During my spring break last year, I felt a little out of place at the airport. Most people migrated south for the lovely delights of sun-kissed beaches, refreshing gelatos and flip-flops. However, I, the high school junior, headed up north with my ski jacket to visit some potential college choices. When my dad drove our rental car through the thick, snowy ...

Personally, I think it is reasonable to assume that most Americans can shamefully (or proudly, in some cases) admit that they have watched a teen flick. Whether the movie is Clueless, High School Musical, Mean Girls or Napoleon Dynamite, they all have that same cafeteria scene. The stock characters isolate themselves in their cliques at the lunch tables while appeasing their ...

During my senior year of high school, I was very thorough in my college search. There were many important factors for me to consider when choosing a college: location, cost, size and enrollment, professor/student ratio, resources, opportunities to study abroad and athletics, just to name a few. I looked at everything from public universities, to technical schools, to private institutions with ...

As a college-bound student, I will admit that preparing for the college process takes more than good grades and activities. While students strive to find a place in the realm of academia, I believe that scholarships are a crucial element. Universally, most people concur that a decent education doesn’t come cheaply. Indeed, knowledge is power, but obtaining that power costs a ...

When I picked up Dante’s “Paradiso” of The Divine Comedy a semester ago, I expected the souls in heaven to live the good life. I anticipated the stereotypical floating souls to eat endless buckets of fried chicken and live a carefree existence. Instead, I found Dante’s work very philosophically abstract and difficult to comprehend at times. Therefore, when I started comparing ...

A few months ago, I compared my actual application process to the “Inferno” of Dante’s Divine Comedy. However, in this phase of my senior year, I now find more parallels with the second canticle of Dante’s work, “Purgatorio.” Dante the Pilgrim now needs to wait and reflect upon his life to achieve perfection. For example, the envious must sew their eyes ...

In my first week of my AP English Lit class, my new teacher announced that we would begin the school year with one of the most famous works of literature, Dante’s “Inferno.” In his epic poem, Dante writes about his journey through Hell and Purgatory to eventually become the perfect man in Paradise. He struggles, hesitates and fails at some tasks, ...

One morning, a credit card in hand (and Handel’s “Halleluiah Chorus” playing in my mind), I gleefully clicked the ”Submit” button for my Common Application. After I paid the application fees and filled out the school transcript forms, I was finished with the whole process. The thing I was wondering about ever since I was six had reached its completion. As ...

On one very lazy Sunday afternoon, I went shopping at one of my favorite stores, Barnes and Noble. I could get lost and spend hours looking at random books, CDs, journals and other various accessories in this magnificent store. However, the biography section of the bookstore caught my immediate attention during this shopping trip. On each biography, I saw the pictures ...

A High School Senior Shares is experiences preparing for college. Different Year, Same Old Blog Jan. 11, 2006 Ahoy, my friends! Happy belated new year to you all! It's 2006 and you know what that means….absolutely nothing! That's right, it's a different year but it's still the same old song and dance here on my quaint little blog. Now that it's ...

Several high-profile schools sparked debate recently by ending early admission. Why are schools like Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia abandoning these policies and what does this mean for you? Differences in Admission Colleges typically offer different admissions options. Early admission, which is at the center of the recent debate, has two forms: early decision and early action. Both allow ...

College planning can be stressful for both students and parents. Long before they face the challenge of finding college funding, students face an equally important challenge - the college admissions process. Filling out college applications and waiting to hear from admissions committees can make for a nerve-wracking senior year. But now schools are taking steps to alleviate student stress by instituting ...

In early June of this year, as my sophomore year of high school was drawing to a close, I realized several things. First, I was halfway through with high school, and had less than two years to make myself presentable to colleges. Second, I was coming up on my junior year, the hardest and most important year of my high school ...

Time is such an ambiguous thing. At some times in life, it seems to go too slow (e.g., chemistry class). At other times it goes too fast (e.g., hanging out with friends). Right now, though, I am caught in an awkward mix of feeling as though time is going both too slow and too fast. On the one hand, I can't ...

When it came to applying for scholarships, my search always came to a screeching halt because I felt unqualified for any of the opportunities. The awards that promised "big money" were usually for students who devoted their entire lives to fellowships and community service. For someone who had focused more on getting a job and playing sports, community service was not ...

Senioritis Oct. 14, 2005 Last week I was stressed out to no end. I had to finish a six page religion essay, an English essay, and a lab report in science. I guess it's my fault that I was so stressed, since I waited until the last second to get everything done. I was in a very bad mood at the ...

A month after taking the GRE, what I remember most is the GR part. (“Grrrrr” n. 1. exclamation indicating extreme frustration, 2. sound a bear makes.) You see, I’ve gotten my scores. I’m in the 91st percentile on verbal, which means only 9 percent of this year’s test takers scored higher than me. (I am also in the 91st percentile for ...

For years the ACT has existed in the shadow of the more popular SAT. This may now be changing. Find out why you should pay attention to the ACT. The ACT Can Get You In The ACT emerged in 1959 as an alternative to the SAT, which has been in existence since 1926. The ACT has never gained the level of ...

The dreaded small envelope. It's white, thin and has no indication as to its contents except the return address of a college. For the high school seniors who receive it, it is almost always a rejection letter. I opened up my mailbox the other day and discovered a small envelope from Occidental College, a liberal arts school in Los Angeles that ...

I am applying to journalism schools. One part of this pernicious process is taking the Graduate Record Exam. In an attempt to get GREady (Big laughs!), I’ve been diligently reviewing flashcards and steadily working math problem sets. The prep books say studiers should include learned material in daily life, so I’ve incorporated some rather outlandish words here which are, according to ...