How to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out) by Cal Newport

How to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out) Reviews

• 
  Madison

  The purpose of Newport’s How to Be a High School Superstar is to change the student’s perspective on high school life and college admissions. Newport gives you useful advice concerning what college admissions are impressed by and enlightens the reader regarding certain myths about college requirements. He tells the readers steps to enjoying your high school years while getting accepted into your preferred college. For example, Newport says, “(1) Pack your schedule with free time. (2) Use this time to explore. (3) Master one serious interest. Don’t waste time on unrelated activities. (4) Pursue accomplishments that are hard to explain, not hard to do.”
  
  The theme of this novel is quality over quantity. Newport reveals that doing a cluster of unrelated activities that you are not passionate about does not impress colleges and will not benefit you overall. He believes stressed students with no free time will not be rewarded for their demanding schedule. He advises readers to do find what they are passionate about and focus on that particular interest. For college admissions, the quality of their work in doing what they enjoy will far outweigh the quantity of multiple half-hearted activities.
  
  The author’s style of writing is an exposition. It is an exposition because he is establishing facts about a topic to bring clarity to his idea. An example of this style of writing is when Newport tells the story of a girl named Kara. She has a meeting with her guidance counselor, who tells her that her grades (B’s) aren’t good enough to get into Stanford. Then he tells us, “Kara did get in. In fact, Kara go into twenty of the twenty-one schools she applied to, including MIT, Caltech, Columbia, Cornell, Berkeley, John Hopkins, and, of course, Stanford—proving, to the surprise of her counselor, that those schools do occasionally accept students with B’s.” This style of writing is effective because using specific examples and facts help the readers become convinced by any idea.
  
  I enjoyed this nonfiction book because it informed me on how to get into your preferred college, which I believe will affect my entire life. I admired how the book had examples of students who succeeded using this technique. I would not change anything about this novel. How to Be a High School Superstar is unlike anything I have ever read because it introduced an idea that I never considered.
  
• 
  Ed

  I agree with the central thesis of the book: High school students are over-involved in uninteresting activities at which they are merely good, and thus they need to choose one or two genuine, innovative pursuits to bolster their college admissions chances. However, the road to the kind of achievement Newport promotes isn't available to most students for various reasons (socioeconomic status, personality preferences, etc.). Essentially, by following the map he lays out, talented, intelligent, and hardworking students will be able to keep being talented, intelligent and hardworking students, but at Yale instead of UConn. Obviously, there's a market for that kind of advice, and Newport has done well by himself to make use of it. Unfortunately, I don't think this is a work that has much usefulness for the majority of high school students.
• 
  Denise

  This is one of those books where you might roll your eyes at the title and walk away. I wouldn't have been interested- I mean, we get enough of this stuff with day-to-day life around here- but someone recommended it to my husband, who recommended it to me. It was actually a refreshing take on college admissions. The author's point is that straight-A, athletically successful, volunteering, high SAT-scoring, student body presidents- or that type of student- are now a dime a dozen- and rather boring to college admissions officers. However, students who eschew keeping up such a grind, but rather find their own interests and excel at them, will stand out to college admissions committees. The author explains how students can free up time by dropping activities that don't mean much to them or to admissions officers, and gain time for pursuits that are interesting to them and also to colleges. My one fault with the book is that it still is focused on how to get into traditional top-notch schools, and doesn't acknowledge that getting into those schools is not every student's goal. I guess the assumption is that if you can get into top tier schools, you can get in anywhere.
• 
  hannah

  This was an awesome book! I think it's encouraging to high school students and it is engaging enough for a high school student such as myself to read without losing interest. Below are the main points of the novel, summarized to the best of my abilities:
  
  Part 1: The Law of Underscheduling
  - Relaxed superstars basically do less, but seem to do more.
  - Instead of pursuing many activities that you are not actually interested in (resumé padding; breadth without depth; call it what you will), and taking the most challenging and impressive-sounding courses, free up your schedule.
  - This means that you might have to *gasp* quit classes and activities that don't really matter to you.
  - Make time to explore your interests and develop a genuine, deep interest (not passion!) - become an interesting person.
  - Try to achieve an ideal student workday and set a specific time every day to stop working. By separating your work time and your free time, you'll be more focused and effective when you work, and you'll get more out of the time you spend exploring your interests.
  
