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Hello everyone and happy Thursday!
As we approach the middle of July, I felt it fitting that I start up a new series on this blog where I cover all of the Back to School essentials and questions. I'm very excited to see where this series takes us, so let me break down how this is going to go.
Every Thursday I am going to share a new subtopic within college preparation and the back to school season. Here is what that will look like:
July 19: Top Five (Lesser Known) Must Have Items for a Successful Dorm Room
July 26: Things You Think You Need (But Don't!) for College
August 2: How to Curate the Perfect Skincare Regime in College
August 9: Your First Dorm Room vs Your First Apartment
I am so excited for this series and I hope you are, too! I am working with some amazing companies for this series that I hope inspire you and your future abode.
As always, leave me a comment letting me know your thoughts! I would love to tailor this series to fit YOUR needs.
Until next time,
July 12, 2018
No comments
Hey guys!
I couldn't start this post without sharing how much time I have left on this little rock: 15 days! The more I think about it the more anxious I get, so I'll save the sappy stuff for a later post. Instead, I wanted to make this post more relative to those high school seniors out there who will be starting to get their decisions back.
By now, if you applied early, you will start to receive more and more news from your school. Actually, it doesn't matter what time you applied because the closer you get to decisions the more news you'll be hearing.
In my case, I applied early to Cornell. Right up until my decision was released I had been receiving emails from the University on almost a constant basis. I got emails about my program, financial aid, and even just general news about the school. In fact, there was even one time where I got an email reminding me about financial aid deadlines and asking that I clarify Cornell is the school for me (of course at the time it was). And then, last year on the day of decisions, I sat down in my living room alongside my family and hit the link that would decide the rest of my life.
Denied.
In fact, I didn't even read the entire email. When you read the words, "We regret to inform you-" everything else kind of becomes blurry. I read the beginning and told my family I didn't get in, to which they responded with, "Okay, time to focus on the other schools." Which in hindsight is probably the best advice one receives, because even though there's a good chance you'll have your heart set on your first school, if you are denied admission than there is nothing you can do. I could not appeal, could not reapply, I could only move on.
The point is, your decision, good or bad, is not the end of you. If you got in to the school you applied to- congratulations! But this doesn't mean you can slack off and call it good. Schools (and this goes for every school) still wants to make sure you're putting in some effort at school. If your grades take a dip, you run the risk of getting your decision rescinded, or, in simpler terms, you might not be accepted anymore.
On the flip side, if you didn't get in, you're not alone. It's perfectly normal to feel discouraged, but you shouldn't let this decision blind you from giving your other schools the same amount of attention you gave the first school. In many cases, it isn't that you weren't a good candidate, but the school just doesn't have room. While your chances of being admitted to schools are typically higher if applying under early admission, it isn't something that's guaranteed.
I'm a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason. So whatever your decision turns out to be, just think of this to be what's best for you. If I had been accepted to Cornell, nothing would be the same. No blog, an assumably harder coarse load, and a poor mood because the weather would be horrible. Additionally, there's no beach near Cornell, so I would not be enjoying myself like I do here. Trust me, things are going to work out.
And really, is it so bad that I'm going to school in Hawaii versus New York? With views like this it really is hard to feel like I'm missing out.
Until next time,
Aislinn
I couldn't start this post without sharing how much time I have left on this little rock: 15 days! The more I think about it the more anxious I get, so I'll save the sappy stuff for a later post. Instead, I wanted to make this post more relative to those high school seniors out there who will be starting to get their decisions back.
By now, if you applied early, you will start to receive more and more news from your school. Actually, it doesn't matter what time you applied because the closer you get to decisions the more news you'll be hearing.
In my case, I applied early to Cornell. Right up until my decision was released I had been receiving emails from the University on almost a constant basis. I got emails about my program, financial aid, and even just general news about the school. In fact, there was even one time where I got an email reminding me about financial aid deadlines and asking that I clarify Cornell is the school for me (of course at the time it was). And then, last year on the day of decisions, I sat down in my living room alongside my family and hit the link that would decide the rest of my life.
Denied.
