Julianna is back in school, and things are going well. I asked her what all she does other than classes, both in school and outside. I got a much longer list than I was expecting! Read the full interview below.
Happy birthday to Apply with Sanity!
The first blog post on Apply with Sanity was on September 28, 2016. It was just a short welcome and explanation of what the site is about, and all those things are still true four years later:
I want to reduce the amount of pressure you feel, not increase it.
I want to empower you to feel in control, not feel like a passive product for schools to consider.
I know that you, a unique and interesting person, are important regardless of your college situation.
I understand that a big-name, highly marketed college isn’t necessarily a path to happiness.
I feel that self-knowledge is the most important knowledge.
Meet Breya
Meet Tyra
Meet Eddie
Meet Julianna
It’s time to begin the fourth year of Meet the Class! The class of 2021 has the strangest admissions season in memory—standardized tests being largely sidelined, few in-person campus visits, all on top of the demands of living through a pandemic—and I’m interested and excited to see how it goes for the more than a million college-bound high school seniors. It looks like there will be four seniors participating this year, and here is the first installment. Enjoy!
Jenna is finished!
Katie has chosen!
I’ve been a little worried about Katie. She and several members of her family had been sick. Flu-like symptoms are bad enough, but during our current pandemic they can be pretty scary. Also, she seemed to be leaning heavily toward one college, but wanted to delay her decision until the end of May. I thought maybe she was having doubts. Katie has allayed my fears, though. Read the full interview below to see how she’s feeling and where she’s going to college. Congratulations, Katie!
Diana is done!
This spring has been a little different than the past few years for Meet the Class. With everybody staying home, there have been few campus visits or tours. High school classes have been minimal. Prom and social events have been postponed or cancelled. There’s been little hand-wringing and no last-minute decisions. Below is a short and sweet conversation I had with Diana, who will be attending the University of Oklahoma next year! Congratulations, Diana, and thank you so much for sharing your weird, stressful school year with us. Read the full interview below.
Katie is doing ok!
In the several years I’ve been following seniors through Meet the Class, I’ve never been as anxious and excited to hear back from them as I am right now. I haven’t met any of these students in person, but I’ve really come to like them over the past eight months. So I’m relieved to hear from Katie, who was able to make a campus tour before everything closed down, and is making use of her extended time to make her final decision. Read the full interview below.
Meet the Class gets updated each month from September to May. Each installment features an interview about both the facts and the feelings of where the student is in the process.
Diana is doing ok!
I felt nervous sending out interview questions this month. We’re in the middle of a global health crisis, a global financial crisis, and a near-complete shutdown of society. So…how’s your college search? But I also want to know that these seniors, who I’ve been checking in with since September, are doing ok. So far, I’ve heard from Diana, and she’s fine. She’s still on track to head to college in the fall. The University of Oklahoma is her frontrunner, though Texas Tech is still in the running, and Texas A&M has decided that they want to be on her list too. Read the full interview below.
Meet the Class gets updated each month from September to May. Each installment features an interview about both the facts and the feelings of where the student is in the process.
Katie is almost there
Although it’s now early April, Katie answered these questions almost a month ago. She got busy—as we all did—and didn’t have a chance to send them until earlier this week. Keep that in mind as you read these—they were written before most of us were in Social Distancing. By early March, Katie had, unfortunately, heard “no” from a number of schools. But she heard “yes” from one that has the program she’s most interested in, so there’s good news in here too! Read the full interview below.
Meet the Class gets updated each month from September to May. Each installment features an interview about both the facts and the feelings of where the student is in the process.
Jenna's getting close to finished
Diana's ready to make a decision
Jenna is narrowing down her choices
Jenna has certainly reached the point where she’s narrowing down her list and getting a better sense of where she’s going to be at college next year. However, she’s still got incomplete information as she waits for some more financial aid offers. That could end up changing everything. Read the full interview below, and keep coming back to see what surprises are (or maybe aren’t) in store!
Diana is ready to GO
Katie's been auditioning. A lot.
Katie answered this month’s questions while on her way back from doing 10 auditions in two days. She’s applied and been accepted—and offered scholarships—to a number of schools, but she’s still working to get into their BFA programs for musical theater. It’s a reminder that for many applicants, getting accepted to college is only the first step. Katie’s looking to get accepted into a particular program within the college with its own admission requirements. In her case it’s for musical theater, but students across the country are aiming to get into special honors programs, arts, programs, science programs, and so many other programs that are above and beyond just getting that first acceptance. Read her full interview below.
Good news for eliminating "test optional"
This week, Northern Illinois University announced that they’re doing just that, going test-blind for undergraduate admissions and honors consideration. The school feels strongly that a student’s high school GPA is a much better indicator of potential, and that “once we know a high school student’s GPA, one standardized test score is irrelevant.”
So is this the end of admissions testing?
Jenna has a plan
Jenna made some las-minute changes to her college list by applying to a few that weren’t initially on her radar. She’s also dropped a few. But Jenna also has enough acceptances already that she’s building a plan. We’ll see how it changes over the next few months, but for now she has some school spirit to plan and a visit to her top-choice school. Read all about Jenna’s holidays and January below.
