@LushLillies welcome! As a huge Monet fan, I adore your profile picture. One of my favorite works of his.
I was thinking that my common app essay would answer the risk prompt and talk about how I dislike taking risks (I always prefer to plan things out) because I fear that I would mess up, but theater taught me to take risks and grow outside of my comfort zone. In fact, there’s a quote from a musical, Dear Evan Hansen, that exemplifies my risk-averse mindset: “No slipping up if you slip away”. Because theater itself encourages people to take risks (in the form of character choices) and oftentimes exert oneself in new and unfamiliar ways, I grew out of my tendency to hesitate (the downfall of Hamlet, incidentally). That’s basically what I was thinking of doing, although I could go the depressing route and talk about personal troubles and all that stuff. But where’s the fun in that?
I am super scared guys! I applied to LEDA Program and we hear back if we made it to round 2 soon. I feel like we will hear back next week.
Also, I decided it’s time to start cracking down on SAT studying and AP studying. I really want to get a 1450 or above and make at least 4s.
@apple1893@angelwings0137 Thank you! I’m taking it middle of April and then I’m doing like a 4-5 day 2 hours a day prep class through my school for free so that should help for the June one!
I just came home from a tour of Fairfield University. It has English with a concentration of Professional Writing, which a lot of schools don’t have, for whatever reason.
I love research colleges and going on tours and all of that stuff, but I have SAT studying and APUSH homework that I have been ignoring the whole weekend… There’s no point in looking at colleges if I don’t do the work. orz
I toured Harvard, MIT, Tufts, and Brandeis this break.
Harvard and Brandeis were both good, which is about what I expected. I did not like MIT, which surprised me. Tufts was absolutely amazing.
Today, I’ve been working on doing all my APUSH homework that I had all week to work on, in one day, due by 11:59 tonight. I’m sooo close to finishing, but I’m suddenly losing morale haha I’ve got too much WWI era US history crammed in my head to function as a human being (I also haven’t eaten very well today, as a result of worrying that I might not finish in time). But now that it’s 7:44 and I’m on the packets now, I think that I will take a well deserved break and eat :))
Regarding college visits, I’m really hoping that I can do some before applying! My mom is super non-committal, leaning towards not wanting to go every time I mention trying to do a college visit or two, even to colleges 20 minutes away, or her alma mater which she had previously shown interest in visiting. No one else in my direct family would be able to take me, either. If I have to, I might ask my grandma to take me to a few, but I’m worried that she might want to stick around to make sure my grandpa doesn’t go AWOL and mess up his health (it’s been a thing in the very recent past). I know that some colleges I probably won’t be able to visit, like the ones that are a little too far away from home, but I would like to see the ones around me and/or my top picks, at least. Oh, well, whatever happens happens, I guess.
@Marg532 I put off my APUSH homework too… What have isn’t going to take that long, but I’m probably not going to start it until 12 AM because I’m masochistic like that
Could you possibly tag along with your friends on college tours? Hopefully you would be able to at least visit a few state schools that way.
I’ve only been on one college visit so far, but I have 3 more planned. My family went to California for vacation last year, so I got to visit my dream school, USC. I’m visiting Penn State next month and then Boston U and Emerson in April. I brought up visiting Syracuse to my mom and she got annoyed, so I’m guessing that I’ve maxed out my college visits already. I’m hoping that I’ll get to visit some more as I’m still unsure as to where I’ll be applying. Maybe I’ll convince my dad to let me go. Not sure yet since my parents get annoyed when I talk college so much, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
@LeopardFire I expected to love it, given its core curriculum, strong economics/political science program, academic rigor, and professor accessibility. It may just have been an off day, but nothing particularly felt like it clicked with me. I didn’t really like the campus and its general feeling. I may give it another go later on, however, and visit some classes to get a stronger sense.
@LeopardFire I probably could tag along with one friend to one or two colleges… It sucks not having a driver’s license and my own car 8-| life would be a bit easier on the visiting front if I did
I’m going to try to visit Harvard, MIT, BU, and NEC during April vacation. I doubt I’ll be able to visit Yale before applying there next fall. Same goes for some other schools (CWRU, Caltech). I’m going to Arizona to visit University of Arizona and to go to a football game in October and I’ll probably visit McGill Memorial Day weekend or something.
As someone who’s most likely going out of state for college, I don’t know if I’ll be able to go on any visits. Unless I get my license this summer and my parents miraculously trust me enough to be able to drive across states. I’m currently prioritizing UofR, BU, and UMich though.
By the way, I found another potential major for myself. I was telling my friend about my Biomedical Engineering plans, and she mentioned that Biochemistry would be in line with a lot of what I was looking for. I was wary because chemistry definitely isn’t my strong suit, but she explained that it’s about just as much “normal” chemistry as Biomedical Engineering. I did some research and she was right, and the courses I would have to take are actually right up my alley. So yay, I have options now.
Im visiting Virginia Tech in a couple of weeks, and then I’m done with college visits! We did a “college visit road trip” up the east coast last spring break, and another one when I went to visit family in California. I will probably visit UPenn again because its pretty close, and I want to do ED there(if I can pay lol)
lots of tours for everyone it seems! i’ve already toured a ton of places and am definitely slowing down…but I have still yet to see…
-harvard (they were closed when I went to Boston last year)
-case western (not sure if i’ll have time to tour)
-upitt (not sure if i’ll have time to tour)
-northwestern (visiting over a break + uchicago just for kicks even though I’d probably fail there for pre-med)
-barnard (they don’t have weekend tours for the most part )
has anyone toured any of these places?
also, if anyone wants insight on places…I’ve toured a ton of east coast schools (georgetown, mit, yale, suny stony brook, cuny hunter, upenn, princeton, to name a few)
@LushLillies Harvard is gorgeous! I haven’t done a formal visit, but the Boston area is amazing. I love it there!
How was Yale? I don’t think I’ll have time to get to New Haven before applying. How was the school? Was New Haven as dangerous as people say it is? The city itself is my biggest concern when applying there.
@frazzledazzle haha i did see Harvard on the outside but didn’t formally tour either. i love Boston too! so many amazing places there…it’s hard to narrow it down!
Yale was hands down the prettiest campus I’ve been to. It gives me major scholarly vibes, Hogwarts vibes…very scholarly, quaint, historic…the library is huge and super beautiful. However, I think the feel of Yale isn’t for everyone. It’s very LAC-like in my opinion. I feel like it would be an autodidact’s dream! But I feel like I personally just wouldn’t fit in, simply because I’m more research-driven and into leadership than exploring different aspects of philosophy or something. not that people at Yale only do that. but from the visit, I knew immediately that although the place was the prettiest place ever, I wouldn’t fit in AT ALL and I’m not gonna waste any app fee money!
oh yah…the dangerous part! I heard that info from CC and was concerned before I toured. We were on the way home from Boston and just passed by New Haven to visit. It was mid day and we didn’t really go into the town (we went to get food, nothing weird at all anywhere?) but I can’t speak for what it’s like at other times. I can’t imagine it to be worse than JHU and Baltimore? But Baltimore is actually a city city. New Haven is like a town city…kind of like Bethlehem with Lehigh, a little like Ithaca with Cornell?
Sorry! I have weird wording sometimes. but basically…
TLDR: Yale is super pretty but very scholarly. Seems like a LAC if anything. New Haven is like a slightly larger suburban town, not sure about safety since I wasn’t there too long.
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