see the devil on the doorstep now?

... will be crossed out as I get to them.

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 21:45:21 GMT

december 31
~~Yale~~

january 1st
~~Amherst~~
Williams
Harvard
~~Johns Hopkins~~
~~Princeton~~
~~UPenn~~

january 2nd
Swarthmore

january 15th
Haverford
~~Mount Holyoke~~
Wellesley
~~Smith~~

(006) semi-final list of colleges.

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 04:30:35 GMT

+ = reach/level.
0 = safety.

+ Amherst (Massachusetts).
+ Bard (New York).
+ Haverford (Pennsylvania).
+ Mount Holyoke (Massachusetts).
+ Pomona (California).
+ Princeton (New Jersey).
+ Stanford (California).
+ Swarthmore (Pennsylvania).
0 University of California at Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Diego.
0 University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Boston.
0 University of Southern California.
+ Wellesley (Massachusetts).
+ Williams (Massachusetts).
+ Yale (Connecticut).

The ones I'd be willing to write decent applications for, anyway. My father will add things, I'm sure, but this is my list.

(I may or may not be slightly obsessed with Amherst. Mount Holyoke and UMass may or may not be on that list for the sole reason that they are extremely close to Amherst.)

(005) whining.

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 15:06:06 GMT

Aaaaaaaamherst why you gotta make your essays smart.

(004) Colleges that Change Lives.

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:54:46 GMT

I'm sure you all have your hearts set on Ivies, but in case you don't...

I was talking to an old friend from CTY going to St. John's in the fall, and she recommended Colleges That Change Lives, a book (and website, if you click the link) that introduces forty lesser-known, but *really* strong and focused smaller colleges.

Happy looking. :D

(003) network update!

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:29:18 GMT

I just finished my internship, so I'm not really in the state of mind to college-ramble. But more additions to the network now:

experimentfilm (xylish)
willit_ever_end (not sure if she wants this known)

*nod*

willit_ever_end has an Anonymous Grade Post up for eventual comparing/whining/discussion. Everyone scoot over there now! :) It's anonymous, so as long as you aren't too obvious with your formatting (COUGH KIT COUGH), we'll all be just fine.

Also, my grades are worse than yours without question (I'll bet YOU don't have C minuses in core classes). So don't feel bad. :D;

(#002) Public Service Announcement + Other Things.

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:03:27 GMT

So hi! I think I might be the only person that everyone that has joined so far knows! *cough* Hi.

I've created a friends filter (on dream_watch) for all the college app journals that have friended me (or that I have somehow nosily found)! The filter is public and can be found at this link: Network, yays!

So far I have the following listed:

Good grief.

*

So anyway, back to the point of my journal. I've visited several colleges, and figure that my experiences could stand to help someone other than myself, especially if you're on the other side of the country and can't really find a means to visit.

As a note, I don't visit crappy colleges. You probably have never heard of the Claremont Compluvium, and that is NOT because they suck. It's because they're tiny. So: Pomona, Harvey Mudd, and McKenna under the cut! I adore the Claremont Colleges. ;~;

Claremont Compluvium (My heart, my love!)
The Claremont Compluvium is a group of five small colleges: Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, and Pitzer. They combine to form sports teams (that's how small they are) and share a bookstore. They basically all look the same except for buildings, because, uh, they're located in the same place.

One of the best things about being accepted into one of the Compluvium colleges is that you can take classes at any of the others to work to your major and otherwise. This is particularly good because you can get into a loser college like Pitzer and still take classes at Pomona, which is up there with the snooty East Coast Ivies.

Institution	Pros	Cons
Claremont McKenna (Liberal Arts)	From what I recall from that one Claremont seminar, has really, really interesting ideals and general way of running. Very, very focused around the application of liberal arts to greater benefit of society.	Not interested in spending four years having leadership shoved down my throat. Campus does not make up for weird method of education. Claremont colleges are only moderately pretty; their main appeal is that they are very, very quiet.
Harvey Mudd College (Engineering: Computer, Systems, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, etc.)	Absurdly highly ranked in the Engineering field, fantastic instructors, very dynamic staff as a whole. Moderately pretty campus; buildings are easy to get lost in but that's to be expected! Enrollment is 60% male and 40% female... and they want more girls. Especially in Computer Science. As the Random Guy in the Bookstore said (What can I say, my arsenal of Harvey Mudd apparel gets me rather far in clumps of smart people), HMC might be geeky and mathy and techy, but every last student is unique in some shape or form. Really encouraging student life... if you're a total nerd.	Ranked very high on the list of colleges in which all students do is study study study. Is Asian, despite being not very. Straight from the mouth of the woman in charge of admissions: "We don't really like low grades here. We don't like seeing A-'s and B's." Is one of the smarter colleges of the five, possibly second only to Pomona. Hate the chemistry labs and classrooms in general; the school has VERY small classes, so I can understand why the classrooms are smaller than Troy's, but... at the same time, it doesn't appeal to me very much. ^_^; . . . Monica's dad taught here. ._.
Pomona College (Liberal Arts)	Nice, friendly campus. As the Random Guy in the Bookstore said (yes, he was a Claremont enthusiast -- taught at Pomona, went to school at HMC, blah blah)-- you will meet some of the smartest people you will ever meet if you go here. Everyone is brilliant, everyone has something to say, and it's just a great environment overall for learning and discussion.	Random Guy confided that Pomona College is not necessarily the school you want to pick if you want to work towards a really solid career of some sort -- Business, math, engineering, etc. It is, however, a breeding ground of opinions and ideas.
Scripps is boring (womens' only, focus on medical). Pitzer... I've never really gotten much of an impression from it. Except that its school colors are orange and blue. Weird.

If you want me to clarify anything, because I left a lot out (am at work teehee), feel free to ask~!

(001) Possible Colleges?

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 23:38:09 GMT

( Classification courtesy of Princeton Review, which is idiotic.)

Counselor-O-Matic is pretty helpful. Plug in your interests, your GPA, your SAT scores, your extracurriculars, work experience, your prospective majors, etc., and they'll generate three lists for you: Good Match, Reach, and Safety. It's rather nonspecific, but at least gives you an ego boost by putting Ivy Leagues and bigshots in your "Good Match" list. Seriously. I about had a cow when I saw Dartmouth in mine.

reach (the ASIAN colleges)
Pomona College
Stanford
Harvard (I don't wanna.)
Yale
Princeton
UPenn?

good match
UCLA
Wellesley
Carnegie Mellon
Claremont McKenna
Harvey Mudd?

safety
UC Irvine
Dickinson College (WHAT)

Hmm. *prints out apps*