(no subject)
been feeling strange and reflective lately. in seeking out inspiration for my div III, i went to advising and had them dig up my hampshire admissions essay that i wrote about how john lennon's music helped me survive the first few weeks after 9/11. i wrote it on my family's ancient mac computer that died soon after my senior year of high school, so i had not looked at the essay since the day i mailed it out to hampshire, i didn't even save a hard copy of it. it is so weird reading it now. its pretty decent, although some parts are painfully cheesy and cliche. but here i am four years later writing about the same topic for my div III. what would i be writing about right now if 9/11 didn't happen? or it had not had the impact it has on my life and my family? i would have never, ever guessed, writing my college essay four years ago, that 9/11 would have such an influence over the course of my academics and actually become something that i "studied".
now i'm thinking back to high school and wondering why hampshire decided to accept me. i was not at all politically active in high school. i never organized community events, recycling drives, bake sales, fundraisers, nothing. my writing was decent but often disorganized with poor grammar. i was an average student but got good grades in history and science, the only extracurricular i did was band. my family would not be able to pay the full hampshire tuition, so it wasn't for money. i didn't do anything in high school that would characterize me as self-motivated. on hampshire's admissions website they have a checklist "you know you're a hampshire student when..." and none of the things listed applied to me in high school how in the world did i end up here? and how did i make it through, in an environment so different in every way than my high school? those hampshire admissions counselors must be pretty skilled at recognizing potential in painfully average public high schoolers such as myself.
while looking up my college essay, i also asked to see my letters of recommendations, which i had never read before. while reading the recommendation from my band teacher, i was pleased to see that he put down taught me musical theory and composition, both at the grade level and AP level, even though those classes never existed at my school. its nice to know he went so far as to lie for me on my college application. my band teacher was awesome.
now i'm thinking back to high school and wondering why hampshire decided to accept me. i was not at all politically active in high school. i never organized community events, recycling drives, bake sales, fundraisers, nothing. my writing was decent but often disorganized with poor grammar. i was an average student but got good grades in history and science, the only extracurricular i did was band. my family would not be able to pay the full hampshire tuition, so it wasn't for money. i didn't do anything in high school that would characterize me as self-motivated. on hampshire's admissions website they have a checklist "you know you're a hampshire student when..." and none of the things listed applied to me in high school how in the world did i end up here? and how did i make it through, in an environment so different in every way than my high school? those hampshire admissions counselors must be pretty skilled at recognizing potential in painfully average public high schoolers such as myself.
while looking up my college essay, i also asked to see my letters of recommendations, which i had never read before. while reading the recommendation from my band teacher, i was pleased to see that he put down taught me musical theory and composition, both at the grade level and AP level, even though those classes never existed at my school. its nice to know he went so far as to lie for me on my college application. my band teacher was awesome.