Applying to College
One thing I noticed about the great colleges of the world is that they don’t take the applications process as seriously as the rest of the world does. Harvard could fill its class three times over with students who have never had a grade less than perfection, and it certainly didn’t seem concerned that high schoolers aren’t worrying enough; it’s just trying to assemble the best class it can, as is every other college. If a college gets 3000 valedictorian applicants to its 1000-person class, it’s going to take 1000 students (and not necessarily people from the 3000). If it gets 0 valedictorian applicants, it will still take 1000 students. “Don’t put your self-worth into your application. We don’t deserve that,” said Yale. “I don’t worry anymore about the students who don’t get into our school because there is a really amazing depth to the colleges in America, and there are several colleges in the US that can provide great education and opportunities to its students, even opportunites that we can’t provide,” said Princeton.Perhaps I’m just fooling around out here, and I’m not going to get into any of these schools. If I don’t, I’m still going to be a good person, and my life is still going to be just fine. I think it was good to see these schools because it helped give me perspective. They are all great places, but they are still just places. The college applications process has really gotten out of control; the Ivy League has become a Valhalla, but really, all the kids trying to get into these schools are still just kids, and these great schools with multi-million dollar endowments are still just schools. The people selling boost-your-SAT-scores and boost-your-application books are making millions of dollars off of your insecurities, but selling snake oil is an old, old profession. Yale said that one day he got a phone call from a concerned father wondering what he could do to boost his daughter’s chances of getting into Yale. His daughter was 4 years old.
There have been times in my life when I’ve completely lacked this perspective and become obsessed with grades, and there are several months in my life that I cannot really remember because I was lost in a fog of work and sleeplessness. June is already halfway gone, and I’ve barely noticed because I’m still trying to rise up from the ashes of May. When I step into school in August, I will be a drastically different person than I was the year before, but what kind of person will I be? I don’t know. Summer is two weeks old, but the months to go are a mystery to me, and when I think of my senior year, the only thing I see is the top corner of the band room between the ceiling and the huge mirrors, and I see dozens of students wandering around, setting up stands. I do not yet want to leave this place. I know that in a year, I must go and make my living, and I wonder why I feel so attracted to the east – will this pass? – and I know I really ought to start running again, but it is not yet time to leave Baltimore, and it is not yet time to return to work. It is time for lunch.
I’ve had some strange things happen to me this year, but it’s all for the best. Something great will come from this. I feel the desire to create every single day, and every day I put it off again. I must either yield to it or cast it away. Why do I feel this way? Why am I afraid to do something about it? These are questions I am afraid to answer. God knows. I haven’t felt united with him for a long time now, but each day I heal (“grow my personality back, I call him”), he becomes more attractive.
Let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky…and eat some roast beef. I’m really getting hungry.
Ha ha ha, roast beef eaters, ha ha…nevermind.
It is good to be 17, after all.
Explore posts in the same categories: Education
