This may turn into a rant, so please forgive me.
No, Aidan has not even turned in an application to any college yet (although the goal is to get the one for UT in today). No, he has not been rejected by any college yet.
But after talking with his college counselor a couple of times and finding out just how ridiculously hard it is for WHITE MIDDLE-CLASS KIDS WHOSE PARENTS ARE WELL-EDUCATED to get accepted at some of these universities, I am hopping mad.
Diversity. I hate that word like you wouldn't believe. It's not that I don't believe we should be "equal opportunity" in who gets accepted at colleges -- I'm all for that -- but the "equal opportunity" should be based on MERIT ALONE, not on your race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or whether or not you'll be the first in your family to go to college.
Everyone should have a chance to get into the university of their choice.
Schools whose senior classes have fewer than 100 kids in them should have a different criteria for automatic entry to UT than "top 8%." In Aidan's school, that is ONE KID. Aidan is SECOND in his class, and just a few hundredths of a grade point behind the top kid. Aidan has better test scores than the top kid. She definitely deserves her valedictorian status, but I don't even think she's applying to UT, and Aidan is. Why shouldn't he have the same shot she does? Just because his school is small and "top 8%" means ONE PERSON, he doesn't get automatic entry into UT even though he is every bit as academically talented as she is. This is wrong.
Bjorn actually suggested at the end of last year that we pull Aidan out of his Christian school and send him to the local public school for his senior year so he could be in the top 8%. In the end we decided this was not what God wanted us to do, so we didn't. I feel pretty sure God will honor our decision to obey him ;-), but I am very peeved that we have to stress over it.
Okay, we don't have to stress over it. God will put Aidan where He wants Aidan (as long as we're being attentive to His will). Still, there is an awful lot of hard work involved in simply applying, and that IS on Aidan's shoulders. God's not going to give Aidan's applications favor with any admissions officials if he turns in a crappy app.
I hate all this stress. I think it's totally unnecessary. I think a whole freakin' lot of it is due to our emphasis on "diversity" that ends up shoving the white middle-class kids off to the side. Yes, in the past these kids have had better chances than their non-white and/or poor counterparts. But MY child (or any other WM-C kid) should not be penalized for something they have no control over (the past). How is that any less "racist" or "unfair" than what caused this diversity-loving thing in the first place?
Again, let me state unequivocally that I am NOT against poor, and/or non-white, and/or otherwise non-academically challenged kids having an equal shot at the openings in this nation's universities. But I AM against shoving the WM-C kids aside in order to meet quotas and be "fair." If these universities are really trying to make themselves the best universities in America/the world, then why in heck would they want to shove aside some of the brightest kids they could get their hands on? (One of Rice University's essay questions is that you write how you can add to the amazing diversity they already have at Rice. How about ... hey, I might be the only white middle-class male in your freshman class! Now that's diversity!)
Okay, I'm done now. I know Aidan's future is in God's hands. I'm just freaking annoyed that, after all the hard work he has put into the last 12 years of his life, he has to work even harder just to make that hard work pay off.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
I love Zits - but not campus shooters
(The comic, not the icky face things)
This is today's Zits cartoon, and I totally LOVE it! It is sooooooo true of what we're going through right now ...
BTW -- any of you who use Blogger ... when using the new interface/editor I had no image upload button, I had to go back to the old editor. Anyone else have that problem?
Yesterday an idiot with an AK-47 opened fire on the University of Texas campus. Praise God he didn't hit anyone, but he did end up killing himself after being chased up six flights of stairs into the Perry-Casteneda Library.
All I could think when I heard about this was: 1) Thank God my "baby" wasn't doing a campus visit yesterday!, and 2) We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
I knew we weren't "in Kansas" anymore after the Columbine Massacre. But my kid goes to a small Christian school, and although a shooting is possible anywhere, the chances are rather slim. I've been lulled into a false sense of security. College awaits, and alongside the other "parental fears" of kids losing their faith, kids falling in with the wrong crowd, etc., we have the fear of our kid being shot by some maniac with a gun.
I don't see how people who aren't Christians cope with that fear. As it is, I have to bring myself back around to the knowledge that, whatever happens, Aidan's life is in God's hands, and that's exactly where I want it to be. I personally think yesterday was a miracle -- guy with an AK-47 shows up on campus at 8 in the morning and starts firing shots while people are coming to their classes. Nobody is even hurt. From what one eyewitness said, he fired into the ground -- so either he never was really planning to kill anyone (in which case you have to wonder why he went to all the trouble of doing the AK-47/ski mask bit), or he changed his mind at the last minute. Some might even say it's possible there was angelic assistance in keeping that gun aimed at the ground. Any way I look at it I see divine intervention. Of course, God doesn't always choose to stop these things, and I don't pretend to know why. I trust that He knows what He's doing and has an ultimate purpose for whatever happens. I certainly hope and pray that Aidan is never caught up in anything like that!
