College Road Trip

Two weeks from today, my grandma and I will be on our way to the East Coast in an effort to visit--no joke--31 colleges and universities over the course of two weeks. Don't worry though; I'm only doing the official "information session and campus tour" thing at a handful of schools. The rest we are just going to stop and walk around at, maybe ask some questions if we see people walking around campus. I also have one interview lined up at this point, and may be scheduling more if I can figure out how to manipulate our schedule in a way that allows for it.

Here is a list of all the schools I'll be seeing, roughly in the order I'll be seeing them in. The bolded ones are where I'll be doing "official" tours, and the ones with asterisks are where I have interviews scheduled.

University of Michigan
Oberlin College
Carnegie Mellon University
Georgetown University
Johns Hopkins University
Swarthmore College
Haverford College
University of Pennsylvania 
Princeton University
New York University
Columbia University
Wesleyan University* 
Yale University
Connecticut College
Brown University 
Boston College
Brandeis University
Harvard University
Tufts University
Bowdoin College
Colby College
Bates College
Dartmouth College
Amherst College
Williams College
Union College
Skidmore College
Hamilton College
Colgate University
Cornell University
and, finally, University of Rochester 

Sounds like a lot of work, huh? I agree. But I'm very excited to be able to see and feel the places I've been obsessively researching for months. My adviser says I need to condense my list of prospective schools soon and this trip will be a good way to narrow down what I'm looking for. There's no way I can like all of these schools, right?

So that's the plan! I'll take lots of pictures and try to do recaps of each school I visit so you can experience it along with me.

The ACT, Standardized Tests in General, and Why I Wish I Could Be Done with Them

I've taken the ACT three times already, and plan to take it at least once more in September. Since my first attempt, I've produced scores which place me in the top 5%. However, this doesn't seem to be good enough for so many colleges out there. I know a lot of teachers and adults will try to tell students that standardized test scores aren't everything. People constantly tell me that my resume is impressive enough to get into college. That's true. However, these people weren't applying to the uber-competitive Ivy League schools or the other top universities. I could go to a state school or plenty of other colleges as I am now. People also say that standardized tests don't properly measure intelligence. I agree with that (more below), but I do think they do a good job of gauging how ready students are for college. College is all about high-pressure, difficult tasks, which is what standardized tests are.

Something that needs to be noted is that I have really high expectations and am not one to settle for anything less than what I think I deserve. That's why I push myself to do everything possible to make my resume perfect. The ACT is a big part of that. That's why I spend so much of my free time practicing and studying for it while the rest of my friends are at the beach or shopping. In my opinion, getting the best education possible is a lot more important than swimming or spending money. I also work four times a week from 4 to midnight, so I don't even have that much free time as it is.

Sometimes I wish I was the kind of person who didn't care as much as I did. It would be so easy to not worry, to not try. But I'm not capable of being that kind of person, so here I am. I've spent hundreds of my parents' dollars on ACT tutors and prep guides. Slowly, my skills are improving. Really, the only subject that doesn't seem to be improving is math. I don't understand that. I'm good at math. I've gotten A's throughout middle and high school and even took two math classes this year. I'm taking AP Calc this upcoming year for goodness. But for some reason, the math on the ACT doesn't seem to be clicking with me. It makes me so angry to see the 35 and 32 I got in English and Reading and then glance down at Math and see a 24. I just don't get it.

Once the ACT is over, I'm going to have to take even more standardized tests: two SAT subject tests. I don't really understand why I have to do this, but my advisor said that most of the schools I'm applying to will want to see that I've taken at least two of these. So that sucks.

Anyway, this was my first post and it was unorganized and basically a long rant that sort of all ties back to standardized testing. Wish me luck on my next attempt!