Winter Quarter: Week 5

It's kind of weird how it's already halfway through Winter Quarter.  In one way I'm relieved, but in another way I am getting anxious.  Transfer application deadlines are approaching very quickly, yet I still haven't really gotten anything done.  I still have yet to order transcripts from the college, request that my high school send out transcripts to all the places that require high school transcripts, and just finish essays and such for the applications that require them.

Filling out the applications, I've noticed that I have not done anything outside of school--far less than what I've accomplished during high school.  It's unfortunate that I'm not able to list everything that I did during high school on my applications now because it doesn't really fully show what kind of person I am.  This makes writing essays that much harder because I will have to try and convince the admissions office that I am much more than what my activities the past two years have shown.

As of now, I've broken up the schools that I am applying to into 3 different tiers - Tier 1 for schools I really want to go to but may not get into, Tier 2 for schools I would rather not go to, but I didn't get into any schools from Tier 1, and Tier 3 for backup schools that I'm pretty sure I would get into but I don't want to go to.

Tier 1:

Georgia Tech
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Case Western

University of Texas - Austin

Tier 2:

University of Maryland - College Park

Purdue University

University of Washington - Seattle

Washington State University - Pullman

Tier 3:

Western Washington University

University of Portland

Seattle University

So as you can see, I've got a lot of schools to apply to.  The only reason why I'm applying to so many is because I know that I am not a very convincing candidate for transfer and would be close to the bottom in terms of borderline considerations.  So by expanding a lot of possibilities, then I will hopefully increase my chances of getting into somewhere outside of Tier 3.

I think I will make an effort to try and finish a song during this week.  The only thing that I am struggling with right now is getting started with lyrics.  Nothing seems to be coming to me mainly because I haven't really done anything different for this whole year.  There has been no new experience for me to write about.  I guess I'll spend some time thinking about old experiences over the course of the week and hopefully that'll get me started on some lyrics.

Now, time for me to take a nap.