It's (finally) coming together!

The moment is almost here...

I have my Common App and Yale supplement essays pretty much done. Both meet the word count limit (they're 650 and 500 words respectively, haha), which in and of itself is a pretty big accomplishment for me. Why do I always write so much?!

All I have left to do is write a few more short takes. I really don't like some of my responses to the questions (well, two of them), but I'm pretty sure my admissions decision won't be based on two sentences. (Not that I'm expecting much of a "decision" anyway, but...)

I plan to submit my SCEA app tomorrow night. Once I do that, I can work on my application to UT-PACT. I also need to organize the rest of my colleges into a specific order so that I know which supplements I should tackle first and which I should save for last.

I'm so ready to submit this Common App, though. I've struggled with that essay enough as it is (seriously, I started working on it in August. Technically in May, but I discarded that one and chose a different prompt), I really don't need to agonize over it any longer.

After all, I have a statement of motivation to write for PACT which I have no idea how I'll go about doing... And it's due December 15th.

Yay, college apps.

On another note, I've decided to use the Universal College Application for several of my schools because a) that app allows me to send my extracurricular essay (in its entirety!) to ALL those schools and b) there's no stupid word limit cutoff like there is on the Common App! Which means I can use my supplement essays in their entirety too! So I don't have to waste time trying to edit out parts that are "unnecessary" and diluting the effect of the essay overall.

I wish more of my schools were on the UCA.

Oh, speaking of UC- I need to submit my UC Berkeley app by the end of November too.

Grr, why so many deadlines?!

Absent! 10/25/2013

I was not here on the 25th because I was in Las Vegas with my family. (Wow, so much fun. Can you hear that sarcasm?)

Too many things to keep track of. 10/23/2013

I seriously wish I didn't have to go to Las Vegas. Like, are you kidding me? A (rather unnecessary) trip that's not only going to make me miss 2 days of school, but also takes time away that I could've used to work on my Yale app?!

This is too much.

The trip is really stressing me out too. I have to remember to finish packing a few last-minute things, I have to pick up my Yale supplement essay at the end of the day from Mr. Correa, I have to print my essay drafts so that I can edit them whenever I have time (which I expect to have none of, ugh), I have to figure out what homework/tests I'm going to miss while I'm gone so that I can make them up when I get back...

And, on top of all that, my Yale application is due in a mere 9 days. (I know they extended it, but I don't care. I'm still going to get my app materials in early.) And I want to have everything in early next week.

WHY.

Plus, I have to remember to work on my UT-PACT application (and to send the evaluation form to my three recommenders...) and to submit that Coca Cola Scholars app (which is still annoying me).

Hopefully (hopefully!) I won't miss much. And hopefully I'll be able to cut down my Common App and Yale supplement essays in time. And hopefully I'll be able to finish and submit all of this stuff by next week.

Hopefully.

Yay, Monday! It was actually a good day.

I got a lot of stuff done today, hooray! I'm finding that typing out a to-do list to myself in an email is actually really helpful. I have so many things to keep track of that I often forget to do them if I use a mental checklist. (Although let's be real, when did that ever work? ... Maybe last year.) So I'm definitely going to keep doing that in the future.

In thesis I printed several of my essays for Correa and Templet to edit - my Common App essay (which is 362 words over the limit, ha ha), my Yale supplement essay (which is basically finalized at this point) and one of my Tufts supplement essays. Agh, I love Tufts! I really really do. It's basically my secondary dream school. If it weren't for Yale, it would be my first. I think I even love it more than Dartmouth, to be honest. If I get in, I think I might cry tears of joy.

I also worked on my Coca Cola Scholarship application (which, incidentally enough, is due October 31st. Yay, deadlines.) and finalized that. The thing that really annoys me about this app is that they've set it up in a way that prevents me from listing most of my extracurriculars (i.e. summer programs and the like) that aren't school-sponsored. So it basically looks like I've done nothing for 4 years, when that couldn't be farther from the truth.

But if I don't make semifinalist, oh well. It's not the end of the world.

I also went and talked to Mr. D about a letter of recommendation and told him I wouldn't be in 9th period today because I'd be editing my Common App essay.

I decided not to apply to the McDermott Scholars program at UTD because I'm already applying to Collegium V honors, which is basically the same thing except the fees aren't paid for. I really doubt I'll be able to finish that app in the next two weeks. I'm applying to UT-PACT anyway, and that requires a completely different type of essay (a statement of motivation), so that's already extra work on my part. Besides, UTD isn't really one of my "preferred" college options.

