St. Vincent College
Received a brochure 9/21/2006 from Saint Vincent College. It's in Latrobe, PA. Dad said Latrobe was a beer brand!
Read more...Monday, September 25, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Harvard College
Received a letter and a financial aid reply card today (9/19/2006). From Harvard. Yep. Probably the crowning achievement - a recruitment letter from Harvard. Much better than the tiny postcard I received from Princeton, anyway, don't you think? But...
It's expensive, and it's in Boston. Need I say more?
Ah, I will anyway.The financial aid reply card is attached to a small info card that says: "Parents and families with incomes less than $60,000 no longer will be expected to contribute to their children's Harvard College tuition." Nice. And how am I supposed to pay for it? Just asking...
Anyhow: "Under separate cover, we will be mailing you a packet of material, including an application." I wonder if they'll waive the application fee too? Wouldn't it be fun to apply just to see if they'd accept me? (insert the sticky-tongue-out laughing face from AIM at this point)
Wow! There are fifty colleges in the Boston area?!?
Pratt Institute
Received a letter and a brochure today (9/19/2006) in the mail. This one's sort of a fluke, simply because I chose "writing" as one of my interests. This institute is more of an artsy place, i.e. creative writing; however, I rather like nonfiction, journalistic writing.
Read more...Monday, September 18, 2006
Patrick Henry College
Received a letter, a brochure and an application for admission to Patrick Henry College today (9/18/2006). I've been interested in them for awhile, and I sent my info in at an Ohio homeschoolers' convention maybe a couple years ago. Plus, since I got four free score reports with my SAT, I decided to send 'em one. No harm in doing so, right? Of course, I've gotten all of... four? five? things in the mail since that homeschool convention... they're not too up on promotion, methinks. Unfortunately, they're in northeastern Virginia, so I don't think I'll end up going there.
Oh yes, got another e-mail from University at Buffalo Saturday (9/16/2006). (What are they doing sending e-mails on Saturday...?) I'm invited to a special online chat, apparently. At least they don't ask me to drive to New York City.
Scripps College
Received a letter today (9/18/2006) from Scripps College. Just a letter, no reply form, no "business reply mail" envelope. Because it said that the admission counselor "will be interviewing in the Cleveland on Monday, October 9th." Reread that. I did not overlook a typo in that sentence! It's obviously a mail-merge letter (look in your Microsoft Word Tools tab).
Read more...W&J snail mail
Washington & Jefferson College sent me a snail-mail letter this time, which I received today (9/18/2006) with a reply form and envelope (of course). Same offers as last time.
Read more...Princeton University
Finally, a college I've actually heard of. (Okay, I'm exaggerating. But still!) Princeton sent me a nice little brown-and-orange postcard on 9/15/2006, informing me that "you and your parents are cordially invited to attend an informational program about Princeton University" in NEW YORK CITY. I'm in OHIO. Can't they read a map? Or do they just assume that I'm sooooo anxious to learn about Princeton that I'll drive seven to nine hours just to talk to the assistant dean in a hotel conference room?
Anyway..... Princeton is in New Jersey. And none too conservative, last I heard.
Tulane yet again...
Tulane must really like high test scores. I received a letter on 9/15/2006 informing me again of their "personal application" process that's free and easy and quick. Of course they also sent me a reply form and a "business reply mail" envelope. Just to make it easier.
And they sent me an e-mail the same day, with the same information (sans the business reply envelope, of course). Wonderful.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
University of Michigan
Received a letter, an info page, a brochure, and a bookmark today (9/14/2006) from the University of Michigan. Yup, a bookmark. That's something new, at least.
And I actually like this brochure. It tells me generally interesting stuff, like:
--James Earl Jones went there
--So did Arthur Miller
--And Clarence Darrow
--Over 500 students are from California (why??)
--They have 24 libraries on campus. Isn't that overkill?
--And pretty tulips. Yellow ones, but the color can be forgiven.
I'm not going. But it's a nice brochure.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Loyola again!
And this time, they've sent both an e-mail and a real live snail-mail letter.
E-mail received 9/12/2006 from Loyola had the same "Fast-Track Application" offer as before.
Letter received today (9/13/2006) had a cover letter and a reply form/business reply envelope.
You know, to read this letter, you'd wonder how in the world a person could go anywhere besides Chicago for college....
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Stony Brook University
E-mail received 9/11/2006 (moment of silence.) from Stony Brook University. This letter receives top honors for promotion: They get "...named one of the top 100 universities and top 50 public universities in the nation" from "The University tied for 98th in the U.S. News rating of 'best national universities', and tied for 46th in the category of top public national universities."
And, I'm not going here: One of their headlines in this e-newsletter...
World Renowned Anthropologist Richard Leakey to Convene the Stony Brook Human Evolution Symposium and Workshop...
And since I'm a convicted creationist... it just wouldn't work.
Also got an e-mail from Tulane again. Same offers as before. Still won't go to New Orleans. It's just too far from Ohio!
Saturday, September 9, 2006
Other colleges...
Finally, some letters that didn't result from my high SAT scores. I've been getting mail from Crown College (in Minnesota) and Huntington University (in Indiana) since I filled out response cards at some convention or camp (can't remember which). Got some more mail yesterday (9/8/2006).
Crown spent 39 cents to send me a postcard about some college fairs coming up. Huntington had already sent me a nearly identical postcard about the same NACCAP college fair near me, sometime around the first. Can't remember.
Huntington sent me a viewbook in CD format. They took care to protect it in several layers of cardboard brochure...