  Part 2: The Law of Focus
  - The Superstar Effect: Little differences in ability lead to huge differences in benefit. The best way I can explain this is the Olympics. Even if you are beaten by a millisecond, a silver in the Olympics reaps way fewer benefits than gold.
  - In other words, being good is usually not enough to create impressiveness. You have to be the best.
  - Also, it doesn't matter how difficult the activity actually is, as long as you are the best at it in the admissions pool.
  - The Superstar Effect only takes effect if there is 'proof' that you are an expert/master/the best at the activity, such as press coverage or glowing recommendations.
  - Once you accomplish something, you can achieve complementary accomplishments with little additional effort. If you have a solid foundation in leadership, as one of the book's examples did, you'll continue to achieve things related to leadership with little effort on your part.
  - If you have identified one thing to focus on, you need to become good at it. You can do this by learning how to be good at it (reach out to experts but also study failures), completely immersing yourself in the activity, and reaching the point where you are skilled enough that good opportunities will come your way (opportunities that won't require an excessive time commitment).
  
  Part 3: The Law of Innovation
  - People are impressed by things that they cannot imagine themselves doing - so the goal is not to do something difficult, but to do something that is hard to explain.
  - Innovators don't try to be innovative. They don't have a Eureka! moment where they suddenly dedicate their high school careers to one grand project.
  - Innovators join closed communities (communities that people recognize, but do not understand the inner workings of) and pay their dues. In other words, they become positively recognized within the community first.
  - Innovators don't start out with the biggest idea. They start with small, doable projects and work their way up to an 'impressive' project.
  - Basically, people who succeed take the opportunities they get and work hard, which leads to more opportunities.
  
  Hopefully the summary is informative to those of you who are unsure if the book would be helpful. I have definitely left out some good points made in the book, so if these main points pique your interest, I would recommend checking How to Be a High School Superstar out!
• 
  Darshan

  This book is not just for high school students. It provides a framework for anyone that wants to cultivate "intresting-ness". I've previously read Cal's So Good They Can't Ignore You and that forever changed my perspective on "passion". This book is almost a precursor to SGTCIY.
• 
  Megan B

  I hear this flies in the face of conventional attitudes. I like unconventional. I loathe the rat race of overscheduling our children for practical and philosophical reasons anyway. I am very interested in giving this a read.
  
  What on reviewer had to say: "The author's point is that straight-A, athletically successful, volunteering, high SAT-scoring, student body presidents- or that type of student- are now a dime a dozen- and rather boring to college admissions officers. However, students who eschew keeping up such a grind, but rather find their own interests and excel at them, will stand out to college admissions committees. The author explains how students can free up time by dropping activities that don't mean much to them or to admissions officers, and gain time for pursuits that are interesting to them and also to colleges. "
  
  Someone else: "1. Doing less is the foundation for becoming more impressive, and scheduling free time is critical to success.
  2. Demonstrating passion is meaningless, but being interesting is crucial.
  3. Accomplishments that are hard to explain are better than accomplishments that are hard to do."
• 
  Casey McCann

  Brilliant. A must-read for high school students and their parents.
  
  For years, I have been aware that, in my capacity as advisor to many college-bound kids, my advice has run counter to the prevailing wisdom of many a high school guidance counselor. Eschewing the the goal of well-roundedness in favor of actual accomplishment, I have recommended that students quit high-investment, low-yield activities in favor of concentrating on developing their strengths.
  
  This well-researched little book validates that approach and marries it to a comprehensive strategy for gaining admission to the most selective colleges and universities. Its holistic perspective aims to help the student become a happy, fulfilled, interesting human being who happens to be irresistible to college admissions officers. Best of all, it's packed with practical advice regarding study skills, time management, and attaining goals.
• 
  Augustine

  Yeah of course, first of all the book title deserves the award of "Lamest title ever" BUT STOP!
  stop right there. A revolutionary plan? That's no joke. Really, just give it a try.
  
