Tips for the American College Process

Hey everyone! If you have read my blog anytime in the last year, you would see me constantly talking about the stress of the American college process. I started the process in early January 2017, and I am finally finished! I will be attending Providence College in the fall, and I am part of the class of 2022. High school isn't over for me yet (five more months, as of today), but I am still so excited for the journey that awaits me regarding college. I can't wait to decorate my dorm room and explore Rhode Island (as of now, I have only been to that state three times). Since many people all over are starting the process, I decided to give some tips I have learned over the last year of my life.

This photo is of me with my Providence College Acceptance on December 18, 2017.

1. Don't slack off Freshman and Sophmore Year.

When I was a freshman in high school, I had a really hard time adjusting to my new school. I was also super focused on making friends and extracurriculars. I was struggling in Biology, and I should've gotten more help in my classes and/or a tutor. Although it doesn't seem like freshman and sophomore year would affect your chances of colleges, it definitely sets the path for the rest of your academic career. I was never good at science, but by junior year I had found a tutor who helped me through Physics. Even if your freshman year grades aren't the best, an upward curve in grades throughout high school is looked on positively.

2. You Don't Have to Be in All Honors and APs.

There is way too much pressure to be put in honors or APs. I have met people who thrive in honors and APs, and others who crash. Personally, I was never in honors classes and I still did well in school. Many colleges don't look down upon those who are not in advanced or honors classes, they look to see how well you are doing in the classes you took.

3. Take a Practice ACT and SAT Before Prepping For Either.

 I took a practice SAT in my sophomore year and my junior year of high school. Both were given out at my school. I also took a practice ACT but didn't take it seriously because I thought that I liked the SAT better. If I had taken both with the same attitude, I would've realized how the ACT was the better test for me instead of taking the SAT.

4. Take 2-3 Tests (unless you get a perfect score).

There was no way I was going to get 1600 on the SAT or a 36 on the ACT because I had not prepped enough in order to get that high of a score, and my education didn't meet what I would've been tested on. I was held back in math when I had switched schools, so I am taking pre-calculus as a senior even though that subject is on the standardized tests that I took as a junior in high school. I had done an SAT course from January to March 2017, which was run by Kaplan (do not recommend) and by the time I took my SAT I had only gotten 1140. When I had taken a practice SAT with no prep, I had scored only 10 points lower. My SAT course barely helped me. Then, I bought both an ACT and SAT prep books because I signed up for both in June. I took the ACT because many people told me it would be "easier." The second time I took the SAT, I received 1200. On my ACT, with barely any prep I received a 27 (equivalent of 1300 SAT score). There are so many different factors that go into scoring a higher test score such as the testing center, amount of preparation, previous knowledge, the ability to answer all the questions in a short amount of time, and a clear head. The first testing center I went to caused me to become very stressed out, and I ended up not doing as well as I could.

5. Talk to your guidance counselor if you can.

 My guidance counselor is an absolute blessing! She compiled a list of twenty schools and worked with me to find the ones that I should look into. She's actually the one who gave me Providence College, to begin with, and here we are! Your guidance counselor is the person who should help you the most with the process, and help you find schools that are good for you. It's also a bit of a reality check when certain schools are far reaches meaning really hard to get in, even if you have everything they want. They are also the people who can give you fee waivers, and help you get in touch with representatives from the school.

6. Visit Schools and Do Interviews!

If you had asked me where I would want to go to college a year ago, I would've said, "possibly Boston College" and don't get me wrong...it's a lovely school, but once I visited it I decided not to apply. During my spring break, I visited three schools in Boston, and two in D.C, and ended up applying to one of those schools. After visiting schools, I decided that I wanted a campus school with lots of sports outside of the city. In June, I visited Lehigh University and Providence College and decided which school I wanted to be at. By visiting schools, you get to experience what it's like to go to that school and get a feel for the people. In August, I scheduled an interview at PC in order to express my interest there. Expressing interests in schools definitely helps because your interviewer will either take notes on you or be the person who eventually reads your application.

7. Spend a lot of time on your personal essay, and make people read it over.

I didn't have my personal essay done until two weeks before I turned in my applications, but once it was done my old English teacher read it and helped make it more coherent. Finding a topic and writing your story is a crucial part of the whole college process. You want the reader to get a feel for who you are because in the end, they are the ones who accept or deny you. Your test scores and grades are just one part of you, the personal essay gives your profile a personality.

8. There's no such thing as safety schools.

You will hear so many people talk about safety schools. As much as you can be certain a school will accept you, there is always the chance for some reason they don't (unless there is a 100% acceptance rate). There are so many colleges and universities to choose from, and they all have different things they look for in a future student. There are people I know that were accepted into schools with 12% acceptance rates and denied from 75% acceptance rate schools. There's no exact science to getting into a certain school.

