anyone who wasn't a complete nerd in high school?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

As far as I know linguistics is rarely taught in high school, but there do exist competitions. These competitions are mainly about finding patterns in obscure languages and applying them to new data. More about the US competition: http://www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu/

 

I took a year's worth of linguistics courses. I actually wanted to double major in linguistics and CS, but the linguistics department turned out to be quite rigid in their requirements to attend lectures despite maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

I love linguistics. I never even heard of it until I transferred to a university after community college. I found out about it by accident really. I didn't have a declared major and I couldn't register for any classes unless I declared a major. So I declared some interdisciplinary major in the college of Arts & Letters. Took an intro to linguistics class and loved it. Then after I finished the linguistics degree, I did computer science. I was a bit all over the place in undergrad. 

[gingin6789]

I didn't do any of those.  As I mentioned in previous threads, I did end up dropping out of high school.  Even when I was well and attended school regularly, I never studied, but I ended up with A's and B's in most subjects (urk, Geometry ... *shudders*)

 

I had to learn how to study QUICKLY once I got to college ... I was never a straight-A student until I started studying in college!

 

Confession time: I never took the SATs.  Got my GED, went straight to community college, and by the time I transferred to a 4-year university, my associate's degree was sufficient.

 

I also realized I WAS in an extra-curricular, but it wasn't academic and was run through the YMCA.  It was called Youth and Government.  It was an absolutely wonderful experience, and since it was once a week, I was well enough to attend most meetings even after I left high school.  It made me still feel like I was involved and making a difference, somehow.  It also helped me to become more outgoing, as I was very quiet until I joined YAG.

Edited April 22, 2014 by gingin6789

[ExponentialDecay]

if you do one or all of those things and still find time for 420, are you still a nerd?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

if you do one or all of those things and still find time for 420, are you still a nerd?

Nerds smoke pot. Unless you skipped homeroom and smoked weed in your friend's car in the student parking lot every morning, I don't think 420 excuses nerdism. 

[ExponentialDecay]

Nerds smoke pot. Unless you skipped homeroom and smoked weed in your friend's car in the student parking lot every morning, I don't think 420 excuses nerdism. 

 

but if i skipped homeroom and smoked in my friend's car in the parking lot every morning, it does?

 

i love how you're generalizing across a diverse and international student body here. idk about you, but i didn't have homeroom and none of my friends had cars and the parking lot was teachers-only because i went to a posh boarding school. but i did skip english class to smoke in the 13th century graveyard.

 

or am i a nerd because of my socioeconomic class?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

but i did skip english class to smoke in the 13th century graveyard.

I guess that'll do. 

[ExponentialDecay]

holy shit bro but actually i was such a fucking nerd.

[pyrocide]

According to this list, I was the nerdiest kid in school. 

 

*the math team --> President

*Chess team --> President

*band geek --> Jazz, marching, Pit and Pep Band. I was like, the queen of band.

*took all AP/IB classes  --> Quite a few, couldn't take as many since they interfered with my arty things (AP art/Jazz band). Also, UG wouldn't take any of them  

*did research --> no

*tutored --> no

*spent summers interning  --> no

*involved in academic extracurriculars --> Hah, there was an NHS club thing, but I was not interested.

*competed in a Spelling Bee --> ..in grade school? 

*spent years studying for the SAT/ACT --> Nope. Coasted it.

*dreamed about getting into college  --> Yes

*dreamed about getting into grad school --> Yes

*took college classes --> kinda, took summer classes designed for HS students at a Top 5 

*took classes for college credit --> same as above, but they didn't transfer to my UG. 

*studied a few hours every day --> No, Coasted

*studied on weekends --> nope

*anything else I haven't though of --> Helped found the Art club. 4 years of cross country and track.

 

Iunno, I never really identified with the nerd/geek label. There were things the cool kids did and then there were things I liked to do, and I chose to do the things I liked. Worked out well in the end.

[i.am.me]

Uhm. I didn't do any of those. Actually, I almost didn't graduate from high school cause of "behavioral problems" which ended up being night school. No extracurricular activities in high school cause I had to work the night shift. Nothing on the weekends because I had to work. No internships during the summer cause I had to work. Oh, I was just an attendant at a gas station and I worked odd jobs at a local mom and pops "everything store" for lower than minimum wage. 

