First, there’s absolutely no need to freak out if you’re not the valedictorian or salutatorian of your high school.

Did you know that the majority of students admitted to Harvard and Stanford aren’t valedictorian, either?

Here’s what you need to know about your high school GPA and class rank to get into any Ivy League school:

1) It’s ok to have a poor freshman year GPA. What’s important is to show an UPWARD TREND – improvement over time

2) As important as your GPA is your transcript and the classes you take. Be sure to take the HARDEST CLASSES AVAILABLE – APs, IB, etc

3) Make your junior year count. It’s the one that Admissions Committees focus the most on – you want your best grades in this year

4) Don’t forget about your SAT score. It counts as much (and sometimes even more) than your high school grades

5) As long as you’re in the top 5% of your high school class, you’ll be fine – this varies by school so if you’re at an easy school, the bar will be higher

By no means am I recommending you do just the BARE MINIMUM. You should always aim to be valedictorian.

I went through this process awhile back and was accepted to 6 Ivy League schools and Stanford, so I speak from experience about this process. I wrote a book on college admissions tips called Hopeless to Harvard.

Follow my 5 critical steps above, and you’ll be a strong candidate. Focus your energies on your passions – whether that’s sports, science, or social studies.

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Funny how different seasons of emotions hit each individual at a different time. Must be some sort of trigger that sets it off. I got hit with empty nest type pangs last time our oldest left home. My wife is going through the same thing this time.

Understand we aren’t even empty nesters yet at all. We’ve still got a sixteen year old at home with a couple years of high school left. We have two in college only sixty miles away that make frequent visits if only to do their wash, raid the fridge, and hang out with their little brother. Regardless, family life and family dynamics just aren’t what they were when we had a house full.

So I guess what we’re talking about is pre empty nest syndrome. Or perhaps we are just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and projecting what that day will be like.

Its not the big things you see yourself missing either. Its the spontaneous little conversations that might or might not be about anything consequential at all. The ad hoc, spur of the moment Starbucks runs. Picking up on all the moment to moment changes.

I guess what I’m talking about is the ongoing flow of life. Without daily contact family life quickly becomes a series of snapshots: This is what I did last week. Here is what I’ll be doing next week. Instead of the movie like constant stream of updates that comes with living together.

My wife and I always laugh about a catch phrase of our generation; “quality time.” The wife always hypothosizes that the notion was invented by over busy, career driven parents or perhaps divorced ones.

Instead, we always valued quantity time. The big things, the vacations, the events are great. However its the little in between things that act as the glue to keep relationships together.

But that phase of life seems to be coming to an end for us now. With all four kids heading in different directions, there can’t possibly be that same level of contact with each and every one of them. And maybe that’s just how it should be.

We’ll move on to whatever it is lies ahead. What other options are there? But forgive us a moment if we mourn the ending of what is passing away.

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