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Thanks for the idea, Digi. I didn't actually think I'd have to make another thread this soon, but it makes it easier to load when we don't let the thread get too long, i.e. past 150 posts. Good work guys, maybe we'll hit 10 by new years.

Thedad-- Yikes... that is definitely a kick in the butt. At least it's done, though and your D won't have to do it later, even though it doesn't fix the lost sleep problem. What fairy tale did she end up doing? Did it have to be illustrated? I only ask because it makes me think of an assignment we had to do in Spanish 3 sophomore year, but I think we had to make up a story and illustrate it. I forget. I may be getting it mixed up with the book we made in Spanish 1 that we made about our families.

Yeah, this is what I get for not sleeping enough, fried brain cells. LOL. I was actually glad to go to school today, though. I was marginally better today (no 103 fever) so I finally got to get out of the house, even if it meant going to school and seeing/infecting people. (just kidding!)A lot of people are upset about the SATs and how they went, which definitely sucks for the people whose last time was this month. What bothers me a bit, though, is that there are still people who do not know what SAT IIs are.

Poor, uninformed students.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 10:19 pm: Edit

wow Twinkle. we are going at the rate of 1 thread/2 weeks or so. pretty crazy huh?

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 10:56 pm: Edit

Yeah, I would say so. ;)

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 12:10 am: Edit

oh wow. BIG BIG BIG AP Calc test tomorrow and I am not prepared. I've been studying essentially all night, and have decided not to do physics homework (he probably wont check and I know the material) or to prepare for my engineering class (reading the book...I'm on schedule in that class though, so i should be okay). I'm so so tired, and this is my first break for so so long....argh
I'm not nearly as bad off as my friend, T, though. She's breaking... She is just as prepared as me, but has had a little over two hours of sleep (less than 3) in the last 66 hours (by twelve o clock tonight) Except for her less than 1/2 hour nap on monday morning, and her two hour sleep from 4-6 this morning, she has been awake since 6 am Sunday morning. And she expects to get through tomorrow at school after staying up most of the night studying for math. At most she will get 4 hours, but knowing her, she'll probably go to sleep at 4 and wake at 6, and so, when her test begins at 7:30, she'll have slept 5 hours in 73 hours. And that's if she lets herself sleep at all...she might not. It's not healthy and she refuses to listen to me. But, I think she might be going home right after the math test (for her, first period) getting the rest that she needs so badly. I don't know if she will, though. She is a very honest person, and never does anything slightly wrong. While i dont' normally either, and don't often (ever) condone it, in her case, i think she shoudl go homew. She has had such little sleep that she will not absorb anything anyways, and she is just as hindered as someone would be if she were really ill. I donno, though. She might think that she is lying about her health to the nurse at the health room. I think she is still clean. She doesnt' have anything in the other classes. oh well, it is her decision
I worry about her.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 02:03 am: Edit

No illustrations. She did "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." Naturellement.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 06:05 pm: Edit

wow, a lot happened today! The sleep hour count for T. is up to 5 hours since Sunday morning. crazy. Last night I was going to pull some extra studying, but then I decided to sleep for two hours and wake up at 2 to study some more. hah! I was obviously so tired that i would do anything for sleep, believe any lame story i feed myself. ANYways, I turned on my alarm clock, set the volume to high, set it for 2, and fell asleep on my floor with about 3 pillows and a down comforter. one word. *BLISS*
The next thing I remember is me waking up to the telephone ringing. at 6 'o' clock. I slept through my alarm, and somehow ended up on my bed. weird. Anyways, so, I didn't get to get any extra studying in. oh well. The test wasn't as hard as I thought, or i just made things too easy and got them all wrong. I think i did okay though. I'm still a little worried because there is so much room for error. It's so easy to make a mistake. I know that on the homework I kept on multiplying the derivitives instead of using the multiplication rule. . . but i think i made sure not to do that on the test. i hope anyways.

oh! AND I went shopping with my grandmother this afternoon and she bought me a dress for homecoming. I would never had bought it if i had been going myself, it was WAY too expensive for me, but she wanted to buy it for me, and so despite my sincere protests she did. Which was nice, except I really hate spending money so it was close to toture for me. But I'm over it...i think. Anyways, the dress is nice. It may be a little fancy, but whatever. It has spagetti straps and is a briliant blue under a black flowered netting with tiny sparkles. Then there is this shawl thing that is black on one side, and a gorgeous dark blue on the other.
After that, she took me to this place where they sell good-will type things to benifit the less fortunate, and I searched fruitlessly for a plain white dress I could convert into a toga (for my halloween costume- Greek Godess). I did buy a white shirt I'm going to convert into the top section. THen we went to a fabric store and bought 1.5 yards each of red, yellow, green, blue, purple and light purple chiffon, and several yards of thick white cotton for a skirt. We also got this really pretty iridecent white-pearl chiffon for my wings, although, in actuallity the wings are gold/....i think i'll use gold thread, so whatever. SUCH nice fabric. Anyways, whoo, I have to do physics. Still, though, it was a good full day.

OH! And I have to get a 90.3 on my out of class essay (that i wrote badly) to get an A in Lit! EEP! we'll see how it goes, eh?

By Ch2 (Ch2) on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 10:32 pm: Edit

Sounds like I'm at about the same point as your daughter as far as the Yale EA app goes, TheDad. I've submitted Part I but have yet to finish the essays. I have a very very very rough draft for the activity/interest one, but have gotten nowhere on the Personal Statement. I've spent hours and hours (days?) agonizing over what to write about and it is getting very frustrating. Well, if I wait too longer the pressure will be on and I know I'll get something out, but I don't want to have regrets about how much better it could have been if I had just had one more night to revise it.
This has been a crazy week so far, and there's still two more left in this crazy month of October.
I hope you are feeling better now, Twinkle! (I actually had a nasty 24-hour stomach virus on Tuesday but am all better now!)

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 12:06 am: Edit

If worse comes to worst, D can re-cycle her National Merit essay. It's well-written but it's too much of a "my big game" essay focused on ballet.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 01:08 am: Edit

i know the val of my class is applying Yale EA (1580, All-State athlete, musician...VERY STRONG candidate). she is a bit scared now that its 2 weeks before apps are due and she hasnt started. defintely told me she was using her NM essay for the "what can u tell us about yourself" essay.

all of the early kids are going nuts now. my friend who is top hockey recruit for princeton had her app due TODAY to her school and she had to get an extension because she only has 1 out of 5 mini-essays done...

btw TheDad, not to rush u or antyhign, but are you thinking of putting up a Stanford review in the near future? i am interested...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 03:18 am: Edit

Yeah, someone else asked, too. I'd forgotten but I'll get it up by Friday at the latest. I'm so overwhelmed that I'm having to let some stuff of my own drop...I had a story due to a writer's workshop and it just hasn't gotten done.

There was a chilling anecdote posted today in one of the Parent topics about someone who got denied because the counselor form said "Good" instead of "Excellent" (or better) on the "Leadership" area.

D doesn't compare to your val and I'm on tenterhooks about her SAT scores...if they don't come up enough, I think the ball game is over. (Sigh...the poor Cubs.)

Good luck to you, Ch2.

I did my part for the effort...I got the !@#$%^&*! CSS Profile submitted tonight...I think I'd rather have a root canal. Will copy and mail off copies of 2002 tax returns tomorrow or Friday.

By Wjk323 (Wjk323) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 07:43 am: Edit

hey Sunshine,
what schools is your "val" applying to...its only October and she already has deadlines coming up?

i thought most schools deadline was on Jan. 1st

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 02:33 pm: Edit

EA/ED deadlines are November 1 in many cases.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 07:08 pm: Edit

I am so completely wiped. I slept last night for 5 1/2-6 hours too! (I fell asleep studying for the government test...oops. It ended up being okay though, I think I missed one question on it and I nailed all of the essays so definitely not concerned over it)I was so dead through school today, and then I slept from 4-6 because I couldn't stay awake anymore. Eeek. I think I could sleep for the next two weeks and wake up dead tired. The b/f is convinced that I have mono but I definitely *DO NOT*. Ugh. Lesson to all: avoid kids, eat well and sleep well, and never, ever share drinks with anyone, ever, even if you are dying of thirst. I think I am going to get through as much homework as I can and go to bed at like 11, done or not.

"all of the early kids are going nuts now. my friend who is top hockey recruit for princeton had her app due TODAY to her school and she had to get an extension because she only has 1 out of 5 mini-essays done... "

Hmmm. Definitely didn't know people were allowed extensions, even in extenuating cases.


I'm trying to decide on my approach for the essay since we're being made to work on them in English. Not that I'm trying to angle it, but I want my essay to have a really powerful effect on the adcoms. I can't decide whether it should be something shocking...something really out there and different... something incredibly funny...something that will make them cry. I think I could write any of those, but I want it to capture me because it's my one shot to do that, especially if I don't interview for each school.

"There was a chilling anecdote posted today in one of the Parent topics about someone who got denied because the counselor form said "Good" instead of "Excellent" (or better) on the "Leadership" area. "

Thedad...that is a scary, scary thought. That is one of those things you cannot control at all because you never get to see what your GC writes... and it's even worse if/when that particular person doesn't know you exceptionally well, either. I'm starting to worry about that section because I just think I'm going to get so-so marks in certain areas because I'm so damned persistent about making sure I get what I should get at school, from classes to schedule changes and whatnot.

By Ch2 (Ch2) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 07:38 pm: Edit

"There was a chilling anecdote posted today in one of the Parent topics about someone who got denied because the counselor form said "Good" instead of "Excellent" (or better) on the "Leadership" area. "

Oh No. I've never even met my guidance counselor (I saw my old one a couple of times during high school but she left). We had to fill out lots of forms about ourselves, though, so I'm hoping my new counselor put good marks and comments based on the worksheets. Oh well, can't control that anymore, my transcript and counselor rec has already been sent off.
Twinkle, sounds like we're having similar problems with the essay. It's the right approach that is really hard to find and to capture. I've decided to stop being a perfectionist and just write SOMETHING.
If I finish studying for my Statistics test tonight, I'm gonna give the Personal Statement essay a shot. I'm just going to write whatever comes to mind and put no limit on it so then I'll have at least something to work with. There's this really good English teacher at my school that actually retired last year after 30+ years but he is awesome and so I'm going to show him what I have tomorrow (even though he retired, he still hangs around our school because he's bored and has lots of time). Of course, I can't miss the Red Sox game that starts in less than an hour! I'm not big on watching sports most of the time, but I've discovered during the past few years that I actually like baseball a lot and I'm starting to understand what's going on, as opposed to football which seems like a pretty stupid sport.

Anyway, I know of atleast one other girl applying to Yale EA from my school and she has a lot more going for her than me in terms of the application, but, hey, atleast if I get rejected I'll know, and there won't be any regrets. Some people are pretty crazed around here, too, but actually have stopped talking about it for awhile. A lot of people are very secretive and absolutely refuse to tell anyone else where they are applying to. So, far all I know, there are 20 other people in my grade applying to Yale EA.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 09:51 pm: Edit

Yale EA is ULTRA-POPULAR this year. definitely more popular than ED was. im interested in seeing how the EA will work since its the first year it will be in effect.

my school has some sort of interesting thing going. every valedictorian who has ever applied to Yale (something like 7 out of the last 10) has gotten accepted (i learned this today). Yale seems to like our valedictorians a lot although i dont know why. all i know is that our Val is applying and shes got the "whole package" and i can definitely see her getting her acceptance in mid-December. shes only applying to 4 schools-Yale EA, Davidson, William & Mary, and Marietta (a local college, ultimate safety).

i know how it goes about people being secretive about where they are applying. it makes it hard when u are rejected and people ask u. if someone asks me, i come out and tell the truth, but i dont run around school broadcasting my plans to everyone.

my essays are in Red Alert. Part 2 just gets no time. i still have to finish a french presentation, to Calc BC hw, and study for a HUMONGOUS AP Bio test. this test will be a determining factor in grades so eeeeeeeek.

in other news, Skidmore contacted me today, told me i was accepted to their Math/Science open house, got travel plans, confirmation, etc.

1st quarter ends next week.

our french teacher flipped out after grading our first compositions and is making us work ultra-hard. i dont have the time for this. *sigh*. the average grade in the class for the compositions was a C-. she made us memorize 3 whole pages of french text and spit it back out for a re-test today. it was not pretty. fortunately, i didnt have to take it because i miraculously got an A- on my 1st composition.

good luck to all the seniors. HANG IN THERE!!!!

the Counselor thing scares me just a bit. i think my counselor marked at least "excellent" for me (she's known me since 7th grade and likes me a fair amount). its just unsettling to know that someone who hardly knows u can change your fate just like that.

Twinkle-the extension wasnt from Princeton itself. it was from the girls' school. for some odd reason, they want the application 14 days before its due to process it. her SCHOOL gave her an extension.

my best friend completely gave in yesterday and slept for 13 hours. i wasnt so lucky. slept for 2. tonight wont be much better.

3 day weekend this time around.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 11:36 pm: Edit

I don't think I'm sleeping tonight... at least not voluntarily. I was looking forward to a solid 5 hours (I decided it would be okay to skimp on some homework... but I underestimated how much I had) OMG. I can sleep within exactly TWO minutes of going to bed, or taking a nap. It's practically instant, even after I've had a few days of real sleep. I can't decide whether that is a major skill or a problem, but either way, I really cannot do the 2-3 hour sleep thing anymore, it's taking too much of a toll on my body and after two straight years of it... it's just too much, so I really have to keep that to a bare minimum. No more of doing that 4, 5 days in a row.

I have to get this essay done for class because no one has them done so they've become a class assignment. Eeek. We don't have to use the ones that we write, but they're good for practice/basis for better essays, and we're going to work on groups and attack/constructively criticize each others in class.

I wrote part of it so far. I was going to go for a different approach and do a serious essay but then I realized that I'd rather write a funny one so that's what I'm doing. If it turns out awesome- like I have this AWESOME idea in my head, but it's more difficult structuring it on paper. Ch2, lol, you're right with the perfectionist thing; it makes it harder to write an essay because you want it to be SO good, but then it makes it that much harder to get going. So I let go of making it spectacular for now. I can have a POS for now and rework it later, and if it's still horrible I'll just scrap it and restart.

The Yankees and Red Sox are tied right now. 5-5. OMG. I actually have gotten into this...not that I'm watching... it just happens to be on and my sister is watching it so I can't help but overhear.

Sunshine- Good luck with all that work...at least you have the 3 day weekend coming which should help Congrats about the Skidmore thing, let us know how that goes!!

At least my independent study is most likely going to be approved, thank God. No transcript holes anymore I'm still not going to have a science class, but it seems irrelevant because I have 2 AP social sciences... it balances somehow. I made a list and it seems well-rounded in terms of course selection so that's pretty much settled and done with.

Some people at my school have been secretive with where they're applying, but if people ask me I don't mind telling them, unless I like have a vendetta against them or something, which wouldn't apply to too many people.

By Alita (Alita) on Friday, October 17, 2003 - 09:36 pm: Edit

Twinkle, im feeling your calculus difficulties. We took this free response quiz yesterday on Curve Graphing/extremities. I got a *2* out of 9. yikes. this coming off of me pulling an A first marking period. ugh. I just dont like the stuff were doing now- im praying to go back to my derivatives and whatnot.

Besides this slight stumbling point, life is ok. My field hockey team is 2/10 in the county, not that i play any this year-why do all the other mids have to be super athletes?? I comfort myself inthe knowledge that only one of them is smart. At least i have some brains (one of them repeatedly takes summer school to erase a failing grade in order to be eligible to play) oh well. My other classes are so boring...i just put up with them. surprisingly, the people arent that bad, its just the classes itself. I mean, it took us a third of the semesterlongclass to do 2.5 chapters in the french book-and they were on basics stuff. grr. okay,,,,done venting, by the way, i want to hear about yalls homecoming.....im posting a picture of my dress in my profile if i cant make the stupid computer work. (im electronicly idiotic:-)

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, October 17, 2003 - 10:14 pm: Edit

Guys...round of applause... I am actually back in a real math class now, not calc, but stats, which is going to be an adventure since it's a brand new thing, for me and the school. I'm not worried about the AP exam in May; I just don't know what I'm in for.

But, it should be interesting, or at the very least, different ;)

LOL,alita, about some of your hockey team members... it makes me think of some of our school's sports teams members whose academic records are truly cringeworthy. By the way, nice dress!!

My homecoming isn't for like a month...so not much to talk about in regards to how mine went, except I need a dress.