 

Also, dreams of college? Sure, I guess. But I didn't even know what the SAT was until like 11th grade. 

 

However, I was a voracious reader if that counts for anything.

Edited April 22, 2014 by i.am.me

[Etern]

I guess I was a nerd, however not in the sense of trying to get the best grades possible.

 

I was consistently doing well in class but not one of the best. I was always bored in class and therefore wasn't interested in the material. When I went home, I would play 4 or 5 hours of videogames every day...

 

I did however exhibit certain nerdy behaviour traits:

 

I was a member of the chess club: I would spend every lunchtime in the library playing chess. I was the school champion. I also participated in national chess competitions.

 

I also enjoyed learning all kinds of stuff that was university level material, particularly in biology, physics, and philosophy. I created my on curriculum with books I ordered from amazon and material I found online. I now have a couple of folders full of stuff that I learned outside of class. I also read a lot of literary books with a desire to further my knowledge.

 

I designed many boardgames which I playtested with my friends. One of these is a RPG with a rulebook of 80000words. I basically wrote a short PhD thesis in high school, haha.

 

I did the IB, but then again, everybody in my school did so that is nothing special. EDIT: I forgot that I did 7 subjects instead of the usual 6, but there were a few others who did the same...

 

I also did a couple of internships, but I did these for money and not to further my employability.

 

I also did some tutoring in my last year of high school because my teacher asked me.

 

That's it.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Etern

[ProfMoriarty]

IB was mandatory at my school.

 

Nevertheless, I failed 8th grade and continued to fail maths every term even in senior year. I actually performed very very poorly in school.

[confusedkate]

I ditched class so much when I was in high school that the dean and I had a deal: if I told her I wasn't showing up she would say I was with her and I wouldn't get in trouble. Just had to keep all As and Bs in my classes (which I'm naturally smart so I didn't ever study to do this). My math tutor would do my homework for me, I would write my Spanish essays in English and translate them online, and I was an assistant gym teacher so I had access to attendance and could mark myself present.

Definitely not a nerd. Although, I did always know I was going to college and stepped it up once I got there. I think I was bored in high school to be honest because I thrived in an environment where I could study what I wanted to.

[gellert]

I was a complete slacker in high school, but I was probably still a nerd.  I was a bit of a troublemaker, but in the end I still loved classic literature, Lord of the Rings, and the internet and didn't care at all about sports or fashion.  

 

Even so, never studied for the SAT, scraped by with only taking exams in my classes (and never turning in homework or, uh, attending, though somehow I still got Bs), and spent most afternoons in detention.  I wasn't concerned with my grades at all and was thinking about dropping out of school to become a motorcycle mechanic.

 

It was a 180 degree turn around when I was in college, for sure.

Edited April 24, 2014 by gellert

[ExponentialDecay]

A class is only as interesting as its dumbest participant. 

 

Which is why I went to class in high school but not in college.

[VulpesZerda]

I ditched class so much when I was in high school that the dean and I had a deal: if I told her I wasn't showing up she would say I was with her and I wouldn't get in trouble. Just had to keep all As and Bs in my classes (which I'm naturally smart so I didn't ever study to do this). My math tutor would do my homework for me, I would write my Spanish essays in English and translate them online, and I was an assistant gym teacher so I had access to attendance and could mark myself present.

Definitely not a nerd. Although, I did always know I was going to college and stepped it up once I got there. I think I was bored in high school to be honest because I thrived in an environment where I could study what I wanted to.

 

This was me, too. Same exact things. Skipped class a lot, especially Spanish. And when I did go to that class, I would start trouble because my teacher was crazy and I knew we would end up wasting the whole period going back and forth. One time my friends and I looked up her address on whitepages during class, then showed her a google satellite image of her house LOL she had no idea  that doing this was possible and told us her husband had a gun!

 

I also had an outside internship senior year which gave me freedom to sleep in until second period often (we only had 4 periods).