  Having been stuck in china for so long, I could have never even envisioned high-schoolers accomplishing such amazing things, and this book sort of unraveled everything that seemed scary at first.
  University still seems pretty scary, but I guess not as much as before.
  
  Well researched, well organized, and overall, very well written :)
  
  Receiving good instructions and insight is one thing, while following them correctly is certainly another... While this book totally aced the former, what's left is up to myself...
  
  Kind of changed my entire view on college admissions and "the real world".
  THANK YOU CAL NEWPORT! You are a good person.
• 
  Rashika

  Good Advice, but how to apply it now? Gotta go figure that out!
• 
  Brianna

  When I first saw this book, I was skeptical. After glancing through
  Countdown to College 21 To-Do Lists for High School Step-By-Step Strategies for 9th 10th 11th and 12th Graders by Valerie Pierce and seeing that I'd already missed most of the steps that I needed to take, I decided that the hyper-planning approach to getting into college was not going to work for me, and this book sat on my desk for a long time. On a whim, I picked it up a couple of days ago and was pleasantly surprised to find that this wasn't the traditional guidebook attempting to ensure you can tick all of the right boxes on your applications when it comes to what you've taken and what you've done. It wasn't a book written for parents, and it wasn't written for low-achieving students; it seemed designed for the exact kind of student that I am. (In fact, it was almost weirdly so. In the Q&A, there's a question that exactly describes me: whether someone who just finished their junior year can still benefit from the plan that he's proposing.)
  
  I know that the word "refreshing" is overused, but it was honestly a relief to hear someone so smart and well-intentioned who seemed to actually care about the well-being of high school students talk about this subject. His writing just seemed so genuine and the advice was practical. This is the closest I've ever come to a calm, helpful, logical conversation about college with anyone, since my parents just scream at me to work harder and my disinterested school counselor just wants to write me a generic recommendation in the fall and move on with his life.
  
  More than anything, it struck me how much Newport's claims are grounded in reality. As a student at a high school with an impressive math and science magnet program (and myself being in a less prestigious but still academically challenging communication arts program), I come into contact with smart kids and academic superstars (Intel and Siemens winners, etc.) all the time and I am all too familiar with the feeling that I could never achieve the tremendous success that they seem to be able to achieve. Moreover, I've noticed something on which Newport touches: that smart kids are lazy, man. I'm a hard-working Hufflepuff and I benefit from the erroneous connotation that the kids who work the hardest and get the best grades are the smartest, but I assure you that that assumption is indeed in error. The smartest kids are the ones who figure out how to do the least amount of effort on their schoolwork and then put that time to use for other things. Sometimes "other things" means worthy pursuits like making videos for the Smithsonian and sometimes it just means smoking pot, but it's easy to recognize that these kids are sharp. Real-world sharp.
  
  It's always kind of pissed me off that these kids can work so little and still basically get the same good grades that I do, but, more than that, I'm always kind of disappointed that what are clearly the best and brightest minds don't seem to give a damn about world history or calculus, because I sincerely believe that this stuff is important. I mean, you have to be in school for six hours a day. Why squander that time not trying to learn as much as you can? This education is free (to us...not to our parents, but still). The next level up isn't going to be, so you might as well absorb as much as you can now.
  
  But I guess part of what sets those kids apart is that they're not willing to settle for anything less than the best. If they don't have respect for the teacher or they don't think the class is worth their time, they're going to make the best use of their time that I can. I don't always agree with those decisions, but hey, that's them.
  
  And, all the same, I've always kind of wanted to be one of the smart kids, one of these superstars, so I'm not going to turn down any good advice on how.
  
  I was incredibly impressed by Part One of this book. All of the advice on study habits, the ideal student workweek, joining communities; I think this stuff is gold and I plan to implement it all in the fall, when I'll be taking my relaxed senior year schedule.
  