I actually stayed home tonight...surprisingly... good social night but I am too sick/tired to really enjoy anything much more than napping or watching a movie/TV- a rarity in my house.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Saturday, October 18, 2003 - 10:15 am: Edit

Congrats Twinkle! Stats is a boring but fairly easy class. I'm sure you'll do well!

I just got back from Yale (we left Thursday and came back yesterday night) for my interview. It seems kinda a waste to drive a total of 14 hours for less than an hour of interview time. It didn't go wonderfully, but it didn't go badly either, so I figure, it wont hurt me tremendously and the fact that I went up there to have an interview will help me out a *little*. heh, hope hope. THe interviewer was nice. I donno, i don't want to think about it.

Tonight is homecoming! I think i'm going to feel guilty throughout though. I have so much to do::: (listed below)
-PART II OF YALE APPLICATION
-EDIT FIRST YALE ESSAY
-START SECOND YALE ESSAY
-STUDY FOR SAT II (WRITING AND CHEMISTRY)
-TESTS ON MONDAY IN: AP PHYSICS AND COLLEGE ENGINEERING
-HOMEWORK: READ CH.1 HAMLET, ENGINEERING PROJECT, CALC WORK, ETC.

i'm pretty much screwed. but, i'm working on it this morning and tomorrow, so maybe i'm not as screwed as all that... we'll see

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Saturday, October 18, 2003 - 11:54 am: Edit

yay have fun at homecoming tonight!! its SUCH a blast!

i felt the same at my homecoming because it was exactly a week before my SAT I's....very very guilty "i shouldnt be here" sort of thing but i got over it

3 day weekend. Monday is some sort of school/staff huge meeting.

school has been awful. no sleep. bombed a bio test yesterday because i spent 5 hours THurs night working on a HUGE French presentation. got an A+ on that, but bombed the bio test. erghhh. its so hard to manage time this year because THERE IS NO TIME TO MANAGE! (or so it seems). i hardly do anything anymore except SCHOOL and EC's and APPS.

things i NEED to get done this weekend:
-PRINCETON ED PART II
-ALL 4 PRINCETON ESSAYS
-STUDY FOR MATH/PHYSICS/WRITING SAT II
-FRENCH READING/LATIN COMPOSITION/AP CALC BC STUFF/AP ENVIRO SCI POWERPOINT/AP BIO PRACTICE AP DIAGNOSTIC (for class)

AHHH!! Well good luck with Yale Esmerelda! i cant believe you drove for 14 hours! that is CRAZYYYYY!

i really need to finish the rest of my college visitations...but i dont have any time. at all.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, October 18, 2003 - 01:26 pm: Edit

Esmerelda, I am holding my breath as to whether stats is going to be fairly easy... personally since I'm not math-oriented for the most part, and it's an AP class, I think that it's going to be hard. But, Stats is a different field of math than Calc entirely and AP stats is not calc based so perhaps it will be more managable than calc. I can't drop this class if I end up being a complete moron in the subject, so it's really important that I have a good understanding of everything that has to be covered. I'm not banking on passing the AP test, necessarily, but that's a bridge I'll have to cross much later so I've got some time to play with

BTW Hamlet is a really good play! It wasn't my favorite work of Shakespeare's, but I liked it... it has a lot of really good quotable lines in it too, lol. You've got the whole "to be or not to be" soliloquy in there, too, among others, but I'm not going to say too much because you haven't read it yet

Have fun @ Homecoming!!

Did you get to see much of the Yale campus at all when you went for the interview? A tour or anything? Was it your 1st time there?

Sunshine--Ahhh! Thank god it's a 3-day weekend for you, you definitely seem *swamped* with so much to do. I understand what you mean about "balancing time" when there really isn't left to balance... to get something done really well it seems like you have to sacrifice doing something fro another class/purpose as well...seems like one of the hallmarks of senior year.

*~My To-Do list~*
Study for AP Spanish grammar/vocab test, read more in the short story book that we're reading (forgot what it's called)

Preliminary stuff for AP Stats

Rewrite my college essay for AP English and read more SHAKESPEARE

Finish my essays for AP Psych and study for the quiz

Notes for AP Government for the next chapter

MAYBE some SAT prep... doubt I'll have time for it...probably need to prep for SAT IIs too. I'm not bothering with writing prep because, really, what else can I do for it? US History I'm going to skim stuff from the REA prep book, but I kind of expect my score to go down from last time because last time I was super-prepped from taking the AP exam. And, as for the math, really, that is a lost cause. I'm comtemplating leaving the history as is (720) and taking a different subject instead, so for the schools that want writing and any other two, then I won't have to offer my half-baked math score to them. Otherwise, I will. I don't know. Kind of in a dilemma here. A 720 is good but COULD I get it up to a 750+? And I don't honestly know. Maybe. I definitely need to retake the Math IC and the writing too, but the 3rd test is becoming a bit blurry to me.

By Alita (Alita) on Saturday, October 18, 2003 - 03:16 pm: Edit

To do list for the weekend:

-Practice field hockey/run
-get up for church
-go to mall and buy much needed make up im out of (i know, iknow. but if i dont have it, its just not a good morning.)
-do 12+ pages of calc hw that ive been putting off
-study for calc test on monday
-study for psats on tuesday
-clean the house so my mother isn't appalled when i get home

ahhh. what fun......

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 12:09 pm: Edit

I'm so confused. Financial aid stuff confuses me and I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to get together so my parents have all the right materials to fill out/submit to schools.

I will give a cookie to anyone who would like to help explain this to me.

I know there is the CSS profile... the FAFSA forms.... and MAYBE something involving a tax return...and some other stuff I probably don't know about.

Hmm. Do you know how you can have people take care of your tax returns for you? I know there are companies, not exactly sure what they do (never paid attention to filing taxes or anything until recently), but I wonder if they take care of this kind of stuff too.

On another note, my most recent SAT expedition has resulted in a 1370...650 math, 720 verbal. That's the closest the split between math and verbal have ever been together (lol, I've gotten 200 point differences before). This makes me think that with another 2 months of prep, a 1400 is really possible. Actually, no, I just want a 1410 because that is over 1400... it just looks a little better.

I started my homecoming dress hunt... let's just say, it's a very frustrating process. Either it doesn't fit (even with alterations...iffy), it's completely the wrong size or it looks horrible. I'm picky, but it's harding finding the right dress. Perhaps almost as frustrating as college applications. ;)

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 01:40 pm: Edit

Twinkle, the problem with firms doing your tax returns is that you still have to gather all the needed information and give it to them in a comprehensible manner before they can work at them...and that's 90 percent of the work. Unless you're self-employed or have your own business or a complicated trust or something like that, imo it's not worth the dollars you pay.

Many schools require that you send them tax returns to back up the information you provide in the CSS Profile and/or FASFA. I just completed the CSS Profile two nights ago...it's one of the reasons I've been on line a little bit less of late...and it's a bitch, more tedious in its way than a moderately difficult tax return...see the thread I started in the Parents Forum, CSS Profile or Root Canal...You Make the Call.

I really recommend that your parents to the Profile and FASFA on line. You can edit until your hit "Submit" and it becomes much neater. Do you have your own on-line registration for the College Board? If so, they use your account and then click on the links leading to CSS Profile. It's definitely worth printing out the instructions and the worksheet, which can be used as a data entry sheet, first. The required information has to be assembled from a number of sources and there may be some things that you can't tell from just your tax returns, W-2, mortgage statements, etc., but have to calculate from other sources, such as a paycheck stub. (Example: TheMom has a pre-tax retirement deduction taken from her paycheck...there's a line in the Profile that asks for various pre-tax deductions.)

===

Congrats on your 1370...the 1410 is coming into range.

===

Nutcracker casting is becoming a little clearer. In addition to Snow, Russian, and Party Mom, it appears that D will, in fact, get cast for Spanish solo (probably for three shows) and has a good shot for the Fairy of the Clouds solo and the demi-solo in the Waltz of the Flowers, the latter much to the disgust of some of the brand new Ballet VII's who had insinuated themselves into the spots during early Flowers rehearsals. Still, I won't count anything for certain until 2-3 rehearsals have gone by.

===

Speaking of ballet....

Yesterday was a schizoid day for me. I took a client to the UCLA football game, got home about five minutes before D got home from Nutcracker rehearsal, and by ten minutes later I had completely changed and we were off to see the Kirov Ballet do "La Bayadere" at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

It's one of my favorite ballets and this was the first time I'd seen the Kirov. We didn't get home until midnight but we had a very animated discussion comparing it to other versions...we all thought the Kirov was very good and all of us prefer it to the Bolshoi. (As a company, I really don't like the Bolshoi...I've seen them several times now and aside from some solos here and there, they don't appeal to me or impress.) D and I preferred the Paris Opera Ballet's Bayadere to the Kirov while TheMom thought vice-versa. A *lot* of families from the ballet studio were at the performance last night and you could readily identify other young dancers in the crowd.

As luck has it, we have season tickets to the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where we will see the Kirov next weekend as well, doing "Jewels," another one of my favorite ballets which I have previously seen performed only by the Miami City Ballet. What a heavy ballet week for us.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 02:51 pm: Edit

homecoming was great! surprisingly great. Having a date makes it so so much better. Especially in my group because all the guys end up having dates and there are usually about 10 girls going stag (we have way more girls than guys....grrr). HEH, a lot of my girl friends were each other's dates, which was cute. Still, not quite the same. Anyways, it was really really nice. My date is just a friend, but, well, i really really like him, so maybe we'll see...? Ah well, it was a lot of fun. I totally forgot about my guilt and had a wonderful time with my friends. lota pictures--
Twinkle~ I did visit Yale when i was there. We got there about an hour and a half early, so we walked around the campus, well part of it. I did go up there at the begining of this year when we brought all my brother's stuff to his college. I had a tour then. *sigh* Whatever. If i don't get in, i don't get in. It doesn't matter that much....whatever.
Anyways, off to work.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 05:48 pm: Edit

Thedad, I am *pretty* sure that my parents in the past have had their taxes done by firms, even though it takes a lot to get initially just to get all the appropriate materials and information needed together to file the forms in the first place. I think it's because they want to be 100% sure that the taxes are done right and that way they're not responsible for mistakes made as long as they submit all the correct matierials(??? maybe?? I forgot... there's a solid reasoning behind it), but either way I guess they find it to be worth the money. I'm not 100% positive. Taxes are out of my league of knowledge.

I checked out the board you made about the Profile, and from what you say it sounds extremely tedious and difficult. Do both your parents have to fill it out, or is it okay if just one does it?

The mother is not going to be a happy camper, but she and I know it's definitely worth it for the amount of financial aid we might be able to get from it. The reason why I ask about having just one parent do it is because my Dad definitely never deals with that kind of stuff at all... and plus there isn't much of a time slot, as far as I can really tell, where they could sit down *together* and fill the forms out because their work hours are so vastly different.

If the collegeboard account you're referring to is the one that you sign in with when figuring out your SAT status, then yes, I do have one of those . What is a pre-tax deduction? Tax deductions? Eek. Then again, as long as my mother knows this stuff, which I'm sure she does, then I'll be all set. How do you pay for the forms? Check or credit card?

~~

Thank you... I will be so incredibly happy if I get a 1410, in ANY combination of M and V. I was doing my activity sheet and preparing teacher recs, and I kind of glanced through my transcript and the sheet and I realized that if I can just get my standardized test scores up, I'll be in an entirely different ballpark. I'm not being overconfident, but all the other factors seem right for many schools, even top ones, SAVE the test scores.

Which is why I've gotten a lot more serious about prepping for the SATs. (And I actually am starting to get more comfortable with the test and avoiding "traps") I realized that they're the one factor that will hold me back at a lot of places- I could be the best applicant in the world, but if the SAT scores are mediocre, fuhgeddaboutit. I'm not saying that a 1410 is going to make me qualified at EVERY school, but I do believe it opens a lot more doors than a 1290 ever will.

~~

Wow, your D has been/ will be cast in a *lot* of roles, which probably makes for a very demanding and hectic rehearsal schedule. What roles did she end up with last year? (I know you probably mentioned it somewhere, but I'm really blanking for whatever reason). Good luck to her getting the solo and the Waltz of the Flowers!

I still haven't seen the Nutcracker, even on video. I'm ballet-deprived! But, when I do get to see a live ballet, it's going to be the best thing ever because I really, really want to see one so I know I won't be disappointed in the slightest.

What other ballets have you seen? I'm curious, because I don't know people who have seen an extensive number of ballets so I know almost nothing about live ballets... hence my curiosity. Tell me how the performance of Jewels is, if you get a chance Do you have a favorite company in particular?

By the way, I have a pirouette and a half now. My personal deadline for it is November 7th, because I need a double for the Christmas performance. Not that I **need** a double, do or die, I "can" get away without it but it has been highly recommended...meaning... I must do it. It'll be frowned upon if I don't. I'm glad I don't need a double on both legs, just on releve on my right foot (which is my better pirouetting side anyway!) so... I will get there.

Esmerelda, glad you had a good time @ homecoming! Where did you have it? We had ours @ a hotel last year and it was awesome.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 06:02 pm: Edit

Just one parent has to fill out the profile. Having your tax return for 2002 at hand is one of the requirements, along estimates on all the info for this year's income/expenses/deductions is helpful.

To be fair, the Profile has lots of Help files but they are *so* *damned* tedious to click back and forth to.

Yes, that's the right College Board account. Just have your mom click on Profile and go from there...I would not start late on that. A pre-tax deduction is stuff like a deduction for a 401(k) or 403(b) account that's deducted from your income before you're taxed.

"Jewels" is gorgeous: three movements called "Emeralds," "Rubies," and "Diamonds."

It depends on what you mean by "ballets": I've seen 10-15 full-length ones...okay, let me try to remember...Nutcracker (several), Romeo & Juliet (several), The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle (several), Le Corsaire, La Bayadere (several), Serenade, Concerto Barrocco, that ugly Russian Hamlet thingy by the Eifman, Jewels...that's for starters, but dozens of excerpts and shorter repertory pieces.

Companies, besides Westside Ballet, include New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Inland Pacific Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Miami City Ballet...it helps to live in a major city.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 06:46 pm: Edit

Hmmm... question. My parents' combined income was more than it was last year...not DRAMATICALLY but still nonetheless more, so would this be reflected in the tax returns that would be used for the CSS? Because we would qualify for more aid for 2003 overall than 2002 as a whole. But, if the 2002 tax return is the one that is used, then that doesn't completely reflect our "need circumstances" this year. I know that probably sounded totally confusing because I'm not 100% clear as to what I'm talking about, but hopefully you can make sense of that garble.

Does the reason why colleges ask for the names/ages of siblings have anything to do with financial aid? I don't know if this is true, but I have 2 siblings that will be attending college, too, within the next five-six years so I wonder if that's a financial aid consideration.

What's a "movement" in ballet?

There are Hartford and New Haven in CT, two relatively big cities (for CT considering it's a small state) but somehow I'm missing out on ballets... I KNOW there must be some, thinking about it. But I regress. CT is an odd state for ballet... I'd have better luck getting into NYC again and going to see one of the opportunity strikes.

Essay writing isn't going so bad after all... the only thing is now I'm on an essay writing spree. I suddenly have all these unusual/unique ideas (kind of) and I'm making them into essays, but the problem is I can't have someone look at five different essays. That's way too much work and time involved, but I don't KNOW which ones are the best, or "capture" who I am as a person.

-----

It's supposed to snow this week! Probably not A LOT, but still, even here it's kind of early for it to me snowing. I know that upstate New York has already gotten some. I just checked outside and it's only 32 degrees outside right now! I think we're in for our first frost tomorrow morning.

----

Totally off-topic, but is there ANYONE else with a freakish addiction to granola and/or cereal bars?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 09:14 pm: Edit

A movement in ballet corresponds to a movement in a symphony or other piece of music..."Jewels" is set to a piece of music that has three movements. If it has 21 movements it's a Swiss watch.

===

The Profile asks for estimates for 2003 as well as the 2002 actuals and in section P you have room to explain anything that requires explanation...though I'd write tightly, you have only 27 lines.

Yeah, they want the ages of siblings because they want to be able to envision your family financial circumstances as a whole.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 11:44 pm: Edit

Interesting tidbit about ballet. I'm warming up to the idea of going to college in a big city so I have more opportunities to experience things like theatre and ballet and stuff.

Actually, correction to what I said before; the parents are making less this year than last year so that's why I was wondering if that should be explained.

Also, do they take into account things like where you live... and just the cost of living as a whole?

I don't want to think about financial aid anymore. I'm definitely glad this is one part of the process I don't directly need to deal with (sorry, Mom + Dad, and all other parents with college-bound seniors out there).