In fact, I didn't even read the entire email. When you read the words, "We regret to inform you-" everything else kind of becomes blurry. I read the beginning and told my family I didn't get in, to which they responded with, "Okay, time to focus on the other schools." Which in hindsight is probably the best advice one receives, because even though there's a good chance you'll have your heart set on your first school, if you are denied admission than there is nothing you can do. I could not appeal, could not reapply, I could only move on.
The point is, your decision, good or bad, is not the end of you. If you got in to the school you applied to- congratulations! But this doesn't mean you can slack off and call it good. Schools (and this goes for every school) still wants to make sure you're putting in some effort at school. If your grades take a dip, you run the risk of getting your decision rescinded, or, in simpler terms, you might not be accepted anymore.
On the flip side, if you didn't get in, you're not alone. It's perfectly normal to feel discouraged, but you shouldn't let this decision blind you from giving your other schools the same amount of attention you gave the first school. In many cases, it isn't that you weren't a good candidate, but the school just doesn't have room. While your chances of being admitted to schools are typically higher if applying under early admission, it isn't something that's guaranteed.
I'm a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason. So whatever your decision turns out to be, just think of this to be what's best for you. If I had been accepted to Cornell, nothing would be the same. No blog, an assumably harder coarse load, and a poor mood because the weather would be horrible. Additionally, there's no beach near Cornell, so I would not be enjoying myself like I do here. Trust me, things are going to work out.
And really, is it so bad that I'm going to school in Hawaii versus New York? With views like this it really is hard to feel like I'm missing out.
Until next time,
Aislinn
December 03, 2016
No comments
Hey guys!
So now that you've applied to your colleges and have gone through the interview process you might find yourself thinking, "Now what?" well, as appealing as kicking up your feet and relaxing sounds, you can't take a break just yet. Rather, it's time to polish your remaining applications and get ready for decisions.
If you're anything like me, you went through the infamous "relaxation" phase of senior year. This was when I wanted nothing more than to just relax. Motivating myself to finish my applications and do well on my school assignments was like trying to wake my brother up for school...NOT going to happen. Ultimately, it took a lot of pushing, but I was able to scrounge up that little bit of motivation left in me to finish the semester pretty strong.
But we can't get too ahead of ourselves.
After your interview(s), you're going to want to take a break. You're going to want to relax, stop thinking about schools, and just sleep. However that cannot, and should not, happen. I used this time to focus on my school work and submitted the rest of my applications. Any schools that I was uncertain about were looked into a little more closely, and occasionally I would check on the status of my Cornell application. I italicize Cornell because its important to remember that I only applied to one school early. The rest of my schools were applied to in late November, with the exceptions being CU Boulder and UH Manoa.
I don't have much else to add here besides the repetitive "Don't give up!" My next College Post will be about the decision and how you should handle the news. You won't want to miss it.
Until next time,
Aislinn
So now that you've applied to your colleges and have gone through the interview process you might find yourself thinking, "Now what?" well, as appealing as kicking up your feet and relaxing sounds, you can't take a break just yet. Rather, it's time to polish your remaining applications and get ready for decisions.
If you're anything like me, you went through the infamous "relaxation" phase of senior year. This was when I wanted nothing more than to just relax. Motivating myself to finish my applications and do well on my school assignments was like trying to wake my brother up for school...NOT going to happen. Ultimately, it took a lot of pushing, but I was able to scrounge up that little bit of motivation left in me to finish the semester pretty strong.
But we can't get too ahead of ourselves.
After your interview(s), you're going to want to take a break. You're going to want to relax, stop thinking about schools, and just sleep. However that cannot, and should not, happen. I used this time to focus on my school work and submitted the rest of my applications. Any schools that I was uncertain about were looked into a little more closely, and occasionally I would check on the status of my Cornell application. I italicize Cornell because its important to remember that I only applied to one school early. The rest of my schools were applied to in late November, with the exceptions being CU Boulder and UH Manoa.
I don't have much else to add here besides the repetitive "Don't give up!" My next College Post will be about the decision and how you should handle the news. You won't want to miss it.
Until next time,
Aislinn
November 07, 2016
No comments
Hey guys!
I'm very excited to be publishing my first official post for the college-bound. I haven't come up with any clever name for these kinds of posts, so if you think of something please leave me a comment down below!
