Journal Summaries and Timeline Notation

College Majors Music Major
1

I have been wanting to make a summary of the GoForth Journal (http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1839205-goforth-journal-p1.html). It is lengthy and full of detail, but then the ability to zoom out and review is not what it could be. I was thinking of a format or at least a nomenclature such as that below. I don’t know if the “month numbers” help - they help me because I am number and picture oriented. So, I could have this as a key and say “during [-16] we realized it was too late to apply to summer camps”, for example. You know that means 16 months before the nominal start of college, bearing in mind the gap-year option may also be notated this way. Or maybe month 0 is HS graduation. So, I thought I could make a paragraph for each month of our preparations into a nice summary. Maybe we would eventually have several of these, and we could see patterns and at least have a reminder sheet for those who are to come next. How would you like to see it?

Month Event

-25 HS Rising Junior July :
-24 HS Junior August :
-23 HS Junior September :
-22 HS Junior October :
-21 HS Junior November :
-20 HS Junior December :
-19 HS Junior January :
-18 HS Junior February :
-17 HS Junior March :
-16 HS Junior April :
-15 HS Junior May :
-14 HS Rising Senior June :
-13 HS Rising Senior July :
-12 HS Senior August :
-11 HS Senior September :
-10 HS Senior October :
-9 HS Senior November :
-8 HS Senior December : Auditioned at X and Y
-7 HS Senior January : Auditioned at Z and Q
-6 HS Senior February :
-5 HS Senior March :
-4 HS Senior April : Received offers
-3 HS Senior May :
-2 HS Gradutae June :
-1 HS Graduate July :
0 College Freshman August : Arrived at college
1 College Freshman September :
2 College Freshman October :
3 College Freshman November :
4 College Freshman December :
5 College Freshman January :

2

GoForth, your journal is an engrossing narrative and your intention, I know, was to help others. This latest idea shows even more of a desire to help others, by making certain specific topics contained in your journal, more easily accessible to future readers.

My personal view, as you know, is that your journal is a bit of a one-of-a-kind and should probably stay as it is. Spartan Drew’s journal this past year has created a wonderful community.

However, as you have perceived, for newbies and future lurkers there is a need to have access to specific questions and topics so that people don’t have to read 40+ pages in your journal and 100+ in Spartan Drew’s in order to access information on those specific items.

If you are thinking of a table of contents kind of thing, that is incredibly kind of you but I wonder if the chronology of your journal is pretty clear, since it proceeds pretty straightforwardly from start of application period to enrollment and beyond. I think it is still of benefit as it is, without any further work. People can jump in approximately and then go ahead or back a few pages to find what they are looking for.

That said, I still hope more people will post specific questions and topics on separate threads rather than as part of a “journey” thread.

I would also hope the sense of community could continue somehow, because the “journey” threads seem to have inspired quite a bit of camaraderie and even friendships. For the past 11 years I have pursued those via PM’s mainly so that is always an option.

Your idea is both interesting and generous, so just giving my two cents. I think your journal is relatively user-friendly. For new readers of the music forum, you can always do a search to find a specific topic within the long “journey” threads including GoForth’s Journal. At least I think that would work. What do you think, GoForth?

3

I will listen and collect the ideas. I felt some opportunity to have something of a gameplan or roadmap or checklist. There are so many possible paths, that I can procuce only one not necessarily balanced example. It seems if we had 10 examples, kind of like the several examples in double degree dilema, that can be viewed at a glance, maybe there is some use. Let’s consider.