Do colleges frown upon receiving a copied version of on the common application? Would it be better if I just rewrote them all for each school...even though the purpose of it is to streamline the process.

---

3 weeks till report cards come out. I'm a little scared even though I never am; it's probably because 1st qtr/sem grades are so important. Like... I know right now I have like A+ Spanish, A- ish English, A-/B+ gov't, C in gym (although totally undeserved... heh... I'm contesting that one until I'm blue in the face), A in Italian, A/A+ in Psych, Nothing in Stats yet because I just started.

I just DON'T want B+'s at this point. I know it wouldn't be *terrible* but the upward trend is so important here, plus any B's are going to jeopardize my chance for the valedictorianship/salutorianship.

Which isn't the meaningful "honor" around, but I just... want it. I can't explain why. I guess it's like a 1410 on the SAT. Not really THAT much better than a 1370, or whatever, but it's just crossing that line a little bit that makes it SO much better.

My brother is taking the PSATs Tuesday. He's a sophomore and he's already got a 580 math cold on his first practice and he's only taken algebra 1.

Which makes me feel like a total moron. This is kid is practically near genius. But he doesn't *care* so he doesn't use his genius, but whenever he wants it to kick in, it's like WOW. His grades are all over the place because he doesn't really care- like he doesn't bother w/ hw because he'd rather be doing something else and I guess it bores him- but I just think if one day he decided to exercise his brainpower, every other kid in his grade would be put to shame.

But, I guess that I have to keep in mind when people compare us (which they do!) is that we're just better at different things, and our temperaments are totally different (He's quiet, I talk incessantly; he's more laid back for achieving where I'm more driven; I like being the center of attention where he prefers keeping to himself; etc., etc.). It kind of intrigues my parents, because we turned out 100% different despite being raised in the same household AND we're only around a year and a half different agewise.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 11:44 pm: Edit

my parents are filling out Princeton's separate financial aid stuff right now...and i can hear their frustrated voices from up here...scary.

now they know how i feel filling out these stupid forms. my essays are getting nowhere and im desperate.

SAT II's in 2 weeks. aghhhhhhhh.

3 day weekend

glad u had fun Esmerelda! our senior homecoming (which i forgot to talk about!) was absolutely amazing! we had it at the rec center gym (which is attached to our school, but its SOOO huge) but it was so dark in there once u lost someone it was impossible to find them again. we stayed in one spot the whole time so it was easier to find each other. before the dance, we were over at a friends house all eating and taking a million pics. my date got me flowers then we all went to the dance at around the same time. lots of bad music but it didnt seem to matter because it was SENIOR HOMECOMING and everyone had a date. my date was such a sweetie. everyone looked great and had a great time. when they ended the dance by dedicated the last slow song to the seniors, i just wanted to cry.

so Esmerelda likes her daaaaaaate eh? awwww well good luck on that. i adore my date too, but we are such good friends...ehhh i dont want to ruin it like i have with every other relationship. i dont have time for it either. *sigh*

okay now my parents are yelling at me to come downstairs and look at this form. stupid financial aid.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 07:24 pm: Edit

LOL, okay, I don't think I can go a week at school without getting into some sort of trouble. I'm ALWAYS getting into some kind of trouble. I mean, I'm a good kid, so to say, so nothing excruciatingly *terrible*. I get to find the consequences out tomorrow morning. I think it's almost funny- maybe it's because I'm a senior and just don't care if I break a few rules here or there ;). I'm still in line enough where nothing too serious will happen anyway.


Nope, I was never one to like rules or orders, particularly aribitrary ones.

I actually had a good day at school today. I got an AWESOME scholarship offer and a chance to get a full ride to Univ. of CT which I am seriously considering...$$$$ which includes room and board and I don't know if I could pass that up, so I'm researching the school. What bothers me is that it's sooo big, but other than that, the school has a lot going for it so I want to find out. Of course, this pretty much gets rid of my chance to retest in any way shape or form because I have to get ALL my stuff out by November 1, recs, essays, everything. But my mother said it's worth the gamble. The 1290 and other scores will have to go out as are. I have to get together EVERYTHING in less than a week. Mantra: I can do this, I can do this. I CAN still apply to other schools but am I going to want to if I get in here? I don't know. I'm so confused and excited at the same time. I get a car if I get in and get the full ride. On the other hand, will I be happy here? I think I might be. I need to visit. And think. Hmmm.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 10:44 pm: Edit

hm, do you know about the interum decision at Rice and the priority decision at University of Maryland? I know i"m applying to early action single choice to Yale, but does that mean that I can't do interum or priority decision??? *sigh* it's so confusing.

OMG! FOUR DAYS UNTIL WE GET OUR SAT SCORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel like i"m in The Ring...counting down...

*gulp!*

senior breakfast is tomorrow and i don't want to go. I wouldnt' mind it if we could miss class, but if we didnt have this breakfast, we would have been able to sleep in! Tomorrow is PSATs for underclassmen. AND, we miss periods 1-3, which sucks, because periods 2 and 3 are my FREE periods!!!!

ugh, i'm so tired, and it is only 10:40. I think there was something that someone said that i was going to comment on, but i can't for the life of me remember what it was. I'm too tired to figure it out, so just imagine an incredibly witty (ha!) response to something one of you put down here. hm. Maybe I'll figure it out tomorrow. maybe not. WHatever...

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 11:31 pm: Edit

i. want. to. give. up. on. princeton. NOW.

i spent 8 hours todya working on my app and i still have only written 1 VERY rough copy of an essay out of FOUR essays...

okay sorry guys i hate to do this but i need HELP!!! i am really horribly desperate.

If you were given a year to spend in any way you wish, what would you do?

I want to climb Everest and feel the crunch of freshly packed snow under numb, frostbitten toes. I want to fall from the sky and watch the blur of everyday life come sharply into focus as I hit the ground. I want to swim among the dolphins and encounter the sharks. I want to dive into the coral reefs and witness the phenomenon of life in the ocean’s brilliant rainbow. I want to travel the world in a hot air balloon, reach up, and touch the soft radiance of the sky. I want to fly to the moon and be the first to taste its cheese. I want to go even farther to Saturn and gaze at its rings in all their radiant splendor. On the ride back, I want to clutch on to a shooting star as motion blurs and surroundings become surreal. I want to hike deep into the Amazon and wrestle with the alligators, feeling their immense strength against all of my weakness. I want to cross the Sahara on a camel and roam the African savannah, silently taking in the beauty of nature and of life. I want to run down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back, watching the oranges, reds, and yellows spread across the sky as drops of sweat trickle down my body. I want to appear in the middle of a tornado, stand still, and feel the energy surrounding me, sucking, twisting, and destroying everything in its path. I want to journey back in time and roam with the dinosaurs, solving once and for all the mystery of their demise. I want to break the sound barrier and travel the speed of light. I want to be sound, and I want to be light.

I want to find the cure for cancer and excavate artifacts in Rome. I want to be a rock star and feel the booming vibrations of my own voice under my feet. I want to tour with a world class orchestra, be the captain of a pirate ship, and fly a fighter jet. I want to lead a war protest, perform open heart surgery, and campaign for public office. I want to walk along the Great Wall, look out, and see myself among the people, remember my past and my culture. I want to reach out to autistic children and neglected orphans. I want to end world hunger and violence. I want to learn to walk a tightrope, dance an Irish jig, and run a marathon. I want to sit under an apple tree and ponder like Sir Isaac Newton.

I want to see the world, experience all it has to offer. My insatiable hunger for knowledge and understanding will lead me to the deepest of oceans and highest of mountains. I can not accomplish all of these things in a year, but I have a lifetime. A lifetime to learn, a lifetime to discover. I want to spend the next four years of my life in college learning, studying, and understanding the earth, the stars, and everything in between. Education fosters knowledge and knowledge is power. If I had one year to do anything I wished, I would explore the world and make a difference in it. 365 days to live, 365 days to explore. Each precious day bringing new thrills, new wonders; each precious moment savored and forever remembered
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its a very very rough draft and i have not done any editing at all. it needs a bit of cutting (which shouldnt be hard considering its random rambling) but i need opinions. is it too weird? too crazy? does it get ANYTHING across? i was in a weird mood when i wrote it and its basically random sentences formed together in about a 5 hour period of time when i would sporadically write a few sentences and stop every so often.

ughhhhh sorry guys. im freaking out.

10 days til EA/ED apps are due and i am nowhere CLOSE. i think i may be "sick" for a few days. i cant afford to screw this up.

SAT scores. oh geez dont remind me.

SAT II's the same day apps are due.

i am seeing my death.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 12:35 pm: Edit

Sunshine, it may be rough but I like it very much. Poetry, passion, and whimsy, yet all Sirius at the same time.

D was home sick yesterday with a flu/cold...the essay grind is getting to her, too. And Nutcracker rehearsals don't leave much time in the evenings/weekends.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 06:39 pm: Edit

Sunshine~ i like it

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 11:15 pm: Edit

Sunshine, I definitely like your essay a lot. It's original, it's insightful, it shows a thirst for knowledge- and what college wouldn't want that!! It's not too weird or crazy, but it's different and that's GOOD.

Essays can bite my butt. I had to write a college essay last night and I wrote it for English, then around 2 am I got "inspired" and wrote a different essay. It wasn't BAD but I definitely was not going to turn it in. I got to bed at 4, got up at 6 (too late... I'm supposed to be up 5:15-30 but I had a lack of willpower this morning) and I got to English and looked at it , and I was like NO WAY AM I HANDING THIS IN. So I explained my situation and I have an extension with no grade penalty because I DID the assignment but I wanted a chance to give it a major editing overhaul.

Other than that though, I had a royally horrible day and it doesn't look like I am going to be dancing for awhile . Plus, people frustrate me, like annoying jealous girls at school who try to start fights, and furthermore, realizing that sometimes you can't trust a "good friend".

Then again, I discovered today that I do like pears after all, so I guess the day wasn't a total wash.



Back to beating my essay.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 11:39 pm: Edit

ahhh thanks guys. i guess i will just be doing a major editing job on the essay and turning it in... i wasnt too sure on it. i started out with your typical cliche "i want to help people" essay, but i got so sick of writing it. i stopped, made a list of EVERYTHING i want to do in life (which was at least 70+ things) and tried to find a way to incorporate at least half of them into my essay. which is what that big glob of parallelism turned out to be. as odd and different as that essay is, i think it does a good job capturing "me"...hopefully the colleges wont think im a psychotic nutcase

its starting to grow on me. im going to give it to my AP Eng teacher tomorrow...she can murder it with her red pen for grammar and such.

im sorry Twinkle for your bad day. i hate bad days. my day was bad too. we lost miserably in our Academic Challenge tournament and the one round i wasnt in, we lost by one point-the deciding question? "Name the city in Massachusetts that is the location of both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University." NOBODY ON THE TEAM KNEW AND WE LOST!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH. i was ready to shake them dead. oh well. c'est la vie.

good luck to your D TheDad on this essay craziness. its definitely cram time. i am staying up tonight to write another one bringing my total to 2/4. hmmmmm....

the Val of my class finished her Yale EA application this past weekend. im green with envy.

speaking of which, how are you coming along Esmerelda?

well off to writing about "a person who has affected my life in a significant way"...i'll make this one semi-normal so they dont think im too off-the-wall.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 02:14 am: Edit

I have given up on my college essay for the time being and instead have written 9 pages worth of AP government essays. And I'm not done yet.

I really like your essay a lot, I read it again and I was definitely impressed... it gives a good idea of who you are and it's going to stand out. I wouldn't worry if it was too unusual/off-the-wall because 1. it's not like OUT there... I didn't think you were extraordinarily odd or anything, and 2. if you're concerned that it's weird, it's probably a good thing. You'll stand out in the adcoms' minds which is 1000x better than blending in with the other 9,332 applications.

It's sooooo cold out right now. If I didn't know better I'd swear that it's winter, but it's not. I have goosebumps right now, even with the heat on, lol, I HATE being cold so much that it makes me want to college somewhere really warm, like Bermuda. Hmmm... I wonder if there is a University of Bermuda. Just kidding. There probably is, but I wouldn't know. My friend and I briefly entertained attending the University of Hawaii but it's kind of too far :/, plus it's really expensive (supposedly) to live there year-round. Plus, there are temptations everywhere. Surfing or math class? The beach or studying? I guess I'm lucky that it's cold most of the year here because otherwise I'd simply become a beach bum. Thedad- have you ever surfed? You live in CA, so I was wondering because surfing is BIG there. (I've never seen anyone surf here- I don't think you could even if you wanted to, even though sailing is pretty popular).

So tired...TGINF (thank god its nearly friday)

I retract my statement from before. My day wasn't THAT bad. I always feel kind of guilty about complaining about my day because I think of people like neglected children, or homeless people, or starving tribes in Africa who are obviously having much worse days than I probably ever will on a regular basis.

It wasn't so much a bad day, just more so that I kind of am down about the fact that I'm not dancing at all for awhile and a certain untrustable "friend", for the most part. I think I'm just tired though, so that's why all the other stuff irritates me more so than usual.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 08:39 pm: Edit

thanks Twinkle most of my friends HATE that essay. i mean HATE. i keep getting "i hate the parallelism" and "its just a list, not an essay" over and over. i decided to stick with it, because you know what? its not THEIR essay. its MINE. and the essay is definitely very ME. im so sick of the standard "epiphany" or "soup kitchen" essays that all seem to blend together. im just glad someone likes mine, because nobody else seems to. i chickened out giving it to my AP English teacher. i think i will tomorrow if i can write another one tonight.

its SOOOOO cold over here today too! sleeting, high was something like 38 degrees. its supposed to snow tomorrow. and of coures i was wearing flip flops today...silly me. my feet froze.

oh my gosh. on the way to the international dinner tonight for the language clubs, i went to pick up danielle. on the way to school at around 5 PM, i was at a stop sign waiting to turn right. my friend candice drives by, turns around and waves at me. in the split second she stopped and waved, the car in front of her stopped and i heard a huge BAM. and the next thing you know, her front bumper is smashed against the back of a brand new silver intrepid. all traffic stopped for awhile and i was stuck at the intersection speechless/motionless. i was numb/shocked and ready to cry the whole rest of the drive to school. she showed up an hour later and was okay, but i cant help but think it is somehow MY fault because she turned aroudn to wave to me and thats why she crashed. if i wasnt there, it wouldnt have happened.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 10:39 pm: Edit

Yale essay...erp! I would put it online, but my mom is paranoid and doesn't want me to. bah. I have to write my second one, and i wanted to write something purely from my imagination.
hmm, not going to happen.
So, anyone know about priority/interum decisions? CAN they be done with early action single choice???
urm.
Agh, sleep.

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 03:33 pm: Edit

sunshine -
I didn't comment on your essay before because I didn't like it at first. Actually, let me clarify that. I loved the writing - I mean really, really liked the entire essay A LOT - but one thing bothered me: did it really answer the question posed? Of course not. But was I being too literal? What would the adcom think about this answer?

But I've been thinking about this one, and I think that the line that saves it is the one about not being able to do this in a year, but that you have a whole lifetime ahead of you.

So I've come around to really liking it - A LOT.

I apologize that this comment is so late, but I couldn't make up my mind on this one and didn't want to say something I'd change my mind about later.

Anybody else have the same question I had about the answer fitting the question? This essay at least soars above cliche mode.

BTW, last year we were hit by a high school girl named Candice. Different one I hope. She'd had several other accidents before and therefore didn't have collision insurance for her car. It certainly wasn't your fault on this one...

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 06:03 pm: Edit

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

SAT VERBAL: 740

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! well my math was a 710 but who cares because i have an 800.

1540

AHHHHHHH IM AT A LOSS FOR WORDS!!!!

i'll say something intelligent later when i stop gaping at my scores.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 06:16 pm: Edit

omg... There must be something wrong with college board.....something is terribly terribly wrong....
there MUST be some mistake. My best friend in the whole world got a 1580, and I got a 1600. This can not be.
I think i am going to die if the score isn't true though.
I want to scream.
I'm really sorry though. I REALLY don't want to brag, and I know I am, but I can never tell anyone at school (besides my best friend) because then everyone would know and despise me, and I really wanted to tell SOMEONE!!! I would despise me if i weren't me. OH god, i'm so happy.
what if it's a fluke?!
my internet wasn't working at 4 this afternoon, and my friend called me, and i was on the phone as she checked! I was so so happy for her. REALLY! She is like a sister to me, and I was so so glad, that finally some of her work paid off. I was so nervose about my score i drove to the library and then this other person's house to check my score! I couldn't breathe. Really.
I almost cried.
but i didn't :-P
okay, i have to do work now... I hope everyone did well!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 06:34 pm: Edit

OMG ESMERELDA CONGRATS!!!!

