Finally back online! I forget about this thread not having the webpage up 24/7. lol
Also, sorry in advance about this post being long!
@ak2018 Congrats! (cool hair, btw)
@agentaquastar I say yes to the Student Search Service even though I have no intention of applying to the schools that send me mail. It’s basically just to prove a point next spring that the college admissions process is messed up. I’ve gotten a rubbermaid container full of mail and probably at least 1000 emails. I hate it all so much. I’ll recycle it all except for the schools that I apply/get accepted to, like what @Marg532 is doing.
The Cornell and Dartmouth trip went very well! My sister absolutely fell in love with Dartmouth and it’s her top choice school. I liked it and will be applying there. Sadly I had an encounter with a very arrogant man in the observatory (Tuck business school grad) who was basically mansplaining exoplanet detection to me. I had to cut him off and say that I know this stuff since I use it in my research. Other than that the visit was amazing. Cornell was good as well. The info session was very boring, but the tour was nice. I’m going to apply there even though it’s very hard to get to from where I live (like 12 hours driving hard).
This past weekend I went on more college visits. It started on Sunday with the “Discover Wellesley” overnight stay. I absolutely hated it. The campus didn’t feel right to me and I didn’t feel comfortable there to the point of having an anxiety attack and leaving early Monday morning. On Sunday afternoon I left Wellesley for a bit to go to a Caltech info session. It was very nice and the regional admissions counselor for New England was the one running it. I talked to her for a minute afterwards and mentioned that I went to SSP and she immediately knew what it was and asked me what campus I went to. That was very nice and the info session overall was great. Then after that my mom and I decided to go to Boston on a whim to visit BU. Beforehand I was sure on applying there just based on what I’d seen online, but I’m not going to now that I’ve seen the campus. There’s no campus. It’s just in the city. And the campus is wedged between 2 very busy roads and the green line, so it didn’t feel safe. After a visit there we ventured to Cambridge to see MIT again. It’s still my top choice school. The people there are so nice! I went to the admissions office to grab a new pen (I used my MIT pen from last April to the point of it running out of ink) and ended up chatting with an admissions person for a few minutes. He actually knew what SSP was, which is very nice since no one outside of the MIT and Caltech communities does. After that I visited the Physics and EAPS departments. The people there were very nice as well and I got some great advice. I can definitely see myself in the EAPS department, most likely as a physics and planetary science/astronomy double major. On the way back to the car I ran into the admissions person who visited my school early last month and she remembered me! That was very nice and it was good to see her again.
I was accepted to UMaine last Wednesday with a likely letter to the Honors College! It was a verbal acceptance during the UMaine Application Day, which the seniors do while everyone else is taking the PSAT. I’m going to get my official acceptance letter in a few weeks and I’l find out about the Honors College in January. I also have $9k/year in merit scholarship right now, which will go up to $11k/year once I bring up my SAT score in November.
Do any of you guys have tips on how to get yourself to study for the SAT/ACT? I really need to but I’m finding it hard to get myself to study. Thanks!
