School starts around the start of September.
I have 3 months between then and now and feel a bit in limbo. I'm currently taking classes at the UCR (State School), just to make sure I don't lose the habit of studying, and because I get to choose classes without worrying about the grades. Interesting classes:
Intensive Russian: Am looking for a way to keep taking Russian at a school near RPI since it doesn't offer it itself.
Literary Workshop: The teacher is insane, but my classmates are cool.
Intro to Mechanical Engineering: I get to make a catapult.
Calculus 1: math.
Humanities: One of the teachers legitimately believes that the CIA invented Facebook and then used Mark Zuckerberg (the actual developer) as a front so they could spy on people more easily. He's also one of those 9/11 conspiracy theory believers.
I've also joined the gym and all that.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Options
My father has been talking with his brothers/family (few of which I've met) about the universities I've been looking into.
He's still convinced that my best bet is to get a degree in Medicine as a first degree (even if I have no intention of becoming a doctor) and then getting a second degree in whichever field interests me. This is the cheapest option (short range).
He also keeps bringing up that I have no "experience in the real world", that I've never lived alone, etc, etc. I think that's pretty much standard for straight-out-of-high-school freshmen and I'm getting pretty damn tired of hearing it. It's also the worst possible excuse for suggesting I stay home even longer.
An uncle has offered to let me stay with his family for a year, go to a community college close by, and re-apply as a transfer student to a different selection of schools. He doesn't seem too impressed by Rensselaer and I think he believes I should aim higher. (Not, perhaps, as high as the ivy leagues). The idea is that I spend a year getting good grades, playing sports (Fencing! Archery!) and just generally making a good impression to later "move up" school-wise. Also getting used to cold weather. Here, again, I would do just as well staying where I am for the rest of this year.
Choices, choices.
He's still convinced that my best bet is to get a degree in Medicine as a first degree (even if I have no intention of becoming a doctor) and then getting a second degree in whichever field interests me. This is the cheapest option (short range).
He also keeps bringing up that I have no "experience in the real world", that I've never lived alone, etc, etc. I think that's pretty much standard for straight-out-of-high-school freshmen and I'm getting pretty damn tired of hearing it. It's also the worst possible excuse for suggesting I stay home even longer.
An uncle has offered to let me stay with his family for a year, go to a community college close by, and re-apply as a transfer student to a different selection of schools. He doesn't seem too impressed by Rensselaer and I think he believes I should aim higher. (Not, perhaps, as high as the ivy leagues). The idea is that I spend a year getting good grades, playing sports (Fencing! Archery!) and just generally making a good impression to later "move up" school-wise. Also getting used to cold weather. Here, again, I would do just as well staying where I am for the rest of this year.
Choices, choices.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Rensselaer, Final Answer (?)
Paid my enrollment deposit at Rensselaer. Looks like this is it.
Parents are still trying to get me to consider taking a year off, going either to a community college close to my uncle's house (moving in with them, in a cold area) and then applying to a different list of schools as a transfer student.
One person is pointing out that the winters are long and cold in Troy, NY.
Another that they don't offer Russian.
Another that the UCR is a perfectly good school, and maybe I should just transfer to Medicine (currently taking a few courses under Mechanical Engineering enrollment).
Actually, they're all being pretty encouraging, on the whole, just trying to make sure I don't end up someplace where I'll be miserable. To be honest, it doesn't matter much where I go, things will end up one way or the other no matter what. (Well, that wasn't a useful sentence at all).
What I mean to say, is that decisions like these, which supposedly determine the rest of your life, don't determine it much more than any other decisions you make regularly throughout a day. Too many variables, too many different choices down the road. Just because I don't make it from Point A to Point B by Direct Route C doesn't mean I won't get there eventually.
Then again, maybe I'm just a sore loser. Would I be writing this if I had gotten into my first choice?
Parents are still trying to get me to consider taking a year off, going either to a community college close to my uncle's house (moving in with them, in a cold area) and then applying to a different list of schools as a transfer student.
One person is pointing out that the winters are long and cold in Troy, NY.
Another that they don't offer Russian.
Another that the UCR is a perfectly good school, and maybe I should just transfer to Medicine (currently taking a few courses under Mechanical Engineering enrollment).
Actually, they're all being pretty encouraging, on the whole, just trying to make sure I don't end up someplace where I'll be miserable. To be honest, it doesn't matter much where I go, things will end up one way or the other no matter what. (Well, that wasn't a useful sentence at all).
What I mean to say, is that decisions like these, which supposedly determine the rest of your life, don't determine it much more than any other decisions you make regularly throughout a day. Too many variables, too many different choices down the road. Just because I don't make it from Point A to Point B by Direct Route C doesn't mean I won't get there eventually.