OMG THIS IS MAKING ME SO HAPPY. CONGRATS TO YOUR FRIEND TOO. 1600. OMG. AMAZING.

remember us...after the test...talking about not even getting a 1500...hahaha

omg i totally DO NOT DESPISE YOU!!!! I AM SOOO HAPPY FOR U. YAY ALL THAT STUDYING. someone at my school got a 1600 3 years ago and he was absolutely the nicest, most amazing and intelligent person ever.

ANYONE WHO STUDIED AS MUCH AS WE DID DESERVES 1500+ AND IN YOUR CASE 1600.

doesn't that score give you a new perspective on your college search? just out of curiosity, what was your original score before that? dang how much did u improve? THAT IS AMAZING!

oh YAY FOR US!!!!

everyone update us on scores =)

SAT II's on Nov 1st. cant get too happy yet...

my ED app is also ehhhhhh...
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Dig-Thanks! yeah i DEFINITELY know what you mean by the essay not really answering the question. i thought about changing all the "i want"'s to "i'd want" but it didnt have the same ring to it. im glad you like it though. i hope it stands out enough! i am still having some doubts about the essay answering the question, but i think i will keep it. i am starting to like it more and more.
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SAT I's=SUCCESS! just going from mid-1400s to mid-1500's puts me at so much more ease about this whole college thing.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 06:52 pm: Edit

Congrats, you guys. Yell, scream, laugh...it's okay, you deserve it.

Heavy sigh in this quarter. D: 700 V, 780 M

If you talk to her for half an hour, you'd swear the scores should be reversed. She's probably going to take it again on December 6, with prep concentrating on the Verbal, for her RD apps and Yale if deferred EA. Dang. Funny, but when she got out of the test she thought she'd done very well on the Math, maybe even an 800, but so-so on the Verbal. She was right.

Sunshine, you're so right about the mid-1500's being so much more comfortable than the mid-1400's. It's no guarantee, anywhere, but it lets you worry about the other aspects of your app.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 06:54 pm: Edit

yeah, i improved from 1470 to 1600. isn't that crazy?!? And my friend improved from a 1380 to a 1580!! She refuses to believe he score at all until she gets the paper copy.
YOu know what i think did it? I was totally calm for the SAT test. I was happy with my 1470, and i just went in and took the test. It was kinda zen. I was freaking out before, but the night before the test i watched save the last dance (good chick flick!) and i went into the test really really relaxed. Goodness, I can't concentrate!

About my EA YALE app...well, let's just say i have to write an entire essay and still haven't corrected my other one. urgh.

AND I have a lit essay draft due monday. AHHH! I can't think i can't think! BUt i have to because SAT IIs are just around the corner and I havent' really studied, and I have a calc and a stat test on monday, and a AP physics test on Tuesday and a college engineering quiz on wednesday!
eep!!!
anyways, congrats, SUNSHINE! (sry, I didnt' say so before, but i started the last entry at like 6, and then left the computer and so i didn't see how you did until i had already sent it. KUDOS!

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 06:57 pm: Edit

1480 isn't terrible, you know. It's actually really good! I was happy with my 1470.
Don't let D worry too much.

By Sandy (Sandy) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 07:06 pm: Edit

Congrats to everyone!
1600,1540,1480----they are all good.
I am ecstatic and surprised!
I got an 800 Math IIc and 790 Writing!!!!!!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 07:31 pm: Edit

AHHHHHHH!!! OMG CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE, YOU ALL DID SOOOO AMAZING! I'M SHOCKED... well not SHOCKED but amazed... really... awesome job. Wow. OMG. Sorry. I get excited over stuff like this. So, before I make a complete idiot of myself congratulations again

Haha, my SAT thing says "registered"! I thought it was going to say a 400 since I didn't take them... which is a good thing that it doesn't because adcoms could look at the score and think, WOW, MORON!

Thedad- Personally, I don't see D's score as bad in the slightest considering it is a blink away from a 1500, and I'm sure you don't either- it's awesome- but I can understand how she would be disappointed with the verbal because from what you say, she's so articulate and wanted better. There is still the possibility of December 6th though for the rest of the applications aside from Yale... so perhaps next time will do it.

November 1st SAT IIs! I don't want to do them anymore. Just the writing one because I have a realistic chance with that one... this time I won't write in 40 point font size, run out of room, have a hissy fit that is REFLECTED in the writing and go off on a tangent. (Hence the 8/12. I ranted. I had a good idea, but I needed to be focused and make it into an English class type essay). I KNOW I can make a 750+ on that. I have kick-ass editing skills and I really CAN write for stuff like this. Now that I know what they want, I think this is doable.

Math... I don't care. I'm pretty much screwed with my math record overall everywhere anyway, so even if I got a 700 on it it's not going to make my application. And history... I don't know. I'm not fresh right off the AP exam, so that's not a conducive factor.

Academically, I think I just screwed up my senior year with all the stupid stuff- that seemed like a good idea at the time-, all my DUMB (not at the time) decisions that I regret. On one level it makes me want to cry, on the other I know have to suck it up and make this work for me.

I have this gnawing feeling that I have to say SOMETHING in my essay but I don't know what that something is. Something important to convey about myself. I just can't nail it. I have an app I need to get out for November 1 for full ride consideration. (JUST informed of that... ommmg) I had to get EVERY SINGLE THING together this week. Crazy stuff. But I'm playing it mellow-headed while working intensely and I'm going to get this thing out..eek.

No dance tonight... sigh.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 08:01 pm: Edit

Twinkle, is your injury keeping you from dance?
And what is the injury again?

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 08:09 pm: Edit

well congrats Sandy! SAT II's in a week and a few days and i am about as unprepared as one can get. and i have no time to study...AHHHH.

TheDad, 1480 is STILL an 80 point improvement from her 1400 (i believe?) and now that 1500 is just a smidge away. if she wants to retake it in December, im sure she will do better. most of these test scores are complete luck. most people who get 800/1600 cannot repeat it for the life of them(like me...800 to 710..HA). now both of her scores are in the 700 range which is VERY RESPECTABLE. definitely not a bad score

now we must all realize that I DID THE WORST ON THIS ADMINISTRATION OF THE SAT'S WITH MY 1450...

im sorry Twinkle about dance. injuries are no fun. i hope you feel better!!!

SAT II's are going to be no fun. i havent started studying AT ALL. this is horribly bad. i have a week.

congrats to EVERYONE again and good luck on EA/ED apps

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 10:03 pm: Edit

wow there are at least 3-4 more people on this board who have joined the elite 1600ers. considering that getting a 1600 is like 1 out of every 10000 people or so, this is quite an impressive board.

we have our very own 800/800 person right here! *waves at Esmerelda* oh wow i bet your parents were thrilled!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 03:03 am: Edit

Sunshine, D assented to taking another crack on December 6. There's no way it can hurt her and she's aiming for a Verbal in the 750-760 range...as near as I can tell, even for HYPSM, once you hit 1530-1540, it's pretty much all the same to them.

Now...if only she can knock her essays together.

But you're right...the 1480 feels so much better than the 1400...instead of being at the low end of the interquartile range, she's around the mid-point. I think she's got her head screwed on straight in that she doesn't look on SAT scores as an indicator of intelligence, a sign of God's favor, etc., but just a stupid hoop you have to jump through to get to some places.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 08:17 pm: Edit

1480 is definitely a very respectable score, and from the experience of a Harvard freshman who works in the admissions office filing folders (he reads some of the comments for fun), he says that anything 1480+ at least at Harvard is treated the same. so congratulations, she has reached the top range at Harvard!

i also agree that the 1530-1540 range seems like a safe range to be in for HYPSM. at least in that range, the SAT I score can not be the reason for rejection. i think your D will do better next try and it definitely cant hurt! i thought about taking it again in January, but i decided against it...i dont really see the point (1540? 1560? whats the difference?) and wasting my saturday doesnt really sound all that fun.

*sigh* i checked up on my recs today. both teachers are at least aware that they're due next Saturday. im just a bit worried because today was the last day of the quarter and the teachers are so bogged down with stuff to do.

im REALLLLLLLY worried about my PTON ED at this point. freaking out would be an understatement. i decided to be a hermit this weekend and study for my SAT II's and finish my princeton app. i am hesitant on even letting my AP Eng teacher edit them. they seem to personal to me. i dont really know what to do. i guess i may have to have her do it...my grammar is too horrible and i cant risk making a few dumb mistakes after so much hard work.

SAT's are SUCH A PAIN. what makes me feel a smidge better is that i am safely above Cornell's SAT 75 percentile range.

good luck to everyone again this weekend. ED/EA stuff mailed out in exactly a week.

By Momstheword (Momstheword) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 09:43 am: Edit

Hi. Forgive me for jumping in, but I wanted to congratulate you all for working so hard and doing so well on your SATs. You must be so proud. My daughter isn't applying to HYPSM or anything, and she's done with her SAT I, but I am curious. Esmerelda, how exactly did you and your friend study for the SAT? Prep courses or self study? How many hours would you guess you studied in the last couple of months? Thanks and best of luck to you in your endeavors!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 11:32 am: Edit

I have all my recommendations taken care of (yay!) finally. I actually know what I want my main essay to be about. I just kind of figured it out. I don't know why it was so hard. It was probably some mental block-type thing. Once I stopped worrying so much about finding the SPECTACULAR topic that I'm going to NEED (I've come to the conclusion that the essay is going to be just about the most important part of *my* essay), it just came to me after I really thought about what it is that I want them to know about me... the topic could change I suppose. But at least I have play-doh (a topic) to mold now (into an essay).

I saw 2/3 of the recommendations... WITH permission of course- I waived my right and everything and didn't ask- let's just say that they're enough to make Donald Rumsfeld cry. They are spectacular recommendations. Absolutely amazing. THAT is an understatement. I was in complete and utter shock.

The injuries are part :/ of the reason I'm off from dance. They consist of a partial ligament tear of a "minor" knee ligament (note: neither of the cruciate ligaments THANK GOD) and a partial hamstring tendon rupture which is not nearly as bad as a complete rupture but it's worse than a strain, I guess but they are getting better. If you have a hamstring weakness for whatever reason to begin with then that makes it *so* much easier to tear a knee ligament. But it doesn't really hurt *that* much anymore, it's just a matter of making sure everything heals and physical therapy, and so forth. I'm sooo mad though because I really, really want to do the Christmas recital but I'd rather get better first.

Latest SAT practice: 760 verbal, 590 math = 1350 composite.

Hmmm. I'm thinking an 800 verbal is not out of my reach at all; there are just always a couple of ?s that *always get me*. But to me after 740+ it's all the same so if I hit a 740 on the real thing I will be overjoyed.

Which would mean that I would need a 670 math, which is a totally terrifying thought if I want my 1410. (Yeah, I'd LIKE to shoot into the 1500 range but given the math scores that just isn't happening because I never will get a 700 math. Not to be pessimistic but I know where I stand).

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 04:56 pm: Edit

Momstheword--
I don't know that we really studied anything special. We both took the test last January and I got a 1470 and she got a 1380, and promised each other that we were going to spend the summer studying like crazy. . . which didn't happen. Mostly because we didn't realize how long a 8 hour work day really is. We both had internships, and would go to work at 7-8 and get back from 3-4 exausted. So, we wouldn't do work. I know for a fact that my friend didn't start really studying for the test until two weeks before the test day, and I think I started a little before that. To be honest, we didn't deserve the scores we got, and it kind of makes me feel guilty. It's not that we didn't do work during this time, it's just we were caught up with school work and deciding on colleges that we didn't really realize, or we realized but it didn't affect us, that the test day was so close.
I did sign up for princeton review online, because i thought it was going to spur me into doing work, but it really didn't. And I did watch some of the lessons, but most/all of the things they said was really aimed towards people working for a 1000 or lower. For example, they kept on suggesting that I skip questions, which I couldn't do if i wanted a 1500+. I did take a few of their practice tests, but many of their test answers are wrong. In one test, I got 3 questions wrong on math, and, after looking at their 'correct' answers, one of my answers was equal to the right answer (I typed in a decimal answer, and they only accepted fractions or something like that) and one of their answers was wrong (i imed their 'SAT online tutors' explaining my answer, and he told me that I was right and he would make note of the mistake). And, i did EXTREMELY poorly in their verbal tests. I think their answers were a little too ambiguous. In anycase, enough of a review of their program. The point is, i didn't use it much, probably a total of 10 hours tops. Probably half that. I feel really guilty about wasting my parent's money. Anyways, the one thing i did use from that program was their vocab list. It was really helpful. I actually only started memorizing vocab three days before the test. I was in a panic. Before that I had only taken practice tests to study. I went through all their words, and made a flash card for every word i either didn't know or wasn't sure about. And I crammed--I have a really good short term memory and a bad long term, so this worked for me, and there were several words that I recognized on the test, that i probably wouldn't have otherwise.
For math, i didn't study. Once you are in the 700 range in math, the math section is pure luck. Once you know how to do all the problems and can work fast enough, it's all making sure you don't make stupid mistakes, or read the question wrong or something. I did take practice tests, but i did poorly on those too. The night before the test, my friend and I called each other up, and quized each other on vocab in a panic. Then, I watched Save the Last Dance and calmed way down. I knew that i had a 1470, which I was happy with, so I wasn't really nervous on this test. On the LAST test, my hands were shaking the entire three hours.
God, neither of us deserved our scores. It's crazy. oh! HEY, maybe we improved so much in verbal because over the summer we both got really into Jane Austin's books. Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield park, Emma (Emma was assigned and we really liked it so we read the others.) I know that Pride and Prejudice has the word 'sanguine' in it like three times. Almost ever word she uses is a 'SAT word' but the books are easy to understand. *sigh* they are just so good.
But, then, that's not really studying and it's not like we looked up the words we didn't know as we read.
I'm sorry i got all into this, but our scores came as such a shock, I'm also curious to why they were so high. It makes no sense. On my practice test a week before the test --(I refuse to take a practice test the day before the test because the day before the PSATs I got a 1590, and i got an actual of 143, and the day before the SATs in january i got a 1560 and actually got a 1470. . . it just sets you up for a major let down.)-- i got a 640 on verbal and 760 on math. I think I am really receptive to cramming, or something (for verbal) and was just incredibly lucky (for math). Also, it's not like we hadn't studied before. we took a class together the summer before junior year, and studied before the January test too. we were just really really lucky.
the world of SATs is just crazy.
Twinkle- are you taking the SAT Is or IIs next week? I'm sure you'll do well. DO you review what you did wrong on all the questions you miss in math? Because, if you are making the same mistake all the time, if you just review that type of problem, you could probably raise your score. I"m sure you'll do well!
Has everyone started studying for the SAT IIs (if you are taking it next week)? It is definately scaring me. Does anyone know how to raise your writing score? I got a 700 last time, and while i know it's not bad, my mom's standards are higher. She wont be satisfied with anything below a 750, and wont be happy with anything below a 780. Doesn't give me much breathing room does it? hehe. Whats great is all of my friends get like 760s or so without studying for it, and I really really worked for my 700. I just can't write essays, especially not in 20 minutes. Words just don't come to my head. Also, I freeze up, and can't think of an answer to the question. Or I think of an answer (fairly easy: yes or no) and i can't think of a reason why (I don't think they would accept: 'because') I just don't know what to do. As for chemistry, I'm planning on reading the barons book in the next week. I just have to finish my Yale apps, and my school essay and the calc and stat test on monday, the AP PHysics test on thursday and the college engineering test on wednesday. Oh, and finish UMCP part one by the weekend.

OH, so the concensis is that Rice Interim Decision is not okay with Yale Single CHoice early action but University of Maryland's priority decision is, yes? I'm going to ask my counceler to call on monday, but all the forms are due to the registrar on monday, so we'll see. The thing is, Rice Interim Decision application is due on December 1st. And don't we find out about Yale early action in mid December? It's so close, I don't see why I can't apply. Oh well. whatever.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 05:50 pm: Edit

I *love* Save the Last Dance. Good dance/chick flick movie.

I am taking the SAT IIs Saturday and now I'm up in arms as to which ones to take.

I'm definitely doing writing but what other two am I going to do? I guess MathIC, but I'm wondering if I should just take a leap and do the IIC because 1. I had pre-cal, and 2. There's no plane geometry on it, which is my ultimate killer on the Math section ALWAYS. Then again, I wasn't "solid" in pre-cal and may not understand everything on the tests.

