Applying to college

[Pastelle]

I'm a senior and just started my application process. I want to go into graphic design and advertising, and since my grades aren't super stellar, I'm probably staying at home for at least the first two years. Trying to pick what college would be best and researching programs is hard shit. I'm thinking my ultimate goal is to get a undergrad in Graphic Design from Minnesota. But as for now, I'm looking into local colleges in my are to get my gen ed's and make some money. Any tips from people who applied into this field would be greatly appreciated ^_^

Y A Y F U T U R E !

 

[whistle]

I may write my Uchicago essay on why Bing is used more for porn than Google, but im unsure if that would be too graphic. Advice?

I think that would be fine. it's not very graphic unless you make it that way... and uchicago kids are weird anyways

it doesn't sound like a very interesting essay though (from the perspective of someone who doesn't know anything other than the topic). but it could be made interesting depending on how you write it, I guess

I am really interested in studying mathematics in college (currently a senior in highschool) and right now my first choice is Kansas State because my father graduated from there; legacy scholarships ftw!! Does anybody have suggestions of colleges with good mathematics programs or are any of you studying math?

if you have a strong math background (i.e. self taught proof based math) then something worth considering would be schools with special tracks or placement options for advanced freshmen. you'll form strong relationships with other math kids who are headed to top 5 grad programs and that's probably one of the most important things you'll get out of college

 

[dice]

I may write my Uchicago essay on why Bing is used more for porn than Google, but im unsure if that would be too graphic. Advice?

this is like a recurring joke on reddit so i'm not really sure where you'd go with this.. ? could possibly be interesting tho, but could u gimme a basic synopsis of how it'd tie in with the prompt (idk what it is) and what point you'd try to drive w. the premise? always was given the impression that bing's lack of filters and restrictions from being relatively shittier in fact made it better in this regard (plus the vid search). porn isn't that crude of a subject. it's a mundane, relatable topic. i wrote my hopkins essay on fuckin pokmon ftw; u just gotta make it work. be 'human' in your essays. there are inevitably going to be millions upon millions of essays regarding how a kid's particular trait allowed him/her to overcome an obstacle or some shit. i mean that's fine and all if you wanna do it, but the reader will appreciate a unique piece. don't be robotic-- let it flow; try to be insightful and eloquent.

p.s. if anyone has any jhu questions/comments/concerns pls let me kno!!!!!!!

 

[Bad Ass]

p.s. if anyone has any jhu questions/comments/concerns pls let me kno!!!!!!!

if i transfer into JHU will i become as cute as you?

 

[shnen]

anyone else applying in the UK? I'm gonna be applying to read Classics at Cambridge, UCL, Exeter, Bristol, and one more place (maybe Reading). My school wants my personal statement done for this Monday but I've only got like an extensive plan (i.e. the whole thing but not written in full sentences for the most part) - and even that's already over the character limit. Gonna have to do a lot of trimming...

 

[Stratos]

no worries - it's considered v different from all the other "top tier" schools u probably looked at if you got into cornell. The essay (supplemental) is usually a very strange question ("why are odd numbers odd?" that one is expected to respond to uniquely. My idea (google vs bing in terms of porn) would have looked at the fact people and society in general have to ponder the question of how much online integration we need in out lives, as google kinda presents an all-seeing eye of sorts, and thus i feel people are intuitively picking bing as a (rather funny and bizarre) example of the phenomenon "being kinda adverse to having a large, though maybe benevolent, tech overlord influencing our lives".

But yeah im looking at Cornell, it's where my dad went, so if u could help me a bit w/ the direction of my essay that would be really cool as im having trouble finding an "experience" that both portrays me as unique (and thus a good addition to a school) yet caring (the typical "best answer" to a college essay).

i use bing because there's no way to completely stop google from filtering results to be more SFW, idk about anyone else

also its really more important to be memorable and unique than anything. my virginia tech essay was on how stupid it is that school mottoes are in latin. it was way more fun to write than all of my other bullshit essays, and more importantly, i got in.

