diverse one that I believe has a place for everyone. There are even niche communities of people with dedicated interests that you might have hoped existed but never imagined they really did. So go out and join different clubs, societies, and chats. Talk around and find people you connect with and see what might blossom from there. The beauty of meeting people online is that you have the opportunity to meet so many people and interacting online also takes a considerable amount of effort. Rather than talking to people just because you see them daily, building relationships online means you are going out of your way to contact others and involve yourself in activities that include them which is nice to realize when you think about your own friends online. Also, be sure to remember that OHS is still only your school and there is a big world out there filled with wonderful people to meet. You don’t meet people by staying in your house or keeping to yourself, so whether online or in your in-person communities, always take an extra step to reach out and try to connect with people. OHS is a great space but that doesn’t mean you can’t put energy into building relationships in person as well. It can sometimes be difficult to take that step but rather than being discouraged, be encouraged by what you know could be, and take the step with confidence knowing that you just might find a life long relationship.
Ethan Yun: Take initiative. Meet with people if you can.
Alexandra (Lexi) MacRury: (Same as last!)
Anonymous 4: Have physical friends you hang out with daily.
Isra Boucetta: People around you play an important role in affecting your mental health, so enjoy your time, have a good time with your friends and family.
Sterling Davies: Don’t hesitate to reach out to people out of the blue! My best friendships have come from reaching out to people and just saying “Hey you’re in my class!”
On the college application process:
Anonymous 1: While you're in the thick of it, check in frequently with your college counselor, even if just to show them a bit of progress with essays or lists or whatever. They are very nice and it's good to talk to them even when you don't have something huge to talk about.
Anonymous 3: (Not applicable for legacies) Lower your expectations unless you have a specific passion project that's really distinctive or something else that makes you "one-in-a-million."
Jacob Bryant: Take time and create a college list that you are genuinely satisfied with. This was a bit difficult for me because I just wanted to go to a good school with a good program for my major, but as time went on I realized that I did have subconscious preferences. I would recommend taking time to think with yourself about what you really want so you can pursue that. If you fail after trying to achieve what you really want, you can at least be content in not having the regret of not trying at all. A lot is going on with the college application process so it is also very beneficial to stay organized. Organize emails you are getting, documents you are using, dates and deadlines as well as requirements for each college. There are a lot of deadlines you will need to meet and some colleges do have niche requirements that you might not have thought about once you find your college list, begin to look into each college and figure out how much time and what they require for their application. Most importantly, make sure you communicate with those who can help you and those who your decision will affect. Your college counselor is a great resource who is extremely experienced with college applications so typically questions you ask them are not being heard for the first time. They are also very encouraging and are a great guide that will give you suggestions about your papers and how to get where you want to go.
Ethan Yun: When you're thinking about what colleges you're applying to, think about colleges you will actually be happy going to, not just to fill your list.
Alexandra (Lexi) MacRury: Balance your time well, assignments and college applications can be very overwhelming.
Isra Boucetta: Be yourself! Be confident and don't stress out, even if you don't get into that one school, life is full of surprises and chances :)
Sterling Davies: Try to really find the colleges, essay topics, etc. that really speak to you. I found that writing essays for colleges I really wanted to attend made it so much more natural and enjoyable (and usually ended up in positive results as well).
On college admissions essays:
Anonymous 3: Be interesting! Once you have a solid baseline of writing the best thing you can do for any college admissions essay is be memorable in some way or another. This is mostly applicable to elite institutions, they will read thousands and thousands of "good" essays, you need to stand out.
Jacob Bryant: College essays will require a lot of time and induce a lot of stress if you are completing them during a busy school year. The earlier you start on them, the less stressful the experience will be because you can better pace yourself and will have more time to have others look over your essay. One thing with getting comments on your essay is that you don’t want too many people looking over your writing, because with more people comes more varying opinions. Then you might start to lose your writing style at the end of everyone’s revision. Have a couple of people who know you well, as well as someone like a college counselor who knows what colleges are looking for to give some comments about your essays and work to adhere to their recommendations accordingly while still maintaining what makes your writing yours.
Ethan Yun: Do your essays well in advance. Start them at the beginning of summer junior year.
Alexandra (Lexi) Macbury: Start early and ask for feedback!
Isra Boucetta: Again, be yourself, be creative and fun, and take a look at other successful essays and experiences.
Sterling Davies: Don’t feel the need to fluff up essays or try to exaggerate what you’re writing about. I know without a doubt that everyone reading this is doing amazing things, so express how you feel about them. I sometimes felt like my achievements weren’t strong enough for the colleges, but I think just writing about why I loved them and showing my passion was more powerful than the topic.
On high school:
Anonymous 3: Four years that are so important developmentally and feature some of the strongest friendships you'll ever have. Don't rush and don't stress.
Jacob Bryant: You only live high school once in your life, yet high school is all about preparing and thinking about the future. It is easy to live in the future when in high school because of how much you are doing in consideration for what is to come, so take a moment and step back, live in the moment, and enjoy everything high school has to offer.
Ethan Yun: Try, fail, and expand your interests.
Alexandra (Lexi) Macbury: Just be yourself, and true friends and peace will find you.
Sterling Davies: Try to enjoy every minute of it! Looking back I think I definitely sped through some parts and didn’t really relish in the experience enough, so try to enjoy as much of it as you can!