Only a little more was needed for the four students that people considered as being the brightest in the class to take what seems to be a common core: AP Statistics, English and Physics, and thus have three advanced placement courses in common out of their allowance of four. The syllabus was freshly handed out for the AP English course and the discussion revolves around the results of these AP Exams taken last May.
"Hey Gen, if we ignore calculus BC, what did you get on the other three AP Exams?" Randy asks her.
"But why ignore it? I might have taken it for form, this score will stay with me for the entire process" Gen points out to Randy.
"Because I am certain that you got a five on it. As for me, I didn't take any advanced placement course and the school didn't allow me to take an AP exam because I didn't take a course first" Zack answers in lieu of his teammate.
"I got a five on the other three exams"
"Bravo, champion! Now I must admit I am a little... envious. Me? A three on the French exam, another three on the government one. With such scores you shouldn't be stressing out about college!" Randy adds.
I don't even to hear about the ACT or the SAT; there were two summer makeup dates for the former, but only one for the latter, she thinks while knowing Marcia spent practically all summer teaching semi-private courses for the ACT while assuming that what was good for the ACT was also good on the SAT. Especially since the regular teachers were reluctant to teach semi-private courses... but she realizes that the majority of the people in the class took at least one test last May, and most people in that subgroup had a 3 or better on at least one test. A few students scored an 1 or 2, but it was a minority. It's almost as if we were at the Bâton-Rouge Magnet High School, or at Walt Whitman (a magnet school in Maryland) judging by the atmosphere where, for some reason, assembling this many honor roll students makes it so that they are more inclined to talk about college admission test among themselves. Yet here most people withing to retake the ACT or the SAT had, for instance, a 22 or a 26 (their equivalents on the SAT, for TOPS purposes, are 1130 and 1260), in which case the extra point is worth $400 per year, so long as they have a GPA of 3.25 or 3.50 respectively.
"Today, I know it's going to be a stressful topic for a lot of you. We'll start with the essay on the Common Application, which normally should be accepted by nearly every major in-state college. We're also going to cover how to write essays for college applications. I will never stress it enough: proofread and stick to the prompt! Show of hands: who's planning on going to college?" the AP English teacher asks the students after reviewing the syllabus.
Almost everyone raise their hands; after all we are dealing with people that are very easily in the top third of the class for the most part, or even the best quartile, at least unofficially. The following question is about who wants to attend a four-year college rather than a community college. A few hands lower but most hands that were raised the first time stay raised.
"If you just want to apply to LSU, UL-Lafayette, or a local community college, today's material will still be on the test, but will have no relevance to you otherwise"
Ouch. It would be a gigantic waste of three years of academic effort if I was to attend these schools! I know I will be socially unhappy there even if I was to get a full ride! She thinks while she notes down the ten commandments of essay writing on college applications, to follow by those who dream of other schools, according to the teacher, in the material of the day:
1. Make a good introduction
2. Answer the question
3. Stick to one's style (i.e., avoid using too complex words)
4. Stay concise and succinct
5. Proof-read after each draft
6. Write about a topic that matters to you
7. Do not simply tell; reflect!
8. Do not repeat information contained elsewhere in the application
9. Start with an outline before writing the essay proper
10. Make your research for the desired school for institutional supplements
As much as I could envy people who dream only of that, in which case they will spend the rest of the year without stress, me, however, I have an idea of what life in these places will look like if the first multi-variable calculus lecture last year is an indication, she keeps thinking, while she starts combing essay topics of the University of Chicago for what will best fit her. There's always the « free question » at Chicago if the first five topics don't satisfy her.
"One more thing: please don't pick a college based on an essay prompt that catches your eye, nor should you refrain from applying if it offers the major you want because you dislike their essay prompts!" The teacher harangues the students as he distributes the manifest of possible Common Application questions. "Finally, if you know ahead of time that at least one of the colleges on your application list requires the Common Application, start by writing the Common Application essays first, and then write the supplements: you may find yourself that you have no desire to attend X after realizing what makes it a poor fit, or you can't afford to attend!"
Clearly there's a disappointed student or two in the class, who was wondering why spend the entire lecture in order to learn how to write an essay for college applications, and instead expected literary work styles or the context in which they were written. But the resulting assignment falls like a hammer on everyone's head, even the most motivated.
"Here are the instructions for the first assignment, due in two weeks: write your Common Application primary essay, you have six hundred and fifty words, and please label clearly which prompt you are using in your title. That way we're killing two birds with one stone"
Ouch, ouch and re-ouch. I will no longer be in position to hide anything to my parents from the moment they see me write these essays! I have three essays; I may as well write them as soon as I get home! Chicago takes the Common App therefore the assignment's content will serve me! She thinks while she must find the topic rapidly, as well as which supplement to write for Chicago. On top of that I don't have the slightest idea of what so and so looks for in an essay, and certainly not Chicago!
