Motivation :D

Hey Seniors!
I write for the juniors, but I decided I would make a blog to help you out through the last push of college applications :D

Playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04854XqcfCY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqgHosrqJ8o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYws8biwOYc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUvPf_zuySA&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWDmau1Vbxs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDK9QqIzhwk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJBHnInDrLY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJYN-eG1zk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA90I6ZlBNA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfUYuIVbFg0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IA3ZvCkRkQ

Motivational Quotes:

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up."-Anne Lamott

"Hope is a waking dream."-Aristotle

"Hope is necessary in every condition."-Samuel Johnson

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."-Theodore Roosevelt

"I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."-Christopher Reeves

"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air."-John Quincy Adams

"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity."-Louis Pasteur

"What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better."-Wendell Phillips

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time."-Anna Freud

"Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense."-Arnold Bennett

"Courage is fear that has said its prayers."-Dorothy Bernard

GOOD LUCK SENIORS!
<3 Celinda

PS, if you are still not convinced, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg

Happy Holidays!

Twas the night before College deadlines
And all through Uni High
Not a student was stirring
Not even those who try
The essays were written with joy and care
In hopes that college decisions would soon be there
The students rested on their deserved winter break
While eating (Sorry PE!) lots of treats and cakes
And the other PCCs at home and I at my blog
Bring college help to clear the mental fog
When out by the mailbox, there arose such a clatter
I jumped off the couch to see what was the matter
Away to the window I ran with such speed
Folks on Cross Country should take heed ;]
The moonlight made the snow all bright
Like the school's awful fluorescent lights
When to my surprise, a car should appear
Pulling into my driveway to bring good cheer
With a young sassy woman, here to help
It must be Lisa, I said with a yelp
More speedy than Sally her smile it came
As she shouted colleges by their names
"Go Beloit, Go Wooster, Go Yale and Vandy
To Swarthmore, To MIT, To Knox and Bradley!
From coast to coast From the large to the small
Apply to them, apply to them, apply to them all!"
Like a Uni student coming across free food
Us PCCs were put in the right college mood
So to the computer all of us flew
With our college wisdom and dear Lisa too!
And, in a twinkling, we knew what to write
Blogs upon blogs to ease the junior's blight
Smiles and nods were spread all around
As Collegeboard was searched with a bound
It was full of college help, from beginning to end
Test prep, college search, and scores you can send
A flurry of websites and books that got our back
And candy brought by Lisa for our snack :D
Our mind--how it opened! Our hearts beat steady!
Our breaths, how they calmed, as we were ready!
Lisa with a smile, us with our grins
Our voices rose in quite a loud din
We made our Common App accounts right away
We thought of what our essays would say
Our teachers wrote fantastic recommendations
About how hard we worked on our educations
And Lisa produced our transcripts with care
Sending them to those colleges way out there
With the wink of her eye and the nod of her head
Made sure we knew we had nothing to dread
All school year we worked as PCCs
In order to help make the process a breeze
As the blog and the work came to a close
We all stretched our hands and from the couch we rose
Lisa sprang to her car and gave a wave
We sighed with relief, knowing we had been saved
But I heard her exclaim, as she drove out of sight
"Good luck with college, it will be all right."

Happy Holidays everyone!
-Your PCCs

C is for College (Part II)

It is December 29th. (HYPERVENTILATING)
College apps are due starting Friday going into the first week of school for most schools. So, Seniors? Hang on, it's almost done. I BELIEVE IN YOU!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4

Now for some fun with the help of Princeton Review!
We all know about the U.S. College Rankings. I have a beef with them, but more on that in a different blog. Princeton Review has some fun lists, and here are just a few!

Best Classroom Experience:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=773&RDN=1
This category is based off of student reviews on the professor's skills as well as the student contribution in class discussion!

LGBT-Friendly:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=707
How open minded are the students when it comes to homosexuality? For those especially in GSA, you might be interested in some of these :]

Big Frat/Sorority Schools:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=724
Frats and Sororities have gotten some bad reps, but remember they are insititutions interested in philanthrophy. Discuss with your parents about Frats/Sororities, and make sure you know how to stay safe at college, including college drinking.

Happiest Students:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=712
HUGE NOTE: Happiness is one of the hardest thing to measure. This list is decided upon student reviews. However, just because a school you like might not be on the list doesn't mean you WON'T be happy there. For example, one of my schools is known as the place where "fun goes to die". Yet I really think I would be happy there. So keep this list in perspective!

