Eye On Apply Entry (also on Facebook)

** PrincetonReview.com does this thing called Eye On Apply, where they track the progress of seniors applying to college. I’m a semi-finalist, and my first entry will determine if I will be added to the roster of bloggers. Sooo here’s my theoretical first entry. Let’s hope I’m a finalist!**

Today is September 8, 2008.
Today was the first day of the rotating schedule at our school.
Today I realized that this year is going to be the best and worst thing that’s ever happened to me.

If I’m going to write a blog about my college application process, I’d better begin with the unadulterated truth. I’m Therese, or if you really care, Therese Kathryn. I’m seventeen years old, going on four. My long full name, Hispanic features, and love of sushi are proof enough of my ethnicity. Well, half of it at least. I’m half Filipina, half German-British-Scottish-Italian, but I keep it simple with “Wasian.” I live in Jersey City, NJ, a rapidly evolving urban melting-pot. I have a love-hate relationship with this place, but it’s my hometown, so even a little loyalty is inevitable. However, if things go well, I won’t live here next year. I hope to go to college somewhere in the northeast; just not here. (If you lived here, you’d understand.)

I go to Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School (or, if you’re lazy, McNair). It’s a public high school, but there is a rigorous application process to get in. About 10% of the 2,000 to 3,000 applicants are accepted, making a freshman class of about 250 every year. What makes matters even more difficult is “the ultimate quota system,” affectionately nicknamed the “25-25-25-25 system”. Can you take a guess at the percentages? Yep, 25% of the student body is Caucasian, 25% is African-American, 25% is Hispanic, and 25% is “Other.” So let’s put it this way, out of the 2,000-3,000 people that apply, 10% get accepted, meaning only 2.5% of the lot are accepted Caucasians, 2.5% are accepted African-Americans, etc. (For the record, I applied as Caucasian.)

Long story short: you experience intense competition from the day you apply to the day you leave. There is no official ranking system, and the lowest grade required for the National Honor Society is 94%, which is an insanely high score TOTAL average to maintain (I’m not in NHS because my GPA is a point or less too low). It sounds sort of scary, now that I read what I just wrote, but take it from me, a veteran of the pushing and shoving in the halls and in the grade-books, it’s only helped me and others persist. Also, because of the quota system, there is no “minority” in the school, and we’re just a mess of people with heritages from every corner the world and every economic standing.

Personally, I’ve never fit into any racial category. Or any category of anything, for that matter. This year, I’m taking 4 AP courses (English Literature, English Language, Psychology, and Chemistry) and last year I took 2 (Biology and US History 2). I’m the president/founder of a suicide prevention and awareness organization called The Awakening Project, girls’ swim team captain, Company Commander in my JROTC battalion (Cadet Captain), member of the drill team and color guard within that battalion, varsity soccer player, Peer Leadership member, and a volunteer at a local animal shelter. I also might start working at a local teahouse/gelateria or as a lifeguard/swim instructor (I’m not sure yet) for some extra spending money. Summed up, I’m just your average jock-cadet-advocate-poetic-overachieving-nerdy-animal-loving-lifeguard. (phew)

People say I’m insane to do what I do, and I’ll admit that I agree with them at times. I usually end up spending 12 hours of my day doing school-related activities (7AM to 7PM), often pushing myself to breaking point; sometimes even past breaking point. It’s what I do. I test my limits, I like being busy, and I like taking part in everything I can get my hands on. It’s one of the things that distinguish me from others, but also one of the things I worry about. Will I finally collapse from the over-stimulation? Will my grades plummet from my inability to juggle everything? Will colleges even buy that I’m a member of so many organizations, and that I’m actually dedicated to them?

That’s why I’m here. I know that many students are asking the same questions as I am. And even though I may not get my answer until I find out for myself, at least—in my trek through applications, the busiest school year I’ve ever had, jobs, volunteering, and of course we can’t forget the part called living life—I’ll help someone else do a better job than I did. I hope that, with this little log of my struggles, you’ll get a better picture of the road ahead, or maybe even the application road currently beneath your feet, and be a lot less anxious than I am.

