Yes, sadly the last post has to be followed by this one.
On Friday, one week after I received my Pitt letter, I received a very different kind of letter. It wasn't for a university, just for a major scholarship program. The program was for low income students who have succeeded in their academic endeavors. I was rejected. It sucked.
The program said, "We are sorry to inform you that you are not a finalist. The application pool was very strong this year." At first I was fine with it. Or I at least acted fine with it. I laughed and joked, said I was happy because I wouldn't have to fill out six apps by November 1st, but I knew that wasn't true. I had spent hours on that application. I wrote two 500 word essays and one 800 word essay. Sent each of them through 5 different drafts; all to be rejected.
As I sat staring at email on my phone once I got home, I really just started to feel bad. I mean they said, "For low income students who have succeeded in their academic endeavors." I could help but focus on the second half of that sentence. Does this mean I haven't succeeded in my academic endeavors? Am I a failure? I must have laid in my bed for an hour and a half, headphones in, trying not to tear up as those words burned hotter and hotter in my mind, like a iron brand, labeling me; "Failure".
I had the ACT the next day and really didn't want this on my mind. I sat trying to review the rules of semicolons and commas yet couldn't shake that feeling that it didn't matter. I wasn't good enough for them, wasn't successful enough for them, so why should this ACT matter? Then it hit me all at once, who is this organization to define me as a student? Who is some organization in California to tell me that I'm not successful as a student? I know who I am and what I am capable of. I know I will succeed without this scholarship program, despite the fact that it was a lot of money. I went to bed then, with a feeling of rejuvenated potential. I am my own person and I will not let the college process define me.
The point of this was to let you guys know what it is not fun to get rejected. It makes you feel small and insignificant. The fact of the matter is that you have to get past this. You are your own person, you've made it this far and I promise you will keep going. One rejection letter isn't going to stop us, because we are some of the brightest students in the nation, and I'll be damned if anyone wants to argue otherwise. So keep pushing forward guys, I promise you will all make it.
- Joey
Sunday, October 23, 2011
First Acceptance Letter! Pros and Cons
So, as many of you already know I applied to the University of Pittsburgh and got in. This post is about the pros and cons of getting accepted this early to a school and the feelings that go along with it.
First of let me just say, it is the biggest feeling of relief in existence when you get into your first school. After working all that time on your essays and sending off the app, waiting several weeks, when you find out that you are accepted, you can't help but want to jump for joy. It truly is one of the best feelings one can experience, yet with an acceptance to a school this early, there are several downsides.
Outside of the reassurance that you are, in fact, going to college, a rolling admission school acceptance can bring on some very negative effects. The first of these, and probably the largest, is the amount of senioritis that hits at that very moment. Not only is the sigh(or scream) of relief about the relief of worrying about college, it is also about the relief of amount of work left to do in school. I will not lie I got my acceptance letter and the first thing I thought after, "I'M IN COLLEGE!!" was "I don't have any reason to do school work at all! I'm in college!" This is a bad thing. Just because you think it does not mean you have to act upon it. Even with an early acceptance you should still continue to work on your school work. This is because schools do check Mid-Year reports and often determine financial aid and merit based aid upon these grades. This brings me to my next con, financial aid. Now that you are in the school you feel like you are completely done. Yet, you still have to fill out the CSS and FAFSA. But the CSS isn't available until October and the FAFSA isn't available until February. So you can’t allow yourself to lose sight of the other deadlines that go along with getting into college. These are the two biggest things you need to keep in mind when it comes to early admission to schools.
On the positive side, not only are you in college, but it allows you to think more about your college list. Before Pitt, my list was 11 colleges long. It is now six. I dropped five schools all because I realized that I don't need that many, especially if I am already accepted. Once you are accepted to a school it allows you to realize that you don’t need to apply to 10 other schools, only the few others that you are genuinely interested in.
In closing, I hope all of you get to share this amazing feeling with me come December 15th! To those of you who have already been accepted to schools, congratulations! To those of you who are applying for their EA or ED school as they read this blog, good luck!
