Scores! For Real, This Time.

After refreshing my collegeboard page for a few consecutive hours (having forgotten about time zones) my scores finally showed up. Here they are:

Reading: 740 Not too shabby at all.

Math: 650 Not good enough for the schools I'm after.

Writing: 580 I did explain about my essay, right? Worth 30% of this score.

I read a lot. I mean a lot. A whole bunch and almost constantly, so my reading score isn't a surprise. I should have done better on math, though, and since I bought a score report, I got to look over the questions I got wrong and wonder what the hell I was thinking. Apparently, I don't know what an integer is, I can't do conversions, and don't know how to find the area of a square. Wow, I feel like an incredible idiot. I could have done so much better. On the other hand, there were questions deep in WTF territory, but only about two, and thus this is not an acceptable excuse.

Writing has its reasons, if we accept the premise that I lost most of my points on the essay, on which got a score of 6 (highest score is 12), so it's a pretty stable premise. I don't get much of a chance to write it English, at least not essays, and not in under 25 minutes. My English teacher sometimes asks for short essays, but we get a full week to turn them in. Hell, I'm not used to writing fast in Spanish. The ministry test requires an essay, but we get to chose one of 4 topics, and 3 or 4 hours to write it (yeah, it gets hard to sit still that long). Basically, I've never had to write a coherent English essay in a short time on a given subject. I suppose I'll do better on that next time, now that I know how to prepare.

An interesting (if often depressing) statistic on CollegeBoard is the "How Do I Stack Up?". It lets you put in some information (mainly GPA and SAT/ACT scores) and then tell you how you compare to the middle 50% of a college's incoming class of last year. Mine was pretty interesting, my reading score was above average, by math score average (except MIT, more on that later) and my writing score low. I forget what my GPA was, but it's something like 3.75 or 3.8, which is mainly thanks to ninth grade, where I got straight As, while I dropped to mostly Bs and some Cs last year, due to my change of school from normal public to Nerd Academy. Not too bad, anyway.

About MIT. The middle 50% were somewhere in the range of [something]-800. Which means that more than a full 25% of last years freshmen got 800s on math. Holy freakin' cow, do my grades pale and faint in comparison.

Scores! No. Just the reports.

I have to send my scores now, and I haven't actually seen them yet. In fact, I don't get to see them for another 10 dyas or so. I'm limiting myself to four schools for a couple of reasons:

• Free. My first 4 score reports are included in the price of the test.

• Still unsure about where I'm headed. I can always send the scores later.

I finally decided on:

Air Force Academy: tough, right? There are more problems involved with this than you think. I'll explain them later. It's the one school I'm absolutely sure I want to go to, although the next one looks pretty damn good, too.

Naval Academy: close second, if not tied, with the Air Force. Interestingly enough, the eye-sight requirements for flying are stricter than the Air Force's. I do want to fly, but I'm a bit myopic (20/40, I barely make Navy requirements).

MIT: because who doesnt want to go there? Honestly, it's a cool school, tough (yessss) but rewarding,and an engineering school, which is great for someone who wants an engineering degree (I do). Not first choice because I can't stand having my heart broken into that many pieces. It also has ROTC.

Cornell: because an Ivy League had to be in here somewhere. Just kidding. Also a good engineering school, it's the only Ivy League with ROTC on campus (the others offer ROTC scholarships, but you have to travel to a nearby university to attend classes. Inconvenient when some start at 5:30 in the morning).

You may have noticed two things:

One: that is one tough list. Really.

Two: Military. Academies and scholarships, all pointing at one Ambermutt wanting to be an officer in the Navy or Air Force.

And one more university:

State. Which is actually the best school in the country, since this place's education system is nothing like the US. All private schools are held in contempt and my Social Studies teacher enjoys making fun of them. I could be a practicing doctor in 6 years, and graduate debt free, if I get in. My high school is known as "pre-college", basically its only reason for existing is to get its students into college, and that's practically a guarantee. There'll be another post soon about the admissions process to get into the State school. It's incredibly simple, if unforgiving.

Now I have to handle four different sets of deadlines. I can't start my online application to MIT until August. I already started the AFA one (which includes a marvelous Pre-Candidate Questionnaire). I haven't started the other two yet.

Wheeeeeeee.............

SAT: Student Applied Torture

After arduous research, I discovered that this actually stands for Scholarly Aptitude Test. I just assumed it was Standardized Admissions Test. Close enough. Anyway, it has an essay and a lot of sections, timed to about 25 minutes each (some are less) and tests math, reading and writing. I didn't prepare. I just took the first one to get my bearings (because you can take it as many times as you like and those mysterious people in charge of your future only look at your highest scores) and plan on taking it again sometime in November. If I really screw that up, I can try in January one last time as well. (Remember my weird school schedule? The one that throws everything off 6 months?).