Most Popular Study Abroad programs:
http://www.princetonreview.com/Schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=675
Almost every college is going to have study abroad. These schools are just full of students itching to explore the world. If you are the jet-setting type, these might be for you :]

Best Campus Food:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=683
Face it, college food is going to get kinda boring after a while. No matter how hard a college tries, you will be glad to go out to a restaurant or eat your home cooking every once in a while. However, these colleges are famous for their best attempts!

Most Politically Active Students:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=732
If you follow politics closely or if you have imagined being on the campaign trail, look into these colleges!

Best College Radio Station:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=689
I'm thinking DJ Cindy D sounds like a good name. If you have a good radio voice, or like being in control of the music, tune into these colleges! (I think my commentary is going to go downhill on this list).

Best Athletic Facilities:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=785
Yo athletes! Tired of having to travel distances from school to practice? How about these places?

Students Who Study the Most:
http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=756
Do you like studying? Do you like learning? Do you freeze up at parties? Just kidding, but these schools are full of academically minded students, so if you enjoy people who are supportive of your love of the books, look into these!

There are many more lists out there, so if none strike your fancy, either leave a comment asking or hit the web :D

-Celinda <3

C is for College of course! :]

This might be one of my fave blogs to write. This is where we begin to delve into the daunting topic of COLLEGE. I will break this up into two blogs. The first blog will be full of categories that you should start thinking about. These categories will address what YOU want in a college. The second blog will be the fun part. I have for you lists of colleges under unusual topics, such as "Best Newspaper" and "Happiest Students". While these lists aren't necessarily make it or break it (aka, you shouldn't choose a college SOLELY on the best radio station), they are designed to help you think on what makes you HAPPY. This is key: if you wouldn't be happy at the college, why would you go? You are going to live there for FOUR years. I urge you to begin college searching with THAT in mind.

PART ONE: YOU
Colleges are decided on a number of factors. The ones I am going to address aren't the only ones, but they are some of the most important: location, size, majors, cost (yeah, I know, it sucks), campus life (including sports and activities), and admission criteria.

Location: Where do you want to live? El Collegeboard breaks up the nation into 6 regions (plus Puerto Rico and Outside the US). The regions are west, southwest, midwest, south, new england, and mid-atlantic. Though you should keep your mind open when it comes to where a college is, if you know you would NEVER live in a state such as, oh, Montana, cross it off your list. If you can't stand the midwest, keep your mind open, but look more into other regions.

Size: Colleges come in a number of sizes to fit your needs. The smallest college in America is Alaska Bible College (38 students) and the largest college in America is Ohio State University at Columbus (52,568 students). Most of you will choose a college in between the two extremes. Collegeboard breaks it up into three categories: small (fewer than 2,000), medium (2,000-15,000), large (more than 15,000). We can break up the medium into medium-small (2,000-8,000) and medium-big (8,000-15,000). If Uni feels excessively claustrophobic, or you hate seeing the same people, or hate being super known, small might not be the best fit. Conversely, if you want your professors to know you well, if you are looking for a smaller, more family-like community, or you like people knowing you, big might not be for you. There are pros and cons to both, so start thinking which you prefer.

Majors: This is a big one. Now, I beg you to look at the list of majors for each college you look at. Your major MIGHT not be offered. If you aren't sure about which major you want, that's okay. Colleges offer undeclared options, though you will have to declare most often by the end of your Sophomore year. As you begin college research, you should ask friends, family, and search the internet for the schools with the best programs you are interested in. For example, did you know University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is famous for its Psychology program? For myself, I wasn't looking at UChicago until I talked to the Dean of History here at the U of I and she recommended it! Do your research!

Cost: This is my least favorite because in my perfect world, everyone would get to go to the college of their choice without money being a problem. At a public university the cost changes whether you are in-state or out-of-state. So, U of I is cheaper for us than it is for someone who lives in Ohio. Private universities don't depend on whether you live in-state or out-of-state; the cost is the same, and usually more money than a public university. DON'T cross them off your list though, many of these schools offer amazing financial aid. We will discuss finacial aid soon, but keep it in mind.

Campus Life: This is an umbrella term for such things as activities such as student organizations and school traditions, sports, sororities/fraternities or no, etc. This is the category with the most variables, yet the one that allows you match a college to your wants and wishes. If like playing soccer for example, but you know Division I isn't going to happen, look into the schools Division III/club/intramural sports. Want to write for the newspaper? Look into that. A madrigal? Some schools are FAMOUS for their a cappella groups :] Start thinking about your interests and look into the student life section of the colleges you look at.