Now that she has both manifests on hand, the questions for the Common App as well as those specific to UChicago, she wonders what to write, while her mother is with Ted's father, whose son took Algebra II course during the summer.
"Hi; I wonder where your daughter plans on applying..." Ted's father asks Gen's mom.
"From the way she talks about it, she seems poised to apply at the University of Chicago in early decision"
"Undoubtedly, she must know that she must not put all her eggs in one basket! What would she do if she was rejected at Chicago? My own son is still a long way off, but your daughter is so brilliant, if only my son could..." the fullback's father continues, while the latter has barely started doing his homework.
"Your son could do what exactly?"
"Take example on her. I may tell him that he must not neglect his studies because relying on football to go to college is not a good option, he doesn't listen to me" Ted's father laments.
Of the seven prompts given, the first and the fifth are the most likely to represent me. If I take the first or the fifth, I absolutely must talk, at some point, of this infamous pep rally where I solved PDEs in open air, probably the highest point of my life as a student that was not directly linked to a contest. Even though I didn't realize it immediately, I learned lessons from it, I know that, on an intellectual level, I have no need for validation whatsoever. But, at the same time, I must keep an eye on the desire of wanting to push too hard and too quickly! She thinks while making outlines for her assignment (and her application by extension) according to whether she writes on the first prompt or the fifth.
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The first prompt being, in the order on the manifest given in class : « Certain students have a background, an identity, an interest or a talent that matters so much to them that they believe their application would be incomplete without it » while the fifth is « Discuss a realization or an event that led to a period of personal growth and to a new understanding of yourself or of others ». This means, however, that she has two essays to write, and she is wondering which one is the simplest to work with. Just as a precaution, she writes the drafts following both prompts and her mother listens to her from the kitchen, while not alluding to the result of the contest for which this pep rally was held...
"On April 27, 2023, I was attending an open-air pep rally, with the entire town rallying in the stadium behind its math team before a major competition. I was solving partial differential equations in front of a rabid crowd, and initially I felt unstoppable. At first it gave me so much confidence that I could accomplish anything I wanted in the intellectual arena, until I look back on the event months later and realize that maybe I was... ugh..."
"What's wrong, honey? You appeared to be choking..." Gen's mom looks at her daughter.
There's definitely something wrong. This moment that I cherished for the past four months... it's now that I realize the exorbitant price I must have paid to keep advancing ever faster in the material in mathematics. That I am headed on a very dangerous trajectory if I am hell-bent on wanting to learn as rapidly as for the contest for which the town adulated me so much for the past few months, she thinks, before returning to herself.
"I think I am following a very dangerous trajectory if I continue like this..."
"What are you talking about? You never appeared distressed before. And you never talked about the dangers you're exposed to. You always seemed to do well on a mathematical level, I even saw you solve partial differential equations that night"
"It's precisely what I am talking about on one of my essays for the University of Chicago. One that I know I can use for other universities afterwards, so long as they accept the Common Application. It's not that I am not intellectually ready for things as complicated as PDEs, it's because I believe I am suffering from the mental equivalent of a stress fracture"
"That surprises me on your part. I never knew another girl like you. But you became increasingly obsessed with mathematics and..."
"I brought these intellectual excesses on myself, I ate geometry during the summer, granted, for free, but here I start paying the price for my intellectual excesses!"
"How? An essay did this to you?"
"The excesses I am referring to would have fried normal people long before I come to consider my situation as an excess. Everyone is, like, I am the brightest of them all in my class, or equivalent, they gave me the impression that my own intellectual capabilities are unlimited, I just didn't reach my limits yet"
I must talk about this to my friends, whenever I have the opportunity. Krista and Marcia will undoubtedly understand what's happening to me. In fact I think Krista has a share of responsibility for the dangers I incur and she incurs them herself, in part because of me! She continues to think, while she keeps writing about how she might have pushed her mind too hard, or otherwise made her more aware of her limitations. But I know however that I must not sound like an alarmist, otherwise what will Chicago think of me? That I am at risk of not being able to get through the Core or the major I would then pick? I want my essay to be in agreement with the rest of my profile, therefore I must pay attention to what I am saying. Maybe I should talk about the Core, summer research opportunities, and how I could live a new step in my academic life with peers whose intellectual intensity will bring me joy in my learning and how my stay at the YSP camp gave me a glimpse, in the first Chicago supplement! Supplement that she does not delay in writing, but she has no clue as to what to write in the 2nd supplement, which is always the big trap for so many applicants at Chicago.
The following day, she meets her friends, which return from their respective courses, and she is not surprised when she realizes her friends are also at very advanced writing stages as well! When the time comes to talk about their essays...
