<p>Great. Now I only have 9 schools I'm definitely applying to. 8 of them are top 20 schools, so I'm trying to add one or two safeties/matches so I'll definitely have SOME schools to choose from in April. :</p>
<p>Dear class of 2007 prospects,</p>
<p>I hate to tell you this bad news, but unfortunately, the truth is that about half of your high school classes, regardless of motivation, grades, and activities, will get some form of what people call "senioritis". Senioritis, as it is obviously not a medical disease or mental disorder, is most likely a combination of various issues, and thus does not always appear, but there are certain things that can lead to the stress, apathy, "burning-out", and disinterest that can cause senioritis. I have made a list of things you can do, prevent from acquiring problems such as these. You can also suggest some things to your teachers and school officials.</p>
<p>Things you can do:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Make sure you make a regular schedule for approaching your college applications, seeing your college counselor, and other such duties. Do not get stuck writing drafts for college essays a week before you send them out. Have your college counselor look over them, or even ask your English teacher. They would really like to see how your writing has improved, and could give you some fantastic suggestions.</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure you keep your college information organized and readily accessible. If you always can see your 'college timetable' when you need to, you will feel less pressure because you will know exactly what you should be doing when its required. With that worry out the window, more of your focus can be on your classes and schoolwork.</p></li>
<li><p>Do not participate in too many new responsibility-heavy activities your senior year. Moving up the ranks on previous activities is great, but with each move up is triple the responsibility. Being the president of three clubs is a lot of work, and you need to plan well to have them mesh with your college responsibilities and your classes. </p></li>
<li><p>As a senior, do something you have not done in your school career before, just to mix things up. Try out being in a musical, or take a class in painting, or join a low-stress club like photography or a book group. I joined a graphic novel bookgroup, and it was a really fun social group of people.</p></li>
<li><p>Connect with some underclassmen. I assure you that you will get disinterested in some of your senior peers soon enough, and I highly advise talking to some 11th graders, even some 10th and 9th graders as a change. I assure you that you will feel a little better about yourself, even if you do a frew harmless pranks to a few freshies. </p></li>
<li><p>Do not pull more than 3 all-nighters a year, and don't even try to suffer that many. It will just make you more anxious and uncomfortable with yourself and your work. </p></li>
<li><p>Spend less time on CollegeConfidential and Facebook (this is probably impossible, but you will get bonus points). </p></li>
<li><p>Make your college counselor a good friend, even if he is a busy disinterested person. Push the right buttons and most people can become allies. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Unfortunately the euphoria cannot really be contained when you get accepted to a college, especially a college thats one of your top choices, but you must keep in mind that you are not there yet.</p>
<p>This thread died.</p>
<p>Who else here is desperately looking for essay topics!?</p>
<p>I'm pretty good on essays except for MIT's end of the world as we know it and I feel fine essay, and Harvey Mudd's do something witty GO!</p>
<p>I have good essay topics, but I just can't write the "good essay" part. Ergh. I spent 2 hours yesterday on my essays, and only came up with one sentence I liked.</p>
<p>Perhaps a better question would be "who else is feeling like banging their head against any hard surface?" lol.</p>
<p>haha thats a sick essay topic. (HM's)</p>
<p>make an acrostic poem to every claremont college except HM. see how well that goes over.</p>
<p>ooooorrrrrr write "well i did it. did you see?"</p>
<p>It's not the topics I struggle with so much as the, um, actual writing. I have a hard time with the self-promotion aspect, even indirectly (of course we're not supposed to literally say, "I am a wonderful person", but even implying it feels disingenuous)... I don't seem capable of writing anything that isn't in some way self-deprecating.</p>
<p>Why do they even want us to write essays? It is pointless after all these tests and writing tests and essays, we have to write more essays!</p>
<p>I actually find the writing and editting essays the best part of this application process. It's the only way I would be able to acquire some degree of freedom to express myself in MY personal manner, which is quite a liberation. </p>
<p>Oh, and editing. Although it may seem like a slow, dull process, I loved it still because I could always meddle around with a myriad of weird words and phrases. It's like pulling together pieces of puzzle to eventually create a nice portrait of myself. </p>
<p>Speaking of puzzles, I find this whole admissions process a BIG puzzle game. You work for several years, and at the end, collect everything you need and piece them together like a puzzle. Then, when the admissions officials are forming their new freshman class, they also select candidates and then piece them together into a new diverse class, making a complete picture of the puzzle. </p>
<p>I also got an idea: since we all acknowledge that senior year will be "kind of" messy, why don't we make a master CHECK LIST of things that needs to be done in order of revelance and chronology before our apps are due? How does that sound?</p>
<p>That sounds FANTASTIC. :] I feel so scatter-brained lately.</p>
<p>same here. so who wants to start making the list?</p>
<p>How about starting a NEW THREAD just for that purpose? It could start with "making a spreadsheet of colleges to which you are applying..." OTOH, maybe it should start with college visits, or....</p>
<p>hey seniors, how's everything going?</p>
<p>nothing special here, just want to bump this thread to add some life to it. </p>
<p>By the way, where are you guys applying? By now, I think we should all have a somewhat "finalized" list of schools, especially a secured ED/EA school.</p>
<p>For me, I discussed everything with my parents and came up with a completely revised list. I'm applying ED to JHU. how about you?</p>
<p>Ditto. :] Didn't add any schools, but did take off quite a few, bringing my total private school count to 9. Not bad considering it was formerly hovering around 15+, lol. I'm applying SCEA to Stanford. I'm pretty jealous of the fact that '08 doesn't have to worry about applying ED for Princeton and SCEA for Harvard, though I guess those who are applying EA/ED to other elite schools are going to have a harder time of it.</p>
<p>I brought my list down to 9-10 as well! I think it's final, haha... just need to talk it over with my GC before I get all my recs and everything - most of my friends ALREADY have their recs given to their teachers and finished SATs and everything - I still need to take them AND SAT IIs again. </p>
<p>And also, the master (check)list sounds GREAT. We should have a seperate topic for it and then organize it into a master spreadsheet/table-like document for everyone?</p>
<p>I still have 11-12 schools. I think I am going to keep it that way. I will start with the commonapps and work my way up. Will see how many I actually send in.</p>
<p>I just added two schools and took one out for a current total of 13. It's probably going to stay this way.</p>
<p>And I'm still applying to Yale SCEA.</p>
<p>hey jimmy i'm applying to JHU ed as well
what's your intended major
hope to see you there</p>
<p>It's been WAY too long, you guys. How's it going?</p>
<p>Good news: I narrowed my list down to 11- 7 of which are in MA.</p>
<p>Bad news: I've only finished one app!</p>