Tess+Jacobson+2014

Bet You Haven't Heard This One Before (or How The CollegeBoard Killed My Soul)
It’ll look good on your college apps. When are you taking the SATs? How’d you do? What are you thinking of majoring in? What extracurriculars are you in? Have you looked at any schools yet? What’s your number one? Is it a reach school? Start your apps early. Start thinking about the essays now. How are your grades? Did you think about taking the ACTs? What about SAT IIs? How many AP classes do you take? Do you know your class rank? What do you want to be? You don’t get enough sleep. If you think you have a lot of work now, just wait until college. Do you play any sports? What about community service? Write a lot of drafts of your essay. Do you want me to read it for you? What’s your best class in school? Is that something you’d like to do? You’ll probably change your mind, they don’t make a lot of money. Why aren’t you going into music? You put so much time into it, might as well. How long do you plan to be in school for? You could take a gap year. Are you excited to graduate high school? Don’t focus on learning, focus on memorizing. Memorize vocabulary, memorize grammar rules. You’re taking them again? What, didn’t get that 2400? 2400, 2400, 2400. Do your teachers like you? Who’s writing your recommendation? Are you applying early anywhere? Better get started on that. Have any work experience? Colleges like that. Big school/small school? Where’d your parents go? Do you want to go there? I hear the campus is beautiful. Don’t apply there, I’ve heard the students are miserable. Where does your sister go? are you applying there? I’ve never heard of that school. How’s it ranked? The school’s not so great, but this department is one of the best. It’s a great bang for your buck. Public university or private university? How are the dorms? Don't let your parents decide where you want to go. What if you get accepted to both of those schools? Don't stress. Be yourself. Junior year, huh? That's the toughest! Bet you've started to look at schools. How's the workload? Thinking about college yet? The earlier the better. Doesn't hurt to apply there. Nobod y expects to be accepted. Have you made your CommonApp account yet? Checked out the essays? Got any ideas? Just sit down and write, how hard can it be?

Does it scare you that your college application reduces an entire life to a series of words on a screen? And that those words define your future even more than they define yourself?