<p>Hey there everyone...this post is something that I've been wanting to say for a long time; however, I honestly think that I needed to experience high school through junior year to find the proper words. After seeing all of the stats that everyone posted, firstly I'd like to congratulate everyone: obviously, we are all qualified to attend Columbia. We are all incredible individuals. We are all going to add something to the world. Clearly, if we don't end up at this one university, we are going to be at the place that is right for us. I know everyone has heard this enough times to make you want to kill the next person who says this, but it is the awfully beautiful truth. No one here has anything to worry about.
With high school drawing to a close and the lovely, petrifying announcement due this thursday, I've had not a few epiphanies: I realized that the majority of my time in high school has been spent with my nose in a text book, or doing countless hours of exhausting extracurriculars. There were many times that I wished I could be doing something else - that I wished I could have trimmed the tree with my family instead of memorizing my AP Euro text book, that I could have gone to prom without worrying about impending AP tests. I wish that I could have done things that I truly WANTED to do - not merely things that were required for school work or for clubs. I realized that most people spend their hours in high school doing things that will make them look desirable to their preferred school or that will somehow add a few bumps to their GPA. The majority of time dedicated to community service does not come from the heart - it comes from a desire to look altruistic.<br>
However, the single thing that throbs in my mind is the fact that the education system itself is defunct. At least fifteen minutes of each class I have is filled with a teacher's woes concerning pay cuts. TV shows idolize the kids who don't do their homework. People no longer go to school for the sake of learning, but to get into college, to get the best job, to make the most money, to have the best life - right now, it seems like we are at the end of it all, but really, it never ends. Admissions officers preach their constant desire for diversity and uniqueness in students, yet, they are persistently standardizing us by forcing us to take the SAT and ACT - tests that honestly show nothing at all. It's no secret that the majority of us are tutored for endless hours before we take one of those lovely tests.<br>
So, my question is, what have we become? What are we planning to do with our college educations? Are we going to keep running the treadmill, or are we going to shatter the mold? How is Columbia (or wherever you end up) going to help you help the world? What do you plan to do with your college education that will help you make a difference? As young, idealistic individuals, we are the ones who have the true power to make a change. Personally, I hope to continue building girls' schools in places where women go uneducated. I believe that this will be the first step in mollifying sexism and snuffing out discrimination on every level. I plan to bring awareness where it does not exist. I hope to become a journalist, writer, painter, and model - all things that I must be in NYC for. If it's not Columbia, I'll be at NYU.<br>
I know this may just sound like random rambling...in a way it is. With the decisions coming out this week, I needed a way to say everything that is running through the fissured of my mind. I hope I haven't offended anyone in any way.<br>
I would just like to add how truly excited I am for all of us. I hope we can all accomplish everything we have set out to do. Everyone I've talked to on this blog has been unyieldingly kind - all of you are wonderful. Thank you for everything.</p>
<p>“Are we going to keep running the treadmill?”</p>
<p>I want to build a new treadmill.</p>
<p>I agree with the many points you made in your post.</p>
<p>I plan on using my knowledge to research new medicines. Perhaps I will be one the scientists that will find a cure for cancer.</p>
<p>I LOVE THAT: “Let’s build a new treadmill!” I’m making a T-shirt. Good luck with everything!</p>
<p>welp… you’re getting in</p>
<p>Thanks college262! That’s sweet! But I am HONESTLY SCARED FOR MY LIFE!!!</p>
<p>Thanks iyhowell</p>
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<p>Are you trying to say that you didn’t want to knit?! 
<em>is in shock</em></p>
<p><3</p>
<p>Agree with everything you said. :)</p>
<p>with respect to this i have to say the following: one of the things i am most satisfied with generally regarding my high school career is that i was not really aware of the college process. i was not aware of how competitive many of the best (or highest ranked, not necessarily exactly related) colleges are. i do wish that i could have been perhaps a bit more conscious of it but i think overall my naivete has been beneficial. i have, largely, done what i love to do. i love dance, and i have pursued it passionately. i love music, and i have been heavily involved in many various ways. i’m obsessed with politics, and i campaigned for obama several times, not because i thought it was something to add to my resume but because i genuinely enjoyed it. this sounds practically heretical to say in the company of so many supremely qualified and immensely busy applicants, but throughout my high school career i have tried to make sure to listen to at least one full LP a day, without any distractions or multitasking, something that i can be just as mentally stimulating as reading a textbook, and certainly more enjoyable. i have realized my childhood dream of having my own radio show to play all my most treasured songs and discuss the artists i love with my friends. my class rank is low but i have taken all the most challenging classes possible, learned a ton and succeeded (at least on the AP exams themselves). i didn’t know what the PSAT was when i took it and i didn’t spend a single penny on the SAT. my studying consisted of about an hour on the day before, looking through the test instructions and practice questions on the website, and feeling hopelessly unprepared. i took it once and did well, and i prepared and performed similarly on the ACT. my most crucial point is that i feel a lot of high school is about misplaced effort and extraordinary expectations of academic commitment: i felt unprepared for the tests because our educational system places such an excessive weight on them. i think their difficulty is exaggerated because people confuse importance with the necessary level of preparation. people devote hours and dollars to the SAT because they feel it is necessary, because they feel insecure without it. people do inane extra credit and disregard social lives because they feel compelled to raise their average by a point or half. </p>