Admission Criteria: Colleges look at a number of things in order to make admission decisions. At big schools, they tend to look at numbers because reading 30,000+ applications in detail kinda sounds terrifying. The "numbers" are your test scores and GPA. However, almost every college will want at least one essay, whether that is the personal essay or "Why (insert college name here)?", so start thinking of topics you might want to write. Other criteria include your transcript (you might have all A's, but if they are easy classes for you, that might not look so impressive, so AVOID classes that you would take solely as grade buffers), your personality/character qualities, recommendations, extracurriculars, level of interest, etc.

Anyway, the second blog is coming soon!
-Celinda :]

B is for Bachelor Degrees!

OKAY, finals/end of semester came fast and furious. Sorry about the long hiatus from blogging, but the College Blog wouldn't be a real excuse for not finishing my English paper for example :]

Anyway, really quick, I just want to introduce you to the Bachelor degree, because you are going to hear these different names a lot. Since I am planning on majoring in history, here is the history of just why it is called a "Bachelor" degree:

The Bachelor degree is also known as a Baccalaureate degree. The word Baccalaureate comes from baccalaria, which is Latin for "division of land". It literally meant that you were a laborer who works the land. As the society became more complex however, specialized jobs with specialized skills came into being, so the word began to reflect this change.
In the Medieval world, universities began popping up (though there were some in Ancient India), so the word began to mean a young squire or knight who had completed his studies of the trivium (rhetoric, grammar, and logic) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). By the 1200s, the degree was referred to as a bacheler (which is the French spelling). In the 1600s, the word Baccalaureate emerged to mean "Student with first degree". In the 1700s, bacheler became bachelor. And here we are today, student with first degree, or undegrad.

The two most common kinds of Bachelor degrees are Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science.
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.): this is given most often to those majoring in things like history, English, political science, etc. after successfully completing four years in a mostly liberal arts* education. However, some schools offer B.A.s in such things as business administration and even sciences if the courseload has had a very liberal arts emphasis on it.
Bachelor of Science (B.S.): this unfortunately named degree is given most often to those majoring in things like computer science, mathematics, engineering, etc.
These two degrees are given in three to fve years, based on your personal courseload and major.

If you have any further questions/comments toward the degree process, let me know!
As a good Uni student, here is a list of my sources. As a bad Uni student, I did use Wikipedia (FORGIVE ME MR. RAYBURN!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_degree#Canada_and_United_States
http://www.answers.com/topic/bachelor-s-degree
http://www.elearnportal.com/student-center/why-is-it-called-a-bachelors-degree

-Celinda :]
*Liberal arts will be addressed in a later blog

Writing Your Story

I want to first thank everyone for their kind words and thoughts this past few days. When I wrote my blog about rejection, my intentions were twofold: one, understand my complex and painful feelings of watching all that hard work slip away. Two, I wanted to inform everyone I had talked to about the results of the scholarship in one fell swoop, instead of having to face each person separately and explaining the outcome. I never anticipated the impact I would have on people, and it brings me to tears thinking that I had helped people understand their own feelings. So again, thank you, everyone.

So, let's continue talking applications, eh?
The one part of the application process that seems to freak so many people out is the essay section. Basically, they want to know about you as a person. Honestly though, explicating one's existence seems to be a monumental task. I will draw upon my own experience, but also that of fellow seniors, who gave me excellent pieces of advice.

First, the Common App has about six topics you can choose from. They might change for next year, but only slightly. These are pretty stock questions.
Topics
1)Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2)Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
3)Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4)Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
5)A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
6)Topic of your choice.

I asked Seniors about their experience, and here are some of their tips!

Isaac Joy: Start early, so you won't be too stressed late into first semester. Also, relax while writing them! If you are too wound up, you won't write accurately and will end up sounding like a robot.

Amrutha Kumaran: I would say the personal essay is very different from any essay that students have written before. This essay is dedicated to illustrating who you are as a person- not how smart you are or how much you have achieved. All the answers for this question are in your own head. The only requirement for writing the personal essay is being interested in something in your life, anything from a funny story to a favorite activity. As long as you express yourself genuinely, the personal essay is not a challenge.

Lilli Pearson: Only rash souls like me write their essays the weekend before they are due. (Blogger Celinda note: this is definitely quotable and incredibly amusing :] )

Heather Lin: So basically, once you decide a topic, just write. Write every single thought and feeling you have about that topic. Random thoughts, insightful ideas, or just rants.

