zaaaAP Lit Blog 4

Here's a Big Idea: Liberal Arts

I've often heard people, sometimes laying claim to the mantle of authority with a white erase-board and a clever acronym, tell me that "college isn't about preparing yourself for a career, it's about readying yourself intellectually for the rest of your life." Well, I guess I must have bought it, because I'm going to a liberal arts college, but it occurred to me that I know next to nothing about the philosophy surrounding that piece of paper we call a liberal arts degree. So, I did some research.

The simplest definition of a liberal arts education is an education which largely or completely forgoes vocational instruction in favor of teaching the liberal arts subjects of the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Science, Math, English, and so on, basically the core subjects of our own high school.

Why are these subjects useful? Lawyers, doctors, businesspeople (members of the Big Three of American career tracks) aren't going to be using their knowledge of chemistry, calculus, or Chaucer in their jobs, so why even bother? The quick response from the liberals arts educators is: a liberal arts education teaches you how to analyze complex information, derive a conclusion from that information, and build an argument persuasively supporting that conclusion. Those are skills which are integral to success in many walks of life, but especially in careers like law, medicine, and business.

Liberal arts educators also point out that analyzing information, forming conclusions, and building arguments are necessary skills for an active and informed member of a democratic nation. The democracies of the world are experiencing turmoil and strain, they argue, because the majority of their populations do not have the benefit of a liberal arts education. Perhaps this claim, and the claim in the previous paragraph, strike you as condescending or overreaching. I felt similarly, so let's touch upon some criticisms.

Critics of liberal arts argue that it might be good at teaching critical thinking in isolated subjects (analyzing literature, solving calculus problems) but too often it doesn't teach students on how to bring diverse subject matter together and synthesize it, perhaps because professors have spent their whole lives becoming experts on a specific subject. To their credit, however, liberal arts colleges have begun adding "cross-disciplinary majors" whose aim is to promote just that. (How effective they are, I have no idea.)

Another criticism is that, with the rapid increase in new technology and new ideas, liberal arts education is being outpaced. The outside world doesn't have the luxury of waiting a half-century before definitively deciding if an idea is worth applying, but liberal arts colleges are hesitant about discussing ideas with a few decades of discussion behind them.

So all of the above is something that I (and hopefully you) will think about as college slowly approaches. I'm not sure how valuable a liberal arts education really is, but I don't feel ready to commit myself to a vocation just yet, (and we've already sent in a deposit), so I'll be finding out first-hand come August.

Moving On...

So, visiting Swarthmore College,(a small liberal-arts college in Pennsylvania for those of you who don't know it) this Thursday and Friday was quite a breath of fresh air. Seeing the differences makes me a little depressed returning to high school. So, I thought I'd list a few of the major changes going from high school to a small liberal arts college.
1. An administration that actually cooperates with students
    It felt as if the school was trying to be how its students wanted it to be in many ways, rather than our    school which seems like it is constantly at war with its students. The school would actually serve meals that students suggested, rather than take away our favorite foods (swedish fish).

2. Interesting classes

    For some strange reason, I felt worse sleeping in classes that I was visiting, which I didn't need to go to, than I do in any of my classes now (sorry Heidkamp). I also thought that astronomy was really cool after taking a class in it.

3. Less policing

    I enjoyed not being yelled at by security.

Whurr U AT??

I know many of you have probably already shared where you are going next year/what you are going to be doing, but I thought that this blog should have a list too.  Im too excited to be graduating and taking a year off of school. After my year off, I'm going to Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

Does anyone else know where they're going yet? (I hope so).  And if so...feel free to share. We all deserve some bragging rights after the four hard years we've been through.

The Future? Weird.

If you're looking for something about poetry, I'm afraid you're out of luck.  If you were expecting a surprisingly personal post which lacks any kind of resolution, you've hit the jackpot.  Well, here goes.

It has dawned on me as of late that my life as I have known it for the last 18 years will irreversibly change, and frankly it frightens me.  I am enthused, don't get me wrong, but I've grown accustomed to my quaint little life and the idea of not knowing precisely where I'll be in a matter of years is scary.  Once you factor in other details such as careers, rent, income taxes, paying for your own food, the whole thing can seem downright overwhelming.

