appblr '17

elizabeth. 17. senior. usa. 

[studyquill]

29/100 days of productivity ⋅ thursday september 28 2017 brush pen ⋅ black pen ⋅ highlighter 

[studytherin]

ʚ 5th apr 2017 ɞ

continue making some basic geography notes♡ i’m currently obsessed with yu seungwoo’s only u ヽ(*´∀｀) my ears are blessed ☆彡

[appblah]

a LONG reflection as i become an ex-appblr

i am fully aware that the whole senior-year-was-the-best-year-of-my-life (thus far) thing is incredibly cliche and i honestly would not have imagined that any year spent at my catholic high school in suburban georgia would be the best year of my life but alas here we are. i came into high school a very sad person and i spent a very large portion of high school being a very sad person but this year (and part of last year i guess but mostly this year) i have turned into the most positive, confident version of myself. i spent this year getting close to and making SO many memories with people who mean the world to me and i don’t know how i got so lucky to have such amazing friends who i can tell literally anything to and would do anything for. i have spent the majority of this year in a relationship that brings me so so SO much happiness, i did a lot of theatre, a lot of singing, took lots of pictures, piled a lot of people into my car, applied to college, got into college, and in the fall i get to attend a school that has morphed into the dream school i didn’t know i had where i’ll get to be in a super cool program and study so many cool things and start traveling the world (FOR FREE) in literally less than a year. i have such an exuberance for life right now and so often feel myself just instinctively bubbling over with relentless positivity. and although the spectacular-ness of this year means it’s going to be much harder to leave than i anticipated, i’m so jazzed for this next chapter in my life and also SO excited for all the memories i’m going to make this summer. 

also more specific to appblr: i got into essentially all of my “dream schools,” schools with below 15% acceptance rates and accomplished student bodies, “impressive” schools. i, however, am attending a southern, public school, with an acceptance rate of ~77%. cofc offered me a spot in an amazing program that will allow me to explore my passion for the world, receive a great deal of career mentoring as well as mentoring and encouragement to pursue nationally competitive awards, study abroad a LOT, and with the scholarship that a spot in this program comes with; college won’t be a financial burden on me and my family (who still has two more kids to send to college lol). i’m going to my safety school, a school that when i applied i was pretty sure i would never end up attending. i always saw myself at some elite school up north and i also had kind of a mindset that i had worked too hard in high school to go to an “easy” school which is a HORRIBLE attitude. if it turns out that your safety school is the right school for you that is so so so okay. your college choice should not be about proving anything to anyone it should be about picking a place to spend the next four years that you think will get you most set on the path you see for yourself. if that is harvard, awesome. if that is your local state school, awesome. the only other person from my school i’m going to college with is a girl who sat next to me in chemistry junior year who slept and cheated her way through the entire semester. i know she didn’t take all the AP classes i did, i know she didn’t get the grades i did but that doesn’t matter, your college choice is about you and you alone. the truth is, i could put in a fraction of the work i did in high school and still probably could have gotten into cofc but that’s not the point. i truly believe that this is the school i’ll be the happiest at and my college decision should not be used as a method of proving myself to the people around me.

i am so so excited for the next four years and i guess this means i’m not an appblr anymore, wild. i’m not the most active on here but i do check my messages so if anyone ever wants to chat (i don’t have many followers so i probably won’t be taken up on this but i’m throwing it out anyway) feel free.

peace out,

elizabeth

[appblah]

I love your blog! And congrats on choosing your college! Glad you're happy with your choice !!! :) -goodluckcollege on tumblr

thank you so much!!!

