{"id":36310,"date":"2023-03-07T21:55:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T03:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=36310"},"modified":"2023-03-07T21:58:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T03:58:41","slug":"college-application-in-the-imsa-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2023\/03\/07\/college-application-in-the-imsa-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"College Application in the IMSA Bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a senior who successfully survived the college application process and has already committed to college, I know a thing or two about taking this giant leap. The institution you currently attend may help you, yet also stunt you. <\/span><\/p>\n

During your junior year, you will meet with your college academic counselor (CAC), who will hand you a packet full of potential colleges that provide the major you want to study. They only know this because of the student college application plan and the student autobiography you provide. I cannot stress this enough: you need to take these seriously. Your college counselors don\u2019t know you, so whatever you put on these papers is what they go off of. Now, this giant pack of colleges is your holy grail. It sorts these colleges by size, selectiveness, location, and everything else you could think of. After this document, you\u2019re on your own. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, like a large portion of IMSA students, I’d like to pursue a career in medicine. Although exciting, that also means my chances of getting into the best colleges for medicine were slim. However, my past college counselor asked me about my other interests and majors that I would consider because, honestly, I would not have had a chance as a pre-med major. There are scores of other interested pre-meds at IMSA, most of whom dedicate themselves to having phenomenal grades and internships. And, while there\u2019s nothing wrong with that, it doesn\u2019t stand out. <\/span><\/p>\n

My CAC looked through my extracurriculars and projects I\u2019ve worked on and found careers and majors that weren\u2019t copied and pasted from my peers. From a two-paragraph blip, my CAC was able to give a list of colleges made just for me and my new major. And now, I will be attending an amazing college with a fantastic curriculum designed to fit me as a person and my future career in the medical field. I owe 100% of this to my CAC junior year. Your CACs know what they are doing to find programs, scholarships, and potential majors that work for you, so take advantage of this. <\/span><\/p>\n

The application process is stressful. Teachers don\u2019t lighten up on coursework, some apps have nine supplementals, and everything is due on one date. However, our CACs take such a load off of us by sending in our transcripts and all the obnoxious paperwork. Take a second to appreciate how much work that is. Two hundred students apply to roughly seven schools each (some more). That\u2019s 1,400 transcripts, all being sent within the span of 3 months. Give them a round of applause. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, as much praise as I love to give the CACs and this institution in general, not everything is perfect. However, the things I want to critique aren\u2019t in the hands of the school. They\u2019re actually in yours. There is such a hostile atmosphere that surrounds the college conversation here. Whether it was people asking me why I would ever switch from a pre-med track to philosophy because it wasn\u2019t \u201cstable enough\u201d or others not caring what college you got into because they \u201cdidn\u2019t know the name of it,\u201d aggressiveness and presumption ruled in my peers’ behavior. Just because you aren\u2019t going to an Ivy League school doesn\u2019t mean you didn\u2019t work hard and that you shouldn\u2019t be proud of where you are going. In all honesty, it doesn\u2019t matter where you go as long as you\u2019re happy and continue to work hard to achieve great things. But, no matter how many times I say it, or your CAC does, there will still be this assumed superiority among those heading off to Ivies next fall. So, I preach to the juniors and sophomores: Please try to disassemble this belief. College and the application season are supposed to be fun and momentous. Don\u2019t let stupid opinions or stereotypes ruin that for you. And, if you\u2019ve gotten into any college and no one has told you already: I am proud of you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a senior who successfully survived the college application process and has already committed to college, I know a thing or two about taking this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":796,"featured_media":36311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3003,1019,2724,12],"tags":[4103,2811],"coauthors":[3880],"class_list":["post-36310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-imsa","category-imsanews","category-news","category-opinions","tag-cacs","tag-college-applications"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36310"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36464,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36310\/revisions\/36464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36310"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=36310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}