Perhaps the biggest problem for me is finding a job where I can A) Not be absolutely miserable, B) have some form of job security and C) be capable of feeding and clothing not only myself but eventually other, smaller iterations of myself.  And on top of all that, I want to do something meaningful.  The problem is, I haven't the faintest idea how, especially when my chosen majors (film and journalism) are both particularly competitive fields where the chance of a happy outcome and a meaningful contribution to the world is rather slim.

I don't know, maybe I'll teach.

US News Can Go Die

I'm talking about the journal, whose full name is "US news and world report." And well... I suppose I'm not mad at them, but rather what they've done to America.

Don't get me wrong, it's generally a good institution; Mort Zuckerman, the editor-in-chief, though insanely rich, also has some alright comments when he appears on the McLaughlin group on Saturdays on PBS. Generally, it's regarded as a fantastic news source. Perhaps that's one of the reasons that I'm so troubled by what they're doing to the country.

Specifically, the part of the country that we are (or were, for some lucky people reading this) a part of; those involved in the college search process.

This organization, as I'm sure many of us are aware, publishes a ranking of American universities every year, within several categories (liberal arts colleges, universities, etc.). Yes, it does publish other articles about college, some of which have been extraordinarily helpful. Yet the part that attracts the most attention is the ranking system.

Their system is somewhat odd; their graduate schools rankings tend to be filled out by peer reviews of departments, which does make some sense to me. Generally, professors can tell if professors in their same departments at other universities are good. So no complaints in this regard (though I'm not applying to grad school).

College rankings, however, include a plethora of topics. Put aside that peer rankings are probably difficult given little knowledge about the specifics of the quality among departments from those DOING the rankings (something probably pretty big to put aside). Many of the criteria put public schools, for example, at a disadvantage, because though they might have many particularly good departments, they must accept mostly students from the state--and often from particularly schools within the state. Plus, things like faculty compensation (professor salaries... yea, I don't understand this one at all, even though they claim that adjustments are made for differences in standard of living) and graduation performance rate (this is the "difference between the actual six-year graduation rate for students entering in the fall of 2000 and the predicted graduation rate.") are used for each schools score, among other nonsense... plus, the weight given to each category is also essentially an arbitrary decision.

Why make a big deal about this? Because, as I said earlier, the difference between a school ranked 15 and a school ranked 30 could very possibly be for no other reason than the inability to adjust for the high cost of living. The nonsense adds up, and eventually we have some list that we deem as the "truth" about all of these colleges.

But still, why make a big deal about the rankings at all? When I visited UMich recently, I heard them talk A LOT about rankings. To them, and many in the audience, it seemed to be the main source of their evidence of the university's quality. Yes, they do have a pretty good ranking, but not as good as other schools. So at the end of the day, when looking at the options, often students just pick the school with the highest ranking (and many turn down Michigan as a result). Is that really the way it should be? "I went here because it had a high ranking" feels like the common reasons for picking schools (oh, not to mention, that a month after my brother accepted UChicago, it went up 6 places. For those that turned it down because it was 15, and 11 is better...whoops).

Maybe I'm being hyperbolic, but this is affecting me deeply because I very well may be in the category of people who turns down the higher ranked schools. Why? Because I talked to a professor who seemed to be MUCH more enthusiastic and encouraging than anyone I'd be likely to meet at the "higher ranked schools." Because things that actually matter and could tilt my decision one way or the other--diversity, academic advising, number of office hours held, etc., aren't included in the rankings at all. Not to say that the whole system is "inverted," (Chicago, Caltech, Duke, whatever, they're all great schools) just severely misled.

To close, I'll quote my brother who imparted on me some wisdom a few weeks ago which perhaps changed the rest of my life. "There is no need to make a quick decisions. There are only a few options, so consider each one as much as possible and think to yourself 'is it worth it?' That's what I did, and it made all the difference."

5 Months

Ish until college. I decided to inquire upon the hardships that you guys went through in choosing/finally committing to a college. I know the process I went through was probably the hardest thing I have ever done (which will not get any easier, just harder mind you) but I would really like to know how others think. Whether or not you applied to the token state school, the  party school that you still are not sure why people go there, or the ivy league caliber school, what does it feel like to finally have the long claws of the monkey finally pulled from your back?

