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Okay, so my older brother attends the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and I visited him 2 years in a row at halloween, which if youve attended, you know its the sickest ••••••• party out of any college at any time.

So I'm like, Okay ill go there, but now i dont know anything - My grades are pretty •••••• and my scores way below my potential, but I still dont know what school to choose, or even HOW, besides looking at your credentials and limiting yourself to a certain select group of schools. Other than that I think I'd have to visit every single school, and not just take that stupid tour, but room with a student there for a couple of days because thats the only true way to experience college life.

I've applied/ Am applying (im lazy and havent gotten all my applications out) to: Indiana, Wisconsin, Rollins, Eckerd, U of Arizona, ASU, Boulder, Colorado College, Ohio State, Miami of Ohio, Miami University, Northeastern, SUNYs, and backups are CUNYs (i live in new york city).

so please someone give me some advice on how to select them, some websites that help?

also this is a bit off topic, but is collegeconfidential.com website, sort of, what say you, "underground" ? - I was looking at the admission essays, and they have services - please someone tell me that that is a form of cheating and not legit , because i got real confused. thanks alot please respond =D

By Pastyvoigt (Pastyvoigt) on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 12:59 am: Edit

Yea man, EDITED

By Northstarmom (Northstarmom) on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 10:00 am: Edit

My suggestion is meant kindly. I think you should take a year off and do some productive activity such as working a job or doing regular volunteer work in a field that interests you. You do not sound ready for college. Taking time off could help you figure out what you want to do with your life, and then you'd have a better idea of what post h.s. options to pursue. Americorps could be a good program for you to consider participating in.

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 10:20 am: Edit

You are very late in this process. It sounds like you are asking which colleges to select or how to select them. That is what needed to happen prior to senior year. Now is the time to focus on the applications. To select colleges, there is a lot to do. First you must decide on your criteria as far as things like location, size, type of school, availability of programs you are interested in, level of selectivity, how your credentials fit the range needed for admission to that school, and so on. You need to find reach, match and safety schools. Ideally, you should research each school through bulletins from the schools that you send for, their online websites, visting campus, talking with faculty and students in your areas of interest and so on. It sounds like you have not really done that very much. At this point, many application deadlines have passed. Some schools it is not too late but your focus needs to be on presenting a great application which takes a lot of time to do well. In this little post, I cannot help you through such a huge task. You really need to get help from your parents if possible, your own research, getting books on the college application process, and talking with your guidance counselor pronto. As Northstarmom suggested, if you have done very little about college at this point, it might be a good idea to consider a productive year off doing something worthwhile and during that time, going about researching colleges, visiting and applying for the following year.

As far as College Confidential, it is a totally legit service and NOT cheating whatsoever. They are professional college counselors who offer services to help you with the college admissions process. They offer a variety of services for a fee and their advising is done online for the most part. Your parents likely would have to discuss using this service with you as it costs money. As far as the essay service, you may be confused cause they DO NOT WRITE YOUR ESSAYS FOR YOU.....yes, THAT would be cheating (and unwise) no matter where you find such a service. Their college essay service is for advising you regarding your essay. They may help you with choosing topics, but mostly they help with editting your essay drafts and advising you on ways to make it better (but not doing it for you)...kind of like an English teacher might do with a paper but this service is geared to college essay writing (a distinct type of essay) and they are well versed on how to do that well for colleges. So, if you inquire about the service in regard to essays that is what that is about. They offer other college advising services such as college selection, evaluating your stats, helping with the admissions process and so on.

Good luck to you.
Susan

By Governor44 (Governor44) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 05:10 pm: Edit

lol i know the size and all that stuff, and to be honest, i really dont care what type of school it is, except a little on the suburban/rural side.. well maybe my idea of that is skewed since I'm in new york city.

I meant underground, as in it seems like there is a pretty nice online community, and there are sites on there that link to college fun! like bong building etc.

Northern, Its not that I am not ready, I feel as if I dont know if I'll like it or not.. but then again, the society we live in is about money, and nowadays, without a college education you wont become specialized in anything (obviously), and wont make a lot of money. Yes, there are other things besides that, like if you wanted to become a doctor b/c you wanna help people (if ur that morally good), you need enough money to take care of YOURSELF in order to take care of others!

I feel as if people dont take the time to think about anything, and live within this system, blindfolded to the forces around them that push them in certain ways, and make them think certain things.

Any reply would be nice. thanks.

By Jenlikewhoa (Jenlikewhoa) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 05:58 pm: Edit

hey there. my onyl advice is just get those apps in and decide asap.

"I feel as if people dont take the time to think about anything, and live within this system, blindfolded to the forces around them that push them in certain ways, and make them think certain things. "

you have the same type of thinking as my brother. he goes to boulder. very liberal astmosphere. same goes for madison. theres a lot of political activism and protesting. and boulders not incredibly hard to get into. what are yours grades and test scores and stuff?

By Governor44 (Governor44) on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 01:18 am: Edit

gpa is like a 2.8, sat's 1200, 25 act, i have a lot of extracurriculars and solid writing in my essays

wisco and boulder are my #1 and #3 choices

By Governor44 (Governor44) on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 01:18 am: Edit

gpa is like a 2.8, sat's 1200, 25 act, i have a lot of extracurriculars and solid writing in my essays

wisco and boulder are my #1 and #3 choices

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 10:51 am: Edit

You're going to have a tough time getting into U Wisc. as an out-of-state student with those grades. U of Colorado may be more likely. I'd suggest you consider applying to a few of the SUNY schools as a back up.

By Msn56 (Msn56) on Saturday, February 14, 2004 - 08:37 am: Edit

Dear Gov: You need to grow up a bit before heading out to college - otherwise your just going to waste your parents money - there are so many people in the real world who have accomplished nothing and they all say "I have great potential" - potential is useless - as they say - the world is full of unfullfilled genius. IN your one paragraph we can learn a lot about you - you have a foul mouth, you admit to being lazy and you can't even figure out if plagarism is cheating - I suggest that you find some deeper meaning to life and establish a code of ethics for yourself