  My only critique of the book is that after Part One, it starts to lose focus and become repetitive. Both Parts Two and Three seemed to me like they could have been condensed and better tied in to Part One.
  
  One of the things that I liked about the first section is that it was clear, direct, and practical, without any superfluous information; it was a plan ready to be implemented. After Part One, Newport wanders down a detour that makes the book a strange combination of unnecessary psychological research and case studies, a la Malcolm Gladwell, which only served to distract from the easy implementation of the book's messages.
  
  When it comes to recommending this book, I'm a little bit undecided. If your parents are anything like mine, I can easily see them rejecting this approach without a second thought, and, as Newport points out, some students are just as dedicated to the overworked lifestyle that they've chosen. It's (relatively) easy for me to embrace this outlook not only because my chronic daily headaches have given me a punch-in-the-face kind of wake-up call about not stressing too much and taking my health seriously. It also helps that I'm a rising senior, meaning that it's socially acceptable for me to take a relaxed course load this year anyway. I don't know if junior year me would have been able to embrace this philosophy. In fact, with the way that CAP constricts your schedule, I highly doubt it. And besides, I'm proud of the fact that I made it through 4 AP's last year (though I may be less proud when scores come July 8th, ha).
  
  The dilemma is that the relaxed superstar philosophy works best when you start at a young age, yet most young people aren't willing to drop their maxed-out lifestyle until senior year.
  
  Here's what I say: I would recommend this to anyone in middle or high school. The sooner the better, but if you chafe at the demands the first time reading it, put it off. It's still worth doing for just senior year if that's all the risk you're willing to take. While I think high school is an ideal time for conducting the kind of exploration Newport describes, there will be time after high school too. As a good friend once told me, you have your entire life to get to where you want to be.
• 
  Natik

  I'm giving this to my high school cousin to help cure her "87 clubs syndrome" and generally protect against a certain masochistic and narcissistic study culture that develops among high achieving kids. Also I feel "So Good They Can't Ignore You", while written for working adults, is very good for the same high school demographic.
  
  The author Cal Newport has an amazing blog where all of this advice and more is available for free. It is good to give people nice, compact books though. They probably won't follow up on your "go read this blog" suggestion too closely.
  
  What I feel this book is missing though, is an honest discussion if getting into Harvard is even a worthy goal (at least for undergrads who plan on much graduate school). You may be the top of your high school class, but at Harvard, you'd be average and blend into the crowd if you're not much of a self-advocate. Wouldn't it be better to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond? I guess the author is biased since he went to MIT and Dartmouth, and is now teaching at Georgetown.
• 
  Lilly

  A highly recommended read for my high school peers! Although it’s mainly focused on how you can increase your chances to get admitted into a college of your choice, the methods outlined are very counterintuitive, which teaches you how to live a meaningful and engaging life beyond college admissions :)
• 
  Audrey

  why did i read this book? i'm not in high school?
• 
  Melanie

  Rather than being one of millions of boring overachievers (you know the type, the ones who join every single extracurricular activity and Student Council and take every AP class) in a vain attempt to "stand out" among the applicant pool to elite universities, Newport suggests going all in on a unique and deep interest. I don't know how successful this plan actually is, but he certainly found a number of people for whom this worked. In a lot of cases the people seem to have been doing their activities for the activities' own sake than for any perceived boost in the admissions game.
  
  The idea is that by doing something that is actually interesting or impressive, not something that anyone can do by virtue of showing up or spending money, elite colleges will be more likely to recruit you than the generic student with a 1550 SAT and a dozen AP classes. He doesn't go into what happens if the plan backfires.
• 
  Clint Lum

  The entire project is undermined by the stated goal: to get the high school student into the college they want.
  
  Newport spends a good deal of space in the book (rightly) appealing to intrinsic motivations and calling for the reader to eschew the resume arms race in which grades and extracurriculars are merely seen as stickers on a resume. So far so good.
  
