Tips from Me to You

Tips from Me to You This is more of a mini-entry, a blogget if you will. I know that for a good portion of you, the pressure is on, as theres officially nothing else you can do about your Early Action application. But you know what you have to do now? Chill out. Seriously, pat yourselves on the backs guys, if youve done your best walk away from it now. Its out of your hands, dont let the rest of the world pass you by. Im sure it varies by high school location and personality, but Senior Year is not something youre going to want to fill with stress. Make plans with your friends, watch movies, make jokes, write programs, start organizations, just DO stuff. Whatever it is you like to do, get out there and get it done! Now I know youre probably thinking but Chrism* I spent 2.0X10^6 hours on my application, do you think thats enough? Do you think Ill get in because I expressed my number in scientific notation? Do I need more Sig Figs? Is 2 enough? Here comes point #2, and its gonna hit you hard: It doesnt matter. *gasp*! MIT, not matter?! Now dont get me wrong, I absolutely love this place, even amidst the sunrise as my cue to bed and the hours tooling for a C on a test, and you should take pride in your application, but an important thing to remember is that MIT is not the only place in the world, and definitely not perfect for everyone. Its interesting that only after coming here for school did I realize how unhappy some people would really be here, so you may just have to trust me on that one, even though when I was in your spot I probably wouldnt have believed it. The thing about your application is that its a trade-off between you and Admissions. You have two similar but distinct characteristics: YOU: Know yourself, but dont know MIT that well. ADMISSIONS: Knows MIT, but doesnt know you that well. So to make sure everyones happy, theres a trade off, all you have to do is be honest about yourself, and Admissions will be able to tell if youll like it here, and Admissions is super good at their job, (I hear they hire the sexiest bloggers too, but thats just what I hear)The catch is they can only go off what you tell them, so its in YOUR best interest to be honest. Because even if there was some formula you could replicate to guarantee admission (its 6. Thats it. The answer is 6*), getting in based on a fabrication isnt only dishonest, its not you. And YOU wont be happy, whoever you wrote about on that application will. (Which is not you, in case you didnt catch what that implied) So the whole point of this is to take a deep breath and relax. If you applied early the hard part is over. If youre applying regular, dont stress about it. In 6 months or so youll be graduating from high school, and the end of Senior Year is totally awesome. Enjoy every minute youve got and dont get too caught up in being the perfect applicant. Be the perfect you. Get excited about the fact that if you do your best on your application, one year from today, youll be in happy in a college thats right for you. I am. *Its surprising the number of emails I get addressing me in sentences as Chrism. My name doesnt rhyme with prism, you can just call me Chris. **In case you didnt pick up on the sarcasm, there is no admissions formula, and it certainly wouldnt be 6. If you put 6 on your application and thats it, I take no responsibility for whatever happens. P.s. email me some questions and Ill do a QA blog. ***UPDATE*** Ok, so Im going to post the QA blog next Wednesday the 12th, so plan on emailing or commenting your questions to me by say Tuesday the 11th. I can already tell this will be interesting.