Is it bad if a teacher writes a recommendation in 30 minutes?
@xxluvforeverxx not an expert, but that sounds fine to me. Its supposed to be like 1 page, so 30 minutes sounds like enough time.
I’m kind of nervous about my counselor rec. My counselor retired after last year, which left all of us seniors to be worried about the fact that our new counselors (either the one who was here before the switch or the one who replaced our old one) literally don’t know us, so our recs wouldn’t be as good as if our old counselor had just stayed for one more year :(( I’ll probably just be getting an average rec now, which isn’t bad, but it also isn’t good. Rip me the entire school is pretty much changing and I can’t keep up :-q
Wow, My senior class just had a grade assembly that did absolutely nothing…It was just going over the rules, I thought it would have resources for college help.
@Futureanimator my school does that every year. We round up all the seniors on the first day of school and go over the same rules we’ve heard for four years. Then a couple weeks later we have a class meeting to talk about fundraising, homecoming decorations (a hard-hitting issue), senior farewell, class trip, and graduation. Anything related to colleges is set up with guidance during the school day, which takes you out of your classes for who knows how long.
I’ve decided to be productive this morning. I’ve sent out four emails that I’ve been procrastinating on lol. I’m planning on doing my reading for my class on Monday, an essay due on Tuesday, and an English assignment that I have no clue when it’s due. I like not having class the Friday before Labor Day. It gives me time to organize myself. Also, since I don’t have college classes on Fridays, my school day will be over by this time of morning every single week. It’ll be a good time to get work done.
@Marg532 I had one GC freshman year, then another sophomore year (switch by the school? It’s based on your last name and they had a different distribution), then another one junior year (old one retiered). I got pretty lucky though bc I still have my junior year GC and she’s being pretty good about making sure she knows what she needs to know about me (like extra college classes that aren’t on my HS transcript). I’ve had to visit her a lot more than the other two too bc you’re required to meet with them every quarter for dual enrollment scheduling. I’m sure a lot of kids are in your situation tho 
So last year I applied for this really competitive medical internship in my area. I was able to be one of the 40 people who got an interview, but in the end didn’t make the cut. I’m reapplying this year and I was just wondering if i should mention that i had already applied before in my essay/interview (if i get one again)
@gopgal good luck!! I’m sure you don’t need to mention that in the essay, but if the topic comes up, of course you should tell them in the interview. I don’t think it would help or hurt you to let them know that you made it to the interview before… So just keep trying your best!
comparing my freshmen to senior pics
Dang that glow up…
…never happened.
I guess I’ll look like a geeky little 12 year old forever.
@agentaquastar lol same. I think I look oldest freshmen year when my hair was long. My sister on the other hand was blessed with a growth spurt right before her freshmen year. She’s now on her Varsity Cross Country team and looks 17. I’m 3-4 inches shorter than her and I look 12. People assume I’m the freshman and she’s the senior 8-| At least we will look young for a long time? lol
That reminds me, I am not looking forward to seeing my picture in the yearbook. The company that takes our photos does NOT know how to edit brown skin. We all end up looking orange, greasy, and have flashes all over our face. On my I.D. my eyebrows look super thick and I know they didn’t look like that in the proof he first showed me when I picked my photo. And my skin looks super oily but I already expected that from my past I.Ds. oh well
Just my personal opinion here, but does anyone not really care that much about senior pictures? Like they seem pretty cool, but to me, it doesn’t really seem like that much of a bigger deal than other picture days. Again, this is only my opinion, but I just don’t see the benefit of spending $40+ to have 20 pictures of you taken professionally when most people nowadays have access to a smartphone with built-in front and back cameras that would almost have a similar effect, just not with a white background. I mean, my family hasn’t bought a school picture of me for almost a decade and I haven’t bought a yearbook since the 8th grade mainly because we don’t put stuff up on our walls anymore. Like pictures of when we were little are just in my parents’ photo album. Idk, I’m just planning on getting simple yearbook picture and that’s it.
I last bought a yearbook in 10th grade cause after that I did full time dual enrollment and it didn’t seem necessary. I like that (at least for us) senior pictures replace school pictures in the yearbook so at least we look good. I’m just having a friend take some for me (he was in AP Photography with me and has a DSLR camera). I’ll edit them myself. There’s a senior girl at my school who’s been doing a lot of photography so she’s been doing a lot of peoples senior pictures (paid but not as expensive as a studio) and I think that’s pretty cool.
Also, if you don’t want to do professional senior pictures a yearbook kid will do some pictures for you, so that you don’t have to have your (again, ugly af) school picture in the yearbook.
@snowfairy137 Yeah, my entire grade has this exact problem, except half of the senior class has the brand new counselor (they decided to switch to a 9-12 alphabet based split when they got the new counselor - 1st half has one and the 2nd half has the other). I feel bad for my friend who has the brand new one, because she’s had to talk to him about SAT waivers and Questbridge application stuff and apparently it’s been a bit awkward. However, the majority of my grade doesn’t really care much about the nitty gritty of college apps (at least in my perception of things), so I don’t really think they’re sweating too much about the guidance counselors being unable to give in depth recommendations.
Anyone have any good first week of senior year stories to share?
@ak2018 IMO I’d spend the extra money for photos for my last year of school. And it isn’t just the photos you’re paying for, but also how the photos will be taken by an experienced professional photographer, which is what a selfie camera wouldn’t be able to achieve. I’m not a formal type of guy, but senior year is pretty momentous in my opinion.
Anyone have any interview tips? My MIT interview is this week and I’m trying not to freak out. All I know is that the dude’s a plastic surgeon. My sister got a woman who recently graduated from a high school in our district and I’m struggling to find some common ground with my interviewer. I don’t want to go in there with nothing relevant to say, but I also want to be myself if that makes sense?
My MIT interviewer won’t email back 
Why is it so hard for me to bring back recycling? I’ve contacted so many people and my club sponsor is completely willing to work with me, but then the vice principal keeps going back on her assurances to approve the club… With school starting and sports picking back up I’m kind of frustrated. It’s definitely a struggle for me to keep my hopes up… If for nothing else I’ll keep going just to say I tried my best…
Good luck to all you guys doing interviews! I commend you for your courage and efforts…!
OMG good luck to all with interview! I didn’t know some schools had interviews so early wow…
is MIT one of the only schools that has interviews so early? :-/
besides some select LACs…I looked up the interview policies for every school I’m applying to and they were all like “we’ll invite u” or “after you apply you can look for an interview in our database thing”
Guys, I’ve been so busy trying to finish work for my classes that I’ve been putting off my Questbridge application. I still have two essays to write for it. How are you balancing homework and college apps?