The third is up in the air. Do I really want to take the U.S. history over again? Do I even remember enough to do better? It'd be a waste to take it and go down 50 points.

But, what would I take for a 3rd test? I can't do: physics- I haven't taken it. Chemistry- even the AP kids struggled to get above a 630 on it, and I wasn't IN the AP section. Biology was too long ago- I did well in it but it's been awhile; I should have taken the SAT II then but I didn't even know what those were then. I was thinking about the Spanish because I'm good at it, but we were advised against doing a language because for whatever reason kids from our school don't do well on them. There IS literature, but I have NO idea what that consists of. I'm going to do some research on that because it could be a good alternative-- then for schools that want my 3 highest, my math will be disregarded!

I really just think I can't learn how to do the math problems that I keep getting wrong. I've been trying since freshman year. Even if I try to memorize the way to do it, they switch up the numbers, diagrams, etc., then I don't know how to do it. **then again**- I've gotten a 650 in practice. It's not totally hopeless. A 650 isn't like WOW, but I think personally I'd cry if I got a 650 on the real thing. A 610 on the real thing was a shocker because I had never broken 610 before.

However, I've decided that maybe it's time to raise the bar and go for a 700 math. Why not? It's possible. If I can get a 650, then I can get a 700 too. I think I got a 590 last time because of random guessing. (Note: this actually helped on the real SAT last time, but now I'm noting it doesn't normally help...actually it hurts!) Let's see... if I had just left ?s blank I think I could have gotten a 630, even.

I like setting goals out of my reach because then SOMETIMES I just might stretch enough to make them, even when it looks like I can't.

So everyone hold me to this:

My math goal: 700.
Verbal: 730.

=1430.

*By December*.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 06:17 pm: Edit

Twinkle, gotta run, so a very quick post, but I don't think you should take the MathIIc unless you know the pre-Calc material backwards, forwards, and in your sleep. It is a *bitch* of a test and all the science, engineering, and pre-med majors are taking it. One person's opinion.

By Sandy (Sandy) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 07:36 pm: Edit

IIC is definitely harder but it is not that bad. I never took pre-cal. In fact, I had Algebra II last year and studied some of pre-cal in the summer. Now, I am in cal I. It really depends on how you handle math. The concepts can be learned (I am not sure if in a week though), but you have to be able to apply them. A big help was the TI-89. I know that I would have never gotten what I did without it. Another thing about the IIC- it has the best curve. I know for sure that I skipped 5 and answered a couple wrong. I still ended up with not a bad score. Good luck to you, Twinkle!

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 07:52 pm: Edit

Sorry to butt in.

Esmerelda, the SAT 2 Writing tends to get people who have an ear for grammar because it incudes mistakes that cannot be caught by ear. Just drill daily a few days before the test until you can recognize them all. Essay... look up some sample prompts. They're all so vague that you can write about anything. It's all like, "defend or refute: 'every cloud has a silver lining'" or something tacky like that. That way, you can know what you're writing about in advance.

Twinkle: I'm in the same boat, and I'm not taking any math at all. For IC, the curve is ridiculous. A single mistake can bring you way down. IIC is just hard, even though the curve is generous.

OMG, a week left!! Good luck to all!!

By Ch2 (Ch2) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 08:10 pm: Edit

Twinkle - I did worse on the IIC than on the IC, and, while I'm not a big math person, I did do Calculus last year. Though I'm sure if you really did take the time to study the concepts again you could do well on it but your time might be better spent on the IC. Also, I think your SAT II US History score is fine and the top colleges will see close to no difference between it and an 800. If you did well on the AP test, especially, they will look at the SAT II score as insignificant in comparison. As for me, I took the SAT I once and I took 5 SAT IIs (on two separate dates) and then I decided I was through with all that! In any case, whatever you decide, good luck! BTW, you SHOULD check out the Literature SAT II, I never took it but since you seem like such an English/Humanities person you would probably do well, but check what's on it first!
Well, this is it. The weekend to write my college essay. I finally wrote my "Most Meaningful Activity" essay but it is pretty rough and will need revision. I have finally got a fairly good idea for my "Personal Statement", at least something that I could write about pretty freely and honestly without being too corny or sentimental, I hope. I'm planning on just writing about my experience growing up as the youngest in my family - sort of a coming of age story that highlights a few incidents involving my older sisters. Anyway, I hope it works since THE YALE APP IS DUE SATURDAY!!! LESS THAN A WEEK!!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 08:29 pm: Edit

Okay, so the general consensus is that the SAT II is to be avoided like the plague. A 560 on IC is a 36% score, but 560 on IIC is only in the teens as for percentiles because like thedad said, all the engineers, med students, etc. are taking it.

Choke.

From reading the boards the literature doesn't seem horrible, except that I know NOTHING about basic poetry terms so if anyone does and would like to give me a 5 minute basic run down I would be SO grateful. For schools that only require writing and 2 others, this could really make a big difference for me because the 560 would be ignored then. Ch2, that's what I was thinking too about the history. I wanted to try to break 750+, but then again, they'll see that I got a 5 on the AP so they probably know that I understand history very well.

The curve IS killer though on the Math IC. I skipped 10 questions and I know I got more wrong.

Of course, my calculator hopefully won't malfunction and decide not to work for 15 minutes in the middle of the test, so that could make a big difference in scores. I will be satisfied with a 650 mathIC. All the others need to be 700+, though.

Forfeiting an awesome party to do SAT prep/essay writing, but it's definitely worth it.

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 08:48 pm: Edit

I have SAT IIs this saturday too. Writing, math and lit! ARGGHHH!

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 09:31 pm: Edit

Folk_Hero~
thanks for the run down. I appreciate it, it's good advise, but I don't know if it'll really help me. People have kept on telling me to do what you told me. The thing is, I thought i HAD a good ear for grammer. When I was in middle school, I had this tutor who made me chart sentences and I became one of those annoying people who all but flinches at adverb/adjective mix ups. (Please, don't start correcting me now. when i write on these boards, I just free write and my grammer is probably horrible :-P --I don't even want to think about how bad my spelling is--sorry!) Also, I got a 80 on the PSAT writing... I guess the SAT II Writing is a lot harder? It is in my experience anyhow. I still can't help but get a bunch off on the multiple choice. I tend to doubt myself, and can't stand to choose the "no error" answer. *Sigh*
I've also looked at a lot of prompts. But, I can't think of an answer to their questions either. argh. I'll look again though this week
doesn't it suck that halloween is the day before the SAT IIs? My friend was going to have a halloween party on friday, but she (thank god) moved it to saterday. It's nice to party after a test, although people tend to talk about the SATs a bit too much. hehe.
oh, guess what? My laptop is broken. Someone stepped on it, and now the screen is cracked. It's awful because it's so new, and it is supposed to last me all of college. I'm still using it, but i worry that the cracks will cause the display to break down even more, until it is unusable. argh. My parents are furious. Ok, so i left it on the floor. That's where I use it, and i didn't think that anyone was going to step on it! I mean, it's in MY room, why were people going in there anyways? *sigh* I'm not positive who did it, but i have my suspiscions. Oh well, i'm not going to blame that purson, it's not their fault really.
Hey, what exactly is a warrenty? Like, could i trade it in? I doubt it, but I might as well ask. It's funny, I've never broken anything this expensive before. I feel awful. If I try to close the lap top, a swirl of color bursts around the spider-web-like cracks. Yeah, I'm not closing my laptop any more.

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 09:46 pm: Edit

I love the warmth and supportiveness on this thread. It must be great to have a place to vent about all this college crap. I'm about ready to smack the next person who whines about his GPA or something in school... We were working in groups in Calc just the other day and the group on my right was stressing about grades while the group on my left was going on about SATs. I felt surrounded. Granted, I'm guilty of it too... I just need some reassurance. I'm so confused... Every moment of feeling down turns into a college stress-out session nowadays. I read in my Psych textbook that our thoughts and feelings run in a sort of loop, that we remember good things when happy, strengthening that feeling, and bad things when sad, augmenting it. Must be that.

Sucks about your laptop. I remember when I lost my TI-83 calculator. I didn't tell my parents for a week. Mybe it won't be too expensive to get it fixed at CompUSA or something?

Sorry for intruding!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 10:00 pm: Edit

Yeah, I love this board too. And you're not intruding so stop apologizing! ;)

Psychology would also tell you that feeling guilty when when you shouldn't is a sign of STRESS. Just kidding, but it might be, you never know. I'm on developmental psychology in AP Psych... I understand all the id/ego/superego stuff because I did regular psych already but that has nothing to do with it.

Yeah, people at school are really stressing over SATs. I mean, I talked about it here way too much today, but that was just me getting pumped for it because I need that if I want to do well on this beast. But I change the subject at school when people at school go off on tangents about the SAT... I have to remind people that your score IS NOT the sole determining factor in your future forever and ever.

Ouch, Esmerelda, call the company and ask, but a warranty would probably usually apply if the computer malfunctioned and not if someone damaged it. Of course, you could always make up an awesome story... if you need help let me know... because laptops= expensive and it would suck to have to buy another.

I can't understand why ETS HAD to make the SAT date for November on the 1st... MAYBE because of ED/EA stuff. I don't know. I still want to go trick or treating and hit up all the hot Halloween parties though. Maybe I'll still do it and come home for 11 (it's not like I'd be in bed before then anyway!). I don't know. I can't imagine staying home on Halloween night. I could pass out candy and scare all of the little kids, but I've done that before.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 10:27 pm: Edit

awwww new people! *waves hi*

sorry cant talk. i have a 15 page paper to write, 7 minute speech to prepare for, 3 major tests on monday, my ED app which in RED ALERT condition, and freaking out about my SAT II's.

one big cry of stress:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*cries*

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 11:19 pm: Edit

*gives sunshine a hug*
It's okay.
Breathe.

Twinkle- I don't think my comp is fixable. AT ALL. And i don't think I can trade it in. The front of the screen looks like a car window after a ball hit it. All shattered but still holding together. It's not something that could have been caused by a malfunction. Oh well. bah.

I love writing and reading this thread too! I'd welcome the new people, but I'm kinda a new person too (fairly new), so that'd be weird. Oh, what the hell, hey new people!

i gtg too. work work.
OH! good news. tomorrow is (kinda) a 25 hour day! Day light savings time, we gain an hour! If you think about it, it's like school starts a 8:25 instead of 7:25 on Monday morning. So, yay, another hour of work (or --ha!-- sleep)

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 01:39 am: Edit

Esmerelda, hmmm... it could be a "technical" difficulty. *cough*... the plasma or whatever is in the screen randomly exploded, causing the screen to shatter. Or a wire in the screen caught fire, resulting in a smashed up screen from the pressure within the computer due to the fire.

Um, I suppose those wouldn't work. :/

Do you have any connections to people who repair computers, i.e. friends who know people and stuff because you may be able to get a discount. If not try to get it repaired anyway...much better than buying a new one and you need your laptop!!

WELCOME NEW PEOPLE!!!!

Sunshine, one more week and you will be DONE WITH all of the ED stuff! Remember: November is the halfway point of this craziness. You're almost there. Come the end of January things will be A LOT better, and you know you're kicking ass at what you're doing now. Just hang in there and you're going to be great. Don't forget that.

Newest practice round has resulted in... dun dun dun... 740 verbal, 640 math. OMG. 1380. I am completely SHOCKED. Floored. Amazed. I'm sure it's a fluke. I probably misscored it. I am so sick of testing. I hate reading the CR section and the math just drives me INSANE. Like I do not WANT to read the math problems on there because they're tedious for me. I can't get them done in the normal straightforward manner because my brain won't work like everyone else's-if i get the answer, it's because I find my OWN way to figure out the answer because of the way I connect things, and as my math teacher from last year pointed out, I have good deduction skills which is how I can scrape through math just a little.

-Twinkle, who LOVES giving pep talks

Off to essay write now. Tired. Sigh.

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 02:38 am: Edit

Twinkle, could you please answer a ballet question? Is "fouetting" a word? What's another, less awkward term for a pretty ballet position (must end in -ing)? I'm writing about an artist who draws ballerinas (not Degas).

Thanks

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 02:43 am: Edit

Twinkle, those stupid tests are 3 hours!! Why don't you give yourself a break from the verbal at least? At the point where you are, it's all luck, anyway, I'm sure. I've never seen anyone work that hard. You'll deserve any luck you get.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 03:04 am: Edit

One does "fouette" turns..."fouetting" is not a word and the person who imagined it should be whomped over the head with a stuffed owl for half an hour.

I can't think of any *position* that ends in "ing." There are positions--first through fifth--and various kinds of moves--arabesques, bourees, penchees,--and various kinds of turns--chinet, attitude, pirouettes, etc.--but can't think of a single one ending in "ing," possibly because most of the words are derived from French.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 03:10 am: Edit

There are fouettes, which doesn't translate into fouetting, lol. I have heard pirouetting used before though but I think that was a term one of the girls at the studio coined awhile back so I know it's not technical. However, if you're looking for a position, then don't use either because they both require movement.

Well, the beauty about testing at home is that you don't have to spend the ENTIRE 3 hours testing if you finish early. I usually finish verbal early and after I check it, I just go to the next section. No point in sitting for another 7 minutes if I don't have to. I'd like to stop on the verbal for now and just TRY to work on the math. However, I have off days where I will only get a 640 verbal-which is good, but combine that with a 600 math and that is a recipe for disaster. I still am not entirely comfortable with the Critical Reading section, and the analogies are really tricky because it is so hard to draw the relationship in my head between the words quite often in the medium/hard questions. However, on the other hand, I LOVE sentence completions. They're my "favorite" part- I hate the SAT but I have to "like" at least something about it. I've noticed that there is usually one relatively interesting and then one tedious CR section, one so tedious that the main challenge point is, am I going to read this or not? For me, that takes a lot of self-discipline because I have a STRONG aversion to reading anything boring, and if I do read it, chances are that I won't have retained much because my mind won't focus long enough on it. So my main issue is being super focused on that one boring passage. I heard that you can just read the ?s and answer them w/o reading the story, but for me it's more helpful to read so I know what the story is about and any important details will help me connect pieces of the story together, strengthening my inferential skills.

I am really trying to be dedicated to this because I know Dec. is my last chance, and I've only taken it once before so it has be a spectacular testing round. No room to mess up, no second chances. This is it for me. So I'm making the most of it and doing some serious prep. And no, I am NOT doing prep tomorrow... instead I am doing my college essays- got 1/2 way through one tonight-and doing community service @ school for the National Honor Society.

I don't know if I deserve the luck, per se- I'm not the most intelligent person so I feel as if my scores are a bit...inflated, but it would be awesome if I lucked out on testing day and hit my goal or close to it.

Bed. Totally wiped...so much for restful weekends.

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 03:21 am: Edit

Thanks. *blushes* I clearly know nothing about ballet. I still need an adjective or adverb to describe a ballerina. I'll just use something non-technical. I should probably get to bed too, but my sister had a massively loud birthday party here today and somehow my head is just clearer at this time. "Inflated"? Please! Don't talk about that thing with that much deference. What does it even measure?

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 07:04 am: Edit

Twinkle~ If you have any math questions that you arent' sure how to do (or how BEST to do), feel free to email me, and I'd love to explain them. (ha, if I know how to do them ). I know it might not help because you might not be able to apply it to other similar (but different) problems, but I think if you practice for the month you have, you can get it. And if you know how to approach all the problems, you can raise your score range a LOT (not that you need to). Not only would you be able to do all of the problems correctly, but you could probably work faster and have more time to check arithmatic mistakes (ugh, the bane of my existance!) I'd really like to help, because, goodness. You deserve whatever score you get.
Fold Hero's right, the score doesn't measure anything. Just how well you take the SATs. That's all. So, just relax a little, and study a little and you will be fine. No matter how you actually do. The test is all luck. *thumbs up* now back to work.

By Over30 (Over30) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 10:17 am: Edit

Twinkle - my youngest read a book called "crash Course for the ACT" when he took it in 7th grade. He read that book and did one practice science, reading and english test (he said the math was too advanced for him to learn in a week). He made a perfectly respectable score (and a very good one for a 7th grader), so maybe the book helped. He recommended it to some other kids at school. Anyway . . . they also make one for the SAT (our public library carries both books). It's a little book so you won't waste much time if you don't like it. Just a thought. Good Luck!

