illo tempore mihi visum est

Confessions of a Prep School College Counselor

baseln:

Nothing makes today’s Ivy League admissions officer sit up and take notice more than a flak jacket and flying shrapnel—that is, as long as it’s accompanied by a 5 on the AP physics exam and a combined SAT score of 1420 or better. For the most part, the current books on the subject of elite-college admissions share a numbing sameness, although I did find The Princeton Review’s College Admissions remarkable for its rather caustic counsel: “Misspellings in your application can make you look like a moron,” it advises, and “You probably should not attach a photograph to your application if you are very overweight.” I’d like to have most of these books burned.

Skimmed this article due to time constraints of not failing out of med school, but I think the author’s message is compelling. Among other reasons, I wanted to go to Harvard because 30 of my high school classmates got into Harvard and if I didn’t get in it would be an ego issue. I was pretty happy my four years there, took some very rewarding classes, took some really joke classes, made great friends, but probably emerged from college not much different than other graduates except: I know how to sound way smarter than I actually am.

I don’t even know how much my thoughts have to do with the article itself so much as what I felt, reading about the application process again and how traumatic it is and… well, yeah. I remember @ankerwycke calling me on my way home and offering to check my email for me as soon as the clock hit five on early admission notification day - to be honest, I don’t remember if I let him, just answering my phone as I was walking up the street from the train station and him asking if I’d gotten in. I remember the bizarre “wtf are you serious” that was Yale’s animated and musical acceptance email. but I’m pretty sure the memory that will always stick out about the whole process is breaking down in hysterical tears at the dinner table and telling my parents, selfishly, that I wanted to turn down a full scholarship to a perfectly good local school so I could go to the Ivy League. they never pushed for that; that was all me. and they’re proud of me and I did fine and I really loved it, but it was a lot of money and I honestly couldn’t tell you if it was worth it. I hope it was. I guess I’ll know in twenty years, when I’m finally done paying off my student loans. but on the bright side, I am the QUEEN of name-brand education! /late night ramblings