"I had a panic attack last night while writing my essay!" Gen howls, when she opens the file containing what she wrote for the AP English assignment, and for the Common Application as well.
"What do you mean? What question did you choose?" Marcia asks.
"Question number five. While I was writing about the resolution of PDEs in open air, I inexplicably fell prey to a panic attack while I thought I was following a very dangerous trajectory if I kept learning at the speed I was learning then. If such is the case, then you too, Marcia, you are aware of the dangers I face"
"It's effectively a very high learning speed. It's completely unlike you, but if you already have panic attacks over that, you have anxiety, and you must take care of yourself" Randy comments.
"To reduce my anxiety to a strict minimum I also finished the first of the two supplemental essays at Chicago. Which topics did you choose?" Gen asks her friends.
"Question number three. I decided to talk about how the anti-vaccination movement was actually an instrumentalization of auto-immune diseases and other contra-indications to vaccines for political and judicial purposes, while non-judicial media seemed to assume that people could get shots until proven otherwise" Krista explains.
"It's a very sensitive topic, maybe even too much for college admissions. Too politically charged. What's your backup plan, now that you must use it?" Marcia asks, while she starts reading the others' essays.
"As for me, question number four and I chose to write it about pre-calculus, student loans and credit cards" Randy responds, while Krista is forced to rewrite her essay because of its unacceptable topic.
"Me too I am writing on question number four, but I am doing it about the importance of academic success" Cory answers.
"Finally, for me, even though we aren't in the same section, question number two. I decide to talk about my greatest failure as a quiz bowl participant during the pandemic shaped me as a person, and what lessons I learned in the academic and extracurricular spheres, Marcia then talks about quiz bowl to them for the first time in years.
And, except for Krista, the other essays are read for issues of style and language. After all, making other people read essay drafts is a good idea, especially when one must not treat the essays as being the final version after the first draft.
"Randy, you allude way too much to the personal finance knowledge I brought rather than what you took away from it! Yes, you have the right to say it came from me, but still... people in admissions offices want the focus to be on you and not the person that made it possible" Gen provides her feedback to Randy.
"And you talk a lot about the importance of knowing our own limits, as well as how personal limits have a circumstantial component. I believe it's relatively minor changes for you" Randy comments on Geneviève's essay, to then turn to Marcia, surprised by her essay's content. "You really did that? You caused the disqualification of our quiz bowl team in ninth grade in a tournament?"
"Yes, my inexperience at the time relative to answering protocol cost us a disqualification from the state championship. That said, the school kept me on the team after that because, during the pandemic, after the ruin the pandemic wrought on an athletic level, academic extracurriculars were essential for the students' morale" Marcia answers Randy's question.
"Bizarre; you never talked about quiz bowl to me last year..." Randy sighs.
"Tournaments are held on weekends, and this team is relatively undemanding. The team flies under the radar because we don't do so hot" Marcia explains to him.
"It's not like mathematics, where even the parish newspaper started covering us abusively, as if we were the only good extracurricular team in the parish. And, Cory, you must not sound like in a confessional; the way you are going, you're making excuses for your weaker performance of the first two years in high school" Gen adds an aside.
During the pandemic there were three extracurricular activities remaining of an academic nature that contained a competitive aspect: mathletics, debate and quiz bowl. Even with Marcia who is henceforth part of the quiz bowl team and of the mathletics team, the quiz bowl team didn't even have a sliver of a chance for the state title, or even to qualify for the national championship. So I might be wondering, after three years of quiz bowl disappointments, she decided that her extracurricular swan song would be happening under the aegis of the VMC and finally get her share of the school's glory as a graduation gift. Yet very quickly the very jingoist parish newspaper wasted no time placing Marcia third in the pre-season state ranking of female mathletes with me and Krista being ranked first and second respectively, Gen ponders, shortly before a discussion over the panic excesses takes place with Krista.
"Last night I had the impression that my brain was failing me, and I started panicking while writing this essay. But you are vulnerable, too, Krista; you also made more or less the same learning speed excesses as I did because you did it WITH me! We're both headed down the same dangerous path!"
"What are you talking about, Gen? You claim you are responsible for OUR leaning speed excesses? Yet when I arrived here, I was happy because I would have you to keep me company on the team. You were the one with whom I felt most comfortable to share in my mathematical evolution since that night where you solved PDEs in open air"
"Ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, Fourier series in a single night... This goes for you as it goes for me, after all you appeared to be more or less of the same intellectual level as I"
"It's for this reason I very quickly became your friend: you probably were the only girl in this parish that could understand what I am living. Marcia, for some reason, did not generate the same interest in me even though she is on the math team as well"
"We must not necessarily seek to learn as fast as possible; the temptation can be great to desire going too fast, even though it's totally normal to desire to challenge ourselves"