 

[Stathakis]

throw your duke questions at me


also to all applying to places this fall, consider writing about pokemon if you have been particularly influential or won everything, colleges love hearing about how you influenced other people. sauce: wrote about pokemon, got into good colleges

 

[Bughouse]

Everyone offering writing help lmao. I wrote some really good common app essays and have particularly good advice about the short essay (talk about extracurricular or work experience):

Pick something you care about, not something you think you need to explain. If you're involved in some niche club and you're worried that the little one-liner about it in the "extracurricular" section isn't enough, that does not mean you need to write about it to clear anything up. Write what you actually want to write about.

Focus on ONE event or tightly woven sequence of events. Do NOT speak about the extracurricular or job at all in general except the minimum needed to give context (which might even be 0 if it's a straightforward activity). Focus only on that day, that hour, maybe even that minute. Write it like a short story not like an essay. Anything too formulaic like "I do A because B and as a result C happened which made me feel D" turns boring really quickly. Especially if it's about a last second touchdown/basket/home run/etc or a mission trip to Africa.

Preferably pick something that is both general and detailed enough to be memorable (but if your obvious main thing is super standard, like a major sport, you should probably still do that - see tip 1). You ideally want the reader to think of you as "the kid who _____" and there to be no other kid that descriptor could be about. That's how you're memorable. Still somewhat general so that the reader can relate within the 250 (200? I forget how long lol) word space you have. For example, I was the kid who sang in a barbershop-ish group for old ladies in nursing homes and giving them roses. If you're the basketball player, be the one who introduced X tradition or gave a teammate nickname Y, etc. Not just a basketball player who plays basketball.

Show. Not tell. You don't need to outright tell them how x made you feel or why y has impacted you til today. Demonstrate that with words in the context of the story.

Having a killer first sentence is very hard, since you need to establish some sort of context upfront usually. But your last sentence better be good. Ending with a piece of dialogue from someone involved can be good if it's a good quote. (In mine, it was one of the old ladies turning to her husband and complaining that he never gives her flowers anymore.)

 

[DiscoDucky]

Also put UMD down as a school. Its a smogonpartydown. Here.

 

[Surgo]

Replying in case anyone searches for it in the future, but if anyone is interested in Bard College (or is going there!) feel free to send me a PM. I'm both a graduate (class of 2009) and I live in the area.

 

[migzoo]

AMA about stanford
I can also read essays, but I won't be nice

 

[uragg]

reppin berkeley boo stanford

 

[migzoo]

Are there a lot of hot guys? How many guys have you been with at once?

I feel like overall attractiveness at Stanford is above the national average, but below the California average. Wrt 2nd question, I was in a CS class of over 300 people, so a lot

 

[Woodchuck]

I'm a couple of weeks into my first year at Princeton, so I can try to answer questions if people are interested. Not sure if there are any other Smogoners here, given that chaos is no longer pursuing his PhD.

 

[migzoo]

Ok so I'm a junior with a 2260 SAT score and roughly a 3.7 GPA so far in high school. Nothing too special(especially because of my Asian ethnicity), but the main attribute going for me is that I am a five star recruit for tennis(meaning top 75 in the nation). I am looking to go to Cornell University for engineering. Cornell's tennis team usually only starts five and four star recruits with national rankings in the top 125 or so. Are the odds of me being accepted high? Is there any general advice for what I should try to improve to increase my odds of being accepted?

dude if you're a 5-star and you have decent academic stats you're basically guaranteed to get recruited somewhere good. At this point it's just a matter of how much you want to tennis to be a part of your life in college. You should have a very good chance at getting into Cornell, but balancing a D1 sport + engineering courseload is tough anywhere.

