The past few months, I have to say, have been something of a blur for me. In truth, between things such as the school musical, Science Olympiad competitions, and various other trips and activities I’ve been part of since January, I haven’t been thinking about college all that much. I figured that the work was all done—all there was left to do was to wait. And by that point, I was fairly experienced with waiting, if I do say so myself. (more…)
I never thought that it would happen, but it’s almost time to say goodbye to 2010, and hello to 2011—and with a nice vacation between the two. Of course, for a lot of students out there (including me!), the work isn’t over yet. But the end is in sight—just think of how nice it’ll be once all is said and done, and we can resume our lives as normally stressed high school students, instead of totally distressed high school students scrambling to get applications done. (Though hopefully you’ve been scheduling well and avoiding the second case.) (more…)
You’ve filled out forms, taken tests, sent grades, and written essays. Your application is pretty much complete—or, at least, you know exactly how you’re going to complete it. So soon enough, it’ll be time to just hit submit and keep your fingers crossed for four more months. Right? Well, there’s one more hurdle, one more thing to do. Even though it’s oftentimes marked as optional, a lot of colleges “strongly recommend” you do it. What am I talking about? (more…)
I’m in that odd period of time, between the early college deadline and the regular college deadline, where I’m counting down the days until I hear whether I’m accepted early or not. I know that I should be working on regular decision materials just in case I’m not accepted early, so that I won’t have to scramble to finish in December. But procrastination lives on; after having spent pretty much the past two months on early applications, I’m not too eager to get back to them so soon. (more…)
I’d like to share an experience from a few days ago. I was staring at the “SUBMIT” button on the computer. Months of work had led up to this moment. I hovered over the button for a moment, started to click, and then moved away. I looked over the entire form one more time, making sure everything was spelled correctly, and that I’d selected the all the right options, checked all the right boxes, and so on. I read my essays one more time, making sure the all the grammar was right. I took out a comma, wavered for a moment, and then put it back. And then, I was right back to that big, inviting “SUBMIT” button. I took a deep breath and clicked it. (more…)
I’ll get the bad news out of the way first … most early action college deadlines are in a little over two weeks, probably on November 1. And most other applications will be due in about two and a half months, at the end of the year. Approaching fast? You bet. (more…)
Well, ok, that essay title won’t open many college doors. But it’s definitely an essay that many of us have stared at for several minutes—maybe even hours, in the most severe cases. And the question on our minds is: How do I even start this thing? Indeed, reading over those college essay prompts the first time can seem daunting. That said, here are a few things I’ve kept in mind—things that have helped me make decent progress on my own essays. (more…)
Classes have begun once again, marking the close of my final summer as a high school student. Summer always seems to go by too quickly; though looking back, I have to admit that I did have a fairly productive break. In a nutshell, I visited colleges, volunteered at a local refugee resettlement program, and ended up with some time to relax. Essentially, most of the things I planned to do back in June, I did indeed complete — and most of them were done before the beginning of August. So, then, what did I do for the rest of the time?
Yes, the best time of year for us students is already on the horizon — summer vacation is coming fast. Of course, being juniors, nothing is easy for us; summer vacation just can’t be quite the same three months of relaxation and fun it used to be. So what am I personally planning on doing? I’ve mentioned a few things that I need to finally get around to doing over the summer, but here is the list in full. (more…)
At some point in all our high school careers, it will come time to … take “the Test.” The Test can be anything, standardized or otherwise, but it’s important that we do well on it, no matter what. And to do this, it’s important to know just how to take the Test — because like one of those repeating dreams, the Test will come back to us again and again over time. (more…)