[goodbyeeveryonee-deactivated202]

youre meant to take up space this year. meant to find out about your potential. meant to share that with the rest of us. stand strong in that. notice who stands with you. move towards people that keep you in check and and make you feel well loved. theres no need for undeserved compliments but there is a great need for unrestrained love

[climbthestacks]

Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis

[appblah]

an update (long overdue)

for those of you at home who are for whatever reason still following this relatively inactive blog:

still waiting on:

tufts (march 30th?)

accepted:

wash u

rice

emory

tulane (honors and merit scholarhsip)

UGA (honors)

college of charleston (honors, william aiken fellow, international scholars program, w/ a merit scholarship) -- will attend

waitlisted:

barnard

rejected:

none

so even though i’m still waiting on tufts (my long time “dream school” weird) i’ve made up my mind and i’m going to probably make a long post about it later but it feels good :))

[medicine-blr]

To everyone who didn’t get into their dream school:

your self worth is not attached to this university

internalise the saying “everything happens for a reason” and allow it to comfort you 

know that your feelings of sadness and/or anger are valid right now, let yourself feel sad. its ok to cry. let it all out of your system.

know that it’s not ok to wallow in this, you can, and you will rise from these feelings, you wont let them get in the way of achieving your dreams. 

this university rejection will not get in the way of achieving your dreams.

across the board, this year’s application pool was the largest and the most difficult one to segregate through, some universities even had to resort to randomly generating names because they couldn’t pick.

you are not alone.

read number 1 again.

[universtudy]

Overrated First Year Advice

Disclaimer: I don’t mean to discredit the posts that have these suggestions in them… However, I know that for people going into first year university, it can be stressful seeing pages and pages of “must-dos” and feeling like you have to do them all. As always, different things work for different people! 

Talking to Profs 

Getting to know profs personally. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to profs personally, don’t feel like you have to. In upper years, it can be really valuable to know profs for recommendations, etc. but in first year this is less important. Profs also don’t usually mark your work in first year, so you don’t need to suck up to them for good grades. 

Going to office hours every week. Going to office hours can be very valuable if you have questions about the course or an assignments. However, I see a lot of posts telling students to go every week even if they don’t have a question. You don’t need to do this unless you want to! Often times, profs will even request that you talk to your TA before them.

Emailing the prof if you miss class. Unless you go to a very small school, the prof is not going to notice if you miss class. You don’t need to email them telling them why you were absent, you can just go to a different section of the lecture or get the notes from someone. (If you have labs/tutorials/seminars, the same does not apply!! Email your TA.) 

Studying and Grades

Starting to study for tests six weeks in advance. This is one piece of advice that always baffles me. The semester is only 12 weeks long (usually), so if you have a quiz in week 6, you can’t start studying for it much before week 4 or 5. Also, there is no way you will retain the finer details of things if you learned them 6 weeks before writing the test. 

Guaranteeing a 4.0. I see a ton of posts telling students how to guarantee a 4.0 average or straight As. But honestly, as much as you do all of the readings and go to lectures and follow all of the studyblr advice out there, you can still get a TA who won’t give any mark higher than an 80. Just try your best and know that even though getting high marks is great, it is not the only indicator of success in uni. 

Sitting in the front of the class. This is not a necessity. A lot of people post that if the prof can see your face and remember you, you will get better grades. However, in first year, the prof doesn’t mark your papers usually and even if they did, your paper doesn’t have a photo of you on it. Also, they teach so many classes I doubt they just naturally remember the first three rows of each one and no one else. Just sit where you are comfortable and can pay attention and see, and you will do fine. 

Choosing your major in high school or based on what job you think you will get. If you think you want to major in something and then it turns out you hate it, that is fine! Your major should be a subject you are passionate about and can get good grades in, not something that you chose in high school or will “guarantee” you a good job (although, its also okay if your major is all of the above). 

Taking full notes on a topic before the lecture. If you are going to the lecture with a ton of info already, it is easier to get distracted or to feel like you don’t need the lectures at all. Instead, take notes in the lecture and then supplement them with notes from readings or bonus material rather than the opposite way. 

Textbooks

Buying textbooks online. I definitely think that buying textbooks online can be a good idea, but sometimes it is just easier to buy them from the bookstore. For example, if you are not sure if a site is legit/the book will come in time/its the right edition, etc. it might just be safer to get it in person or buy it used on campus from an upper year. (Remember, you can probably sell it next year!) 