So ... calmer today (I was a little freaked for awhile yesterday), and on with the college process. Aidan is finally working on his second essay for UT, with the goal of getting his app in by Thursday, Friday at the latest. Please pray that he'll write a super stellar one and that whoever ends up reading his essays will be majorly impressed!
Off to get the clothes out of the dryer ...
This is today's Zits cartoon, and I totally LOVE it! It is sooooooo true of what we're going through right now ...
BTW -- any of you who use Blogger ... when using the new interface/editor I had no image upload button, I had to go back to the old editor. Anyone else have that problem?
Yesterday an idiot with an AK-47 opened fire on the University of Texas campus. Praise God he didn't hit anyone, but he did end up killing himself after being chased up six flights of stairs into the Perry-Casteneda Library.
All I could think when I heard about this was: 1) Thank God my "baby" wasn't doing a campus visit yesterday!, and 2) We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
I knew we weren't "in Kansas" anymore after the Columbine Massacre. But my kid goes to a small Christian school, and although a shooting is possible anywhere, the chances are rather slim. I've been lulled into a false sense of security. College awaits, and alongside the other "parental fears" of kids losing their faith, kids falling in with the wrong crowd, etc., we have the fear of our kid being shot by some maniac with a gun.
I don't see how people who aren't Christians cope with that fear. As it is, I have to bring myself back around to the knowledge that, whatever happens, Aidan's life is in God's hands, and that's exactly where I want it to be. I personally think yesterday was a miracle -- guy with an AK-47 shows up on campus at 8 in the morning and starts firing shots while people are coming to their classes. Nobody is even hurt. From what one eyewitness said, he fired into the ground -- so either he never was really planning to kill anyone (in which case you have to wonder why he went to all the trouble of doing the AK-47/ski mask bit), or he changed his mind at the last minute. Some might even say it's possible there was angelic assistance in keeping that gun aimed at the ground. Any way I look at it I see divine intervention. Of course, God doesn't always choose to stop these things, and I don't pretend to know why. I trust that He knows what He's doing and has an ultimate purpose for whatever happens. I certainly hope and pray that Aidan is never caught up in anything like that!
So ... calmer today (I was a little freaked for awhile yesterday), and on with the college process. Aidan is finally working on his second essay for UT, with the goal of getting his app in by Thursday, Friday at the latest. Please pray that he'll write a super stellar one and that whoever ends up reading his essays will be majorly impressed!
Off to get the clothes out of the dryer ...
Monday, September 27, 2010
Campus Visit
Well, I'm a little late posting this entry, but last week was busy and I wasn't feeling well, so I'm just now getting around to it.
Last Wednesday Aidan made a visit to UT's linguistics department. Had a lovely chat with the undergrad coordinator for the department and sat in on the Linguistics 101 class.
His school's college counselor had said it could never hurt to make a visit to the department of your desired major, that a lot of times if the people in the department really like you they'll go to the admissions people and tell them to "watch for" your name. Scheming mother that I am, I made Aidan make an appointment right away, and Wednesday was the result.
However, sometime during the meeting, the coordinator told Aidan they really have no say in who gets admitted. So while I don't think the visit was a waste, I was pretty disappointed by that. Bjorn says maybe they do "flag" kids' names like the counselor said and they just aren't allowed to say that to the kids who come to visit. So I hope that's it, but I'm bummed, anyway.
For Aidan's part, the visit got him very excited about college. He said the class he sat in on was pretty boring because he already knew what they were talking about, but as for the whole college concept, he's ready to go now. He loves the idea of "specialized classes" (i.e., the ones for your major), he loves that there are more than 11 kids in your entire class (i.e., the freshman class, sophomore class, etc.), etc. He says it will be so nice to be in classes where everyone is there because they're interested in the subject, not just because they have to be there, which is a huge change from the attitude of most of his senior classmates at his Christian school. (He's got a rough class, very apathetic kids, no sense of "community" like last year's senior class had.) So overall he is so ready to be done with high school and get on with LEARNING. (N.B. His high school is a great place for learning, excellent teachers and classes, he's just tired of the attitude of his classmates and ready to do some specializing in the stuff he's most interested in.)
I'm not ready for him to be done with high school. Of course, I wasn't ready for him to be done with kindergarten, either, and that didn't stop the passage of time.
I've been writing lately, fiction (it's actually a fictional blog, I'll post the link at the end of this post for anyone who's interested). It keeps my mind occupied, keeps me from thinking too much about the Empty Nest and all that entails. But when I loosen up the tight rein I've put on my mind where the EN is concerned, it really gets to me. Woke up this morning not feeling all that great, which of course means I was already depressed and then I thought about the fact that September is almost over, and that led me to thinking about how fast this year is gonna go, and next thing you know I had tears streaming down my face. Not a good way to start the day, really. I need to go immerse myself in my story again.
