Playlist of the week — for FOCUSING!
http://8tracks.com/katelynnbae/the-ultimate-study-playlist
Happy belated Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was never a holiday I really celebrated in the past, but I learned this year that it is a very important holiday to many Americans who take this time to be with their family and appreciate all that they have. That’s a great holiday, and although my way of celebrating was less orthodox, I was extremely grateful for the way I was able to spend the five-day break.
The first night, I stayed on campus and hung out at the Slater International House with fellow international students and watched A Love Affair to Remember. The campus was eerily quiet with most students having left earlier that day, which was a little spooky at night when I was walking back to my room alone, but it was nice to be able to do little things like catch up on laundry I hadn’t done for a while (oops).
The best part of the break, though, was being reunited with my friends from middle school. We went on an impromptu trip to New York City and walked, ate, and shopped our way through Manhattan. It was great seeing friends I hadn’t seen in so long, and share stories about our college lives since the last memories we had together were back when we were thirteen!
There’s now just less than a week of classes left until reading period (study for exams time) begins, which is then followed by final exams. I can definitely sense a higher stress level amongst fellow Wellesley students, but I think most of us are also really surprised at how fast this semester has gone by – especially us first years!!
Speaking of stress, how are those apps coming along? Last night I had an extensive skype conversation with my brother, who is currently a senior in high school. We were talking about his application essays and I had realized how stressful and time consuming the process of writing those essays had been. Here’s some of my (hopefully useful) advice as someone who just went through the process a year ago…
If you can, have more than one person look over your drafts of essays (but not edit completely! As an older sister it’s really hard to give good feedback without overstepping when reading my brother’s essays — siblings are great because we’ll be honest in our feedback no matter what, but talk to guidance counselors and teachers about your ideas, too. It really helped me flush out what I really wanted admissions officers to know about me when I was applying last year.)
Don’t forget to allot enough time to fill in financial aid application forms. It’s easy to put those off because they aren’t a part of the common application or supplements. I left mine until last minute not knowing how complicated the forms were, so make sure you know what is needed of you, your parents, guardians or sponsors, ahead of time so you don’t stress in the end.
So I guess it’s time for both you and me to get back to work. Good luck, try to focus, but also have some fun. For seniors out there, once you get back from winter break the year goes by even quicker. Really take in every minute of it and enjoy!!