I’m A “Senior”, So They Say

According to my traffic stats, most of my readers are from the USA, so I think most can relate to this post. As of today, August 25th, 2009, I am a Senior in high school. I feel weird using the word because in Canada, we don’t refer to 12th graders as Seniors. We don’t really have a name for 12th Graders actually. There goes my Canadian side again. Technically, I won’t be a Senior till Wednesday, because the new school is not letting me begin until I get some medical work done, which is required by the County which my school is in. If you ever switched Counties during high school, you probably know how annoying it is. You literally have to drive from one doctors office, to another, to another…and to another. Anyways, enough rambling.

I’m pretty glad I’m going to be finishing High School. Before moving to Canada, I actually cherished every day of High School, and didn’t want it to end after only 4 years. But as I’ve mentioned many times before, moving in the middle of High School changed my whole outlook — let alone, moving to a school full of stuck up, rich kids (nothing against rich people in general). I know for a fact it would not have been that bad if I had moved within Canada, as I know people across Canada. I wouldn’t have minded moving to the East Coast either. I just think in parts of California, the wealth is not divided, making many of the cities full of snobby kids. Sorry if this is not the case, and I am totally wrong, but this is what I faced. Well, point is — I’m glad this is my last year of High School. I should be graduating with all my good friends, the ones I knew since childhood, but I guess that won’t be happening. That’s life though, right?

I don’t think being in the 12th grade is going to be much different than any other grade though, minus the fact that I can celebrate that I’m almost done. Now, I guess I should point out why my year is going to be more interesting than most other Seniors’ year. I will be graduating from high school a whole semester early — yup, a whole semester. So instead of finishing in June, I will be finishing in December — not to shabby if you ask me. How did I do that? Pretty simple actually — read on!

A week after moving to California, I realized this is definitely not a place I want to say (talk about quick to judge). With so much free time, I decided I would take some classes at a local Community College to get my credits sooner. I took two classes, including International Business, and Business Law. Not only did taking these two classes allow me to graduate early, but I feel they have really strengthened my college/university application. Oh, speaking of colleges and universities..actually, let’s not get side tracked. We’ll get to that later. So I took those closes, and here I am now — 4 months away from graduating high school. On top of graduating a semester early, I only have 2 classes a day in the 1st semester, compared to the regular 3 classes a day. Pretty sweat deal if you ask me!

I have to apply for University soon, being a Senior and all, right? I’ve done a bit of thinking as to where I would like to apply, and have come up with the following list. Keep in mind, when making the list below, I did not take into consideration the cost (we will also get to that after):

- McGill University (Montreal, Canada)

- University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada)

- San Jose State University (California, USA)

- Duke University (North Carolina, USA)

- New York University (New York, USA)

- UCLA (California, USA)

Yeah, yeah, I know the majority of these are very difficult to get into. Nonetheless, these are universities I’ve dreamed of going to since a young age, and stick by those dreams. May be difficult, but no one said impossible. As for cost, I’m not sure how financial aid works for Canadian Citizens in the USA, or how scholarships work either (if I’d have a good shot at any or not), but I will apply to a few of the above listed universities. I’d appreciate it if you’d make some suggestions in the comments section. I don’t expect you to make my decision for me, but a little help would be nice. For the record, I scored at 1700 on my SAT (first time, didn’t study for a second). Should I dig into the books, and take it one more time?

My older friends told me that “Senior” year was stressful, but I really didn’t listen to them. I should have, cause they were more than right. I haven’t even been to school as a Senior yet, and I’m stressing about university, money, and what not. There’s my ramble for the day. Maybe it’s a good post for some of my readers to reminisce on their high school days.

PS. Since I talked about university and such, a quick question. Would my blog (or other websites that I’ve managed) be worth mentioning on my college/university applications? In other words, is there any ways I can use them to give myself a boost in the college/university process?