Absolutely everything can be done online. Internationally, there are a few less dates available, but that's the price you pay for living on the outskirts of civilization (just kidding, no cannibalism here). One of my classmates, also applying to schools in the US, whom I'll call Rat (after the computer geek in the movie The Core, my friend loves computers), did in fact have to contact the collegeboard call center because for some inexplicable reason he decided his middle initial was J when filling out the forms. His middle name is actually Andrew (Rat Andrew, has a ring to it, doesn't it?), which is pretty far off from the admittedly cooler J. The lady who answered was extremely sweet and helpful. Thanks, whoever you are.

So I took it in May. The Proctor that watched us was a bit intimidating. He read everything exactly as it was in the booklet and nothing more, with a mild Spanish accent, and very somberly. This wasn't encouraging at all. You feel as if any mistake will get you sent outside in shame.

We begin with the essay. 25 minutes to expound intelligently upon a given subject. One girl asked whether she could print, or had to write in cursive. At least I think that's what she would have asked if she hadn't been interrupted mid-sentence by The Intimidating Proctor and told not to talk during the test. Of course, that question hadn't occurred to me until she said it, and then I was baffled. I eventually printed. The answer, by the way, is write any way you like, as long as it's legible. I plan on writing in cursive next time.

I also plan on finishing my essay. That's right. I didn't finish it. And it didn't help to see that all around me these kids' hands were flashing across the pages and filling them seemingly effortlessly while my floundering brain was still trying to get its ideas straight. Which took about 20 minutes too many, since I didn't even complete the first page.

The rest was all right, though. Math I could handle, reading was wonderful (I read really fast), writing wasn't too bad. Although the variety was incredible, from:

Find the error: She rhunnedk to the store. (the k is silent)

to asking me to correct stuff that sounded awkward and unwieldy no matter what you tried. For those I chose the shortest option with least punctuation. The simpler the better, right? Although I admit that one where I was completely baffled I choose the one with a semi-colon, because I never get to use those (and I was wrong).

Of course, there are mildly annoying things that I over-notice whenever I have to do something important. I always write with pen or mechanical pencil, Number 2s are uncomfortable. The paper for the essay is thin and low quality. My watch alarm might go off. My cellphone might go off (I don't even have one, but I swear for one panicked second I thought "Oh, God, I forgot to silence my phone") You also get 5 minute breaks between every two sections. Which meant I ran to the bathroom between every two sections despite the fact that I hadn't drunk anything since 6 in the morning and went before I even started the test. I left my snack in the car (yogurt, I was afraid of it after the test, probably sour). Once I got past the essay (the confidence shredding first section) I was fine. Time ran smoothly, I worked at a steady pace, double checked questions and only left one blank.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, the person to my right had incredible dark blue eyes. Made all the more attention-grabbing because this country's population has black or brown eyes across the board. Myself included. So I'm not used to seeing blue eyes. Wow.

Military Service Academies

Now the time comes when all students have to decide where they want to go (and how to get there). I suppose it helps to begin with some stipulations, like how much you can pay, where, what degrees are offered. My first stipulation is that it get me into either the Air Force or Navy, and so the obvious choices are the military service academies (next is ROTC). Their admissions processes are torturous.

It's open to US citizens, ages 17 to 23, non-pregnant, in good physical shape, good moral character and leadership skills (I was declared Evil Empress of my class, that's leadership, right?). Children of Heads of State of other countries can also apply.

They're a lot pickier than other schools, and across a wider range of merit, the admissions process includes:

• The requirements listed above
• SAT or ACT scores
• Pre-Candidate Questionnaire
• Medical Examination
• Candidate Fitness Assesment
• Congressional Nomination

A word on those nominations. Applicants are encouraged to collect them like stamps. You can get them from Members of Congress, Senators, Officers (if you're already in the military or ROTC), the Vice-President or the President. Not bad, right? You're probably thinking you can get at least one from a Senator or Member of Congress (which is what most people do), from the President if one of your parents served. Of course, try for the Vice-President, who can nominate around 2 or 3 people per year per academy from anywhere in the world, right?

Yeah, not so easy for me. I haven't lived in the States for 5 years. My parent's weren't in the Service. I'm not in the Service. I'm now competing with pretty much every other apllicant for a nominationf from the Vice-President, who can only give out 2 or 3 a year. Whose requests are first screened by the Academies themselves. Who needs letters of reccomendations, wants to know my hobbies, and a 3500 character essay on why I want to serve (that's about one typed page).

On the other chance, I live abroad, speak a foreign language, good GPA, no health problems (that I know of), decent physical condition... I hope it's not too much of a

Longshot
(yes, the guy from X-Men)

Pre-Candidate Questionnaire

This is the very first part of the Air Force Academy admissions (the Naval Academy does something similar), and is pretty straightforward. Based on this, it's decided whether you may continue with the process, or are better off looking at some other college. It's divided into a few different sections (whose names I made up myself):

ID: This is mainly name, age, address, sort of thing. Pretty simple, although one question about race threw me off. As a half Caucasian, half Hispanic mutt, I thought it should be easy, but it wouldn't let me mark both Hispanic and Caucasian. I look more Caucasian, don't have a Spanish accent, so that will have to do. Make sure you know you're ZIP code (or in my case, my Postal Code), and how to properly write an address (which pretty much no one ever has to do anymore, what with that newfangled invention, the Intertubes...).

