Xinyan Zheng (284)

In the least sappy way possible, senior year goes by so fast. Not just the time you have to spend with your friends will pass by in the blink of an eye, but I’ve taken all my AP exams already, yet I don’t even feel like I’ve completed my courses. I can’t believe my friends and I are full-fledged legal adults. 

Nothing can quite prepare you for senior year except living it. I was so convinced “senioritis” was a myth, but,  alas, here I am turning in work minutes before the deadline. But if you’re willing to hear some advice, take this with a grain (or a lot of salt; after all, I did write almost all of my supplemental essays within two days of the deadline and spent more time reading other people’s essays instead of my own).

• During your junior spring, don’t ask seniors for their “stats”. Chances are it’s too late for you to meaningfully change any of that now. Copying someone else’s trajectory doesn’t help if you lack the same passion. 
• Apply early to rolling admissions schools that you can see yourself going to. 
• College acceptances are so random. It’s all random. It will make no sense why you get rejected from certain schools and accepted at others. During the spring, you will find out about other people’s college acceptances, and it will be shocking in good ways and bad ways. As all your statistics teachers love to say, “correlation doesn’t equal causation”. If you see a scatterplot of students who get accepted, you will see high GPAs and high SAT scores. If you see a scatterplot of students who get rejected, you will also see high GPAs and high SAT scores. 
• Read the fine print and do your research. Some schools take outside scholarships out of the aid they give you, so it won’t make a difference. A misconception about QuestBridge is that it makes it easier to get into their partner schools– this isn’t true. QuestBridge isn’t giving you the scholarship; their partner schools (the colleges) essentially have committed to meet an accepted student’s full financial need. Regardless of what round you get admitted (QuestBridge match, early action, early decision, or regular decision), the financial aid package you get from the school will be the same. If you don’t make it as a QuestBridge finalist, it is not the end of the world. Evaluate if the application is right for you. QuestBridge allows for more writing but fewer spots for extracurricular activities. 
• It’s okay not to want to talk about colleges; don’t make it your whole life. Ban the c-word (college) from your conversations and enjoy your life while you wait to hear back.
• Everyone is going through a rough time, don’t push your problems onto your friends. Get a college advisor, there are tons of free organizations that can help (Scholar Match, Matriculate, Matchlighters, etc). The college advisors you are paired with are trained and experienced in reviewing college essays, even more so than your English teachers (sorry!). 
• Hot take: extended metaphor essays are overdone. If you write about topics that genuinely resonate with you, it won’t be hard to write. Even if you think the topic is “cliche”, still write about it if it is a representation of who you are. I would never tell her this, but I wrote a supplemental essay on my mom. To a certain extent, you are evaluated by colleges in comparison to other applicants from the same high school. Having a unique application or essays helps!