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 04:21 pm: Edit

I betcha everyone is homeworking right now. I am too, but I was so excited that I had to take a break and post (again...wow, I'm posting way too much this weekend, I think it's because i have a procrastination quotient of 38-- if you have a score of 32+ procrastination is a 'major concern'...erp) ANYWAYS! yay! I finally came up with a topic for my Yale personal statement. I'm going to write about volenteering at the nursing home. I'm going to write how it changed my view of old people (i stoped being terrified of them) and how it allowed me to meet people and learn a lot (i'm not going to be so fake and general, I"m going to give specific examples) Like, I learned how to play poker, and I practiced my chinese with an old lady there, and I learned how to start conversations with people, etc. etc. ANd I'm going to talk about the people and what we did together. Putting in anecdotes and stuff. It was really the little things that made it worthwhile. ANYWAYS, I have a topic, and I just listed a whole bunch of things that i did at the home, and things that really affected me, so yay! I'm almost done with the hamlet essay too, and then I have to start studying. erp
but I think, if I don't get sleep tonight, I'll be fine. hm, maybe a few hours though...
alrighty, I'm done, back to work

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 05:48 pm: Edit

Folk Hero, if you post the context in which you need to describe a ballerina MAYBE I could help you... I don't know what you're writing so it's hard to make a suggestion.

The SAT doesn't measure intelligence, necessarily, and I don't think it's as important as college admissions officers make it out to be in determining acceptances/rejections, but it doesn't matter what I think. It matters what they think, so I have to play along with their game. I want to make sure I do not repeat my performance last time and get a 1290 or below- not a bad score but certainly a limiting one.

Esmerelda, actually, now that you mention that it would be VERY helpful because there are a lot of seemingly basic things that I just don't grasp, and if I could have an explanation that made sense to me, that might help a LOT in solving problems in a direct way (i.e., no hopeful guessing, guess and check, 5 minutes worth of substitution). So if I have any questions I will ask you, and I know that you're ultra busy so whenever I get a response is just fine.

Over30- Just the sound of the book sounds AWESOME...crash course...something that just may save me within the next month! I know my public library doesn't really carry SAT prep books, so I'm going to look on Amazon or hit Barnes and Noble to see if I can nab a copy. Thanks !!!

I'm scared for IC Saturday, though. For whatever reason, I'm better on the SAT I math because the sections are shorter. I do not have the attention span or pacing skills to get through that whole hour during the IC administration, plus it's just WAY too hard. I KNOW it's 7th-10th grade level math, but it's over my head and I get too frustrated during it. Sitting and doing math for an hour is a challenge within itself.

However, I'm totally pumped for the writing section.

To take literature or not to take literature? THAT is the question.

Back to homework. I have SO much for AP English, it is absolutely insane... but I do like English so I can't complain too much.

By Momoffour (Momoffour) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 01:08 am: Edit

Esmereldasy- I volunteered in a nursing home in hs and worked for money in one after college while I was in grad school. I learned from the seniors something that has affected my whole outlook on life. At first to me there were just old, very old, wrinkled, deaf, couldn't feed themselves, waste of air old. Then I started to notice some of the pictures in their rooms and asked who is this really handsome guy here with this gorgeous woman in this cool dress? Oh that's my husband and I on our 3rd anniversary! Pictures of them in military uniform, with little kids and kids in wedding gowns and I came to realize that these people had once been my age and had once "ruled" the day like I thought only my generation would do. It made me respect how much they had to offer and how one day if I made it that long I too would be old, wrinkled, hard of hearing and would want to be taken seriously. I try to appreciate the age I am today, even though I think I may be getting way too old, because tomorrow I will be even older. It's late and I can't sleep so I am philosophizing.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 02:58 am: Edit

We had to visit a nursing home freshman year for part of a community service project for English class. Our English teacher that year was absolutely INSANE, btw- he seriously was a crazy, crazy man with an erratic temperament, who would tell you to put away something, and then when you did, he would scream at you for being up and walking around. Grades were completely arbitrary, we called his grade book the magic wand because you never knew what you were getting; we watched a LOT of after school specials and wrote essays on them; we read the Odyssey by ourselves, drew pictures of it in class (I am seriously not kidding) and then had a major test on it a month later. What other weird things? Oh yeah, we watched "Shakespeare in Love" twice, because he didn't remember that he had shown it to us a month earlier.Simply the weirdest class I will probably ever have. But I actually did learn a lot that year- not traditional English class things, but we did have to do things like read an article in Time every week and then draw a picture and write a summary on it, while answering some basic general questions- usually ended up being a 3-4 page thing typed. (Artwork was a big deal- but then again, that's how I learned about imagery). So that's how I got really into current events, because I'd have to write something each week so I'd try to find really interesting topics. But I regress. I'm way off topic. We had to interview an elderly person from a retirement/nursing home and as a bratty frosh, I DID not want to do the assignment, so I waited till the last minute. But, I DID do the assignment, and it ended up being really great because I interviewed a 86 year old woman who was really sharp for her age- and she had GREAT stories to tell. It really gave me a new perspective on "old people"- I was NOT a mature freshman in that sense. So, in essence, I think from my own experience you have an awesome essay seed Esmerelda

Yawn... SOOOO TIRED that I could simply fall asleep right now, but I won't. I have to finish studying for psych first because marking period is about to close out and I want to keep my 98 average.

I am going to literally die next semester with all the extra classes I need to take. I have Eng/Span/Psych/Italian/Govt now, plus gym, but next semester I have Eng/Span/Psych/Italian/Govt/Mythology/Sociology/ Economics.

Hopefully, though, that will cover me for my apparent physics/ calc lack. Seriously, I had a dream the other day that I was at dance and a gray bearded man with a severe look on his face suddenly swung open the door while were were practicing combinations. He had a clipboard and was completely red faced, veins popping in the neck and was practically sputtering, like he was seriously MAD and we were all wondering who this madman was. So I tried to ignore him, and I turned around and faced the wall because I guess he was creeping my dream self out. But, instead, the man came stomping over to me and hissed "Exit the building IMMEDIATELY". I followed him out of the building and he began flipping out at me for no apparent reason. I pretended not to hear him, but then he flashed his pink (??) name tag, which said Moon University on it, or something similar. I think it said Moon, but dream details are so hard to recall to a penny. He was SO mad that I dropped out of calculus for whatever reason and was screaming how EVERYONE, EVERYONE, EVERYONE who takes the SAT who is ANYONE takes calculus. So, I hurled a rock at him and then I woke up.

Now, this is a totally stupid dream (not uncommon for me) but apparently the no math/science thing is really bugging me out for w/e reason. I KNOW in my head that I made the right decision, but it's been nagging at me that I SHOULD have stuck it out no matter what, and I didn't and now, really looking at some colleges' requirements, I'm all backwards. Some places highly recommend 4 science and math, but only 3 history/social sciences and 3 foreign languages, when I have 4 math/3 science/ 6-7 social sciences/history/ 4 same foreign language (1 middle school...hence Spanish Five)/ 1 year of second for. language, if that counts for anything.

In one of my classes, I am the only person who isn't doing either, and that makes me hold my breath a little because I realized ALL the top kids do math and science, except for me. Does it even out in the sense that some of them avoided last year foreign language and history/social science, or is it a rigid thing where it's one of those things where I'm pretty much damned with neither?

I should just be confident in what I do have and what I pieces of my application I can play up, but seriously, if my SAT score does not go up, that coupled with not having the typical "elite" senior year schedule pretty much makes for the last nail in the coffin.

Eep.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 01:10 pm: Edit

Twinkle, I saw the Kirov Ballet do Balanchine's "Jewels" yesterday. As the review in today's LA TIMES notes, it's the only three-act abstract ballet.

Each act is devoted to a different style of ballet.

"Emeralds" is Romantic/French, "Rubies" is Neoclassical/American, and "Diamonds" is Classical/Russian. Music is Faure/Stravinsky/Tchaikovsky respectively.

I don't want to give it away on the chance you get to see it but, particularly for "Rubies," the initial tableau is so breathtaking that there's a pause when the curtain goes up and then a sigh erupts from audience. Yes, "sigh" and "erupts" are correctly linked.

===

Regarding your schedule, it's time to worry only about what you can still control. I think a D/F/Incomplete/Whatever in Math would have killed you more than your unbalanced schedule and the math is getting to the point where you can't fake it with partial credit.

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 04:42 pm: Edit

I wasn't going to do Calc either, but the math department head had a "talk" with me (read: arm-twisting and threatening). Now I'm getting a B... I wonder if one reason they're pushing AP Calc is the Jay Matthews Challenge Index? Your schedule certainly sounds like enough, though. Stayed home sick today to do my homework and sleep after working on apps all weekend... still not done with either one! WHAT am I going to do?!

I took Lit and got a 790. It was exactly like the AP English multiple choice. The most they wanted to know as far as literary terms was "hyperbole." Two warnings, though: first, the answers are not always obvious, but are always possible to defend from the reading; second, they ask a lot of questions per reading, lots more than the SAT I. You sound like you could do it.

Thedad, do you know how lucky your daughter is that you're "down in the trenches" with her in this app process? My parents just assume that "don't worry, Harvard will take you."

Ok, time to stop procrastinating. Back to art history!! Great class, though...

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 04:46 pm: Edit

Not that I'm applying to H, it's just the symbol for Prestigious College in our household.

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 07:09 pm: Edit

With the fires in California, there are a lot of kids/families who's priorities are FAR away from admissions and essays right now. These are affecting some of our regular posters; read the fires thread in the parent's forum, esp. the last from Rowan...

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 08:14 pm: Edit

I got a GREAT SAT prep book today which has WONDERFUL math explanations in it, it really goes over the basic math stuff that I never learned how to do, like basic geometry stuff and questions like Train A and Train B are 400 miles apart... Train A is going 10 mph... Train B is going 18 miles an hour... where will they meet? (or when. I always forget. The point is, I'm going to learn how to do this question). I may suck at math, but it doesn't mean I can't get an awesome SAT math score. Screw SAT logic, I want to get a 700+ and show people that SATs do not really measure your aptitude in a given field on the SAT I.

Thedad, I agree that a D/F/Pass would look worse more so than dropping the class- my transcript DOES show that I was in calc, but stopped taking it. They call that a "withdraw pass" at my school. There's also "withdraw fail", which means you had below an 80 at the time you were passing the class. (Even though 60 is a passing grade at my school). I had an A when I quit, but we all know that wasn't going to last for long.


---

Thedad- I doubt I will be able to see this ballet-or any other- anytime soon, but nonetheless I appreciate you not giving away too much... but just enough so I know how great it must have been. At the risk of sounding dumb, what's an abstract ballet?

---

Folk-thanks for the info on the lit... I think I'm going to go for it. Standardized testing is all a game anyway. I doubt there's anyway to prep for it in a week so I'm just going to hedge my bets and try it. It sounds like a hard test, but no where near as hard as a physics or chem, imo.

And yes, I agree with Folk. I think we are in the same boat. It's hard getting everything done by yourself and trying to figure all of this out. My mother is supportive, but this is pretty much all up to me. If I flunk out this semester, that's my doing. If I don't apply to college, that's my fault. I'm supported in my choices but I don't have that extra... I don't know. It runs hot and cold here. We don't really talk about the SATs, except for payment. I think my mom doesn't want me to obsess, but still.

And did I mention my father's *shocked* expression when I told him that it would be a cold day in hell if I were to get into Yale (which I actually do love, but am not applying, it's too far of a stretch and I'm just not academically there). It's a real shock to some parents to find out that their kid ISN'T the best everywhere. Pedastal syndrome stops outside of city borderlines.

Digi-How did the fires start? I haven't heard anything about this.

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 09:00 pm: Edit

Twinkle: I noticed that you take Italian. I also take Italian, and I was wondering if you would know the answer to this question. I know that their is no AP exam(although my teacher insists that my class is AP) did you take the SAT II and is it hard? Sorry to interrupt...

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 09:07 pm: Edit

i have heard anything about the fires either. I always find out about current events after the fact (except , like, when things really affect me -- MD sniper, sept. 11, etc.). It's like i'm in my own little bubble. I miss watching the news, which i used to do almost religiously, but I just don't have time anymore!

Yeah, I'm so so so scared about what people are going to say when I DON'T get into Yale. It's a streach for everyone, and I really have too few ECs and my essays are sucking. I am just not an unique canadite! high scores are common place in places like Yale. Argh. What makes it worse, is that at my school, everyone knows where I'm applying and keeps telling me that I'm going to get in. That really doesn't make me feel better, because if I don't, well, it makes it worse. My school cultivates rumers and i know if i don't get in, everyone will ask and within a day everyone will know. I know I'm not going to get in, and I've really accepted it, i wish other people could too. argh.
Anyways, I had a terribly hard calc test today. People really came out of that test crying. CRYING. It was pretty much the hardest test of my life...well, no. But it was pretty damn hard. It was the hardest test that will not be massively curved. Oh well, nothing i can do now. Still, I can't help kicking myself for one question. I didn't know how to do it because i read it wrong, so i skipped it and then when I went back, I saw the answer (it was like a revelation, the smoke cleared and the answer was right there) and I didn't have time to find the answer. grrr.
AP Stat test was alright. There was definately a lot of room for error though. Now i have to fix my Yale essays and do some homework. I fell asleep and woke up at 7. . . erp. Oh well.
oH, a Yale alumni called me to make an appointment for my interview (i know i did one at the yale campus, but this one is with an alum rather than a student, so maybe she wont ask me about what animal i would like to be). She caught me totally off guard though. Oh well, interview next wednesday.
Oh, and guess what? I might get some Bs this quarter. I think I'll go and bang my head against a wall. just kidding. Argh. If I got a D on the calc test (which is not unheard of in our class...) I'll have a B in calc. If I get below an A on the Stat test, I'll have a B in stat. If I get below a 90.3 % on my out of class essays in Lit, I will have a B in Lit. If I don't do well on my Engineering quiz on wednesday, I'll get a B in engineering (oh, I got my last quiz grade back... 22/25...that's a B damn it!). I think my A in physics is pretty solid...but who knows. Argh. I hate high school so much.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 11:12 pm: Edit

Abstract ballet--just form, movement, etc.--not a ballet with a story, e.g., Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, etc.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 12:34 am: Edit

Asknot- I haven't taken enough Italian to consider taking it as an SAT II, but I looked at the collegeboard site anyway and it said that you can take Italian with reading (but apparently not listening).

Esmerelda, sorry about the calc test. Why isn't your teacher curving it? It sounds as if everyone bombed it, or at least, everyone thinks that they did.

Thedad- What other abstract ballets are there? Any famous ones?

Job interview Thursday or Friday guys! I don't really have time for a job but I really need the money, and for the time being I'm not in dance so I may as well take advantage of the chance to pull in some extra cash. (LOL, I am fully willing to admit that I don't CARE about skills gained at this point, I just need a means to make money).

I'm so dead tired, my eyes literally hurt to keep them open. The last week of the marking period's always hard. As long as I can put in my sleep Thur/Fri night, I'll be set for Saturday morning.

My mom and I brainstormed essay topics for me to write about because I really hit a wall with one of my essays, but now I have a really good idea to work with. Much better than the one I had before- my other idea was good but it was lacking something big. WHen I finish the blasted thing I'll send it out to everyone and then you'll see what I mean- I'm apprehensive about giving too much away about my essays for EVERYONE to see, not that my essay would be good enough for someone to want to use as their own. It helps to have someone to really bounce ideas off of... she thought of stuff from my past I may have never considered using as essay material.

I should be working on my essays but instead I'm caught up with a TERM paper for gym class. I am at a loss for words for once.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 02:04 am: Edit

re: making money

Funny, but just tonight over dinner TheMom told D that it was preferable to make a living doing something you enjoy but that the next best thing was to make a living. Sometimes you do what you gotta do. It gets better as you get older and have more options. I do recommend keeping your eyes open at even your age and spotting jobs that will give you useful skills that you can use for more than minimum wage...TheMom, for instance, worked part of her way through graduate school as a typesetter, something she picked up in J-School.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 03:10 pm: Edit

I think everyone did bomb the math test. Everyone was complaining about it today. Our teacher FINALLY got back from his leave. He's been gone for the past week, and we've just been doing text work and worksheets to prepare for yesterday's test. We talked to him about a curve, but the most he'll curve is about two points, and possibly not even that. Whatever.

heh, after freaking out about my grades last night, i find out today that I was worrying for nothing. My AP stat test came back, and I have a 91 in the class now. My AP Lit essay came back, and I got a 97 (which is odd, because that essay was definately C material...i think she was very lenient) So, as long as i get a 83 on the Hamlet essay due friday, I should be fine. And, I'm fairly confident of my physics A. SO, all I really am worrying about is Calc and Engineering. whoo. Today was a good day. A tiny speck of my stress has been relieved.
Still, I haven't finished my yale essays. I don't know what's wrong with me. I just can't write them. I have one, but i don't think it's close to being good enough. Especially not for yale. I like my intro and conclusion, but what I'm actually saying is blah. That's the essay about drawing.
My other essay is still in the works. I made a list of all the little things that I learned at the nursing home. Now i have to string them together....argh.
I think i'm going to bring my application to the post office on Thursday.