Like my last post said, I will not be discussing what colleges to pick or how to pick them. I think that process is different for everyone and the guidance should come from people like parents or teachers. Instead, for this post, I will be telling you guys a little bit about my college experience and what happened after I applied to my schools.
First, I want to share that I did apply early to a school. Applying early, in my case, meant that, if I got in, I was bound to that school. There are two ways you could go about this: early decision and early action. While these two appear similar, they're actually drastically different. For starters, applying early decision means you will get you will be bound to that school and blacklisted if revealed you applied to more than one school. On the other hand, applying early action means you're allowed to apply to other schools if you get in, but are still given your decision early. To make it even more complicated, some schools even have multiple rounds of early decisions! Because my school was early decision I was left with no choice to apply to only that school.
For the sake of the rest of this series here is the list of schools I applied to:
1. Cornell University
2. University of California, Berkeley
3. University of California, Davis
4. Stanford University
5. Rice University
6. Middleburg College
7. University of Colorado, Boulder
8. University of Hawaii at Manoa
Out of these schools, the one I applied to earliest was Cornell. Their Chinese program is great and they seemed to match up greatly with my statistics.
While your situation may be different, here is what happened to me after I submitted my application.
I submitted my application, supplements and all, to Cornell no later than mid-October. From there, I knew I would be waiting about a month and a half before hearing of my decision. I wasn't nervous at all. I knew Cornell was a reach school*, but I was confident that I had what it takes to get in. The deadline, October 31st, came and went, leaving me to move onto my next few applications.
To students out there who have decided to apply to a school early, do not stop here! While your chances are, historically, higher of getting accepted if you apply early, there is still that chance that you won't get in. Obviously you can still apply to other schools in this time, but the biggest no-no would be applying to more than one school early. You are not, under any circumstances, allowed to apply to more than one school for early decision. If you do and your college finds out you will be blacklisted and your admission will most likely be revoked. Instead, while you wait, use this time to work on your other applications. Maybe refine your essay or go to another teacher for a recommendation.
It was about a week after the Cornell deadline that I received an email from the school. It stated,
Not exactly word for word but you get the gist!
I was floored. For those of you that don't know, or that aren't familiar with Cornell's application process, let me start by saying they do not interview just anybody. In fact, only the College of Engineering holds interviews for their applicants! I did my research for days and found nothing of anyone from the College of Letters and Sciences being offered an interview, so I was over the moon believing this was a good thing. I was able to schedule the interview for that coming Saturday and spent the days leading up to it rehearsing with my dad what I should say when asked certain questions.
Now, while this scenario is highly unlikely, I wanted to share it with you all. If this happened to me than I by no doubt believe it happened to others, so I want to prepare you as much as possible. Interviews, especially for early decision schools where so much is on the line, is crucial in the application process. Schools will try their hardest to make you believe otherwise, but trust me when I say they matter! I was nervous my entire interview, and while I don't think that was the takeaway, I certainly think it was noticeable. I'm not telling you to go in after taking some chill pills, but go in with a set of answers you have prepared and a set of questions you're ready to ask. For me, the interview was, for the most part, formal. I was given a brief overview of the university, asked a little bit about my major choice, and then had to answer some questions. A few you can expect to hear are, "What will you bring to this College that no other student has/will?", "Why this school?", and, "What do you know about this University?". These are all questions you have a high chance of being asked, so I would come up with a general answer for all of them and then build upon it throughout the interview.
While an interview isn't something most early colleges conduct, it's imperative that you are prepared for it. After my interview, which lasted about an hour, I was further instructed to "wait" for my result. Obviously you're not being graded on the interview, something the interviewer will stress, but you are told to wait it out and hope for the best.
In the case of Cornell, I had no other contact with my interviewer. As a common curtsey, you should email them a thank you and highlight something of importance or interest. Do this no later than a day after your interview.
After this is the waiting game, so continue to work on your essays and, if you need to, continue researching schools! I found researching the schools to be the best part, as you lose absolutely nothing by going to their website and clicking around. Start with their website, then check other social media, like instagram (a personal favorite!), to get an idea of the social side of school. I did this for Cornell a lot and even spent a good amount of my time looking at what merch I would buy if I was accepted! Needless to say I did this with all of my schools.