9. You'll get in somewhere!

Many people become scared that they won't get into a university. If you apply to schools that you have a good chance of getting in, along with your dream schools...you'll get in somewhere. I was deferred from a school that everyone thought I would get into, but two others schools accepted me and then gave me scholarships before I even found out from my top school. Although everyone is different, you'll end up at a university no matter what.

I hope this post was helpful to those of you who are entering the college process! I am sure you'll be fine. If you have any other questions or need advice, my twitter handle is @thisfashiongirl. I am in no way an expert on the college process, but I definitely wanted to give advice because the whole process is super scary. 

For those of you not from the United States, comment what the college process is like in your country!

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                                                                Christina Madeleine

                                        

A Day in Washington D.C.

Hey everyone! This week has been so busy for me. I started the week off in Boston, Massachusetts for three days and two nights. Then on Thursday I headed to Washington D.C for two days and one  night. What's the reason for all of my traveling this week? College Tours! It's cool that I get to visit all of these new places, but it's just so tiring. So, today and yesterday I visited two colleges and did some wandering of my country's capital.

This is mostly a photo post...but oh well! I need to go back to Washington D.C. because I really want to see the Smithsonian Museum.

 Here are some of the monuments and places I saw in this city.

 There was some official business going on in The White House when I was there, so unfortunately this is as close I could get to the building. For some reason I pictured The White House with more privacy to roam. It was cool nonetheless to see where the presidents of the United States have lived.

 This is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is the biggest building I've ever seen. It's huge! The whole building is filled with different details, but the architecture is identical no matter where you look on the building.  This building has a long history and many presidents have handled official business in it. 

This is the Washington Monument. It commemorates the first President of the United States... George Washington (who also appears on our one dollar bills).

Later on...

My family and I ate at a restaurant called "Founding Farmers", it's a pun on the term "founding fathers." The restaurant was so good! We originally weren't going to go in, but it was worth it. I had fish and chips.

 Later on, we stopped at an ice cream store called "Captain Cookie and The Milkman". Basically you have a choice of eight different cookies, and ten different ice cream flavors and you order an ice cream sandwich. I ordered Cookies N' Cream between chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were warm and it was delicious. It's a big ice cream sandwich, but it was a nice way to end a week of college touring.

I hope you liked this post! 
Have you ever been to Washington D.C? 

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                                                                  Christina Madeleine

My Trip to Hawaii 2016: Maui

Hey everyone! Since I never showed you all photos from Maui back in August, I decided on the last day of the year to do a post about it. Over the Summer, I was in Maui, Hawaii for four days.

One day, my family and I went to the top of a mountain at around four in the morning to watch the sunrise. When we first got to the top of the mountain it was dark out and you could see a ton of stars. We stayed on top of the mountain for about three hours.

The mountains looked like they were from another planet, and I thought that was pretty cool. There was a pit below I from where I was standing and it's known as the world's quietest place.

After seeing the sunrise, we went on a bike tour down a mountain. It was such a cool experience to be able to see Maui from so high up. 

My family and I posed on top of the mountain with one of the bikes.

After our bike ride, we got a breakfast/lunch at a truck that sold burritos, and such.

The next day we went on a 110 mile round trip on the Road to Hana. This excursion is by car, and there are many fruit stands, small shops with banana bread, and incredible views on the way. Hana isn't super special, but the journey there is more amazing than the destination.

The blue bracelet is made with a type of seed that is in Hawaii and can be used as beads.

At one of the overlooks tree was a small shrine to a few surfers that most likely died around there. I thought the shrine was very pretty, but it was hard to get any closer to it.

On our way to Hana, we passed a catholic church in a small neighborhood.

One of the small places we passed on the road was a store that sold jewelry and tie-dye shirts.

Here is a picture of me in front of a Black Sand Beach. I used this photo for my Christmas card.

One of the stops on the road was a smoothie shack, and they had advertised all of their super fresh fruits.

After our trip to Hana, my family and I stopped in a small town called Paia. We ate in a Mexican restaurant, and I had one of the best fajitas ever in this restaurant. I also had a virgin piña colada, which was also very good.

Paia is a beach town, and it has many bathing suit stores, restaurants, tattoo pallor, and cute boutiques.

My family and I stayed at the Grand Wailea, which is a very beautiful hotel. The resort contains so many pools, and had a beautiful view of the water.

Question: Where did you travel this year?