Buying old editions of textbooks. If you have the two books side by side and can tell that they are very similar, go for it. But often times, two different editions are totally different and can just mess you up. Science and math books often have different practice questions, and even in social sciences and humanities, the content can change drastically in one edition. 

Lifestyle/Personal

Buying extra storage and furnishing for your dorm. Make sure you do a virtual room tour or talk to someone about the layout before you buy a ton of storage. Most dorm rooms that I have been in have a ton of storage (mine has a closet, a huge desk, shelves to the ceiling, a dresser, and cabinets for extra storage). You don’t want to show up with way too much stuff. 

Keeping 1000 things in your backpack. If you live on campus, you don’t actually need to carry every single thing on earth in your bag. It will get annoying carrying around a heavy backpack while walking. Unless you are going to the library for a huge study sesh or can’t make it back to your room all day, pack lightly! 

Avoiding wearing “freshman clothes”. No one cares what you are wearing. People often wear pajamas or just track pants and a baggy t-shirt to class or the caf. If you like dressing up, that’s great! But don’t feel like certain clothes are off limits. 

Living at home meaning you aren’t independent. Posts that look down upon living at home or going to your home university are garbage posts in my opinion. Being able to live away from home is a privilege, and many people are not financially, physically, or emotionally able to do that. If you are living at home, do not feel bad about it. You are still an adult and you are still independent. 

Hope this helps reduce some rising freshman anxiety! And remember, if you do want to follow any of the original tips, that is okay too. :) 

[appblah]

im a junior but i saw your post about making a spreadsheet and we have the EXACT same colleges except 1 haha 😂😊

no way that's so funny!

[studywithinspo]

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.” - Helen Keller

[appblah]

in what world is $32,000 "not too shabby" ??

lmao i’m guessing this is about my tulane scholarship? ahaha no i know, i’m really happy but their tuition is still mad expensive soooooo

[appblah]

hellooo! I'm applying to colleges next year but want to get started lol, and I saw you're applying to Rice and WashU (among others). I don't know much about those schools, can you tell me what you like about them?! thanks so much!!

hi! yes for sure!

1. my ~ideal~ school is smallish medium sized with access to a large city and both of these schools have that for sure. they also both advertise themselves as being a school where you can have close relationships with and access to your professors like at a small LAC but also having all the resources of a large national university and that really appeals to me as well

2. both of these schools are beautiful, i was super lucky and got to visit both schools before applying and wow. definitely two different styles of architecture but these were definitely the two most gorgeous schools i applied to

3. both schools just seemed to have a really great campus community and a really positive atmosphere in general. they both have tons of clubs and student organizations and both schools also really emphasize residential life for underclassmen especially. at washu all freshmen (and i think sophomores?) live on the “south 40″ which is across a bridge type thing and it’s almost like a little mini city, i really liked how they kind of separate the academic buildings from the residential buildings. and the dorms at washu are crazy nice. and then rice has their residential college system where you get randomly put in one freshman year (it’s kind of like hogwarts!) and that’s where you live and each res college becomes its own little community and i really like it, i think it’s such a cool way to make a college campus a little smaller

4. okay and then of course academics, definitely what drew me to rice and washu in the first place. these are two of the best schools in the country, they have well established programs in everything i want to study and also encourage students to study abroad which is something else that’s very important to me. both these schools have brilliant professors and super accomplished student bodies and you really can’t go wrong and i’d be so so ecstatic to be accepted to either of them (fingers crossed eek)  

feel free to message me again if you have any more questions or chat me off anon :) 

[wanderingginwonderland]

50 Things to do before you Graduate College:

Article from MIT Admissions. Written by Ben Jones. 

As you begin your college experience, and I prepare for my 10-year college reunion, I thought I’d leave you with the things that, in retrospect, I think are important as you navigate the next four years. I hope that some of them are helpful.

Here goes…

Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Let them.

Call someone you love back home a few times a week, even if just for a few minutes.

In college more than ever before, songs will attach themselves to memories. Every month or two, make a mix cd, mp3 folder, whatever - just make sure you keep copies of these songs. Ten years out, they’ll be as effective as a journal in taking you back to your favorite moments.

