If I had more time, I would have written a shorter application
October 26, 2007Upon finally getting around to filling out my first application, I’ve had the rather nasty surprise of discovering that there’s just not enough fucking room. After all this emphasis on being genuinely passionate and putting in a real commitment to a small number of things, it’s a bit disheartening to realize that one can’t actually tell anybody about it. If (as I’ve been lead to believe) everything I’ve done so far on this earth has been for the goal of strengthening this application, then entire years of my life have just been wasted by a parsimonious bit of HTML.
I guess I’m really just now being hit with the ludicrousness of the entire process; the idea that entire lives can be contained by this series of little boxes: 300 characters for every book I read in the past year; 600 characters for the boy scouts; just enough space in the job section to let them know I’m a “Programmer at Lawrence”.
Then again, I suppose there’s really no other way to do it. I’m just looking forward more than ever to having the entire process done with.
Indeed, they don't give you much room. That's why you pay those "College Essays That Work" books no mind, because they include ridiculously long essays that would fit on no applications.
Melinda Széll — October 25, 2007 @ 7:41 pm
the trick is to be very dens and straight to the point. Cut out all the fluff.
Christoph Neyer — October 25, 2007 @ 8:37 pm
How much can an application really show about you, whether the character limit is 300 or 3,000?I agree, it's irritating as all hell, but at the same time it's kind of nice that they cap the limit low. All it really means is that you have to put in more work making what you have down stronger and more concise. It forces you to tell them what actually matters, because what they want to know about you doesn't actually require that much room to answer.
David Granberg — October 25, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
Are you talking about the essays or the extracurricular stuff? Because I totally agree, on the UC application last year they only give you 5 spaces for each thing so you have to pick the 5 most important things you've done. It's annoying. But don't go complaining about how short of an essay you have to write, because at least you guys get a 400 word one. Last year we had to write two 200 word ones. It's practically impossible to say anything worthwhile in 200 words.
Jo Downes — October 25, 2007 @ 10:18 pm
College apps are a circlejerkTo clarify, a circlejerk on the part of admissions officers everywhere to make you spend amounts of time disproportionate to the 7.623 femtoseconds they actually look at your application:(
Conor Hughes — October 25, 2007 @ 10:38 pm
Jacob!You're LANGUAGE!I'm dissapointed that you would use language like that on the internet in front of a younger sibling such as myself.
Claire Andreas — October 25, 2007 @ 11:41 pm
Claire!*Your* LANGUAGE!I'm disappointed that you would use punctuation like that on the internet in front of an older sibling such as myself.
Jacob Andreas — October 25, 2007 @ 11:45 pm
You, sir, are a dissapointment to the whole institution that is the facebook and all other things internet.
Claire Andreas — October 25, 2007 @ 11:46 pm
haha. oh you silly gooses. claire, i love you.
Evå Poon — October 26, 2007 @ 12:36 am
too bad i still have 4 more years.
Evå Poon — October 26, 2007 @ 12:36 am
AHAHevaaa i love you so much.ahahhahayou wish you were an andreas.
Claire Andreas — October 26, 2007 @ 12:40 am
"I'm disappointed that you would use punctuation like that on the internet in front of an older sibling such as myself."Kudos, Jacob….but, so you both know, "myself" is not the grammatically correct term. Although it's become stylish these days to throw around "myself" in an attempt to sound educated and sophisticated (you'll hear principals and presidential candidates using it), the correct term is actually "me." "Myself" is reflexive ("I dress myself") or used for emphasis after "I"; "me" follows prepositions. Thus, the correct phrase would be "such as me."
Melinda Széll — October 26, 2007 @ 12:54 am
oh.PWND, JACOB.beat by melinda.hmph. i am superior.
Claire Andreas — October 26, 2007 @ 12:55 am
aha. i do too, so then we could annoy jacob together! haha. jkjk. ill tell him to videotape himself in ny when he goes to columbia. also to get a nice girlfriend who will buy you lots of clothes from bloomingdales. ahahahha. also to get uggs or course =)
Evå Poon — October 26, 2007 @ 12:56 am
Oh, and another thing that's good to know, although there's no hope of this ever being implemented on social-networking sites, is that the word "Internet" requires a capital "i."
Melinda Széll — October 26, 2007 @ 12:56 am