Junioritis, Class of 2012

IthacaisGorges
Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:19:45 +0000

Remember, you can’t slow down until AFTER the finish line!

Advice to all you rising seniors… work against procrastination (if you’re anything like me, that’s pretty much impossible) BUT here’s something even more important: a lot of your friends will be done with apps before you are, or will just be so seniored-out that they won’t care anymore–don’t quit too soon! The one thing I did that wasn’t terrible was locking myself in my room the last week, down to the very dute dates before apps (this happened twice as I had 5 EA schools due Nov.1 and then 6 RD Jan.1-3).

Summary of results: I was rejected by Harvard (DUH) and Cornell (the essay was full of typos but it was already midnight and that was my very last application - the only time I got lazy); waitlisted at dartmouth and later rejected. I still managed to get into top tier schools like Umich, UVA, U Rochester, and Johns Hopkins (where I’ll be attending …as you can see, applying to many schools helps because at the end of it all you will likely end up with at least one reasonable reach school accepting you and a variety of levels of finaid to consider (maybe even some full scholarships–especially at safeties if you’re smart and private schools if you have a low income).

In any case, I got there (with quite a lot of money at most of these schools) by being strong through apps timing and focusing 1000% on essays and the rest of the apps for entire days. You have to edit and re-edit until you legitimately think it’s all perfect (even if you procrastinate the way I and all my friends did, that’s still possible and necessary!!) Unless you get your apps together ahead of schedule, leave partying for second semester. And don’t forget to keep your grades up first semester as well…those midyear reports are taken seriously, or so I hear.