 

[DiscoDucky]

Ok so I'm a junior with a 2260 SAT score and roughly a 3.7 GPA so far in high school. Nothing too special(especially because of my Asian ethnicity), but the main attribute going for me is that I am a five star recruit for tennis(meaning top 75 in the nation). I am looking to go to Cornell University for engineering. Cornell's tennis team usually only starts five and four star recruits with national rankings in the top 125 or so. Are the odds of me being accepted high? Is there any general advice for what I should try to improve to increase my odds of being accepted?

Have you been in contact with the coaches and have you received any letter offers?

 

[jumpluff]

Posting up for Australia! Good luck to anyone attempting the HSC over the next two months and/or applying for university.

I've been applying to transfer out of my current university (I double major in Genetics/Mathematics, long story but I don't have a high school diploma because I got early entry into uni). Almost straight HDs in fulltime courseloads since I started my BSc and some 200-level study so I guess my application is looking decent for the early rounds, especially since I can get bonus points pretty much everywhere...

But I'm always hesitant because of my very, very patchy transcript during the years I was sick (was doing different courses then too) in combination with lack of ATAR + work + not graduating any of my other degrees. I applied to safety downgrades in QLD just because I worry a lot about how I look as a prospective student. If I'm a risky investment, I guess? I certainly don't tell them anything much negative in my apps... Ultimately its probably just insecurity, because admissions are pretty impersonal...

On the bright side I got an informal offer to study at Macquarie; I'll get the formal offer in the October round due to me being a day late to respond. I'm ultra psyched because I'm guaranteed an exit, takes a lot of stress off waiting until January! Also means I can make preparations to move. Anyway it means my transcript isn't breaking admissions databases. But I don't know how to measure myself relative to other entrants.

I applied to UQ, ANU, USyd, MQ, UTS, UNSW (+ QUT and the school my brother attends, neither of which I have a serious interest in attending but are last-resort options). Common sense says to just take the MQ offer save an unlikely ANU offer tomorrow at 7:30 AM, UQ won't start for months, idk

Gotten useful feedback on MQ, ANU, UQ, and USyd already, but if anyone's got experience at any of the schools I listed, I'd love to hear from you. I'm interested in everything: accommodation, school culture/people, class structure (some of these schools have negligible information in their handbooks, am I going to run into 70% weighted math finals again?), faculties, quality of the teaching, lecturer accessibility, class sizes, food availability, public transport access, campus accessibility, research prospects.

Accessibility in general is a huge deal for me because it's why I'm moving mostly. I'm used to Sydney transport by now, I get cheaper PT than you all because disabilities... but I don't know much about living outside of NSW. At my school I couldnt even access my math tuts and had trouble with my chem/genetics lab routes. I use a walking frame and a cane as needed if that helps. Obv I'm going to talk to disability staff at the schools

Career interests are medical neuroscience research/bioinformatics/genetic counselling btw

 

[Shrug]

Harvard and UPenn sent my dad emails and are mildly interested in me, but I doubt I could get into Harvard even with the help of the coach. Nothing yet from Cornell but I think there's still time left. College coaches don't start sending you serious offers until later in your junior year, and I don't think I can contact coaches myself yet. Army, Navy, Air Force, and LSU have sent me stuff too but I'm not interested in them.

You need to demonstrate interest. Idk the precise procedure for tennis, but i assume you can compile a list of accomplishments / examples (like "semifinals at eastern regionals", "top 75 in the nation", "5-star recruit named by [tennis shit]", highlight tape, depends on the conventions of your sport) and send them to coaches along with your scores / grades. If the schools are REALLY REALLY good at tennis you might get something claiming their recruiting class is full but most times you'll get a response, some will be perfunctory ("wow! cool that u emailed, dude, u look to rlly like tennis a lot!") but some will give u clear indications you should keep talking, come up for camp / prospect day, visit etc. Especially if they emailed your dad - thats a really good sign. If you harbor any desire to go to Harvard, check it out - dont cut off your opportunities because of self-doubt.