-Joey
First of let me just say, it is the biggest feeling of relief in existence when you get into your first school. After working all that time on your essays and sending off the app, waiting several weeks, when you find out that you are accepted, you can't help but want to jump for joy. It truly is one of the best feelings one can experience, yet with an acceptance to a school this early, there are several downsides.
Outside of the reassurance that you are, in fact, going to college, a rolling admission school acceptance can bring on some very negative effects. The first of these, and probably the largest, is the amount of senioritis that hits at that very moment. Not only is the sigh(or scream) of relief about the relief of worrying about college, it is also about the relief of amount of work left to do in school. I will not lie I got my acceptance letter and the first thing I thought after, "I'M IN COLLEGE!!" was "I don't have any reason to do school work at all! I'm in college!" This is a bad thing. Just because you think it does not mean you have to act upon it. Even with an early acceptance you should still continue to work on your school work. This is because schools do check Mid-Year reports and often determine financial aid and merit based aid upon these grades. This brings me to my next con, financial aid. Now that you are in the school you feel like you are completely done. Yet, you still have to fill out the CSS and FAFSA. But the CSS isn't available until October and the FAFSA isn't available until February. So you can’t allow yourself to lose sight of the other deadlines that go along with getting into college. These are the two biggest things you need to keep in mind when it comes to early admission to schools.
On the positive side, not only are you in college, but it allows you to think more about your college list. Before Pitt, my list was 11 colleges long. It is now six. I dropped five schools all because I realized that I don't need that many, especially if I am already accepted. Once you are accepted to a school it allows you to realize that you don’t need to apply to 10 other schools, only the few others that you are genuinely interested in.
In closing, I hope all of you get to share this amazing feeling with me come December 15th! To those of you who have already been accepted to schools, congratulations! To those of you who are applying for their EA or ED school as they read this blog, good luck!
-Joey
Brain Storming College Essays
Sorry about the lack of posts lately guys, I've been crazy busy with precisely what this post; college essays. Last post was about how to get those college essays cleaned up perfectly, but some of you wondered how do you get them in the first place? It's not an easy process.
For those seniors who didn't go to Lisa and Celinda's talk at the beginning of the year about college essays, let me say it was fantastic. The tips from that talk are actually the very tips I used to develop my big common app essay, which is also the essay I used for my University of Pittsburgh app. So what exactly are the tips, is what you are wondering now. Well I'll tell you.
The first was to start off with a list of everything that has ever influenced you or still influences you. This is the hardest part. You basically open a word document, or get out a piece of paper and just start writing anything that has held agency in your life. When I did this I got out paper and actually wrote because it allows you to slow down and really think about what you are writing. I started with just bullet points. I got the big ones out of the way, mom, dad, church, then it got hard. What else has influenced me? I wanted to write school, but that was too broad, so I listed teachers. I went all the way back to my 4th grade teacher who pushed me to apply to Uni, and moved forward. I wrote down the teachers from 7th grade that did my letters of rec for Uni, up to the teachers who are doing my letter of rec this year. Then I was done with school, but I knew there were more than just these four things. Then I realized I was holding back for the sake of preserving my own image. And at that moment it hit me that there's nothing to hide, no one is going to read this but me.(except for you guys, now...) Thus, I wrote Juliana cause she has been a major part of my high school experience. I wrote sports because they shaped my work ethic. I put down clothing because the way I present myself is important to me. After I finished the list and looked down and thought to myself, "Wow." as I read over the list. It was interesting to see so many different things that influenced me and see how they can all connect. This took me to the second step.
From here I picked three of the things, got out my computer and wrote for 10 minutes straight on each topic. I did not stop typing for the whole 30 minutes. If I didn't know what to say I typed "ummmmmmmmmmmmmm" or "I don’t know what to say here but I'm going to keep going." remembering in the back of my head that no one is going to read this so it doesn't matter. From here I took the best of the three free writes and highlighted three recurring main topics. I repeated the free write for each of those. At that point I choose the most specific, meaningful free write and that was my topic.