Loyola University Chicago
Another e-mail! Got it 9/7/2006 too, only this one's from Loyola University. These e-mails are all starting to sound like high-tech carbon copies.... witness:
"Your Fast-Track Application includes special benefits not offered to everyone. With this application, you can skip the fee, skip writing a new essay and receive an admission decision by December 1, 2006." [Boldface formatting is original.]
Don't you think so?
W&J College (Washington & Jefferson)
Got another e-mail; this time from Washington & Jefferson College, on 9/7/2006. This one has almost identical quick-application offers as Tulane U., except that their application fee is only $25 and they say two weeks instead of four.
Read more...Tulane University
Got another e-mail... this one from Tulane University in New Orleans, on 9/6/2006. This one urged me to "take advantage of... no new essay required! No application fee - save $55! Automatic schoarlship consideration! An admission decision in just four weeks!" All that boldface formatting is straight from the e-mail; I did not add it!
Read more...University at Buffalo
I got an e-mail from the University at Buffalo on 9/5/2006. This one is sorta weird, because it lists the e-mail address as "UB5392@prsms.com".... that's the oddest college e-mail address that I've seen. Anyhow, they sent me another one on the same day that said "we're happy to learn that you're interested in majoring in 0167." Whatever that means.... I'm sure that "0167" is a code for journalism or communications or something.
Read more...Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Cleveland State University
Brochure received 9/5/2006 with insert & attached reply card. This time the card is a little harder to lose track of, which is theoretically good. And this college is actually in OHIO! How unusual is that? (First one...) It took me a bit to figure out where the list of majors was in the brochure - the list comprises the border. As in, they're all around the whole thing, in small print. (Not that the print bothers me.)
Read more...QuestBridge scholarship
QuestBridge scholarship promotion letter received 9/5/2006, with brochure. No reply card this time, since it directs me to its website to apply for their scholarship. Unfortunately, the only remotely feasible colleges it partners with are Wheaton College and Oberlin College. All the rest are either in Texas, California, or New England. (And fairly liberal, to boot.)
Read more...U.S. Navy
E-mail from the U.S. Navy received 8/31/2006. It's all about the NROTC Scholarship Program (just ROTC for the navy), which says that I could get up to $180,000 for college. Of course, I also happen to be looking at schools which wouldn't touch Federal money with a ten-foot pole.
The funny thing is, nearly every sentence in this e-mail is a fragment. "Cash for college. All-out pursuit of your personal best. Tuition... it's just the start." And: "Job opportunities in the air. On land. At sea. The chance to make your mark at ports of call worldwide. Plus advanced training and experience that launch you ahead of the rest." Also: "Full tuition and fees, book allowances plus a monthly spending stipend. For up to five years - if circumstances require." Finally: "The educational opportunity of a lifetime. Second only to the extraordinary life that's sure to follow."
Doesn't that sound just like a recruiter?
St. Xavier University
Letter from the "Office of the Mayor", City of Chicago, received 8/30/2006 with a brochure about the college and a reply card (which is to be expected).
"As mayor of the great City of Chicago, I am pleased to invite you to consider pursuing your educational dreams in the heart of the Midwest. [I thought I already lived there, in Ohio!] Chicago is home to an exceptional array of fine colleges and universities."
This letter was one of the more interesting mailings. When I got this one, all it said on the return address on the envelope was "Office of the Mayor, City of Chicago" just like the letterhead. I couldn't figure it out till I actually read the letter. Apparently the Mayor of Chicago is Catholic, and promotes his local Catholic university like every good Catholic should.
Incidentally, Moody Bible Institute is in Chicago...
Smith College
Smith College letter received 8/31/2006, with brochure about a scholarship program of theirs and a reply card. I didn't get a brochure about the college itself, which is weird. From what I can gather, it's a women's liberal arts college. (What's the emphasis on liberal there, I wonder? In the political sense, that is...)
Read more...DVC (Delaware Valley College)
DVC letter received 8/21/2006, with a profile of the college and a reply card. At least this one tells me what its initials stand for! This college has a lot of agricultural majors.
I wonder where Doylestown is?
SMU (Southern Methodist University)
SMU brochure, received 8/16/2006 with a letter and a reply card. Nowhere in the brochure, except in a picture of the campus at the bottom of the 2nd page of the brochure, did it spell out exactly what SMU stood for. It does help us little famous-college-ignorant people to tell us that...
Among other things, the brochure assured me that SMU is "Clean & Green".
Saturday, September 2, 2006
The first post
Welcome to College Letters. I'm RS, a homeschooled senior. I took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) at the end of my junior year, and scored 1550 on the reading & math portions of the test.
I started the blog just after I had received four letters from four different colleges. I'd said that I wanted to use the Student Search Service that the College Board offers. It was free. Why not? I was (and still am) fairly sure of where I wanted to go; the SSS was basically just to keep my options open and to see where I could really go if I wanted. Curiosity, of course!
As it is, I've found that I could go anywhere. I may not be able to afford it, but if I wanted to apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Duke, I could and I'd be accepted. And at the college I really want to attend, I've scored just high enough for the best academic scholarship.
My full score was: 800 on Critical Reading, 750 on Math, and 760 on Writing. I wasn't too sure how I'd do on the writing portion, because even though I'm pretty good at writing, I really like rewriting my first draft, since it's never very good! (As you can probably guess; this blog is a good approximation of my first-draft style.) I was able to finish my first-draft essay, fortunately.
On this blog you'll read about all the letters I get from various colleges. I hope to assign one post per letter, but if the barrage gets too heavy, I will have to combine some. I rather doubt that that will happen, though.
This blog is dedicated to my parents, who - since I've been homeschooled since preschool - have taught me nearly everything I know. :-)
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