 

Not a nerd. Just never challenged. I'm glad I had fun in high school though, because I think I got it "out of my system". Now that I'm in undergrad prepping for grad school, I am a completely different student. I take everything very seriously and I think it will pay off. I think it would have been a waste of my energy to stress out about high school work, cause it reallllly didn't matter. Despite my antics, I got into every college I applied to, so it all worked out!

Edited April 25, 2014 by VulpesZerda

[Fiz]

Gangbanger.

[justastudent]

Cheerleader at a Southern California school full of grateful dead head surfers? Think Fast Times at Ridgemont High. cheerleaders were kind of nerds at my school.

[Nautiloid]

I did the AP course thing to escape people I didn't like and marching band because my parents made me, but beyond that I wasn't terribly nerdy. I used to build sets for plays and loiter as my after school activities. I thought I was terrible at math and HATED science. I wanted to be an artist or a writer or a bum on the streets. I took the ACT but never studied and my grades were decent (3.7-ish) so I still managed to get accepted to college. 3 days into the first semester, I decided to not hate everybody anymore and to study science because I secretly loved it and had been hiding it for the past 4 years. So, I guess you could say that on the outside, I was not terribly nerdy. Most people thought I was pretty cool, but not a popular cheer-leading yuppie. On the inside though? Biggest. Nerd. EVER.  

[juilletmercredi]

LOL, I feel like you can't make it to graduate school if you don't have these nerdy traits - at least some of them.

I think I was less nerdy than most, though.  I did take all AP classes and was involved in one academic extracurricular (literary magazine), and I studied a few hours every day - mostly doing homework.  I was also a marching band geek, but in my high school the cool kids did band - I went to high school in the South and our marching band had 300 people in it and we did elaborate dance sequences and were in a movie.  And oh, I guess I did have an academic semi-curricular - I was in a debate club centering around the Constitution (this one.  It was totally awesome and there were both nerds and non-nerds on it.  We won our state competition and went to nationals in my year.)

But I didn't do any of the other stuff on that list.  I actually wanted to be a cheerleader (and was invited to do so), but my mother forbade me from joining the squad.  I didn't even know I wanted to go to college until late junior year, because my parents didn't go and I came from a working class background.  I guess I dreamed about college in senior year, but it was more about all the parties I'd go to, not classes lol.  And I spent my summers lazing about (and writing fiction).

Edited May 2, 2014 by juilletmercredi

[FestivusMiracle]

I know what you mean by sock puppet nerds. I saw the National Spelling Bee a year or two ago (it was on ESPN) and the kid who won, this like 12-year old Indian-American kid, was asked what his plans were for the summer, and he looked at his dad to answer, and his dad said he'd be studying physics all summer to get into a good college.

I'd shoot myself.

Lol on this post. My parents basically just told me to do good in school and that was that. They were the complete opposite of helicopter parents, which I think really helped me become very independent from an early age. I wound up making mostly As in high school and having a 4.0 in undergrad.

I think the spelling bee should be done away with, because it causes a lot of kids to waste time on stupid shit. Who cares if you can spell words no one ever heard of? Why not spend your time doing something productive or enjoyable? I mean, should we really be glorifying this absurd spectacle that has become the national spelling bee?

[GreenePony]

And oh, I guess I did have an academic semi-curricular - I was in a debate club centering around the Constitution (this one.  It was totally awesome and there were both nerds and non-nerds on it.  We won our state competition and went to nationals in my year.)

My WTP team was a lot like that- I'm still surprised one guy even graduated. A mixed bag, especially if you look at where we are all now- think tank researcher, environmental conservation, software engineer, mass com major, bar manager, landscaper, and museum collections manager. We ended up coming in 2nd at states behind a team that combined two class to get close to 40 people (we had 8.) In the end, we still went on a trip to DC, but for fun and we didn't have to pack suits

[MakeYourself]

I figured out pretty early on that any idiot could graduate from our high school by just showing up to class. I didn't really try that hard.

[C&C]

I've always thought of myself as a nerd, a geek, and an athlete. In high school, I was at the top of my class, one of my school's best athletes, and spent my spare time gaming (A LOT). Math club? Studying on weekends? Prepping for the SAT? As if!

 

As I get older, I get nerdier and nerdier...and I'm more than okay with that.