Students, I know the waiting period is tough but do not lose sight of the end goal! Keep looking at schools, read up on yours, and don't stress out too much. The hardest part, picking and applying, is over! If you applied early, like me, remember that you are not done yet! Keep working towards polishing those applications and I promise it will pay off.
Until next time,
Aislinn
I'm very excited to be publishing my first official post for the college-bound. I haven't come up with any clever name for these kinds of posts, so if you think of something please leave me a comment down below!
Like my last post said, I will not be discussing what colleges to pick or how to pick them. I think that process is different for everyone and the guidance should come from people like parents or teachers. Instead, for this post, I will be telling you guys a little bit about my college experience and what happened after I applied to my schools.
First, I want to share that I did apply early to a school. Applying early, in my case, meant that, if I got in, I was bound to that school. There are two ways you could go about this: early decision and early action. While these two appear similar, they're actually drastically different. For starters, applying early decision means you will get you will be bound to that school and blacklisted if revealed you applied to more than one school. On the other hand, applying early action means you're allowed to apply to other schools if you get in, but are still given your decision early. To make it even more complicated, some schools even have multiple rounds of early decisions! Because my school was early decision I was left with no choice to apply to only that school.
For the sake of the rest of this series here is the list of schools I applied to:
1. Cornell University
2. University of California, Berkeley
3. University of California, Davis
4. Stanford University
5. Rice University
6. Middleburg College
7. University of Colorado, Boulder
8. University of Hawaii at Manoa
Out of these schools, the one I applied to earliest was Cornell. Their Chinese program is great and they seemed to match up greatly with my statistics.
While your situation may be different, here is what happened to me after I submitted my application.
I submitted my application, supplements and all, to Cornell no later than mid-October. From there, I knew I would be waiting about a month and a half before hearing of my decision. I wasn't nervous at all. I knew Cornell was a reach school*, but I was confident that I had what it takes to get in. The deadline, October 31st, came and went, leaving me to move onto my next few applications.
To students out there who have decided to apply to a school early, do not stop here! While your chances are, historically, higher of getting accepted if you apply early, there is still that chance that you won't get in. Obviously you can still apply to other schools in this time, but the biggest no-no would be applying to more than one school early. You are not, under any circumstances, allowed to apply to more than one school for early decision. If you do and your college finds out you will be blacklisted and your admission will most likely be revoked. Instead, while you wait, use this time to work on your other applications. Maybe refine your essay or go to another teacher for a recommendation.
It was about a week after the Cornell deadline that I received an email from the school. It stated,
"Dear Ms. Aislinn, I am an alumni of the University and have been requested to hold a possible interview. If interested, please respond with your availability. I will be available when you are."
Not exactly word for word but you get the gist!
I was floored. For those of you that don't know, or that aren't familiar with Cornell's application process, let me start by saying they do not interview just anybody. In fact, only the College of Engineering holds interviews for their applicants! I did my research for days and found nothing of anyone from the College of Letters and Sciences being offered an interview, so I was over the moon believing this was a good thing. I was able to schedule the interview for that coming Saturday and spent the days leading up to it rehearsing with my dad what I should say when asked certain questions.
Now, while this scenario is highly unlikely, I wanted to share it with you all. If this happened to me than I by no doubt believe it happened to others, so I want to prepare you as much as possible. Interviews, especially for early decision schools where so much is on the line, is crucial in the application process. Schools will try their hardest to make you believe otherwise, but trust me when I say they matter! I was nervous my entire interview, and while I don't think that was the takeaway, I certainly think it was noticeable. I'm not telling you to go in after taking some chill pills, but go in with a set of answers you have prepared and a set of questions you're ready to ask. For me, the interview was, for the most part, formal. I was given a brief overview of the university, asked a little bit about my major choice, and then had to answer some questions. A few you can expect to hear are, "What will you bring to this College that no other student has/will?", "Why this school?", and, "What do you know about this University?". These are all questions you have a high chance of being asked, so I would come up with a general answer for all of them and then build upon it throughout the interview.
While an interview isn't something most early colleges conduct, it's imperative that you are prepared for it. After my interview, which lasted about an hour, I was further instructed to "wait" for my result. Obviously you're not being graded on the interview, something the interviewer will stress, but you are told to wait it out and hope for the best.