Anywho. Tonight I hope to cut down on what I think is unnecessary in my Common App essay so that I can go over it with Templet tomorrow morning and Correa (hopefully) during lunch.

EA deadline is 11 days away!

PSAT? Ha.

It seriously didn't feel like a Wednesday today. I guess that's because of PSAT, but still.

The shortened class periods were too short in my opinion. I didn't get to do very much because we only had like 30 minutes. I went over my UC app one more time to make sure I had filled in everything (except for the essays, of course). I added the 'course level' designation to all my Pre-AP courses (I wasn't sure whether they were "UC-approved honors courses" or not, so I'd left that part blank before).

I also filled out the short college apps survey. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the exact dates I asked my teachers for recs, but I put down the weeks so that should be a fairly good estimate.

I seriously need to finish my Common App essay!! I feel like I'm so behind in that respect, because I know some of my classmates have already finished theirs (in fact, I even know some other seniors who have finished and submitted Common App!).

Since it's crunch time in terms of college apps, I really haven't gotten any time to work on thesis stuff. But hopefully once the November 1st deadline passes, I'll be able to find more time to do that. I haven't talked to Vineeta in ages, to be honest - though, to be fair, she's been pretty busy as well. Hopefully we'll get time to catch up in November (since the Readathon will have ended by then).

Oh my god.

This morning, I realized that November 1st is only two weeks away. That means I have only two weeks left to finish my Yale application.

I guess the immediacy of that deadline didn't hit me till now.

I'm kind of freaking out.

Just a little.

I still have to complete my Common App essay (draft!!) and finish a few short takes before I can send my application out. I also need to cut down on the words for my supplement essay - it's stuck at 674 words, which is still 174 words more than the limit.

I'm not okay with this. I wanted to have all my applications in a month before the deadline. (Clearly, that was too optimistic. And now I know that it's because I didn't take into account how much work school itself would be.) If not that, I wanted them in at least two weeks before! But now even that is hopeless. I still haven't submitted all my materials for the UT honors app, which is due tomorrow.

What is my life.

People tell me that I'm pretty far ahead on my applications, but honestly? I'm not. This isn't just false humility, either. I don't think people realize this: I'm applying to so many places that in the grand scheme of things, having 3 apps completed isn't a big accomplishment. At all.

EDIT: I just realized my Yale supplement essay is actually not more than 100 words over the limit. It's only 35. Thank goodness! I can work with that.

Anywho, though. Today in thesis I gave Mr. Correa one of my UT essays to read and he gave it back to me at the end of the day. I also got Mr. Templet's edits as well as my mom's. Hopefully now I can sit down with all three versions, edit my real one and submit it tonight.

I also looked at the INROADS internship thing Ms. Marberry emailed us about. I tried to register, but I'm not sure exactly what happened. I think it saved my information, but then it wouldn't let me log on. Maybe it's because they have limited positions for high school students? I'm not sure. Either way, though, I'll just let it sit there and see if they contact me in the future.

But seriously, deadlines. Too soon.

The stress never ends.

(Sorry, late post. Life is crazy, as usual.)

Whew. Now that we're back from TREK (which was a lot of fun! More fun than I was expecting, to be honest) I can get back to actually working on my college apps again. Deadlines are coming up fast (October 15th, ahh!) and I need to make sure I get everything done in time. For UT honors, all I have left to do is to submit the two ApplyTexas essays, submit the online honors application, and upload my expanded resume.

After that, my next deadline is the November 1st for Yale. I seriously need to complete my Common App essay! That's literally the only thing keeping me from submitting my application already.

In thesis on Thursday, I checked my UTD application status. I've been accepted! Yay, my first offer of admission! This is really exciting, haha. (Even though I was assured admission, it's nice to receive an acceptance letter. At least now I can be sure I'll be going to college somewhere next fall!)

Now that I've been accepted to UTD, I can start working on my UT-PACT application. I tried accessing the portal but for some reason, it wouldn't let me go to the next page on the app. I was using a netbook, though, and it was having issues with the Internet anyway, so that's probably why.

I also looked at my McDermott Scholars app again to see where I am. All I have left to do is fill in all the short descriptions for my activities, upload a 2-page resume (but first I have to shorten my resume to 2 pages, haha), write the short essays, and request recommenders. I'm looking to meet the November 5th deadline, so we'll see how that turns out.

Also #dayofconfessions.

Yay for productiveness!

I've been feeling pretty good about myself these past few days, to be honest. I submitted my ApplyTexas app to UT Dallas and UT Austin a few days ago, and since then I've been working on getting the other required items checked off my list for UT. I sent out my last few recommendation requests today and completed as much of the Supplemental Info Form and Honors App as I could.