I'm glad God understands mothers' hearts.
Aidan is plowing his way (slowly) through the college application process. He's finished the "common app" that works for both U Chicago and Rice, with the exception of the essays. I think he has the UT one finished except for essays, too. He's barely started on CU Boulder and U Arizona because they have separate applications for each school (UT's is actually part of the "Apply Texas" common application that works for several universities in Texas, although Rice uses a different common app.) I do not envy him all the essays he has to write! He's finished one, which will actually work for pretty much every school (the "who is your hero and why" essay) -- they had to write that one for his English class, so that's the only one he's worked on!
Apparently at Rice and U Chicago if you apply before November 1 and they accept you, you have to make a decision right then and there about whether you're going to their school or not. So Aidan is going to wait on them, but he's still going to get the stuff ready to go.
Anyway ... today is still September, and I'm going to just take each day at a time and enjoy all the ones we have left until he goes off to wherever.
So, link to my fictional blog is here: Caddie Emerging (beginning post). Be sure to read the page under the heading "What the Heck is This?", too. If you like the blog, let me know!
Last Wednesday Aidan made a visit to UT's linguistics department. Had a lovely chat with the undergrad coordinator for the department and sat in on the Linguistics 101 class.
His school's college counselor had said it could never hurt to make a visit to the department of your desired major, that a lot of times if the people in the department really like you they'll go to the admissions people and tell them to "watch for" your name. Scheming mother that I am, I made Aidan make an appointment right away, and Wednesday was the result.
However, sometime during the meeting, the coordinator told Aidan they really have no say in who gets admitted. So while I don't think the visit was a waste, I was pretty disappointed by that. Bjorn says maybe they do "flag" kids' names like the counselor said and they just aren't allowed to say that to the kids who come to visit. So I hope that's it, but I'm bummed, anyway.
For Aidan's part, the visit got him very excited about college. He said the class he sat in on was pretty boring because he already knew what they were talking about, but as for the whole college concept, he's ready to go now. He loves the idea of "specialized classes" (i.e., the ones for your major), he loves that there are more than 11 kids in your entire class (i.e., the freshman class, sophomore class, etc.), etc. He says it will be so nice to be in classes where everyone is there because they're interested in the subject, not just because they have to be there, which is a huge change from the attitude of most of his senior classmates at his Christian school. (He's got a rough class, very apathetic kids, no sense of "community" like last year's senior class had.) So overall he is so ready to be done with high school and get on with LEARNING. (N.B. His high school is a great place for learning, excellent teachers and classes, he's just tired of the attitude of his classmates and ready to do some specializing in the stuff he's most interested in.)
I'm not ready for him to be done with high school. Of course, I wasn't ready for him to be done with kindergarten, either, and that didn't stop the passage of time.
I've been writing lately, fiction (it's actually a fictional blog, I'll post the link at the end of this post for anyone who's interested). It keeps my mind occupied, keeps me from thinking too much about the Empty Nest and all that entails. But when I loosen up the tight rein I've put on my mind where the EN is concerned, it really gets to me. Woke up this morning not feeling all that great, which of course means I was already depressed and then I thought about the fact that September is almost over, and that led me to thinking about how fast this year is gonna go, and next thing you know I had tears streaming down my face. Not a good way to start the day, really. I need to go immerse myself in my story again.
I'm glad God understands mothers' hearts.
Aidan is plowing his way (slowly) through the college application process. He's finished the "common app" that works for both U Chicago and Rice, with the exception of the essays. I think he has the UT one finished except for essays, too. He's barely started on CU Boulder and U Arizona because they have separate applications for each school (UT's is actually part of the "Apply Texas" common application that works for several universities in Texas, although Rice uses a different common app.) I do not envy him all the essays he has to write! He's finished one, which will actually work for pretty much every school (the "who is your hero and why" essay) -- they had to write that one for his English class, so that's the only one he's worked on!
Apparently at Rice and U Chicago if you apply before November 1 and they accept you, you have to make a decision right then and there about whether you're going to their school or not. So Aidan is going to wait on them, but he's still going to get the stuff ready to go.
Anyway ... today is still September, and I'm going to just take each day at a time and enjoy all the ones we have left until he goes off to wherever.
So, link to my fictional blog is here: Caddie Emerging (beginning post). Be sure to read the page under the heading "What the Heck is This?", too. If you like the blog, let me know!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Crazier than I thought!
We met with Aidan's school's college counselor yesterday afternoon. It made me want to encourage Aidan to go into swordmaking. (One day he said he thought it would be neat to make swords. I'm ready to pay for the forge!)