Basically since I am going the army route and opting to go to an academy, maybe the decision was a bit harder for me...but I don't think I should make that assumption. I just am really interested in what finally went off in your guys' minds when you were accepted, and what path you choose to take now.

SENIORITIS

Today had to have been the worst case of senioritis that I have yet experienced this school year. I have been accepted into school since before second semester started, so senioritis has been following me since then. BUT! Today it finally hit me in the face. It is really bothering me that there is almost no stress for school for me right now. I get really antsy and I constantly think that there is something wrong with me because I can not deal with some of the boredom that has recently taken over my life. If any of you have ideas for me, or stories that you would like to share, I am ready to be entertained, or just not as bored.

4th Quarter Seniors!

It's the end of the third quarter. That's obvious, but it needs to be said that we are one quarter away from graduating! By now most of us have narrowed down our options in terms of what we're going to do next year. Whether you're taking a year off or trying to choose the college that's best for you, this is an exciting time.

Between attempting to do as little work as possible while still remembering that "enrollment [to colleges] is contingent upon successful completion of your senior year" and enjoying my remaining days at OPRF, it's difficult to stay focused. Though I haven't chosen my school for next year, the deadline for doing so is fast approaching. And I still have to read the 200 pages I'm behind in Beloved... or maybe not.

If anyone knows where they're going or what they're doing next year, holler.

Insert Overblown Hyperbole

You're probably wondering why I am blogging at 1am on Sunday morning, well, sleeping is not easy.

Today I was accepted Early Decision at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for the Film and Television Production program.  It was quite an exciting moment.  I just returned from downtown with Michelle, where we had seen "Juno" (quite good, by the way) and I saw a big envelope on the stairs.

I opened it, read "Congratulations," screamed and spun Michelle around a bit.

It feels like there's a tremendous weight that has gone from me, in anticipation of my letter I have been in a bad mood all week and now this whole ordeal is finally over.  I guess there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Well, goodluck to all you fellow applicants.

Deferred

Many of you are probably waiting to hear back from a college or two already, and I just wanted to say how annoying a deferred status on an application would be.  I'm going to hear back from my early decision college in a few days, and I really don't want to lose any more sleep over it.  When I was talking to my parents I was like: "well at least I'll know if I get accepted or not very soon, and either way I can move on," (but now I realize that there is an in-between option).  I understand the motives of colleges in using the option to defer early decision applicants, but I still wish I could simply know and be done with it.  The concept of suffering three more months of anxiety is not something I'm looking forward to, but hey maybe this is all a bit premature until I actually know the outcome of my application.  All I'm saying is: "Down with Defer!"

Read Me.

Before I begin, let me make a shameless plug for the latest Studio 200 show, which I'm in called
The Clean House.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18 @ 4 PM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19 @ 4 PM
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20 @ 7 PM

For all of you that want to know about it (namely CAMERON!), read up.
Synopsis:
Matilde is depressed. She doesn't want to clean, she wants to tell jokes. In Portuguese. Problem is, she's Lane's live-in maid. And all Lane wants is a clean house. She's got everything else. A husband who's a successful surgeon and her own busy career as a doctor. Or so she thinks. Until her husband finds himself inexorably drawn to one of his patients. He's found his soul-mate and moves out of Lane's house -- which, by the way, is now clean, because Lane's sister Virginia has been cleaning it on the sly. As this wryly funny, deeply moving play reaches its crescendo, everyone finds out what's really important in life.

Okay, onto my actual post. I'm afraid it is going to be slightly boring and mostly whiny. I apologize in advance.
I'm stressed. I have a lot on my plate at the moment. College: thats right, I still only have ONE application done. My next on is due Saturday and I have to choose an essay topic out of a list of crap essay topics. Then, I only have 7 to go. Yikes. You'd think teachers would get some kind of memo. Attention Teachers: Most of your seniors are applying to college at this time. They are stressed. Lay off. Alas, no such memo was sent. I've got this show. I don't know how athletes do it. I'm scared for Monday, when I might be here until midnight running The Clean House over and over. It's a reoccurring nightmare. Then there's the typical a week before Christmas panic. Buying presents, realizing I have no money to buy presents, getting elbowed for a spot in the checkout line at H & M. They joy of the holidays. Plus, I'm sick.
So there it is, the woe is me, my life sucks rant.