<p>the change that is needed in our educational system is a change in expectations (and some important things - i have a whole rant about how socio-economic inequality is perpetuated and encouraged by our education system, and particularly the standardized testing system, and how affirmative action is a well-meaning but misguided way to avoid making fundamental changes and reforms to this system, but i’ll save that for another day). i really appreciated your post iyhowell, and i hope wacked-out columbia applicants will read it years from now and find comfort in your reason.</p>
<p>WOW. What an incredible reply! I am elated that there are people like you! Thank you, thank you for sharing! That really means a lot! I truly hope that we one day can fix the system! God speed!</p>
<p>^ There are few things I enjoy more than sitting down with hot chocolate and spinning an album or two – eyes closed. I totally hear you on that.</p>
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<p>WOW.</p>
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<p>:)</p>
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<p>That is so cool! </p>
<p>I honestly don’t think you have anything to worry about, Axel.</p>
<p>Same. I look around and see friends who have been in steady relationships, who are recognized at a national level for a sport, who have been taking high school slowly but <em>enjoying it</em>. It’s hard to fathom. Getting home at three and taking care to do homework doesn’t exist in our world (most of the time). There’s too much going on; we get home at 10 and cram for tests, scribbling homework during less-intense classes.</p>
<p>My friends and I reassure ourselves that this will all be different in college. We say that in college, we will take care to <em>learn</em> rather than get a 100 on everything for the sake of it. But…there’s grad school admissions to think about. Law school, med school, LSATS, and all the other things I’ll likely find out about in the coming year or two. So will it change? Will we ever be able to relax and enjoy things as they are? God, I hope so. I’ve always been set on going to a top university…if I make it, maybe that’s enough. Maybe, once there, I can slip into the average. The average that, sure, might not have a 4.0. But it’s the average that recalls their Alma Mater with pride because, guess what? They had the time of their life there.</p>
<p>High school’s been a ride, and I’m sure sick of it. Thursday’s going to tell a lot of people if (to them) it was worth it. Well, cheers: no matter what happens, it was worth it. Even if the experience just led us to this thread, to this self-discovery. </p>
<p>Good luck, everyone. <3</p>
<p>Natalie, I got chills from your last line!</p>
<p>man this convo is so deep that i just had to join in</p>
<p>so 1st off i guess, in accordance with this thread’s name, some confessions?</p>
<p>1) i created this account in 9th grade (lolz), but my 2nd post consisted of somethign I posted on cc a week ago (i didnt check my record, so i may be a little off…but my point is i like nvr wrote anything with this til i started freakign out about columbia ed a week ago lol)</p>
<p>2) i began with a quest on community service solely to impress colleges. shame one me.</p>
<p>3) i skipped prom to study for AP’s, since i just got out of hospital after a 2 week stay and was hopelessly behind. my prom date barely had time to find another date, and we havent really even been friend since.</p>
<p>4) I party’ed like hell junior yr, which has come back to haunt me this year, because for the past 4 months, i can say i legitimatelly havent gone to a single social thing, not even a movie. even after columbia apps were done i had to do apps for bunch of other colleges because i felt columbia was too much of a reach. </p>
<p>and now…onto some other rambling (see my next post below lol)</p>
<p>iy, you said that people study just to get in colleges. I think thats too far of a generalization…because in my experience, I have encountered peers who are so driven by simple intellectual curiosity (what all ivies want huh?)</p>
<p>like our valedictorian this year… i asked him for help on physics, a class he took last year. he saw that we were using a new textbook and was like OMG CAN I BORROW THAT??? THERES SO MUCH NEW INFO IN THERE!!! IM FREAKING EXCITED!!! that’s learning…for the sake of learning. and he has 2400, but hes like if i get in wake forest, with full scholarship, ill go there 95 % cuz i love theire ______. and my parents graduated from there. he said he would forgo MIT to go to wake or georgia tech, cuz he hated the weather up there…of course, I respect him totally.</p>
<p>but thats an exception of course. i, for much of 9th and 10th grade, was like alot of kids - learning for colleges, community service for colleges, etc. but starting in junior year, after i researched into colleges and their mission statements and everything else, I really came to ask myself</p>
<p>1) do i deserve to go to an ivy? Do i want to mold myself as a intellectually curious person on my app just to deceive colleges so i can go there and brag about it but not take advantage of anything and party all day?</p>
<p>no. since then, I have been doing reserach on my own for subject that interest me, really learning everything to the core because i realized its all for myself. its for things alot farther than college…its for life. even if i get in a crappy college, if i built a strong foundation for myself and do my best, there is nothing to regret. (ok that was kind of weird/corny, but hope you get the idea).</p>
<p>yeah ok what i said prob wasnt half as deep as iy’s or profound as axel’s but w/e lol</p>
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<p>WOW. And I thought I liked learning… :P</p>
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<p>A little partying is okay ;D</p>
<p>My own confessions:</p>
<p>1) I’ve only wanted to go to Columbia since January, so I haven’t been an Ivy League hopeful all my life like I know many people are. I thought my SATs were too low, so not until I retook them did I think I even had a chance. But since then, I’ve totally fallen in love. I hate that a standardized test may have held me back.</p>
<p>2) I feel like I need to get into Columbia (or if I’m rejected, then a school of similar caliber) because I’ve always felt so disconnected from my school (and my state, really [Arizona]), and I want to prove that someone from my school can actually get someone into an Ivy. (I don’t think anyone has in my school’s history. If I’m wrong, then it’s definitely just a few people.) Everyone at my school expects it from me, and the pressure is killing me… >.<</p>
<p>Good luck to you all again. :)</p>
<p>invisible, I’m from alabama. I feel you. lol</p>
<p>Thank you, iyhowell, for reminding me what actually matters in all this college hoopla. You have inspired me.</p>
<p>Aw, thanks Kumes! That honestly made my night! I really want everyone to feel that way!</p>