Here, in no particular order, are the reasons:
-- UT has a VERY NARROW acceptance "window." This is partly because the state mandates that every state school has to automatically accept anyone who applies who was in the top 10% of their school (UT managed to talk them into 8% for themselves). So even though I cannot possibly imagine why anyone would turn Aidan away, it's entirely plausible that it could happen. One reason is because they often have "quotas" (though they won't use that word) to encourage diversity. So you really, really have to stand out on your application/essays/letters of recommendation.
-- There are high schools in the state of Texas whose focus is on "diversity" who are trying their durndest to get illegal immigrant kids into the state universities. Regardless of the fact that I believe we should treat illegals with dignity and not throw 'em all back over the fence immediately, this bugs the heck out of me. My child is a citizen of the United States. He is a citizen of the State of Texas. Therefore, he has the right to be admitted to any school in this state. Illegals do not. I have no problem with them applying as international students, but do not take my child's (or any other citizen's) chance away in the name of "diversity."
-- The admissions departments of the big schools take an average of SEVEN MINUTES with each application. Some of the apps get thrown out immediately if there are things on there that don't fit whatever it is the school is looking for in the freshman class for the next year. I.e., if they're trying to score kids who are the first in their family to go to college, the kids whose parents have gone to college may get thrown out without a second look. Likewise, if the kids are white and they're going for "diversity." Etc. I'm not making this up.
-- Aidan will spend hours agonizing over the essays he has to write. The people who are hired as essay readers may chuck his essay after the first paragraph if it doesn't grab them somehow. Never mind that the rest of the essay may be stellar, unique and amazing.
-- Aidan missed out on being valedictorian (i.e. the top 8%) by a couple of hundredths of a point. As I mentioned in the last post, if he'd been valedictorian (by the end of last year), he would have gotten automatic entry into UT. And, I didn't know this until yesterday, he would also have had his first year of tuition paid. AAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
Seriously, the whole thing is just overwhelming to me. Thankfully Aidan is much younger, stronger and can focus better than this old menopausal woman.
I really, really just want to ignore all this right now, but we can't. He needs to get these apps in SOON. And he needs to visit the appropriate departments at UT. And we need to start finding scholarships to sign up for. There is no way we can pay for his college education without scholarships. Or taking out a huge loan.
If you're so inclined, please pray for us! We want what's very best for Aidan, we want God's will for him. I'd like to find that without losing my sanity in the process.
Here, in no particular order, are the reasons:
-- UT has a VERY NARROW acceptance "window." This is partly because the state mandates that every state school has to automatically accept anyone who applies who was in the top 10% of their school (UT managed to talk them into 8% for themselves). So even though I cannot possibly imagine why anyone would turn Aidan away, it's entirely plausible that it could happen. One reason is because they often have "quotas" (though they won't use that word) to encourage diversity. So you really, really have to stand out on your application/essays/letters of recommendation.
-- There are high schools in the state of Texas whose focus is on "diversity" who are trying their durndest to get illegal immigrant kids into the state universities. Regardless of the fact that I believe we should treat illegals with dignity and not throw 'em all back over the fence immediately, this bugs the heck out of me. My child is a citizen of the United States. He is a citizen of the State of Texas. Therefore, he has the right to be admitted to any school in this state. Illegals do not. I have no problem with them applying as international students, but do not take my child's (or any other citizen's) chance away in the name of "diversity."
-- The admissions departments of the big schools take an average of SEVEN MINUTES with each application. Some of the apps get thrown out immediately if there are things on there that don't fit whatever it is the school is looking for in the freshman class for the next year. I.e., if they're trying to score kids who are the first in their family to go to college, the kids whose parents have gone to college may get thrown out without a second look. Likewise, if the kids are white and they're going for "diversity." Etc. I'm not making this up.
-- Aidan will spend hours agonizing over the essays he has to write. The people who are hired as essay readers may chuck his essay after the first paragraph if it doesn't grab them somehow. Never mind that the rest of the essay may be stellar, unique and amazing.
-- Aidan missed out on being valedictorian (i.e. the top 8%) by a couple of hundredths of a point. As I mentioned in the last post, if he'd been valedictorian (by the end of last year), he would have gotten automatic entry into UT. And, I didn't know this until yesterday, he would also have had his first year of tuition paid. AAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
Seriously, the whole thing is just overwhelming to me. Thankfully Aidan is much younger, stronger and can focus better than this old menopausal woman.
I really, really just want to ignore all this right now, but we can't. He needs to get these apps in SOON. And he needs to visit the appropriate departments at UT. And we need to start finding scholarships to sign up for. There is no way we can pay for his college education without scholarships. Or taking out a huge loan.
If you're so inclined, please pray for us! We want what's very best for Aidan, we want God's will for him. I'd like to find that without losing my sanity in the process.
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