I'm counting the days till Friday December 21st.

Victory!!

many people have discussed their college applications on the blog, not as much recently, so i thought i would write something about it. I got accepted. while some of you may not care i always am personally reassured when i hear that others have succeeded at the same task that i am attempting. furthermore it was that college essay that we had to writer for class that helped get me in to one of my schools. the fear, anxiety, excitement, frustration, and many other adjectives, have ended. With that letter comes the knowledge that i will be going somewhere after graduation.
And for a bit of reassurance for all of those of you who are still waiting to hear from your dream schools. everyone gets accepted somewhere(as long as you applied to a school other than Harvard, Yale, or Princeton).

Oh Happy Day!

Why am I so exited? Because tomorrow, my first college application leaves to find it's home at Beloit College. Oh, I know, half of you have already sent one in. Many of you have rid yourself of ALL your applications. Some have been accepted, some have even decided where they are going. I am envious. Alas, I am much less motivated than you are. I also bet you my supplements are more extensive than yours. But, lets not discuss my short comings. Let us simply celebrate this moment, rejoice in the Small Things, if you will.
In other news, I loved What The Butler Saw. It was so well done! I laughed until I thought it couldn't get any more ridiculous. And then, it did, and I laughed some more. You probably heard me. I was the loud one, booming above the rest of the laughs. I was also glad to have had the conversation with the actors. It helped me to get a lot more out of the play. Props to Gill for asking the question racing through everyone's mind "What's with the title of the play? There are no butlers." I'm glad we got this experience.

I'm exhausted. Spirit assembly tomorrow.
Rah Rah.

A Bit of Bitc-Whining

Maybe it is all my fault. Actually, it is certainly all my fault.

Last year, the Seniors told me to start applying to colleges over the summer. I didn't listen. Summer was just too precious a time to be spent thinking about the future.

Perhaps the main reason that I ignored their advice though was that I just wasn't in the college mode. But, just two weeks ago, it hit me. Like half the school has already been accepted somewhere. Maybe these acceptances are not first choice schools, whatever, they are all going to college.

I am sure that I will be going to college too. That is not the problem.

The real issue that I have is with the process. For example, the half the school that has lead the way has filled out some of the nastiest forms that I have ever seen.

Take the University of Illinois's application where you are asked to list contact information for all your activities. As Peter Stein put it, they are not going to be making any calls. I agree. Then, there is the Stanford application where you are asked to write 10 short answer essays and 3 longer essays. If they can't get to know me through three essays top, isn't that their fault? Why should I have to pay?

Worse, there are the sneaky schools. Like the ones who really want you to interview and don't tell you, or the ones who have restricted early action programs or rolling admissions.

Speaking of which, I have a big bone to pick with rolling admissions. Not only are we forced to compete with each other in all the usual admission categories, we also have to race to get our forms in. I am continuously being told that schools with rolling admissions fill up fast. One mother went so far as to mention that since I didn't apply to University of Michigan in September, I am simply not going to get in.

Worse, rolling admissions gives a large part of the adult world the impression that college applications are a fast process. Their impression, conveyed to me on the innumerable occasions when adults scrambling for something to talk about with a Senior resort to college questions, is that you apply when the leaves turn yellow and are into school by the time they begin to fall off. 

I hereby start a campaign for Early Action or Regular Decision only.

On a concluding note, I must extend a big and hearty booooooo to college essays, which I am skillfully avoiding by writing this post instead.

Tell us about a setback, tell us about an experience with diversity, tell us about the activity that most influenced you, tell us about a few of your favorite authors. I am a talkative guy, and most of you probably know that, but I am not THAT talkative.

Every day, I find myself in front of the computer trying to make a boring list of experiences, activities, or authors sound interesting. Wait, wait, actually the list has to be more than interesting. The list must also be written in perfect prose.

I simply don't have enough creativity to write college essays.

