Last But Not Least

This semester has been fast. I mean seriously, so fast. I don’t know if it’s because of the transition from e-learning and block schedule to normal school days, or is it just senior year. Man, how do I even start. Senior year – stresses, anxieties, colleges, essays, academics, goals, futures. The time where we say goodbye to friends and families, and finally stepping into the “real world” like every other 17/18 year olds. Let me put my chaotic first semester in chronological order by my major time stamps, just in case any rising seniors wanna feel the pain firsthand (I’m kidding. No but it’s actually kinda painful). 

 

1. The summer before senior year 

This is probably the easiest time period of the entire blog. Our goal was to do as many college tours as possible, so my family and I went to Nashville, Atlanta, Boston, and NYC. I think it was super cool just to be on the college campuses and feel the environment, to some extent you can already feel if it’s the right place for you just by standing there and observing everything around you. I first visited Vanderbilt University in Nashville, my one and only dream school, which eventually rejected me in ED1 (but it’s alright:)). For anyone who’s interested in Vanderbilt, I loved their medium campus size, the environment with all the plants, low key student population, and especially how Nashville is a cool and calm city, unlike NYC. If you’re looking for a rigorous university with very low-key settings and you don’t pursue parties and entertainment that much, I would definitely recommend Vandy. But again, it’s very hard to get into, and even though it’s not an Ivy, it has similar acceptance rates as Ivys.

Next we visited Emory University in Atlanta. It was a totally different vibe and experience to be in Atlanta, starting from the traffic and weather. The traffic was such a big struggle, and the weather was worse for me because it was hot and humid. We visited both campuses, and they have different vibes as well. The main campus is a lot bigger, more buildings, and right in the city, on the other hand, the Oxford campus is very small, about 20-30 minutes away from the main campus, and it’s right next to residential neighborhoods. Both campuses were super cool (but not actually cool since it was so hot), and made me more certain to apply to Emory for my ED2.

For Boston and NYC, we really just glanced over the schools. We visited Fordham University, Barnard College, and Columbia University in New York, Babson College and Wellesley College in Boston, and on the way back we drove past Boston College, Boston University and Harvard. I applied to Fordham and Babson in the early action round, and was accepted to both (yay!). Babson college is a business school, which is ranked #1 for 25 consecutive years for entrepreneurship. It has a small campus that makes the community super supportive and inclusive. I think it would be a perfect fit for students who are certain that they want to pursue business in their future careers.

2. College research and essays

Yep yep yep. The pain starts here. To be fair, I would say doing the college research was super fun, where you can explore their unique programs, classes, clubs, and other connections. College essays, not so much, starting with the personal statement essay. I actually started my personal essay pretty early, maybe like the second semester of 11th grade, because I knew I would change my ideas around a lot, which I did. At first I put a lot of pressure on myself, I thought that I didn’t have any intriguing life stories, unlike people who had spent summer time in NASA, participated in life-saving programs, or won first place in the National Youth Knowledge Competition ( I just made that up). I thought I was boring and whoever reads my ordinary, plain, and mediocre essay would be bored to death. After many times of revising the idea, I decided to wing it. I decided to accept my mediocrity as who I am. And since the personal essay is about YOU, you should accept who you are and reflect your true self to the admissions committee. Eventually I finished my personal essay, but more college essays were on the way. I would say, if it’s a general question asking about yourself, such as why did you choose this major, or what activities you participated in that you feel is significant, you can just copy and paste that for every college. When it comes to questions like, why our school, or what do you hope to gain from your college experience and education from our school, you seriously need to dig up whatever you can from their website in order to show that you are really interested and you’ve done your homework.

 

3. Receiving decisions

It was a lot easier and relieving than I thought it would be. The first decision I received was one of my safety schools, with no surprises I got in, so I kinda expected that. Then it comes to the night to reveal my ED1 decision from Vanderbilt. As you all know by now, I got rejected, but I was also expecting that in some ways. The increase of applicants, the test optional policy, and all the other students out there with enough fulfillments for Ivys, I thought I had like 1% in this competition, so I wasn’t really sad about it. At this point when the blog is posted, I have received five out of eight EA schools, and I was admitted to all of them. I’m also planning to submit my ED2 and RD school today.

 

Honestly, the entire college process goes so much faster and less exciting than I expected. For everyone who’s panicking about seniors, especially the college application process, I would say just try your best to balance your stress and emotions. Worst case scenario, you would take a gap year, or whatever great plans you have, and that’s perfectly fine. Your life experiences make you whole, a letter of college admission decision does not, can not, and will not ever define who you are.