  He then provides helpful advice to students in how to reorient their lives in such a way that they have free time to explore things that are of interest to them so that they might become excellent in them... so far so good...
  
  But the End of all his advice? To stand out so you can get into a school you want.
  
  This is really just a different type -- and advancement of -- of the resume arms race that views education essentially as a commodity to be traded (i.e. I trade you my GPA and other shiny lines on my resume for your admission letter/job) as opposed to an enterprise that is worthy in and of itself.
• 
  Lisa

  A must read for parents. Actually you can apply the principles in anything you are applying for! The idea is that the old model of what makes an applicant a success has changed. Colleges are less impressed with resume items that anyone can accomplish and more interested in candidates that over a long period of time achieved something unique. So the author is a big advocate of more unscheduled time to allow students to pursue opportunities from other opportunities. Maintain the high grades but closely examine what extracurriculars being your student joy and purpose. Stop running on the hamster wheel and develop purpose.
• 
  anotherfungurl

  If there is one non-fiction book that you must read as a student, it's this book.
  
  I have gained so many tips and 'life hacks' from this book that I just hope I don't forget them all.
  
  And for all the lazy people out there who is all into fiction, here is the summary:
  
  -don't make your schedule filling
  -school should be anything but stressful
  -you should not be afraid to ask questions, make connections with people
  -do not find your passion, instead, try out different things and then continue with the selected ones
  
  
  UMM, THIS IS A BAD IDEA. You should read the book, it is not summarily enough.
• 
  Nancy

  Super quick impression: I'm glad I persisted to finish this book. At first I thought it didn't have a lot to say to me or my family, because it seems geared towards those who want to go exclusively to an Ivy League school. But it's really about having a balanced and interesting life. In some ways it reminded me of "All the Money in the World" or a Laura Vanderkam book in that the overarching message is to live/spend/manage your time in a way that is meaningful to you, and you will not just be happier, but more successful.
• 
  Morgan

  This book (although I'm almost in my 30s) has changed the way I look at things, and the way I am going to do things in the future. I am or was a strong believer in "efforting" way into everything. And although I knew there was a better way, this book shows that working hard and not really working smart is really to your detriment. I think it's great practical advice and inspiration for anyone with an ambition. It was wonderful. Everyone should read it.
• 
  Eva

  very impractical. what a catch-22! This book's premise is backtracking from successful high school superstars, but its only conclusion is that you can't TRY to be a high school superstar, it has to come to you.
• 
  Tabetha

  For anyone stuck in their high school career feeling purposeless.
  
  This can be your way out.
  
  And the tips in it are not just relevant to getting accepted into colleges. It also helps set you apart on the job market.
• 
  Flamingo

  4 Stars.
  
  Cal's writing style is easy-going, and reading through the 400ish pages was a breeze. He describes strategies, provides proof that it works in the form of case studies, then offers a playbook to help you implement them in your own life. In essence, he's a strong proponent of the following:
  
  - Under schedule your day and leave large stretches of structured time to explore new interests that could have drastic effects. Once you find that interest, focus and dedicate your time to it. Get rid of superfluous commitments, reduce distractions, and wrap up all your school work before dinner. In essence, get your life back.
  
  - Focus on one main activity instead of undertaking multiple unrelated projects. Eventually, one thing will lead to another, and your success with your initial project will open doors to bigger opportunities (Matthew's Law). Additionally, as your resources are concentrated on a singular point, you have higher chances of becoming an expert in your field instead of being above-average. Being at the top of your field rewards you with much higher premiums than if you were, say, among the top 100 (The Superstar Effect).
  
  - Choose to do things that are hard to explain, not hard to do. What he means is that when you achieve something that other people are familiar with, but have no idea of getting done, it tends to be more impressionable. He provides the example of researching horseshoe crab migration patterns instead of striving for a high GPA or taking rigorous courses. He calls this the Genius Effect.
  
  There are a couple more nuggets sprinkled throughout this book. As a senior student, I found the advice to be solid, but most of it was not entirely new to me; thus the 4 stars.