Rant & Rave
It all started in my freshman year, when I was told by a classmate that colleges are only concerned with your grades from junior and senior year. This was the beginning of the myth. I believed her, so I did not strive to do my best, as I should have.
Continuing with that myth, or lie, was that the National Education Development Test given to us as freshmen and sophomores would not matter. I found out this year that the scores are in bold print on the ever-so-important high school transcripts, but oops! I had played the design-dot game on those; you know, the game in which you try to figure out how many pictures you can create in dots on your "fill-in-the-bubble" test sheet.
The road to nowhere did not end there. Next came the Preliminary Stanford Achievement Tests we are scheduled to take in our junior year. This test was not as bad, because I knew it would give us an idea of what we should expect on our final SATs.
That year, when I actually realized the test mattered, I choked. I got really nervous right before taking the test and I blanked out. Well, unlucky for me, these test scores also found my way to my transcripts.
ANOTHER problem that I created for myself, was that I never made the effort to visit the college counselor at my school. I always believed that, if it were normal for an underclassman to care about college, that the counselor would come looking for that student. I now know that it is every student's duty to make the effort.
Well, being not as knowledgeable then, even as a junior I believed that college was an eternity away. I hadn't even started to figure out which college to go to. This was another huge mistake.
I remember the first time I ever went into the college counselor's office. It was the beginning of my senior year, and my best friend Heather went to ask about the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She asked me to come with her, so I went.
The first question out of the counselor's mouth wasn't directed at her.
"So, Maura, what are your plans after you graduate?"
I was speechless. The only reaction I had was to shrug my shoulders.
The counselor formulated a plan to have me enter a computer program at school that helps individuals find a suitable college through the process of elimination. This brought me into a world that I never expected to be so large.
My counselor spent countless hours helping me search for exactly the type of college I wanted to attend, and mostly, he helped me to determine my goals. The only problem was that I did not have the grades and the test scores to go anywhere I wanted.
I was told that I had to work hard from that point on to fight for what I wanted. I was overwhelmed by the task of writing essays, filling out applications and hunting down teachers who would give me recommendations.
This is a lot of work for someone who is also supposed to be raising her grades and searching for scholarships.
Thankfully, all my work paid off when I learned in January that I was accepted by Florida Southern College.
Out of my experience, I suggest that students fill out applications and scholarship forms during the summer between junior and senior year. Once senior year starts, your whirlwind life begins.
Time flies while you're not having fun, staying at home and writing essays.
Good luck!
Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature allowing teens and young adults to serve up fresh perspective. What's your take on prom season? Guys and girls speak up by fax at 523-8509; by answering machine at 525-8666; snail mail at P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, HI 96802; or e-mail, featuresdesk@starbulletin.com.