Applying for College

I have just begun the process of applying to colleges. I am most interested in Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado at Boulder, since they both have great engineering programs. I am not really thinking about the actual colleges right now though, I am thinking about applying to them.

The thing about the applications is that they seem to be inaccurate at the least. I know I would have a hard time judging a person based on their GPA and test scores. The essays are designed to get around this, but I don't think that works very well either. Not all schools require them (Not that I am disappointed by that. Thanks Mines.), so they can't be that important. Anyone can write a pretty essay if they are properly motivated, especially if they are getting help from family and school. Probably colleges are just playing the odds, selecting those who statistics have shown have the highest likely-hood of having a positive effect on their campus, but this only means that most people are not judged incorrectly.

The only thing left they base admittance on is the student's activities during high school, which is what I really want to talk about.

I have virtually no activities, since the only things I did were the things I was genuinely interested in, which didn't happen that often in my high-school. That however, is the key. The things I do, I do because I am genuinely interested in them. I joined my school's MESA (Math, Engineering and Science Association) because I love engineering challenges, and the projects we work on in that club are up my alley. I love being able to test my understanding of the rules of physics in a fun way.

I also went to Knowledge Bowl for a while, and only stopped because it was growing increasingly harder to make it home in time to be able to do my homework. I enjoyed that too, because of the way it can test your knowledge of science, and culture in general.

My final formal activity was volunteering for the library, working on the teen section of the website, and reviewing books.

Beyond these, I have no technical activities to speak of; no sports, no music, no drama, etc... There is nothing specific I can say I did.

Instead, I spent much of my high school life online. I love so many things about the internet. It is a place where anyone can make a name for himself, if he has good ideas. While many sites are troubled with irritating and ignorant people, there are some like Slashdot, where one can engage in highly intelligent conversations with others about civil liberties, science, and technology. That is the thing about the internet; if you want to learn something, or talk about something, there is someone out there who will teach you, or talk to you. In the history of humanity, there has been no other medium that offers you the ability to learn so quickly, about so many different topics.

It reminds me of my childhood, where I spent a few years home schooling. I was largely self-guided, and I was able to explore my interests freely, without worrying about sticking to standards. While some may see this as disaster, I consider the ability to follow your own interests a gift, and I believe if more people were allowed to do this, we would have a smarter, more engaged society.

The internet is an extension of this spirit of exploration. Sure, while some people choose to use it for trivial purposes, others make full use of it. I would like to consider myself one of these, and I believe that the time I have spent online in the past years has been beneficial to my intellect. So while I may regret my choices because they limit my appeal to colleges, I don't regret how I have spent my years. The internet is the new center of learning for the entire globe, and I am glad I have been a part of it.

My New Blog

So I have decided to start a blog, which I will update whenever I have thoughts worth sharing, which is too say almost never. Hopefully with this update schedule, all of my posts will be worth reading. Coming up I will do a review of the new Inspiron 1720 I ordered, which will be here around the start of October.