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Feeling alone as you swim through the terrifying waters known as the college admission process? Have no fear! We have several seniors blogging about ups, downs, and random in-betweens of their college process for the next 12 months (from June 2015 to June 2016!). Sit back, relax, and get that “OMG I totally get you, bro” feeling. Information for how to contact a blogger will be at the bottom of his/her posts.
Note to self: Counting down the days until your first choice school releases their admissions decisions will not make the days go by quicker. Especially when that school hasn’t even officially posted a decision date yet.
But I just can’t help it. I’m having flashbacks to when I took the March SAT last year and anxiously checked the College Board’s website every single day after that to see if, just maybe, my scores were posted early. I know it’s silly, but I’ve been spending a lot of time checking College Confidential’s “[Insert College] Class of 2020 Discussion” threads, trying to find some sort of news about admissions to the colleges I have not yet heard from. And that’s most of the colleges I’ve applied to.
In February, I heard back from my third school ― the University of Vermont. Like the other two schools, this was another one of those schools that I was fairly confident I’d get into. But this felt just a tad bit more exciting. I mean, it’s almost 3,000 miles away from my city. And I got invited into the honors college, with a $17,000 per year scholarship. So that’s rad. Also it’s in the city that Bernie Sanders was mayor in, which makes it even more rad. Or is it radder?
Anyway, that means I have thirteen more schools to hear from. Well, technically twelve, since it turns out I didn’t actually finish the application to CSU Northridge. No wonder I had trouble figuring out their portal. It’s not a huge deal, since it was at the very bottom of my college list, but still, I can’t help but feel just a little bit silly. So I most likely will not be hearing from them.
It’s so cool to think though, that this time next year, I’ll be in an entirely different city. Where will it be? I applied to a fairly wide range of schools, geographically speaking. I love my hometown so much, but I’ve always wanted to move away, to see what life is like in another city. As I mentioned in my first Admit/ Deny post, I am completely enamored with the thought of life in a big city, so I applied to a lot of schools in hugely populated cities. But I also applied to schools in small, almost provincial towns, like Grinnell, Iowa, and Middlebury, Vermont. So it’ll be interesting to see where I’m at in the coming months.
I’m not feeling so much anxious about March, as I am excited about March. This whole school year, I’d been expecting this month to be one giant panic attack, but it’s really been the complete opposite of that. I mean, sure the fear of not getting into any of my top schools still looms over me, but it’s also exciting. It’s sort of like opening gifts on Christmas ― you never know what you’re going to get. It could be an underwhelming pair of plain white socks or that brand new electronic keyboard that you’ve been dying to get (both of which I’ve gotten). Only in this case, it directly impacts my future (or at least the next four years of my life).
March of senior year always felt so far away. And for a while it was. Even in February it felt like forever away. We even got an extra day of February this year! But it’s finally here, and it’s not what I expected.
Second semester hasn’t been as stressful as it first appeared. I definitely knew my teachers would probably be letting up a little bit on us, since it’s our last semester and all. But when January first rolled around, it felt like I’d never get out of it. It felt like an eternity until March and even longer until graduation. But here we are.
I have so much time to do stuff outside of school now. Even with rehearsal every day, I still find time to do the stuff that I kind of missed out on throughout high school. I’ve been reading and writing a lot more, hanging out with my friends a lot more, and just doing all the stuff I wish I had done more of earlier on in high school.
The other day, I really started to think about how close the end of high school is. And I actually kind of felt sad about it, for the first time ever.
I’m not going to lie, high school hasn’t exactly been “the best four years of my life,” like every adult ever has told me. It’s not that it was bad, but it certainly could have been better. Since sophomore year, I’ve been waiting impatiently for graduation. And now I’m realizing that a lot of the relationships I’ve built these past four years are going to be totally changed. And that’s kind of scary. And sad. And weird.
Anyway, I don’t want to get too caught up on the unnerving parts of senior year.
I just really want to know what college I’ll end up at. Way to state the obvious, I know. But I went into this year with almost complete uncertainty as to where I would even apply. And I feel like I’m still in the whole college research process; I can’t tell you how many times in the last month that I’ve used Naviance’s “College Super Match” widget. I know that 90% of the colleges that come up already had their deadlines already, but a part of me can’t help but wish I could still apply to just one more school.
I can’t wait until next month when I can tell you all where I’m going (or where I think I’m going)! Until next time, Prospies.
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