Grades: this includes SAT/ACT, class rank and GPA. I worked out my GPA myself because my school doesn't grade in those terms (strictly in percentages here). Either way, later on your school has to send your official grades and your GPA is recalculated.

Hint to those who have to fill this out. Wait until you have you have all your information ready, yeah, you can update it later, but to update this section you actually have to call the academy, you can't just sign in and change stuff. I sent it in before I had my SAT scores, tried to call a couple of times, got no response and sent an e-mail begging forgiveness (because it specifically said call) and asking for help, along with a few unrelated questions about sources of nominations. A few days later, my scores showed up on my profile, but I didn't get an answer to my e-mail, so I think it's probably a result of having sent the Official Score Report through College Board. Moral of the story: have your grades ready.

Miscellaneous: questions about extracurricular activities (scouts, church groups, etc), whether you've applied before, if you're in college, military, or high school, if your eyesight is correctable to 20/20, whether you've held a job, and a whole slew of other stuff. I think they're all yes/no questions.

Once you send this in, you're an applicant. If the powers that be consider you adequate, you're a competitive applicant. Later on, after they get some more information, they decide if you get to be a candidate. You can get to be a candidate without a nomination, but you need one to have a chance of being accepted. You can get a nomination and still not be considered competitive. Right now, I'm a competitive applicant.

Background Check

Just so we're all on the same page. I'm an American citizen born abroad, my mother is not an American citizen, so I'm duo-national. I live in a Spanish speaking country and go to a public school here. Now the school system is just a tad different from the US one...

High school ends in 11^th grade, after that, it's college... unless you're in a trade school, in which case it's 12 years and then a job. I'm not in a trade school.

The school year starts in February and ends in November, with a brief 2 week respite in July, and Easter week completely off. "Summer vacation" is from December to February.

I'm in a specific branch of the public school system, which I'll refer to as Nerd Academy, because it truly is. Basically we get extra science and math classes and get to skip stuff like philosophy and psychology (which everyone falls asleep in anyway).

My high school is on a university campus, which is nowhere near as cool as it sounds because we get pretty much no free time. The only advantage is a huge and accessible library. On which the college students post open invitations to cool sounding parties. Damn their mocking souls.

My schedule: classes start at 7am, and at least two days a week end at 5:30pm. The shortest day ends at 3. University students have been known to see us leaving campus regularly at 9pm and going "Oh, those poor, poor kids" as we pass.

It's too far to travel, so I live in a residency nearby with some other classmates, and often don't get to go home weekends because I have to finish some project or study.

There are practically no extra-curricular clubs at public schools nationwide (chess club, debate team, cheer-leading, forget it). My school literally has none. Most at least have a soccer or volleyball team. Not mine, nope. We are encouraged to participate in the math and science Olympiads. The chemistry teacher literally shanghaied my whole generation.

"Fill these in", she said, "it's just to familiarize everyone with how to inscribe, you can get the real ones later". Next thing I know, my fingers are turning yellow from nitric acid. A very sympathetic lab assistant actually told one of my friends not to worry, his hand would fall off in a few days.

Also, its pretty hard to run for class president when there are only 46 students in the whole school, but since the other candidate decided he had better things to do (his excuse was he had to study for some test) I guess I won by default, even though no one ever actually voted.

On the bright side, we covered integration in the first semester of 11^th grade.

At the end of the year, we have to take a series of standardized tests applied by the Ministry of Education before we get our diploma. these are: Math, a science (physics, chemistry, or biology), Spanish, Socials, Civics, and English. Civics is a problem. The teacher talks about interesting stuff, but pretty much nothing that's on the final test.

So now you know where I stand. The rest of my blog might start to make some sense.

Where the Trouble Begins

Applying to universities is... confusing, annoying, and involves way too many forms. My blog addresses that. Not in a particularly reassuring way, I mean, I'm applying to those schools myself. If you're looking for advice, this won't help you at all, I'm as lost as you are (and recording my mistakes right here for your entertainment!), but it might reassure you to know that other people are fighting the paperwork, the SATs, the essays, and all the rest of it.

In fact, before I started myself, I tried looking for blogs about this and didn't find any. I take that back, I found one that had exactly one entry (and the name I originally wanted to use for my own blog, what a waste). Maybe it's because they don't exist, or aren't successful or interesting, or maybe people that get into colleges know better than to waste their time blogging about it. I don't know, but I am going to try.

So welcome. Follow me through battles with bureaucracy and standardized tests, traversing the fields of forms and interviews into the lands of higher education, beginning a quixotic quest for acceptance letters ans scholarships to universities in the US of marvelous A...

... as an American citizen living abroad, thereby complicating everything about tenfold.

By the way, "lost number in a file", other than describing every applicant's nightmare, is from a Bruce Springsteen song, Radio Nowhere, embedded right here because everyone needs to know who he is (along with the E Street Band, of course):

The video obviously isn't synced with the sound...