Every college admissions journey has a hero or heroine. The protagonist of this particular journey has
a 3.87/4.39 UW/W GPA, a 35 ACT, and many APs.
However, our protagonist could not claim to be one of the non-academically talented
who so regularly grace these forums.
Our protagonist hails from a non-magnet California public school, where numbers like his are not
unusual, but only possessed by the highest echelon of the class.
He generally did not give much thought to college. He took no SAT classes, nor did he sign up
for an extracurricular solely to impress the guards at the gates of the colleges.
That is, until he took the SAT for the first and only time, in March of junior year. He began
to panic with the rest of his classmates. Everyone was devising schemes to slay or bypass the dragon guarding
the treasure of a diploma from one of those coveted universities. When college was brought up
in the upper echelons of the protagonist’s class, everyone described the treasure chest they wanted
to open. Some chests were crimson, others were striped orange and black, still others were a
rather simple blue. Our hero’s was cardinal.
When December came, our protagonist was pleased to find that he had been deferred. Perhaps the guards at the gates
were impressed with his essay writing. Perhaps his nonacademic pursuits were not as unremarkable as he had believed.
Perhaps Fate had favored him.
Now, every application has been sent.
Our hero awaits responses from:
Stanford (deferred SCEA)
UChicago
Northwestern
UC-Berkeley
Haverford
Claremont-McKenna
Carnegie Mellon
Lafayette
This is the beginning of the end. But our protagonist has learned something already. He had
misidentified the dragon guarding the treasure and the treasure itself. The true dragon is not any group of
people, but a certain societal influence. An influence that manifests in parents and students in
high school, sometimes even earlier. It urges its victims to devote as much of their life
to what they will take to the admissions office as humanly possible. It threatens its victims with
doomsaying, prophecies of “mediocrity” that, it assures its victims, will come to pass if they
commit the slightest error. It repeats these prophecies to its victims whenever the victims do something that
is not work toward that vague “success” that it never ceases to talk of. Our protagonist has come to suspect that this
“success” is almost purely monetary.
The true dragon runs rampant on these very forums.
As for the treasure itself, it is simply a fulfilling life. A fulfilling life that the true dragon prevents one from living.
In two or so months’ time, there will be an update on the end of the Journey.
After you go through the thought process needed to make your decision, you will LOVE the school you pick. Your three choices are wonderful schools for very different reasons. GOOD LUCK