complete my St. John's essays: reflect, synthesize, write

I can’t even remember the last time I worked on these. I don’t have a sense of urgency here as we probably can’t afford for me to go to school next year but I still want to get these done. I don’t think there is anything more important for me to be working on but somehow writing my soul on paper for a review board doesn’t sound exciting.

As far as intelligently planned excursions go, my first visit to St. John’s College in Santa Fe was a bit of a flop. I arrived the first week of break between the spring and summer sessions so nearly everything was closed. Most students were gone. The book store, cafeteria, public rooms, and several other areas were all unavailable and/or locked.

Despite the lack of planning, I consider the trip a complete success. The campus is amazing. There are three decent hills that can be hiked directly from the campus. The views are wonderful. the buildings fit in well with the Santa Fe architecture on the exterior and the interiors are quirky, colorful and imaginitive, exactly the kind of atmosphere that inspires intelligent conversation and a fun loving attitude.

Tristan (I think), the student who showed us around has just completed her junior year and was a font of information, answering nearly every question I had. She was great fun to talk to and neither Michele nor Mandy seemed bored with the tour. I really appreciate her sharing her time with us, even if the alternative was making copies.

At the end we talked to Randall. (Again, I think, at least I have his card but it is down in the car and I don’t feel like leaving the hotel room just yet.) His insight into selection criteria and the essays was both helpful and encouraging. Approximately 70% of COMPLETED applications are accepted. He said the application process, for the most part, self selects good candidates as most people who will not make a good fit will not complete the essays. In fact, he specifically warned me against one pitfall that will prevent the most interested applications, that being an inability to finish, or bring the essays to a final conclusion. He also suggested that 6 – 10 pages is what is expected and that if I were to exceed 10 pages, they had better be very good. And finally, he suggested that I should only complete the optional 4th essay if I have something very interested to talk about. Choosing to answer this question is not a pitfall in itself, but answering without something good to offer is a bad idea.

The trip was a success based on just what has happened so far and the wonderful campus visit more than made up for the 16 hours of driving over night that it took to bring us into Santa Fe when there were still people around. Now, I am off to sleep in a real bed, and not curled up in the back seat of the car like some sorry aborted fetus. Food, shower, sleep, in that order are certainly the name of the game and I’ve already completed the first 2.

begins with just one word.

I suppose if I keep writing a couple of paragraphs at a time, eventually, I will have completed my essays. Today, I wrote about the shortcomings and weaknesses of my education to date.

Writing this is painful but useful and very, very frightening. I don’t know what I would do if they turn me down. All I can do is be as honest as possible in my essays and hope they see there is no other choice for me.

I still have not completed my admissions essays. The topics are so personal for me that it is like writing my soul on the page and after only a couple paragraphs, I either give up in disgust or just fall apart.

I’ve completed the information for my references. I’m still working on transcripts but I really need to do this while schools are open. One surprise, my graduating high school’s web site seems to be down. Hopefully the one email address I found will yield some results.

Also, I’m very excited. I finally found contact information for my Calculus I professor and I used him as one of my references. I just hope he remembers me.

I’m slowly switching to goals that are concrete and can be completed. Since I have picked a college I want to attend, I’m changing this goal to be apply to that college.

I have narrowed my choices down to one and I have decided when I want to start. I hope to attend the Santa Fe, New Mexico campus of St. John’s College from the fall of 2008 through the spring of 2012. That gives me a little over a year to get accepted and figure everything out.