Then again, maybe I'm just a sore loser. Would I be writing this if I had gotten into my first choice?
Saturday, April 9, 2011
USAFA - Rejected / Possible Wait List
I got a letter in the mail from the Air Force Academy today, my top choice.
It says they couldn't accept me, blah blah regret to inform you blah blah many qualified candidates and blah blah blah for a few paragraphs more. You know, the standards classy school rejection letter.
It also added that I was, in fact, a qualified candidate. That I met all the criteria for an appointment, but since they are by law limited to 1120 acceptances per year, I just couldn't be accepted. I wrote a previous post on the depressing application statistics here.
Alright. I understand, and it's kind of nice to know that I was qualified (if not too useful in a practical sense). Also, I never got the Vice-Presidential nomination, so that didn't help at all. Then they added: "Why don't you consider AFROTC?". That hurt. Just a bit.
The almost-positive part, the "Possible Wait-List" in the title, is that if someone turns down an appointment, then they go back to the list of Qualified Candidates (to which I belong) and pick out someone else.
So now I'm desperately hoping that some kid was accepted to Harvard or Yale or some other really prestigious school and chooses that over USAFA. C'mon, you accepted students! Do really great and go to an Ivy League/MIT/clown school so I can go to this one!! You can do it!
PS: I learned that another person applying to schools in the US reads my blog. She refers to me as her archenemy. She was accepted into a really great school. Hi, Arch-Enemy! Congrats on your acceptance!
It says they couldn't accept me, blah blah regret to inform you blah blah many qualified candidates and blah blah blah for a few paragraphs more. You know, the standards classy school rejection letter.
It also added that I was, in fact, a qualified candidate. That I met all the criteria for an appointment, but since they are by law limited to 1120 acceptances per year, I just couldn't be accepted. I wrote a previous post on the depressing application statistics here.
Alright. I understand, and it's kind of nice to know that I was qualified (if not too useful in a practical sense). Also, I never got the Vice-Presidential nomination, so that didn't help at all. Then they added: "Why don't you consider AFROTC?". That hurt. Just a bit.
The almost-positive part, the "Possible Wait-List" in the title, is that if someone turns down an appointment, then they go back to the list of Qualified Candidates (to which I belong) and pick out someone else.
So now I'm desperately hoping that some kid was accepted to Harvard or Yale or some other really prestigious school and chooses that over USAFA. C'mon, you accepted students! Do really great and go to an Ivy League/MIT/clown school so I can go to this one!! You can do it!
PS: I learned that another person applying to schools in the US reads my blog. She refers to me as her archenemy. She was accepted into a really great school. Hi, Arch-Enemy! Congrats on your acceptance!
Friday, April 1, 2011
School Admissions
Here are all the schools to which I've applied, and my admissions
status to date.
Harvard - Denied
Cornell - Denied
ROTC - Denied
USAFA - QVA (qualified, no vacancy) Denied, for all practical purposes. Except bragging rights. I'll reserve those, thanks (kidding, of course)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Accepted
status to date.
Harvard - Denied
Cornell - Denied
ROTC - Denied
USAFA - QVA (qualified, no vacancy) Denied, for all practical purposes. Except bragging rights. I'll reserve those, thanks (kidding, of course)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Accepted
- Major: Aeronautical Engineering
- AFROTC: on campus Detachment 550
- Major: Mechanical Engineering
- AFROTC: crosstown agreement with Saint Joseph Detachment 750.
- Major: Aerospace Engineering
- AFROTC: on campus Detachment 025
- Not actually considering it.
Drexel - Accepted
Drexel has accepted me.
This is possibly the school I have least mentioned. They're pretty good with engineering stuff and have a neat co-op program.
This is possibly the school I have least mentioned. They're pretty good with engineering stuff and have a neat co-op program.
Harvard - Denied
Harvard did not accept me.
And what is with sending out admissions decisions on April 1st? Does no one else think that's a terrible idea? How many cruel friends/siblings/anyone are tempted to call some poor applicant and go "Congratulations! You've been accepted to Harvard!", let them go crazy for a bit and then go "Gotcha! April Fool's!"
Even I want to do that, and I'm usually a pretty decent person.Is it really so hard to send it out in March like everyone else, or even just wait until the 2nd?
And what is with sending out admissions decisions on April 1st? Does no one else think that's a terrible idea? How many cruel friends/siblings/anyone are tempted to call some poor applicant and go "Congratulations! You've been accepted to Harvard!", let them go crazy for a bit and then go "Gotcha! April Fool's!"
Even I want to do that, and I'm usually a pretty decent person.Is it really so hard to send it out in March like everyone else, or even just wait until the 2nd?
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