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                                                            Christina Madeleine

Love Trumps Hate

Hey everyone, in the wake of the president election in the United States, I want to share with all of you my feelings on the latest events. This was the first time that I have paid attention to politics. I always used to say how I identify as an independent, and I don't really care about the two main parties. This year my views have changed an incredible amount due to fact that I needed to educate myself on politics to understand this election. Although there were four candidates (equal numbers of men and women!!), the media and the people of America focused on the Democratic (nominee Hillary Clinton) and Republican (nominee Donald Trump).  The thing with this election is that both candidates were on complete different ends of the spectrum. We had Hillary Clinton, who had the same values as our current President, but also was a women (could have been our first woman president), and was more for equality for all Americans. She, obviously, had many flaws such as Benghazi (I learned all about it from VlogBrothers), and the email scandal. Many people also didn't like her, not because she was a woman (although some people do believe females can't be president but that's different), but because she didn't bring much change in the country from what we have now. Donald Trump, our now president-elect, was on the opposite side of the spectrum because he was a conservative Republican. He changed history because he is one of the only people ever to run for office in America (and is the only one to win) with no previous political position. The big problem with his campaign is that he used xenophobia, racism, homophobia, sexism, and more to get people to vote for him. The election was between two very hated people with two very strong, and opposite views. 

Now that Donald Trump is the president-elect, now more than ever people have to have their voices heard. His presidency gives many people throughout the country the idea that they are able to openly show their hatred towards a race, religion, etc and that it is perfectly okay. It is never okay to show hate towards a group of people because the actions of a few.

On November 11, 2016 I was able to stand among hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Washington Square Park in New York City. This was a peaceful protest against Trump. There were people of all genders, ethnicities, nationalities, sexualities, races, and religions talking about loving each other and fighting the hate in the world. This protest was meant not to be violent because nothing ever good comes from that.

I strongly believe in an America where all people will be treated equal. I can't let a leader have the interest of only one group of people (white, heterosexual, well off ) in his head. By protesting yesterday I was able to use the 1st Amendment (Freedom of Expression) to fight for my rights. My president-elect does not believe in abortion. I, personally, would not have an abortion, but because of my own personal choice I would never tell other people they can't do that. Planned Parenthood is an amazing foundation that does cancer screenings, gives out birth control, and does abortions for people in need of it. Yesterday, I protested Trump for women everywhere to be able to safely have control over their bodies.

Every person that I talked to at the protest is an amazing person. I was surrounded by people from 15 to 75, and they all wanted peace in the United States. These were not people who wanted to bring more violence because they have seen what hatred does. Hatred spreads like wildfire, and it's very hard in a short period of time to turn things around. I was not scared of a single person at this protest because I knew we had the same beliefs about human rights no matter what our financial status, race, religion, or sexuality was. I plan to fight for the rights of everyone for as long as I need to for everyone to be heard. I will not accept the xenophobia. I will not accept the racism. I will not accept the sexism. I will not accept the homophobia.  I will not accept the hate.

My friends and I walked from Washington Square Park to Grand Central Station with our sign. We walked up 6th ave with all the people on the way to the Trump Tower. All the protests shut down a whole avenue, and there were police everywhere making sure nothing violent happened. It was so empowering to scream at the top of my lungs for all the people across the country who are being oppressed. There were people videotaping, high-fiving, and taking photos of us. This was one of the best things I have ever done. I had such an adrenaline rush, and all I wanted to do on the subway home is scream "I HAVE A VOICE." My friends and I high-fived each other and did a group hug because we protested for something we fought for something we believed in. When we were walking the streets it was so encouraging to hear people go, "I love your sign", "keep going girls, "yeah! f#@& trump", and "I support you guys 100%." So many people smiled at us, or honked there trucks at us to show support. New York was magical on that night. The city takes on a feeling like no other.

Our chants were: WE REJECT THE PRESIDENT ELECT. BLACK LIVES MATTER. DISABLED LIVES MATTER. MY BODY MY CHOICE. PUSSY GRABS BACK. THE PEOPLE UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED. RACIST, SEXIST, ANTI-GAY, DONALD TRUMP GO AWAY. HER BODY HER CHOICE. WHO'S STREETS? OUR STREETS. PEACE.

Bernie Sanders said, "To the degree that Donald Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve he lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him. To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environmental policies, we will vigorously oppose him."

I will never ask for my president to fail because I want to see my country succeed and become a place for all people. I am, obviously, not happy with the election out come, but I have a voice for a reason. My job, and the job of all people, is to get your voice to be heard. If this means that I will be marching through Manhattan a few times a month to protest a law, idea, or proposal so be it. I was surrounded by so much love at this protest. Love will always triumph over hate.

I leave you all with this. No matter who you are, always fight for what you believe in. Never let people tell you that you don't matter.

Until next time,

Christina Madeleine