Take naps in the middle of the afternoon with reckless abandon.

Adjust your schedule around when you are most productive and creative. If you’re nocturnal and do your best work late at night, embrace that. It may be the only time in your life when you can.

If you write your best papers the night before they are due, don’t let people tell you that you “should be more organized” or that you “should plan better.” Different things work for different people. Personally, I worked best under pressure - so I always procrastinated… and always kicked ass (which annoyed my friends to no end). ;-) Use the freedom that comes with not having grades first semester to experiment and see what works best for you.

At least a few times in your college career, do something fun and irresponsible when you should be studying. The night before my freshman year psych final, my roommate somehow scored front row seats to the Indigo Girls at a venue 2 hours away. I didn’t do so well on the final, but I haven’t thought about psych since 1993. I’ve thought about the experience of going to that show (with the guy who is now my son’s godfather) at least once a month ever since.

Become friends with your favorite professors. Recognize that they can learn from you too - in fact, that’s part of the reason they chose to be professors.

Carve out an hour every single day to be alone. (Sleeping doesn’t count.)

Go on dates. Don’t feel like every date has to turn into a relationship.

Don’t date someone your roommate has been in a relationship with.

When your friends’ parents visit, include them. You’ll get free food, etc., and you’ll help them to feel like they’re cool, hangin’ with the hip college kids.

In the first month of college, send a hand-written letter to someone who made college possible for you and describe your adventures thus far. It will mean a lot to him/her now, and it will mean a lot to you in ten years when he/she shows it to you.

Embrace the differences between you and your classmates. Always be asking yourself, “what can I learn from this person?” More of your education will come from this than from any classroom.

All-nighters are entirely overrated.

For those of you who have come to college in a long-distance relationship with someone from high school: despite what many will tell you, it can work. The key is to not let your relationship interfere with your college experience. If you don’t want to date anyone else, that’s totally fine! What's not fine, however, is missing out on a lot of defining experiences because you’re on the phone with your boyfriend/girlfriend for three hours every day.

Working things out between friends is best done in person, not over email. (IM does not count as “in person.”) Often someone’s facial expressions will tell you more than his/her words.

Take risks.

Don’t be afraid of (or excited by) the co-ed bathrooms. The thrill is over in about 2 seconds.

Wednesday is the middle of the week; therefore on wednesday night the week is more than half over. You should celebrate accordingly. (It makes thursday and friday a lot more fun.)

Welcome failure into your lives. It’s how we grow. What matters is not that you failed, but that you recovered.

Take some classes that have nothing to do with your major(s), purely for the fun of it.

It’s important to think about the future, but it’s more important to be present in the now. You won’t get the most out of college if you think of it as a stepping stone.

When you’re living on a college campus with 400 things going on every second of every day, watching TV is pretty much a waste of your time and a waste of your parents’ money. If you’re going to watch, watch with friends so at least you can call it a “valuable social experience.”

Don’t be afraid to fall in love. When it happens, don’t take it for granted. Celebrate it, but don’t let it define your college experience.

Much of the time you once had for pleasure reading is going to disappear. Keep a list of the books you would have read had you had the time, so that you can start reading them when you graduate.

Things that seem like the end of the world really do become funny with a little time and distance. Knowing this, forget the embarassment and skip to the good part.

Every once in awhile, there will come an especially powerful moment when you can actually feel that an experience has changed who you are. Embrace these, even if they are painful.

No matter what your political or religious beliefs, be open-minded. You’re going to be challenged over the next four years in ways you can’t imagine, across all fronts. You can’t learn if you’re closed off.

If you need to get a job, find something that you actually enjoy. Just because it’s work doesn’t mean it has to suck.

Don’t always lead. It’s good to follow sometimes.

Take a lot of pictures. One of my major regrets in life is that I didn’t take more pictures in college. My excuse was the cost of film and processing. Digital cameras are cheap and you have plenty of hard drive space, so you have no excuse.

Your health and safety are more important than anything.

Ask for help. Often.

Half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at any given moment. Way more than half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at some point in the next four years. Get used to it.