In a last ditch attempt, and stressing what counts as creativity to the max, I will now put some of my feelings into a college essay.

What makes you unique?

I am actually not that unique. If you really want someone unique you might want the name of a kid I know who can ride a unicycle. I can't ride a unicycle, actually I was a bit late in learning to ride a bike. But, I have done fairly well at school over the last four years, I have good test scores, and there was that one activity that I did throughout High School. No, I have never done anything to help the needy, or much volunteering work of any kind. No, I didn't start a business. No, I'm not a Native American or some other ethnicity that you could put into your admissions brochures. Sorry. I'm pretty run of the mill. Thank you for forcing me to write this essay. My English teacher who proofread it thanks you too. Please admit me to your school. I will get mainly B's and graduate somewhere in the middle of the class. That a promise. So please admit me to your school.

That is what all my college essays probably say, if you ignore the frills and clever uses of language.

Sad

Oh well,

It is probably all my fault. I should have started sooner.

Ok, so here is my problem

So I'm really looking for someone to explain this to me. There seems to be some sort of miscommunication between High School's and Colleges. OK, so you look at a college application, and thy are like fit all of the wonderful things about you into 500 words. OK GO! And then High School's are like we are going to load you with tons and tons of work. And then everyone is like get your college applications done! Its a struggle. Like a major struggle.

And I know that most kids also do extracurriculars which take up a ridiculous amount of work. Oh, and then everyone is like enjoy your senior year its essentially your last year of childhood, don't take it for granted. Its making me want to tear my hair out. Its like a bunch of contradicting things all at once. Its really hard, and I know that all the adults say that they went through it, but lets be honest. The college application process is much harder now than it was then. This is one of the hardest years to be applying for college. So, whats a girl to do?

In short. Join the circus. I wonder how much they pay on the flying trapeze?.......

I Did It

I am not trying to gloat. Or brag. I once was swamped by the burden of doing two things at one time. But this feeling of relief is just so amazing I want to share it with everyone. I just finished my college applications...

Now. All I have to do is send them in. Or not. Wait, should I fix that one sentence in the second essay of the Michigan application? Have I sent all my ACT score to the schools that need them directly sent? Oh shoot, I forgot I need two, not just one, recommendations.

It's ridiculous. I have worked so hard on these applications - a combination of fill in the blanks, bubbling in answers and a few essays here or there - and I can't send them in.

I'm terrified. There's not much anyone can say to me but tell me to send them in... but it's so much harder than that. I've put so much work into them, I don't want to get rejected. Oh well. I'll never know if I don't send them.

I Tried and I Couldn't Do It

I couldn't do it.  I couldn't write the essay that would make the admissions officers jump for joy.  I read all the essays in the stupid Harvard packet and I'm simply not that funny or that unique or that freaking traumatized by deaths in the family etc.  Instead I guess I simply decided to write about myself.  Maybe it will make an admissions officer want to bring me on campus, but to be honest writing for that specific audience where there is no single prompt and no "right way" has frustrated and confused me.  Instead of writing about my experiences dodging Afghani tanks or climbing Mt. Everest or having a sibling die of cancer, I wrote about my dad who has influenced me tremendously.  At times I've hated my dad or been disgusted with him or disappointed, but in my essay I tried to convey a sense that this has been my fault not his, and that I've grown closer to my dad and grown up from the experience.  Well I hope that's enough.

"Michael, come to..."

I haven't done all of my homework, I'm hungry, and my car is still parked in front of my house.  And now I'm thinking about college, so I know I won't get any work done for the rest of the night.  I've read everyone else's posts about the application process, and they pretty much sum up my feelings.  But hopefully, if I write down what I'm thinking, everything will somehow clear up.  Hopefully, anyway.

Does anyone else feel like they've heard from 25 colleges that all could have interchangeable names?  That's not even a real question, I know everyone has.  I've gotten brochures from at least that many schools, with fewer students than OPRF, in places I've never heard of.  While I know a bit about many of the larger schools, and a good amount of smaller schools, these brochures throw me off.  I come home from school and see three new letters, and I wonder what's so special about these schools.  Should I go online and look at their website?  What if one of these schools is the one for me, and I'll never know because I'm too lazy to do any more than haphazardly read what they've sent me.

