<p>:) ten char</p>
<p>Don’t use the expression “citizen of the world” in your essay. </p>
<p>After DS put it in his essays and sent the kit off to all the schools, I read the essays by other CC applicants and groaned at how many times everyone else wrote the same cliche…</p>
<p>^ Haha, that saying never crossed my mind, for some reason 
But my trap was the superfluous factor…I’m notorious for being redundant. Thus, lesson learned: Please read over your essays-carefully. Seriously; don’t give me that look!</p>
<p>It’s 11:30 and I just texted my Big Blue kid goodnight, after realizing we hadn’t communicated for two days. This sparked a rapid fire 5 minute back and forth about nothing and everything. It was nothing, in the sense that there was no real news to report on either side. It was everything, as I truly appreciated the dialogue, made more special by the physical distance. </p>
<p>Lesson learned; quality over quantity.</p>
<p>^^ You get so much more with a light touch. My wife, who is the quiet one, gets the best scoops because she rarely plays the inquisitor. I struggle with this approach because I love to ask questions!</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>CC classic</p>
<p>Thanks for bumping this @payn4ward. #45 was my first post. Good times. I remember stumbling upon CC that April after it was “all over” and feeling like I’d just scraped by on a grueling test without ever knowing there was a study group.</p>
<p>CC heightened my fears; everyone seems so perfect here…;)</p>
<p>Be yourself!! That’s so huge! I didn’t practice at all for either of my interviews. I just went in, told the truth, and laughed. Like a lot. 
Same thing for my essays. I honestly loved some of my sentences the most, because every time I read them, I would laugh to myself. Or because I though that they really portrayed me. I would rather be rejected as myself, than be accepted as a copied & pasted unoriginal (not me). </p>
<p>Applicants really need to relax. On the essay, the interview, and the whole process. I actually was a stressed-out piece of nothingness for the 1.5 months after I sent in my app until decisions were made. And I really didn’t have to be. Not only because I am happy with the outcome, but because there was nothing I could do at that point. Instead I lurked on CC, and looked at all the chance me threads with amazing stats. That definitely lowered my hopes. ;)</p>
<p>This is off topic now, but my point is relax. Be comfortable in your own skin when you interview or write an essay. Don’t be afraid to write something you think is funny (as long as it fits the topic). Go into the interview smiling, and prepared to laugh! Because truly, a prep school isn’t the be all and end all. :)</p>
<p>What is hilarious to me now (but unbelievably stressful to me then :)) was that my Choate application was all ranting and no substance. For me, ignorance was true bliss. I was able to just be myself…until I encountered the curse that knowledge truly is. For example, when someone is asked to tap out a song for a partner to detect, the listeners only understood around 10% of the time, whilst the tapper thought that the percentage was much much higher (I forgot the exact source of this, sorry). What led to this erroneous estimate was because the tappers already knew the song. The tune was buzzing in their mind as they tapped; however, this was not true of the listeners.</p>
<p>When I was faced with all these statistics, daunting in their lottery like odds. I started modeling myself after a fictional, fantastical applicant, with glowing numbers and deep, philosophical essays. It forced me to become something I wasn’t, and when I re-read some of my essays, I noticed that they sounded like an advertisement. It’s hard to remain yourself when things look so bleak, but just persevere. The boarding schools are not looking for pyrite, or clean-cut diamonds. The schools offer opportunity and experience to hone and better yourself. My fatal flaw was trying to become a gleaming cut gem. Sometimes diamonds in the rough are better, glistening with potential.</p>