In ten years very few of you will look as good as you do right now, so secretly revel in how hot you are before it’s too late.

In the long run, where you go to college doesn’t matter as much as what you do with the opportunities you’re given there. The MIT name on your resume won’t mean much if that’s the only thing on your resume. As a student here, you will have access to a variety of unique opportunities that no one else will ever have - don’t waste them.

On the flip side, don’t try to do everything. Balance = well-being.

Make perspective a priority. If you’re too close to something to have good perspective, rely on your friends to help you.

Eat badly sometimes. It’s the last time in your life when you can do this without feeling guilty about it.

Make a complete ass of yourself at least once, preferably more. It builds character.

Wash your sheets more than once a year. Trust me on this one.

If you are in a relationship and none of your friends want to hang out with you and your significant other, pay attention. They usually know better than you do.

Don’t be afraid of the weird pizza topping combinations that your new friend from across the country loves. Some of the truly awful ones actually taste pretty good. Expand your horizons.

Explore the campus thoroughly. Don’t get caught.

Life is too short to stick with a course of study that you’re no longer excited about. Switch, even if it complicates things.

Tattoos are permanent. Be very certain.

Don’t make fun of prefrosh. That was you like 2 hours ago.

Enjoy every second of the next four years. It is impossible to describe how quickly they pass.

This is the only time in your lives when your only real responsibility is to learn. Try to remember how lucky you are every day.

Be yourself. Create. Inspire, and be inspired. Grow. Laugh. Learn. Love.

Welcome to some of the best years of your lives.

-B

[baektostudying-deactivated20170]

77/100 days of productivity!!! 2 more days until the start of mid years and so many things to do 😳

[appblah]

How I’m Organizing College Apps

alternate title: how i’m making it seem like i have my life together 

anyway, idk how helpful this will be but if anyone out there is curious here we goooooo 

okay so step 1, i made a spreadsheet. i actually made this during the summer and originally there were like twice as many schools on there haha! i’ve just been gradually eliminating and this is pretty close to my final list, i may knock off one more school. i made this on google sheets and it was super easy. i got the idea from this post and then i modified it to make it exactly relevant to me. 

next i’ve been using makemeafreshman.com and it is fantastic and it’s free! it only takes a minute to make an account. you add in all of the schools you’re applying to (see lefthand column), and then it provides you a checklist of things you have to do/submit for each school based on whether you’re applying ED, RD, etc. what a concept, 10/10, spectacular as heck. 

okay so almost all of my schools require some kind of supplemental essay whether that be for an honors college, merit scholarship, or just applying to the school itself. so i made a college folder on google drive and inside of that folder i made a common app folder (which just has my common app essay in it lol) and a folder for each school i’m applying to. 

so this is my Tufts folder. i made a separate document for each of the supplements and then right away i copy and pasted the original prompts onto each document as well so i never have to search for things.

so, that’s what i’m doing lol, i’m still very stressed out but oh well, at least i’m organized :’) good luck with your applications everyone!!!

[thesoontobenewyorker-deactivate]

Dear College Applicants,

I think it’s around Early Decision/Action time, as well as time for everyone to finish up college applications, so I just wanted to share a few tips on how to go about this process.

1.  Try your best to stay calm. No matter what, at the end of this, you will end up somewhere.

2.     If you’re dream school costs too much, don’t sacrifice everything to go. A degree is a degree. Get it, then maybe look into your dream school for grad if you chose to do so.

3.     Your first destination isn’t necessarily your final destination. You CAN transfer schools if you don’t like where you end up.

4.     Make sure you’re comfortable with your decision. If you have a feeling you wont like it there, don’t succumb to pressure from anyone else. No one knows you better than you know yourself.

 And for those of you who didn’t get into that dream school:

Your worth is not determined based on who chose to accept you. All of your accomplishments in your life cannot not be projected into your SAT scores and GPA. It’s their loss. You will do great things and thrive anywhere. It’s not about where you go, it’s about what you do there.

More to come later x

ps (check my college tab for more advice, and follow me on ig @parissdb)