bout the process, there are two types of recruits typically going to schools. the first are the kids who are the very top picks in that sport, for whom the coaches will lay "chips" down w/ admission to ensure acceptance. this phenomenon is why cornell can have top-10 wrestling and lacrosse teams. Idk how good you are - if you are stellar, you have a shot at being this. fortunately w/ your grades you can be the second type - the kid with adequate grades for whom athletics serves as a "differentiating factor" that means you are Super Special Enough to get into the schools you are talking about. You have the SAT and maybe the GPA (idk which courses youve taken) to have a shot at going to a bunch of schools (all of them) if you have something to separate yourself - tennis might be that. So yes, youve got a shot either way.

On the process: the Ivy schools dont offer athletic scholarships. So they cant dangle an offer necessarily, but if they ship you up and house you for a night, give you a tour etc, it is a p strong indication they want you. one of the problems is they might say "it looks very good if you apply early here" as a way of pinching off your options, so be ready to decide early senior year as thats when you have the coach's blessing. Good luck!

 

[shnen]

Right, UCAS form is set, just have to have school look over it all. Applying to: Cambridge, UCL, Durham, Exeter and Warwick. Are there really no other smogonites applying in the UK?

 

[citro]

Right, UCAS form is set, just have to have school look over it all. Applying to: Cambridge, UCL, Durham, Exeter and Warwick. Are there really no other smogonites applying in the UK?

im not fast track, i havent prepared 90% of my ucas lol :-D

 

[DiscoDucky]

But definitely chat up Harvard. The metric to check to see if you can fit in on the Harvard or UPenn roster is to check team stats or stats of individual players and meter yourself next to them (it's easier to do this in T&F, CC, or swimming). Talk to the coaches ASAP.

And good luck in the recruitment process.

 

[brightobject]

I'm looking for a major in the arts/illustration/animation/indust.design, basically anything that can launch me into some sort of conceptual art field in the future (although anything involving drawing how I want is a plus for me)

I'm a junior with a 4.0 GPA (not sure what it is weighted, I can get that if you'd like), in the IB Programme, I'm currently in MVC with an AP BC Calc (5.0), AP Gov (5.0), AP Stat (5.0), and AP USHist (5.0) under my belt. I'll be taking SAT II's Lit and Math L2, along with the SAT over the rest of the year, and debating whether to take the ACT. I'll say more if you need more, at this point I'm pretty lost and I know I'm pretty late to the party so any and all advice would be appreciated.

Questions:

-Just how important would you say SAT's are, really? And do ACT's hold any merit outside the Calif. area?

-Are there any colleges with SAT II requirements of over 3? Anything I should know about SAT II's in general?

-Is it a good idea to jump for colleges with cross-college shenanigans going on (e.g. do art studies on one campus and do other studies at another)

-Anything I should work on more /focus on? In general what should I focus on to prepare for colleges?

-Yale tips? Would it be feasible for me to apply to Yale? (Ivy League school with awesome art program, so high risk/reward)

-and honestly anything at all you think I'd find important.

 

[Ladder Heroes]

I was just skimming through this thread looking for any additional tips and realized that almost everyone that posted here is an overachiever. Why does a shitty game like competitive Pokemon draw so many driven, intelligent, hardworking people together ?_?

 

[Shrug]

I was just skimming through this thread looking for any additional tips and realized that almost everyone that posted here is an overachiever. Why does a shitty game like competitive Pokemon draw so many driven, intelligent, hardworking people together ?_?

1) I consistently underachieve in school [why i could give good advise bout recruiting :)]
2) Imma go out on a limb and say the posters itt are a significantly different sample from that of the rest of smogon - if you go to a "good" college (by perception, im not assigning value judgments to any school or w/e) you are more likely to post proudly bout your achievement and school etc.

 

[shnen]

im not fast track, i havent prepared 90% of my ucas lol :-D

oh I'm not either, just Oxbridge have earlier deadlines so school makes us do it earlier