Deadline Woes

I decided to take a brief hiatus from my normal college review flow this week in order to address the notion of college deadlines. While I was fortunate to have no December 1 deadlines this year, some of my classmates weren't so lucky. To be quite honest, I find the rolling admissions offered by schools like University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin to be an excellent idea. Students don't feel as much pressure, then, to have applications in by a certain date and can feel free to take adequate time, instead of hastily throwing something together that may or  may not reflect your best persona.

I'm applying to 8 schools, all of which have deadlines on or after December 31st. Needless to say, it could potentially be a VERY long winter break. Maybe I'll just end up hibernating..

.Anyways, my parents have been all up in my grille, so to speak, about getting all my apps done on time and done well. And I completely agree with their sentiments. Something about sitting down to try and describe myself, or my extracurricular activities, or my soccer experiences, or my summer mission trips with my church, or any number of things, over and over again just isn't enticing. What do I say? How do I convey who I am? In only 250 words? It's overwhelming to think about. Each college wants something different. They can be asking similar questions, even, but the context of the university subtly mandates that you put a different spin on the same story.

One of the most frustrating parts of the application process is the word limit. Applying to schools, it seems like an unfair deal. I go to visit these schools because I want to know as much about them before I spend the next 4-? years of my life there. I've always thought of that as the school telling me what is is academically, socially, etc. And on top of it, they can send me nearly unlimited literature about them. And me? What do I get? I get 250 words (if the school is generous) to tell them about my 17 years of life.

I'm sick of hearing people tell me that having only 250 words to tell a school who they are totally changed the way they viewed important moments in their life; that having so few words allowed them to focus on what was really important. This is ridiculous. With so few words, I can't help thinking about how much more detail I could give with additional words, and all the experiences that can't justly be summed up in 250 words.

This concludes my somewhat brief rant about college application deadlines, and just college apps in general. We will now return to your regularly scheduled programming. Thank you for listening.