From here the final step is to then relax and think about that topic. Let it develop further in your head. Give it an hour or so and then sit back down at the computer. Go back and rewrite what you have with the information and detail that you have come up with in that hour of relaxation. Once you've done this all that's left to do is take it to the writing workshop for clean up.
During this process make sure you SAVE EVERYTHING. You need to save because those other two specific free writes and the other two general free writes can actually provide perfect launching places for great essays. My final tip is that if you ever, EVER, have an idea for an essay come to mind and you think, "That's perfect!" WRITE IT DOWN! Don't let yourself forget the idea, even if you wake up at 3am, at least write it on a piece of paper so you can read it in the morning.
Using this process I promise you guys that you will get some quality essays down. My big one I used for Pitt actually ended up getting me emailed by the college to say it brought real emotion to the college essay process and they liked that, so don't hold back. If these essays involve your real emotions that's a good thing! That means you actually put effort into your essay. It shows you took the time to care what you presented yourself as. Ultimately following these steps can be one of the most helpful ways to write your college essays.
Best of luck to you all!
-Joey
For those seniors who didn't go to Lisa and Celinda's talk at the beginning of the year about college essays, let me say it was fantastic. The tips from that talk are actually the very tips I used to develop my big common app essay, which is also the essay I used for my University of Pittsburgh app. So what exactly are the tips, is what you are wondering now. Well I'll tell you.
The first was to start off with a list of everything that has ever influenced you or still influences you. This is the hardest part. You basically open a word document, or get out a piece of paper and just start writing anything that has held agency in your life. When I did this I got out paper and actually wrote because it allows you to slow down and really think about what you are writing. I started with just bullet points. I got the big ones out of the way, mom, dad, church, then it got hard. What else has influenced me? I wanted to write school, but that was too broad, so I listed teachers. I went all the way back to my 4th grade teacher who pushed me to apply to Uni, and moved forward. I wrote down the teachers from 7th grade that did my letters of rec for Uni, up to the teachers who are doing my letter of rec this year. Then I was done with school, but I knew there were more than just these four things. Then I realized I was holding back for the sake of preserving my own image. And at that moment it hit me that there's nothing to hide, no one is going to read this but me.(except for you guys, now...) Thus, I wrote Juliana cause she has been a major part of my high school experience. I wrote sports because they shaped my work ethic. I put down clothing because the way I present myself is important to me. After I finished the list and looked down and thought to myself, "Wow." as I read over the list. It was interesting to see so many different things that influenced me and see how they can all connect. This took me to the second step.
From here I picked three of the things, got out my computer and wrote for 10 minutes straight on each topic. I did not stop typing for the whole 30 minutes. If I didn't know what to say I typed "ummmmmmmmmmmmmm" or "I don’t know what to say here but I'm going to keep going." remembering in the back of my head that no one is going to read this so it doesn't matter. From here I took the best of the three free writes and highlighted three recurring main topics. I repeated the free write for each of those. At that point I choose the most specific, meaningful free write and that was my topic.
From here the final step is to then relax and think about that topic. Let it develop further in your head. Give it an hour or so and then sit back down at the computer. Go back and rewrite what you have with the information and detail that you have come up with in that hour of relaxation. Once you've done this all that's left to do is take it to the writing workshop for clean up.
During this process make sure you SAVE EVERYTHING. You need to save because those other two specific free writes and the other two general free writes can actually provide perfect launching places for great essays. My final tip is that if you ever, EVER, have an idea for an essay come to mind and you think, "That's perfect!" WRITE IT DOWN! Don't let yourself forget the idea, even if you wake up at 3am, at least write it on a piece of paper so you can read it in the morning.
Using this process I promise you guys that you will get some quality essays down. My big one I used for Pitt actually ended up getting me emailed by the college to say it brought real emotion to the college essay process and they liked that, so don't hold back. If these essays involve your real emotions that's a good thing! That means you actually put effort into your essay. It shows you took the time to care what you presented yourself as. Ultimately following these steps can be one of the most helpful ways to write your college essays.
Best of luck to you all!
-Joey
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