Kahlilah Cooke:
1) First just answer the question out loud speaking for a few minutes (like go on and on) and then write what you said down. After you do that, simply clean it up a bit. It keeps you sounding natural and not too formal or fake.
2) Have someone (like your parents or a friend) read it and let you know whether you need to make a statement more/less formal.
3) write your first draft during commercial breaks while you are watching TV or something. Then when you want to make a more stuctured version, you already have some loosely formed ideas out there and it doesn't feel as if you have to pull ideas from out of nowhere.
4) Sit down, grit your teeth, and get it over with during the summer. No matter how sucky it is to do it during your break, it will be ten times worse trying to fit it in during the school year.
5) it's usually only 500 words or less. people make it sound like you are writing a 5 page research paper when it's really only a few paragraphs. CHILL OUT....

Chris Mathy: Give yourself three hours to write for a total of one hour (procrastination is inevitable, so don't fight it). If you let the ideas flow naturally for a while, soon a full fledged essay will come gushing out.

These are just a few tips, and I will add more in the coming posts.

My own tips: If you get a spontaneous burst of creativity, WRITE IT DOWN. In the shower? Get out and write it. Half asleep? Wake up and write it. Think of a story or thought that is uniquely you. Be wary of game-winning goals and community service UNLESS you have a unique spin on it. Lisa also told me that you want to generally avoid topic of choice because it might suggest you can't come up with ANYTHING for the other topics.

Anyway, I will add more tips and my personal story of writing soon. Looking ahead, for the B's we are going to do an incredibly quick blog looking at Bachelors and the other degree programs (hey, give me a break, it's hard to think of a good one for every letter). On that same blog I am going to give my super duper pep talk to pull yourself through the end of semester/a detailed list of why burning the school down might not be the best plan (I hear it's rough in juvie...).

Check back soon!
-Celinda!
(PS, thanks seniors who responded to my email/fb chats/pleading status! :] )

Rejection

One of the hardest things humans have to suffer as social beings is rejection. If you have ever been excluded from a game on the playground or been told no by your crush, you know how it feels. Rejection makes you feel like you are not good enough, and you will never BE good enough. Rejection is nothing but a concept, yet it has the power to make you feel little and powerless. It makes you feel embarrassed for trying, makes you afraid to make yourself vunerable again. It knocks the motivation out of you like a big exhale. Rejection sounds like laughing, cold ironic laughing as you hang your head in shame.

I know because this evening, a scholarship rejected me. It felt like a rug had been taken from under my feet and I was falling without a parachute. All that promise, the promise of getting into my top school with enough money to make sure my parents wouldn't have to worry slipped out of my hands like a pool of water. I watched it slip away, wishing that it was just a dream, just a horrible dream. I reread the email three times exactly, to see if they meant it. They had thanked me for applying, reminding me that not all the finalists make it, to keep at it because I was a competitive student. All I could read was the smack: No.

I felt stupid. I felt like a failure. I felt embarrassed. I thought of the people I had to say I failed to. I thought of the brilliant girl who had gotten my spot. I tried to come up with the clear reason I had failed. I cried. I cried a lot. I felt like a stupid loser.

Remember the day you got into Uni? How when you opened the crisp, white envelope and read accepted, didn't you feel brilliant and powerful? I remember. A Tuesday afternoon. I opened it, read it, and danced right there on the driveway. I felt smart. I felt like a success. I felt proud. I called everyone I knew. I liked the way their gasps of joy sounded in my ear. They sounded like a victory march.

Tonight though, I thought of the sixth grade girl who didn't get accepted into Uni. The girl who would have had my spot. I don't know what she looks like. If she is tall, short, brave, cowardly, mean, nice, my likeness or opposite. All I can imagine was how she felt. How she felt stupid. How she felt like a failure. How she felt embarrassed. I bet she thought of the "brilliant" girl who got her spot. I bet she tried to come up with the clear reason she had failed. She might have even cried. She might have cried a lot. And she might have felt like a stupid loser.

Rejection's a funny thing though, because it holds so much power but it never lasts. Remember that game you had been excluded from or that crush who said no? You might remember, but you still don't feel the scathing burn. You might feel a twinge of sadness, or nostalgia, or even humor. But failure? No, you don't. You won't feel that. Because rejection can't define who you are. It can't because it doesn't have enough strength to define you. Just like sadness can't, or anger, or even happiness. You are you, and it's up to you to write your definition. Rejection's like drinking hot chocolate too soon. It burns, it hurts for a while, but in the morning the bad feeling is gone and all that is left is you once again.

You will be rejected in life, because life is imperfect. Rejections will happen just as much as joys, trials, and tribulations will happen. Next year, when you apply to college, remember that rejections will burn. They might make you cry. But you are smart. You are a success. You should be proud. Because rejections don't mean a thing in the grand scheme of things.

I hope you believe me. If you don't, I pray that you will find your answer to how to deal with life's obstacles. I also hope that you celebrate all your successes, because they matter so much more.

-Celinda :]