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My College Journey - Jared Rush, Class of 2017 - Part 2

A College Testimonial – Part 2 (Fall 2016)
by Jared Rush, Class of 2017, of Forked River
 
Ah, the Application Mountains. A steep climb in the heart of Academia—and a long one, too, depending on what trail you take. Here’s where some of us, the senior class vanguard so to speak, stand at the summit. Perhaps precariously, we are ready to put our fate in the hands of early decision schools.

We worry, of course, about being lost in a pool of applicants the size of an ocean. We even worry about our application being lost in the mail and never arriving. We squint at Naviance graphs on our laptops between quick conversations about test prep, recommendation letters, and essay writing—all impending reminders of a decision we’ve spent four years anticipating, with enough “What-ifs?” to drive one crazy. We wonder if college is real and whether or not we’ll ever get there.  

In fact, I recently had a dream about the College Counseling Office. Students were rushing in and out, waving acceptance letters, and Dr. Accrocco, ever the vaguely mysterious collegiate specialist and prophet, emerged from his office to tell me I had missed the deadline for college application submission and would not be attending any university. Scary stuff. Proof too, maybe, of the fact that putting together an application isn’t a stressful process, but a stressful piece of mind.

In the end, however, seniors like me are trying to keep in mind that colleges want to admit students. As much as our nightmares are filled with Admissions Officers laughing diabolically as they burn our rejected applications, we have to realize that these negative thoughts are all in our heads.

As our senior year gets under way, all we can do is look back at the past four years, much like a doctor would, and say, “OK, Let’s take a look!” If grades are the cold hard facts, then our transcript’s a snowball. This document is the culmination of three-and-a-half years of qualitative and quantitative effort. Then comes the saving grace or coup de gras—the Activities Sheet. What have we been putting our heart into for the past four years, and why? And then, we arrive at the essay. In my opinion, the essay is the biggest chasm to cross, even as someone who wants to be a writer for a living.  The essay is the most personal aspect of the application—an x-words open-canvas invitation to reiterate, reinforce, explain, or express something. It’s all about the words that are chosen and how they are conveyed.

I spent a lot of time (and pacing) thinking about my essay. I’ve pondered the obvious complaints: the notorious pile, of which getting caught in the middle of means certain doom. And then there’s the word count. I’ve wrestled with it and pleaded with it and hated it and, in my frustration, had half a mind to resurrect Hemingway for his wisdom. The nail in the coffin is the irony that the people who read these essays will likely do so in a fraction of the time it took to write it.

Despite this pressure, the truth is that we won’t know what the next great essay is until someone writes it. And this process shouldn’t be about getting published in an annual admission anthology (“5 Great Essays to Tell the School of your Dreams: Pick Me!”) It’s not about convincing a college to take you, but about impressing them, even for just a moment. The idea is to tell them something and to be sincere.

For example, when I was in sixth grade, I thought I wanted to attend a marine and environmental science vocational high school, graduate from Yale, and become a chemical engineer. Today, I attend Ranney School and am applying to Columbia with the hopes of writing fiction for a living. The point is, the path I and my Class of 2017 peers are taking falls under the umbrella of that age-old adage emphasizing journey over destination. In order to tell universities who we are, we have to know who we are.

We’ve come a long way, tread the path of campus tours and endured six semesters in the trenches of high school, still with a long way to go, as always, but a little less so, too. 

Read Part 1 of Jared's college journey testimonial series
Read Part 3 of Jared's college journey testimonial series
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society.