As for SAT IIs...I've forgotten everything in chemistry! I'm so screwed. I have a question though: I wrote in my part one of the Yale application that I was going to take Writing and Chemistry in November. Can I just take writing? I have two other SAT IIs (bio and math IIC), do you think they will mind if I dont' take the chem one (they only require 3)...
If that's okay, then I can take the SAT II chemistry in December (some of my more engineering/science focused second choice schools prefer my taking chemistry)

ah well, if you know, please tell me.
I have to go to the community college and practice using Pro Engineer for my engineering test tomorrow. bye;

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 04:27 pm: Edit

Twinkle: I'm currently in my 4th year...and I was just wondering if the test was difficult...but now when i think about it, I'd rather not take another test...

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 07:31 pm: Edit

Thedad, I will consider trying to pick up skills even in the lowest paying jobs... see this is what I figure...I will know how to work a cash register, which is a useful skill I suppose. And hey, people experience never hurt anyone. I will be SOOO happy if I get this job though because it pays $9/hr. Our minimum wage is like $6.70, so this is GOOD money for a teenager. Most people make $9 AFTER a raise, so I think this is great. And plus, self-suffiency is a good thing when needed. It will teach greater independence and whatnot.

Asknot- I am in Italian 1, so I can't help you too much with that. However, my Spanish 5 teacher told us that the foreign language exams are very difficult, even with years of instruction... so I guess that applies to ALL of them. I heard the vocabulary on there is often difficult.

Esmerelda, I have no idea, but since you can change your SAT last minute on testing day then I'm sure it's not uncommon for Yale to see that. I guess you could call/write an email or something. I'm sorry, I really don't know lol.

Gym class at school is such BS, with such arbitrary grades. Guess who has, I don't know, a 65 in gym?

Total BS. If this doesn't get resolved, I'm taking it to the school board. Unlike some of the other lazy people in my gym class, I've done the work- not happily but have done it, passed all the physical fitness tests, etc. And I have even done the work I CAN do in gym right now, considering injuries, not to mention I've been sick for almost three weeks straight since before the October SAT that I missed. See, I'm not trying to be like "my teacher has it out for me" but umm...she definitely does. I don't know what it is, but it's SOMETHING. I think it's because I have the guts to say something-politely and in the proper places/times- when something's not right and obviously that's offensive.

Dumb questions:
1. Do you rewrite the question on your college essay?
2. WHERE do you put your name? Do you also put your SSN, or anything else on it?

By Over30 (Over30) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 08:12 pm: Edit

My S put the question at the top of the essay, like a title. At the very top he put his name, SSN, and "early admission." Don't know if this is right, but it looked OK.

By Alita (Alita) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 09:13 pm: Edit

Esmeralda- i understand about the yale thing...when i tell people what my first choice is, they always say, oh, you have great grades, im sure youll get in. unfortunately, it doesnt always work that way...my parents unfortunately, have become convinced that perfect sat scores are the way into the ivy league. thus, they are obsessed with my sats and getting a 4.0...which isnt even possible-lol.......oh well.

alita

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 10:56 pm: Edit

thedad-Faure and Tchaikovsky? Sounds like my kind of ballet!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 11:22 pm: Edit

Okay, I am totally pumped/ inspired right now. I am writing a rather risky college essay and I actually LIKE it for once. It's risky. That's why it's so fun, and it's not artificial. As a person I like to push the limits a little bit, so trying to write to please an adcom feels so artificial to me, and I end up throwing in like 20 cliches just to make it sound like what I think they want to hear. My writing voice comes through better on not-so-heavy pieces sometimes. I was contemplating writing about more difficult experiences and how they changed me, but despite being a rather open person, I'm guarded on a lot of things and I'd rather not have a random adcom analyzing details of my life that would leave me vulnerable to that type of judgment. If I were to do that, the end result would just be a disconnected mess anyway.

I have one "solid" essay that shows my intellectual side, but then my other one is a little... crazy, but that's okay because it doesn't feel fake writing it, which was probably the point all along. Why write an essay on world peace when it's not one of my future goals (it's too cliched, too contrived, and from my pageant days, I seriously heard too many girls use that line. Please. Go promote gun control, better social work (think of all the kids that the DCF claims it "doesn't know where they are in Florida"), mentoring programs for kids, etc.)? Not that anyone actually writes about that, but you get the idea. Why tell the adcoms my future plans when I really don't know what they are? I'm not going to force something when it comes to the essays- I noticed when I sit there and struggle with just coming up with real ideas for a particular topic, there's trouble. If you can't write anything for your topic, it's time to get a new one. Some of the best pieces I've ever written were done in an hour or less, with one clean edit after- because I was passionate about my topic, and it really showed in my work. It takes me 2-3 hours to write a solid English essay, but I wrote an essay on the SAT and how it's not as important as everyone says it is in a total of 22 minutes- and it was actually GOOD.

Of course, this isn't to say that good writing doesn't take time, but there are times where I can crank out a good essay in minutes just because I have so much to say and it all falls out at once.

Over30-Thanks! For regular decision candidates, would you simply write "regular decision"? And for special scholarship consideration, would you note that too?

By Over30 (Over30) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 11:32 pm: Edit

I think I wouldn't put regular decision. I think he put early admission on his to make sure it got where it needed to be if it gets somehow separated from the application. And the scholarship thing is a good idea. Good luck on your essay.

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 12:01 am: Edit

Great, Twinkle -- I know just what you mean. I was having so much trouble with one question today, but then was making tea and I remembered something from my middle school days and just started laughing -- forget the tea, I was at the keyboard that second! This college essay thing is teaching me about "real" writing, though. I had honestly never done more than check my writing for correct grammar and spelling before, and now I know how to cut extra sentences and things.

Time to stop procrastinating... gg!!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 12:34 am: Edit

Over30-Thanks for the idea, I'm going to put my name, SSN, and name of scholarship for the particular college at the very top of the page along with the title of the essay.
BTW, has anyone molded the question around the essay... like for the question that says "ask and answer the one question you we had asked"? Any advice? I kind of am writing the essay but didn't make up a question for it yet.

Folk-I totally agree, except I find it hard to cut extra sentences. That I sometimes leave up to a trusted English teacher, who will tell me when I'm rambling and when I should leave something in because it's significant to my work.

Tonight is my all-nighter night for this week, but I am so psyched that I **may** just crank this essay out. Gotta love adrenaline/caffeine.

I really wanted to do a video essay because I think that would actually capture me a lot better than writing would, but I guess part of the essay is to see how well you can write, so I scrapped the video idea. (Not to mention that a lot of places probably wouldn't bother with it)

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 03:09 pm: Edit

Thedad- I sent you 2 of my essays, not GREAT at all but I thought you may be curious. If anyone else wants to see, you're entitled.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 05:27 pm: Edit

wow i havent been here for awhile! sooooo busy.

Esmerelda-i know what you mean by forgetting everything about chemistry. i am the same way with physics but i dont have enough time to actually STUDY anymore...ehhhhhh i will just hope that Princeton wont REJECT me the first time around so i can send in December/Jan test scores and maybe be considered with the RD applicants.

I got my report card today. ehhhhhh...it could be better. probably my worst showing grades-wise. straight A's, but only 1 A+ and 1 A- (i havnet gotten in A- since sophomore year...). it's sort of upsetting to remember that i once used to get straight A+'s, but i have had to sacrifice a lot this year, and my grades are getting the backseat to other things.

my AP Eng teacher edited my essays and she likes them a lot, more than anything i have ever written. it makes me feel a lot better, because she constantly gives me A+'s on my papers and stuff. i am glad she didnt really change my voice, just made some word choice changes.

i saw one of my recs today from my Latin teacher last year. it truly made me want to bawl my eyes out. it was...amazing. i dont even know how to describe it. i couldnt be she was talking about ME. silly little ME!

everything is coming together now finally, and i am feeling a little better (except for my SAT II's...). i have FIVE MAJOR tests friday which worries me, because i dont know how i will handle a round of standardized testing right after that.

i have finally realized that it isnt the end of the world if i dont get into Princeton. or Cornell. or Yale. or Williams. or MIT. or Johns Hopkins. or wherever else im applying.

im still in a state of panic, but i am feeling much better.

TWINKLE! send me your essays. i will happy to give you feedback after this Saturday...i enjoy reading essays =)

By Ch2 (Ch2) on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 05:43 pm: Edit

Twinkle, I definitely understand what you mean when choosing essay topics. My "activity" essay is pretty serious (and needs major re-writing) whereas my personal statement I wrote this afternoon is more light-hearted and, well, personal. I skipped the second half of the day to go home and write the personal statement. it seems like this week, more than any other week, the teachers have been piling on the homework. I guess it's because the quarter is ending soon.

Meanwhile, I found out more bad news - I now know three other people applying to Yale EA from my school who are much better applicants than me. Last year, one student from my school went to Yale and she was a truly exceptional applicant who got in everywhere. I'm sure I'll be deferred (hopefully not outright rejected) but then I'll be put in the applicant pool in which there will be like 20 people from my school, I'm sure. Oh well, gotta keep thinking positive. I have absolutely NOTHING Yale would want, but I can't give up now.

Goodluck to everyone else with their essays, and finishing up their Early apps by Saturday! I have a feeling I'll still be working on it Saturday. Just hope I get in the mail in time and don't have to drive all the way over to New Haven Saturday afternoon to get it there in time!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 06:29 pm: Edit

Sunshine, I sent them to you, too. Congratulations on the good report card Just think, a few more days and you're done with the ED stuff- not that your life will get easier, but it's one less thing to stress over.

I worked on my essays AT school today during 2nd and 3rd period...kind of out of class but it was so worth it.

Ch2- I actually made my light risky essay connect to something really substantial. My mom loved it. It came out 10x better than my more serious essay, but it's because it was more of a natural write.

Speaking of the quarter ending, the teachers are loading on the work. Ugh. I never understood that... it equates to more work for them to grade.

I'm contemplating staying home tomorrow because I really need to get caught up on some work, and I DO actually have bronchitis (yuck) so it wouldn't be an illegitimate excuse. I do want to be rested up for the SAT IIs Saturday, though. I'm trying not to think about them too much...I wanted to review a lot of math but I'm not going to have that much time. We'll see.

Government essays...later peeps.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 01:23 am: Edit

Is it just me, or does anyone else have a problem with going over the word limit in essays? I rewrote my second essay (took out half the paper and redid it), but nonetheless, it is still well over the word limit. I always seem to need 1.5-2 pages to get the whole story across.

If you do happen to edit one of my essays, do me a favor and just hack it up if you have to. I seriously won't be offended. I have had a hard time getting people to tear apart the better of the two, but I know it's not perfect by any means.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 01:39 pm: Edit

I won't do a line by line edit...don't think that's cricket. But the thing that separates an okay writer from the good writer is in knowing what to cut or condense and having the discipline to do so.

Twinkle, I've got to be someplace with little to do for an hour or two this afternoon...I'll read your essays then and drop you an e-mail when I get back, probably mid-afternoon my time.

By Ch2 (Ch2) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 03:40 pm: Edit

I've finally been getting some progress done with the essays. I e-mailed both of my rough drafts (for the activity and the personal statement essays) to my oldest sister and she responded with a lot of good criticism and encouragement. I just have to figure out where to take my activity essay and how to wrap it up in an effective way. Then, I need to think of another small anecdote/incident to fit in the body of my Personal statement and then I'm almost done. Yay! If you want, Twinkle, I will read/critique your essays, but I probably won't have time until after I get this application in Saturday. Just an offer.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 06:09 pm: Edit

okay I'm panicking about the yale apps now. We can still send it on friday right? And it'll get there. all that matters is when it's postmarked, yes?
In school news, I have an A in Calc. (yay!) I got a really really low B on the test, and, yeah, I was a bit disapointed, but hey, at least I didn't get a D! My friend was borderline C/B and she got an A on the test (she studied A LOT) and I am so happy for her, because she got a B. she was ESTATIC. I really think she can go BAA this semester and get a semester grade of an A!
I also did well on the physics test. *sigh* I'm one of the top four test grade wise in the class. And this test brought me up there. Unfortunately the three person team for the competition next week was chossen before this test (copetition members are chosen by test grades). ah well. I wish AP Physics wasn't so hard. Last year I breazed through honors physics (I took a three week course at CTY the summer before for physics and THEN found out they wouldn't let me use that class for placement) and I got the highest grade in all the honors physics classes for all four quarters. That's not the case this year. But, oh well, it doesn't bother me. (ok, it does a little, but whatever.)

Oh, and I want to appoligize for sounding like such a prick on this board. I really really don't mean to complain about stupid things. I'm sure you all think it's kinda arrogant of me to think that fourth is bad. I know it's not. But it does still bother me, and I can't talk to my friend at school about it, because, well, it would make them feel bad or uncomfortable. Actually, I don't talk about achedemics at school AT ALL. Which is probably why I fret about it so much here. Sorry again.

Anyways. I have a hamlet essay due tomorrow that i need a 83 on, and the Yale thing I'm sending out tomorrow afternoon. I've decided, I'm not taking the chemsistry SAT II on Saterday even though I wrote in my Yale Part I that I was going to, I"m sure many people change last minute and I already have math and bio, so there shouldn't be a problem. I just don't have time to study for it. Writing will be hard enough....argh

Then I have to finish my halloween costume saterday after the test for the party that night.

that is, unless, i don't finish my yale essay. Then I'll just be in tears all weekend. I spent all last night (well, until 4 am), trying to write my nursing home essay. I have bits and pieces but nothing to tie it together. I'm so frightened. And my hamlet essay is bad. I wish my mother let me stay home from school tomorrow, so I can finish my Yale application. I would finish my school essay and send it in with a friend. *sigh* but I don't think i could ask her, and I don't think she'd say yes. oh well.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 07:49 pm: Edit

Thedad- whenever is fine. I appreciate that someone would take the time to help me with my writing, so no rush. Keep in mind that they were essays that were allowed to be that long... for colleges that use the common app, I've got to cut everything down to 500 words if I use the same essays. You'll figure out quickly which one I really liked A LOT, so I want to keep that one, but I don't know if I'll use #2. I'll see after I get comments back.

I sent my first app out, woohoo!! I had to. So the essays and everything go AS IS, but I'm not totally worried about it. I know I'll get in most likely (not to sound like I'm being totally conceited because I'm not @ all) but the question is will I be good enough to get the full ride. And the answer to that is, I don't know. I have no idea of what/who I'm up against. It cost $13.85 to rush mail it, but it was worth it. There are also no grades from this year on it so far...yay!

I registered for December 6th SAT Is. I'm psyched up this time because I'm going to beat this sucker for once and for all. Plus, I'm not taking it at my school- I'm taking it at the same school where I took my SAT IIs and for whatever reason I liked the room where I was taking the test so maybe I'll luck out again.

Ch2- Sure, I'll send you the essays if you'd like to see them. I'll send them Saturday so I don't bother you before then.

Esmerelda- You're right, there is no shame in being 4th but the academic pressure, etc. is completely understandable. It's okay to obsess over it every now and then, but just keep your perspective straight because the way you're going, you're going to be fine.

I did really well this quarter for grades. I have a 93 in government which tied for the highest in the class... we have some really tough tests but I'm slowly figuring out how to beat them. Testing is just a strategy game combined with some studying. What else... a 97 in Italian, a 96 in Spanish, 98 AP Psych, a A-/B+ in English... not too sure... but um... my gym grade is like a C/D simply because my teacher really does NOT like me. I hate that class with a passion and wherever she can take points off my grade, she DOES. But I love the underclassmen in our gym class. They're so fun. Me and one of my best friends, 2 of the only seniors in the class, have become like queens of the class. The underclassmen love us, and we have a blast with the juniors and sophomores. Sophomore boys are so adorably awkward, but some of them are actually fun to hang around. We had this completely psycho volleyball game with like 12 people on each team (our gym classes are HUGE!) which is totally not allowed, but this class wasn't being graded anyway.

And yes, when report cards come out and that flagrant C/D grade is there, I am SO protesting that all the way to the school board. There is no reason why I have to lose my chance at salutorian over a complete waste like P.E.