The best advice I’ve ever been given is to “enjoy senior year,” and I hope I can follow it. This is the last year of a four-year series of triumphs, failures, realizations, brain-farts, and otherwise memorable moments that punctuate my high school career. It’ll be over quicker than it began. And before I can say “I am ready,” I’ll have my diploma in my hand, foot out the door, and eyes on the next stop called “college,” hopefully with some idea what I got myself into.

Sound good?

- Therese

Lesson Learned

“It’s called the past ’cause I’m getting past and I ain’t nothin’ like I was before; you should see me now.“
-Alicia Keys, Lesson Learned

Hi. My name is Patricia, and here’s a little background. I was born in NYC, raised in Jersey, and had the pleasure of going through freshman year in MAHS before my parents decided to move to Surprise, AZ. Quite a different atmosphere, lemme tell you.

Anyway, I came here to let things breathe. (Of course, why else would you be here, silly?)

I turned sixteen a few weeks ago, and to be totally honest, I feel like I’ve hit rock bottom. School’s getting monotonous. I feel like I’m getting a lot of things expected of me, like getting a job and learning how to drive (oh how I’d love to learn how to drive!) but now I’ve come into this crazy cycle that goes as follows: I bust my ass at school every weekday looking forward to the weekend so I can rest up on the weekend and forget to do homework and then bust my ass all over again. The problem is I’m shortchanging my parents because I just get so lazy over the weekends and they expect me to still help out. It’s frustrating to me, it’s frustrating to my parents. Another vicious little cycle I’ve succumbed to.

Overall, too, I’ve just dropped into this crippling ennui. I don’t find anything really interesting anymore. It’s getting quite destructive to all my other efforts (or lack thereof – did that make any sense?) but I really don’t care anymore. I talked to one of my friends about this, though, and she made me feel so much better. She told me that she had gone through the same exact thing when she was younger.

This is where I start smiling my head off because I remember a promise I made to my parents when I was a wee little troublemaker: I’d never succumb to the teenage rebellion stage. Ever. Of course I never kept that promise, or at the very least I stayed away from the extremes. I brought this promise up to my dad in the car one day and he smiled a little. He asked me if I knew why I made that promise. Of course, I had no idea. It was so long ago! Then, he enlightened me:

“You did it because you loved us.”

Like the little wuss I am I almost cried, but it really was true. And of course I still love my parents. I just happen to express it in a different way =)Aside from that little fuzzy daddy’s girl moment, sixteen’s been full of suck. The school I’m in now offers International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement (gosh, I’m really jumping all over the place!) , and it starts junior year. My problem now is whether or not to go for IB or stick with AP. So far, my decision has been to run with the latter. However, my friend who is in IB bugged the crap out of me by asking me if I wanted to be number one.Come on now, I came from Macadamia land, of course I’m gonna wanna strive for number one! I’ve been striving for number one since I was little: I was in the HOPE class in my elementary school, Academy I kids scared the crap out of me freshman year but I still kept going (and in ironies of ironies I’ve been the girlfriend of one for a year now) and now I’m kicking ass as the token Asian “genius” (haha no) in my current school now. But then she told me that all the IB kids snatch up the number one spots because of their higher GPAs because of their extra amount of classes. I’ve been trying not to let it get to me but it really bothers me.

What is a class rank, anyway? It really only measures grades at face value. It doesn’t measure work ethic. It doesn’t measure the hours, the painstaking hours you spent studying your ass off just to get a B. It sure as hell doesn’t measure heart and character. But why do people strive for it?

Well, I guess we’re all naturally very competitive. Survival of the fittest in the best and worst manner. If you really don’t give a crap about class ranks, then more power to you. I just hate how a stupid number eats me up inside.

Then again, that stupid number does weigh in on college. Ah dammit, my life is full of vicious cycles!

This is an exhilarating time of my life, really. I’m acclimating to a totally new environment. I’ve hit sixteen, for heaven’s sake. It’s quite a milestone, in my opinion. I’m really coming into my own now, I think. Is this how all new sixteen-year-olds felt? New, scared, and grasping for something solid and stable? It’s like a rebirth. It’s frightening and exciting all at the same time.

I just know that life will never be the same and every little experience I’ve had, am having, and will have will be beautiful in their own rights. I’m really trying to live without regrets but sometimes it’s inevitable. You really just have to take everything one step at a time. After all, nobody can really make a SparkNotes for life.