I've also found the biggest challenge in making a list of potential schools to be the topic of size.  I truly have no idea whether I would like a small school or a large school.  Here at OPRF, I enjoy being able to say "Hi" to lots of people in the halls, and seeing lots of the same people on the weekend.  However, I also get the urge to hang out with a different "group" sometimes, just to get a break from my everyday friends.  Should this be a red flag that I need to go a bigger school where I'll be with different people every day?  Or should my awesome experience with the people at OPRF point me in the direction of a smaller school where I'll find that same student closeness?

Ah.

I was always a little rebellious.

Okay, so do we all remember way back at the beginning of this year when we read that off-of-the-wall, insanely fictional application essay? Well, I looked at that and said to myself, "I can do that. I can do that BETTER."

But it had already been done.

So I sat down and typed out something else. So I didn't use formal language, I didn't follow any guidelines, and I didn't address more than one aspect of my life.

That aspect was failure. This is very relevant. If I turn in this essay as-is, will I be applauded for my creativity? Will I be praised for being different, for not forcing myself to follow the same formulaic general application?

Or will I be critised for flying blindly into one of the more important papers I'll be writing in High School? Will I be downgraded for leaving out my favorite color and the letters I exchange with my Granny, who lives in Alaska?

My inner pessimist begs me to acknowledge the reality that I'll have to rewrite this into a massive piece of almost-me. My inner child begs to be recognized as different, aka special. And the rest of me has just spent far too long writing something far too personal that will probably be read far too aloud in class.

Maybe I should've stuck to a list of my good deeds...

I'm going to say whats on everyone's mind.......I'M NEVER GOING TO COLLEGE!

So basically the college application process is the worst thing ever. I think it so dumb to make kids to hours worth of busy work and stupid essays that will tell you nothing about the student. I like many kids am smart, but just not in the way that shows up so well on standardized tests. So I get really nervous about the application process because thats all that they look at. I mean honestly, they say that look at other stuff and they do, a little, but what they really care about is ACT's and your GPA and your class rank.

Oh, and I also hate how hyped up it is, and how I feel like I will never get into college or a "good" college anyway, whatever a "good" college might be. Everyone always says that this is one of the worst years to apply to college, and I for one and scared out of my mind!

A Slight Freak-Out

We all know we have our 1st Drafts of our College Applications due Friday. I for one, embarrassingly, sit down at the computer what feels like every fifteen minutes and twirl my hair like a spaced out bimbo.

The obvious questions arise, the most common being, excuse me while I quote Zoolander,

"Who am I?"

I feel that all my life experiences have defined me, so how do I pick out a few and explain why they "really" made me who I am. Everything I do and choose make my life what it is. I'm lost. On top of the basic confusion, my life seems to have a few obvious "obstacles," "setbacks," and "surprises." But I don't want to write a cliche "feel bad for me this is what I've been through but yes, look who it has made me, a (gloat brag blah blah sick) person." Please kill me. Do I go with the obvious life experience? Suck it up and try to remember the hardest time in my life? Or write about that time I peed my pants in third grade.

Now For Something Completely Different...

I have a secret to share with you, dear readers, its a very big, very personal secret.  In sharing this secret in such a public forum, I risk dishonoring my family and my friends.  Furthermore, any future political aspirations I may have will be fruitless, as the this secret brings to question the very content of my character.  But here goes:

I have absolutely no idea what I want to say in my college essay.

There it is, feel free to belittle me in the comments.  But I needed to get it off my chest.  The dean counselors worked so hard to make me realize how important the application process is, and I have gone and make a mockery of it.  Oh, why can I not think of a work of fiction that has changed me?  Or a way my hometown has helped shape my development?
All joking aside, I have no idea what to write.  I know I shouldn't be so concerned, but 4 years of high school has wired my subconscious to believe the end all and be all of existence rests in where I go to college-- its not easy to shake off such an institutionalized idea.  Much like the Captain, I'm a young, inexperienced and looking for any sort of support I can find.
With that in mind, I invite anyone and everyone to partake in venting their frustrations, sharing their achievements, and giving support--because we're all in this together.