In the case of Cornell, I had no other contact with my interviewer. As a common curtsey, you should email them a thank you and highlight something of importance or interest. Do this no later than a day after your interview.
After this is the waiting game, so continue to work on your essays and, if you need to, continue researching schools! I found researching the schools to be the best part, as you lose absolutely nothing by going to their website and clicking around. Start with their website, then check other social media, like instagram (a personal favorite!), to get an idea of the social side of school. I did this for Cornell a lot and even spent a good amount of my time looking at what merch I would buy if I was accepted! Needless to say I did this with all of my schools.
Students, I know the waiting period is tough but do not lose sight of the end goal! Keep looking at schools, read up on yours, and don't stress out too much. The hardest part, picking and applying, is over! If you applied early, like me, remember that you are not done yet! Keep working towards polishing those applications and I promise it will pay off.
Until next time,
Aislinn
November 03, 2016
No comments
Hey guys!
Agh, I can't believe how much I've been slacking on this blog! I'm not going to make excuses, but I will share that school has been very busy lately and, as such, I am left spending all of my free time either napping or socializing. It's funny, all of my friends talk about how "jealous" they are at how I "fall asleep nearly anywhere", but in reality I'm very busy and usually can only nap on dabus (which is gross and I'm not sure why it puts me to sleep) or at the beach (where I usually don't know I'm sleeping until I wake up).
Moving on.
It has gotten to the point in the year where, for you seniors, you will be submitting your applications and moving forward in your college admissions process! I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now, so for the next few weeks all of my updates will be about navigating the admissions process, interviews, and what to do once you've received notice of your decision. As always I would like to preface all of this by saying I am not an expert on any of the things I talk about nor will I claim to be. I have experience with 9 colleges and universities and will use my experiences to simply guide you.
To start, I will skip the college selection part of this whole ordeal. By now, if you haven't already, you should have a narrow list of schools you're applying to. My biggest piece of advice is to apply to at least three. Out of these three, one should be a "reach school" (i.e.: that school that is a little over your qualifications), an "ideal school" (i.e.: one that matches up with your statistics), and a "safe school" (i.e.: one that is a shoe-in for you to get into). It's always good to apply to a few schools just in case you don't get into one. And, chances are, you won't get into them all (conditions apply, of course). For the sake of my readers I will save the schools I applied to, as well as their relation to me, in my next post.
I know this was a shorter post but I did want to give y'all something to read as well as look forward to! I hope you're excited for the next couple of weeks - I know I am!
Until next time,
Aislinn
Agh, I can't believe how much I've been slacking on this blog! I'm not going to make excuses, but I will share that school has been very busy lately and, as such, I am left spending all of my free time either napping or socializing. It's funny, all of my friends talk about how "jealous" they are at how I "fall asleep nearly anywhere", but in reality I'm very busy and usually can only nap on dabus (which is gross and I'm not sure why it puts me to sleep) or at the beach (where I usually don't know I'm sleeping until I wake up).
Moving on.
It has gotten to the point in the year where, for you seniors, you will be submitting your applications and moving forward in your college admissions process! I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now, so for the next few weeks all of my updates will be about navigating the admissions process, interviews, and what to do once you've received notice of your decision. As always I would like to preface all of this by saying I am not an expert on any of the things I talk about nor will I claim to be. I have experience with 9 colleges and universities and will use my experiences to simply guide you.
To start, I will skip the college selection part of this whole ordeal. By now, if you haven't already, you should have a narrow list of schools you're applying to. My biggest piece of advice is to apply to at least three. Out of these three, one should be a "reach school" (i.e.: that school that is a little over your qualifications), an "ideal school" (i.e.: one that matches up with your statistics), and a "safe school" (i.e.: one that is a shoe-in for you to get into). It's always good to apply to a few schools just in case you don't get into one. And, chances are, you won't get into them all (conditions apply, of course). For the sake of my readers I will save the schools I applied to, as well as their relation to me, in my next post.
I know this was a shorter post but I did want to give y'all something to read as well as look forward to! I hope you're excited for the next couple of weeks - I know I am!
Until next time,
Aislinn
November 02, 2016
No comments