I also got Mr. Correa to read my essays today. He liked them too! I was relieved, but for some reason I still don't feel like either of them were that extraordinary. I mean, Correa and Templet both liked BOTH of them, but... Still. I just don't have complete faith in my abilities as a writer, okay. That's kind of why I want to minor in English in college - so that I can build my writing skills (and my self-confidence, haha) along the way. Anywho, though, I'm going to submit Essay A over the weekend for ApplyTexas and save this supplemental one for later. (And you know what? I think I'm actually going to use these two essays for UC Berkeley. I mean, if both of my teachers liked them... I may not have faith in myself, but I do trust their judgment, so I'm going to go for it.)

I also typed up my "Why Brown" supplement essay. I'm almost - well, not quite - done with it. All I've finished talking about is the Open Curriculum and my academic/extracurricular interests, and I'm already at 157 words. The limit is 200. Why.

OH, that brings me to another point - I'm glad they liked that second essay I wrote about my culture and heritage, but guess what? It's 174 words over the limit. (I hate my life. Why do I always have to write so much?!) I'm going to sit down with them again and ask them to help me get it down to a manageable size. I mean, the ApplyTexas essay I wrote was 901 words, for goodness sake! (I don't even know how it happened. Thankfully, neither of those in-state schools I'm applying to have an essay word limit, yay!)

As I was writing the Brown essay, I looked up their study abroad programs so that I could talk about a specific one and I found a "Distinctively Brown" program in India that I actually found rather interesting. It's a program in which you live in Delhi for a semester and get to experience all of India's cultural events and things. The one thing that caught my eye about it, though, was that students who choose that program actually get to learn Hindi. How cool is that?! I always refused to consider going to India for study abroad, but this opportunity sounds pretty awesome. I'd love to learn Hindi! I can speak a little bit of it, just from what I picked up while living with my grandparents in Mumbai over summer vacations, but I'd like to actually learn to speak it fluently. I just might do it - if I get into Brown, that is. (On a somewhat tangential note, they had a picture of all the students dressed up in sarees. It was interesting.)

Le sigh.

Before I came to thesis today, I had a whole list of things typed out that I wanted to accomplish. Guess how many of those I was actually able to finish?

About half. Which isn't bad, but I wanted to get a lot more done than I was able to. Let's just say I wasn't counting on the announcements taking that long today; I wanted to go to my locker and get both of my essays edited and printed in the first 10 minutes of class, but because of the announcements, Mr. Correa wasn't able to say what he wanted to say till 9:30, which is really unfortunate because that meant I only got to start the senior survey at 9:40, when my plan was to have it done by then. Ah, well. I worked on it for a good 25 minutes and at this point, I only have two more questions left to answer. Hopefully I can finish those tonight and email it to him.

(Yes, I plan things out with exact timings. What can I say? It helps me stay on track and be organized.)

What's more is that, for some reason, I can't find my AP Spanish binder anywhere! I was sure I left it in my locker yesterday evening, but when I went to get it today it wasn't there. It wasn't in my backpack, nor was it in Mr. Buchanan's room (I went and checked). That frustrated me to no end because my main goal in thesis today was to give Mr. Correa my revised essays so he could read them and tell me what he thought before I submitted them to their respective schools! Arghhh. I still have no idea where the binder is, but I'm going to keep searching. Hopefully it'll turn up soon! It's a one-inch orange binder with no clear front cover, and it has all my Spanish stuff in the rings and my essays in the front inside flap.

I also wasn't counting on the fact that I'd have to help some people with Common App stuff. That took up more time than I expected it to, honestly. Which I don't mind, because I like helping people, but it was unexpected. I got stuff done today in thesis - it's not like I was slacking off or anything - I just spent the time doing stuff I wasn't expecting to do. Productive stuff, but still.

On a brighter (or maybe not-so-bright, I don't know) note, I listed the rest of my schools on the paper in my blue file. (I had to add lines and write a few outside of the given box. I'm not sure what that says about my college list...) In terms of college apps, though, I've submitted both my Baylor app and my University of Pittsburgh app. Hopefully I'll get a decision from Pitt soon. (They still haven't received my test scores and transcript! I don't know why, I sent those in several weeks ago. Hopefully I won't have to do all of that again... We'll see.) I've also started my application to UC Berkeley; I'm about halfway through with it as of now. Hopefully I'll be able to recycle some of the essays I've already written for other schools! (I have to write enough essays as it is, okay. Give me a break. Besides, I'm 95% sure two essays I've already finished will work for Berkeley.)