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed that a lot of the seniors in their class have a SEVERE maturity problem? A lot are being so dramatic, petty and immature. I have friends that I want to tell to grow up, too, right now. It's not even the maturity issue so much... the underclassmen are not exactly mature but they don't grate on my nerves, either. I'm not even part of the immature drama, but I just don't feel like being part of it, or around anyone who constantly makes a big deal out of nothing. Maybe I'M changing. I don't know. I've been hanging more with the b/f (who already picked out his homecoming attire and played it safe so almost anything I'd wear match it... yay... and it was nice too because he knows me well enough where he knows what colors I would and actually wouldn't wear), and there are about ten seniors that I actually want to be around right now. People need to grow up and not ruin their senior year with stuff they're going to look back and regret that they made a big deal over.

Hamlet essay that I've beaten to death and have decided to revamp completely. Goodbye everyone!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 08:30 pm: Edit

*sigh* i am dying of stress. 4 HUGE tests tomorrow (one got moved) that i dont have time to study for, so i am flat out not going to school tomorrow, because its not worth the sleepless night which has a direct correlation to low SAT scores. i'm only going in for Calc because i NEED to take that test tomorrow or the teacher will kill me. i also need to go in for AP Gov beause my teacher is having me read over my rec before he sends it...but calc and gov are back to back so i will only be at school for an hour and a half.

otherwise, i have officially given up on SAT II studying. Math IIC will be 750-800, Writing will be 660-720 (ugh), and physics is going to be right around 600 (!!!!!!). i know this is going to ruin me at Princeton but i think my sanity and health are more important than a stupid test score. i just hope they dont REJECT me outright so i can send in new scores after Dec 6th.

my essays are on the brink of completion. i need to do some minor edits tonight. i had my parents read them over, and they both told me that they sounded *really me* which i suppose is a good thing.

next week for me is a 3-day week because THurs/Fri are parent teacher conferences. thus its a 4-day weekend. i am going to Skidmore the 8th/9th which im excited for. as long as i get past this week, i will be okay. the thought of making up all the tests i will miss tomorrow makes me want to cry though.

*sigh* i just came to the conclusion that finishing my Princeton essays and appliaction properly is more important than a few dumb tests at school, and sleep is more important than all of that. my parents are totally okay with me not going to school tomorrow, so yay for that.

Twinkle-i got your essays. i havent had time to read them yet, but expect an edit sometime next week!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 11:28 pm: Edit

Esmerelda, I believe it's actually okay as long as it's postmarked on Saturday. Working in tandem here: D's working on #1 essay. She filled out the Part II in hardcopy and I'm entering that data on-line and doing a cut-and-paste on the #2 essay. I just hope the #1 essay is okay. Ther #2 is essay is about visiting the Renaissance Faire and does a pretty good job of revealing her, imo.

Twinkle, check your e-amil. Congrats on the app getting in. Connecticut?

Sunshine, good luck on Saturday. D's taking her last shot on the SAT II's as well.

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 11:48 pm: Edit

Is there anyone who could help me choose between two "Why UChicago?" essays? I know it's late to ask, considering EA apps are due Saturday, but I honestly never thought I would ever reach my 6th draft of ANY essay, or that I'd still hate them all!!! Please!!!!

By Sandy (Sandy) on Friday, October 31, 2003 - 02:35 pm: Edit

I just wanted to wish good luck to all EA/ED applicants. My Rice ED stuff went out on Tuesday. *lets out a big sigh of relief*

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Friday, October 31, 2003 - 03:07 pm: Edit

stayed home today. I got worse over the night. I think i downed about a milliong cough drops for my throat and used a googleplex of tissues. When I finished my Hamlet essay, I was planning on working on my Yale one, but my mom came in and told me to take tynanol cold and go to sleep.
I woke up at 12, and started working on my essay. This is really bad. It's like i have writers block. I wrote all these memories down about the nursing home, but I cant connect them. I dont' know. I learned a lot at the nursing home, but most of it was just experience. I was working in the alzheimer wing and I saw first hand what a terrible disease alzheimer is. But I don't want to write a somber essay because I really enjoyed working at the nursing home. There were times where I wanted to cry, when their disease took over, and they were emersed into confussion (every afternoon one woman who was totally normal most of the time would beg us to let her 'go home' because her mother was waiting for her and would be worried.) but most of the time, their alzheimer didn't show, and they were amazing people (they taught me how to play poker and blackjack--which they could remember how to play even when they didn't remember anything else). argh. I just have too many memories to put in one essay. And I dont really know what i'm trying to say.

I was planning on sending it out today, but I think I'll just go to the post office tomorrow. I'm not going to study for SAT II writing adn I'm not taking SAT II chem, so I have yet another night to try to write this essay.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Friday, October 31, 2003 - 04:39 pm: Edit

oh, i forgot to mention that i was sick. That's why I said I got "worse' in the previous message. I had a sore throat all yesterday, but it didn't really bother me until that evening. colds suck.

By Ch2 (Ch2) on Friday, October 31, 2003 - 04:52 pm: Edit

Elsmerelda, sorry you're sick. But just think, after tomorrow you can breathe a little sigh of relief, right? You'll have the Yale app in and SAT IIs done. I'm in a similar writer's block sitaution right now. I finished my personal statement last night and this morning (I took the day off because I was sooo tired and need more time for the essays. Plus, the only thing I was missing at school was a Bio Lab which won't be hard to make-up) and I'm not planning on making any more changes to it. But the activity essay is killing me, and I started it way back in the summer. I'm writing about this sleepaway camp I volunteered at this summer that was for inner-city children affected by HIV/AIDS. I have a lot of really good memories and cried several times at the end of the camp (so it obviously meant SOMETHING to me) but I just can't get it down right. It all ends up sounding like a string of cliches. ARGH. Hoping to finish it by 8pm so I can go out for a little while tonight. It's only 4:45 and already the kids are coming. In any case, good luck on your essay, it sounds like you have a lot of really good stuff to work with so I'm sure it will turn out very well.

Oh, question: I'm sending in the paper version of Part II. I typed up my own activity list (using their format), should I staple that on front of the activity list they gave in Part II? It just seems kind of weird. And staple the essays on, too, I guess. Also, the 6 lines they agve wasn't enough to fit the courses I'm taking this year. I remember reading on the board that someone typed up their courses and pasted them on the space so they could fit. Do you think this is an OK idea?

GOOD LUCK! FINALLY ONE STEP OF THIS COLLEGE APPLICATION PROCESS IS ALMOST OVER! AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

By Folk_Hero (Folk_Hero) on Friday, October 31, 2003 - 06:31 pm: Edit

Esmerelda, I sympathize. I tried to finish my essays last night, but I couldn't breathe (baaad cold) or think. I gave up and decided to stay home today and finish. Sent it off today at 4, but for some reason I don't feel that relieved.

Maybe for your essay you need some object, some pivot point, like a photo, to hold it together. I'd focus on only one person, use lots of imagery, and analyze your role in the relationship and why you enjoyed it.

It's funny, but when I'm working on an app, I honestly cannot find any reason for them to reject me. It's so hard to distance yourself, so hard not to care while you're trying to write something heartfelt about why you want to go there.

Ch2, I strongly suggest that you fill in their chart in addition to slipping in your chart. I have been to too many info sessions where AOs have complained about kids not following directions and skipping it. They need to fill out a tiny card from your app, and can't go looking for the info in your resume or whatever.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Friday, October 31, 2003 - 09:49 pm: Edit

It's funny, but when I'm working on an app, I honestly cannot find any reason for them to reject me. It's so hard to distance yourself, so hard not to care while you're trying to write something heartfelt about why you want to go there.

i TOTALLY agree. i dont see one reason why i should be rejected, but im sure there are a million..

oh well im off to bed. good luck tomorrow guys who are SAT II-bound!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 01:21 pm: Edit

SAT IIs suck, suck, SUCK. The math was horrible. I really did not know how to do 1/2 of it, and when I tried different ways of doing the problems none of my answers would answer the choices given, so I'd try and substitute and that didn't work either. Forget the weird IQ-test like geometry ?s... complete nightmare. Plus, I was literally choking to death through the whole thing (definitely not attractive... I will readily admit that I sound disgusting, yet the boy two seats behind me asked for some of my Gatorade during a break. Seriously, I don't think people think sometimes.) I left around 4-6 blank and probably got at least seven wrong. I expect a 500, to be honest, so no beating that 560 from last time.

The writing went VERY well though... I wrote my essay on abortion and I actually KNEW 95% of the grammatical problems/corrections in the sentences. I'd like to hope for a 700 on that, but I don't want to be overconfident.

Now, there is no predicting a score on the Literature (I took it... I figured I'd like to have 3 SAT IIs OTHER than math, hence why I'm leaving the US at 720) was not too bad. The poetry was difficult though because I have little experience with it, so I really had to whip out those analyzational/ deductive reasoning skills. A lot of it was how YOU interpreted it though... so I can't say if I did good or bad. I have mixed feelings about the test... I did better than math. I guess I'll take a stab at it and predict a 600ish score. What IS iambic pentameter? There was a werid question about where in a stanza you'd pronounce a 1 syllable word as a 2 syllable word... I was SO confused, so I just skipped that one after deciding reluctantly not to guess. It doesn't make sense to guess when you have no idea what the ? is asking.

Get better everyone!!!!!! How did the apps turn out?

Thedad- That app was for University of Connecticut for a shot at a full tuition/R+B scholarship. I was looking through my college stuff the other day and I looked through my Barnard stuff again... how much would a reach Barnard be? I like the fact that it's in New York City and that you can take classes at Columbia with boys. It has a lot of positives going for it. I think its acceptance rate is 37% (not 100% sure) but figures for women's colleges can be misconstrued. Plus, since it's in the city, there won't be shortages of time spent with boys, so I wouldn't be deprived necessarily. The only thing is the money factor...it's expensive to go to college in NYC in terms of basic living/entertainment costs, not to mention the tuition... if I went all my parents' $ for me would be going toward college so there wouldn't be any left over for fun stuff or supplies or anything like that. BTW, I will e-mail you back after the essays have been recorrected/edited.

"It's funny, but when I'm working on an app, I honestly cannot find any reason for them to reject me. It's so hard to distance yourself, so hard not to care while you're trying to write something heartfelt about why you want to go there."

I CAN see why they'd reject me (the whole math situation, ECs changing) but then I look at the app as a whole and the individual parts and I distance myself, and I can see the compensating factors as well and why I'd still be a viable candidate at many schools. I can completely understand why at the most competitive schools I could easily be rejected because I'm missing stuff that so many other kids have- i.e. having a sub-1400 SAT score- they don't HAVE to admit someone who doesn't have that if they have everything else great- they have plenty of kids who have the whole package, and aren't missing components. I know I'm a good candidates, but it's a mix...there's a lot of awesome, but then there are things that may be red flags to an adcom. It all depends on whether I get a compensating read or not... and even after that, admissions is a crapshoot because perfectly qualified, great kids get rejected from schools all the time.

I like my recommendations the best so far... they say all the things about me that I could never say and they really emphasize what it took to get the grades, the depth of my extracurricular involvement, and more so, what I bring to my school...all the intangible personal qualities are explicitly stated in them. So I feel *very* good about those. My transcript looks okay too... upward grade trend is always a plus. My senior year isn't on there yet, but it will be soon enough...that will need some explaining but the grades are very good. Being unbalanced (all humanities courses) isn't necessarily bad. It's just different, and maybe an adcom will understand that some kids just need to do different things. I can't worry about how THEY will see it... all I know is how I would see it and I'm going to try to angle the application from that POV.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 03:11 pm: Edit

Howdy y'all. I return from my recent hiatus. Hope everyone is doing well.

Since several weeks ago, my college list has changed slightly. I'm now sure I'm applying to 8 schools, and I have 7 picked out. I have an open slot ready for the eigth school. There are 4 tentatives: Washington and Lee University, Duke, George Washington University, and Notre Dame. My Dad wants me to apply to ND, but I'm really not liking the idea of spending the next 4 years in Indiana.

Got the Writing SAT II out of the way. I signed up for both Writing and Math IIc, but earlier this week I concluded I wasn't ready for the math, so I'm taking that in December instead. I'm a severe procrastinator, so I didn't start studying until Wednesday. I have Math and Lit. 12/6, so I only recently returned from getting my Lit. prep book(s). I believe the essay topic was something like "Discontent is the first step to a solution" or something. I wrote about a flat tire. It was pretty good, except I didn't really get a chance to finish. We'll see how that goes.

Applications have not been started. Part I to Cornell was sent in about a week and a half ago, but other than that, I've done nothing. I should get my recs back in about 2 weeks, and then comes the nightmare of filling out the "guidance counselor recommendation forms" and the transcript request forms. That isn't going to be too fun. I think I have to start my essays tonight.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Sunday, November 02, 2003 - 03:48 pm: Edit

Twinkle-- you up for making our 7th thread? No rush, but the number of messages is getting up there.
I have had the best and the worst weekend.
It started out like a weekend from hell. I finally wrote a first paragraph for my essay I liked at about 8 at night. A FIRST PARAGRAPH! The fear that had become a constant buzz increased in intensity. It was hard to think. I finished the essay by 12:30 though. It's weird. while I had earlier spent more than 25 hours writing more than 10 pages of fragmented memories, unusable introductions, and listed outlines, I only took about four hours to write the actual essay that I used. One problem: it was 780 words. The prompt asks for about 500 words.
. . . crap
But, I decided to leave cutting down the essay to Saterday. I had SAT II writing saterday morning, and needed at least some sleep the night before.
I feel asleep at 1. I was happy with my essay. I wrote about this old woman with alzheimers disease and how difficult it was for me to deal with her fluctuating condition. One moment she'd seem normal, the next she would beg me to go home.
anyways, I took the test, but I'm not thinking about it. I don't want to worry if I did badly and I don't want to be overly confident either. Anyways, after the test, I was really scared because someone told me the post office closed at noon on saterdays! EEP! I got out of the test at 10:30. Luckily that girl was misinformed. THe post office closed at 4 ( i called). So, i had my dad come over, and he helped me cut out words. He was really helpful. He emphasized that I had the final say in all the cutting decisions. If I didn't want to get rid of a phrase that he thought was repetative, he wouldn't push the point. I don't think I could have cut my essay 280 words if he hadn't been there. I was way too attached to my words. He pointed out every sentence or phrase that seemed unnecessary or redundant. Anyways, I finished at about 2 or so. I got everything together and got it to the post office a long with my Maryland application. heh, one of my friends turned her app in 5 minutes before the post office closed. scary.
Then I started on my costume. I drove to my grandmother's house, and we started over. She had made me a skirt, but the shirt didnt match so we decided to just make a long toga from one piece of material. It worked out okay. The first time I put it on, i was skeptical. THe entire thing was too big, especially the top (the bottom could be big because it was supposed to be flowy) but it looked like I was swiming in a sea of cloth. So, we cut off 2 inches on every side of the top and it looked a lot better. My costume turned out pretty well. It was not fantastic, but for 2 hours work, pretty good. Then I went home and showered, got dressed, and went to the halloween party. It was nice. YOu know that guy who brought me to hc? Well, I think he likes me too. He was with me a lot of the night. We dance together a lot. Then, i found out that he hadn't turned in his priority application for Maryland! (the part one was due today) At 11:30, I told him that he HAD to go and do the app online. then he asked me out. and yeah. :-) I made him go home though. :-( because he really did have to do that application. He turned it in with one minute to spare. heh. still. life is good.

Now i have all this work to do because i was sick on friday. I'm pretty sure I have straight As this quarter except for maybe college but this homework is for next quarter. Ah well. :-) While the begining of the weekend really sucked and was full of massive amounts of stress, the end was pretty damn good. :-) *sigh* I'm still all atwitter.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, November 02, 2003 - 05:52 pm: Edit

Okay...I'll go make the ***7th*** thread now

By Nyu2010 (Nyu2010) on Monday, December 15, 2003 - 02:32 pm: Edit

Opening night is drawing closer, and one can almost feel the excitement in the air. The stage managers look forward to the time when they are center stage, the time when they get to present what they have been doing in their time behind-the-scenes. It is the feeling of anticipation of the director. It is the desire to show all of the hard work of the actors. And it is my own excitement, the excitement that has been building since I was chosed to be an intern at the Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre Festival.
To say the least, the whole production company is beginning to feel the pressure of the impending event. Fulfilling my duties such as managing the sets and stage is familiar to me, and brings about a reminiscient feeling of past plays and productions in which I have been lucky enough to be a part of. Although the days are busy, I would not want to spend my summer days any other way. There is nothing more enjoyable than working with other people to make a dramatic production. This is how I would like to spend the summer of 2004 and why I would make a total commitment to the program.