Trying to Go to College

Hello, again... I thought I wouldn't write another post for a while, well, because I have a couple of things going on in my personal life, one of which is obviously college applications.

It is actually really hard to go to a good university when there is so much competition in the world. I, for example, have a couple of options. For one, I could study for Turkey's university placement tests and try to get in the first 2,000 people (note that this year we are going to see around 4 million people trying the test as we had an earthquake last year, which in itself is a totally different topic) to get into a couple good universities near my home. Another option is to apply to other top universities abroad. As I believe that I would be better off at a good university here in Turkey than at a mid-tier college in, for example, the US, I'm applying to actual top universities, and I just cross my fingers to get in.

Now that you understand the context I'm in, here me out, what if I tried both at the same time? This is actually stupid, but I have to use all of my chances and not risk anything, as I truly don't want to take a gap year. I have to study for this test in Turkey, which is mostly full of luck, and try to write college essays while also trying to finish the IAs and the EE while also trying to study for the IB papers I'm going to take this May. Aaargghhh.

Now for the college applications, in particular, the college essays. It is fascinating that we are living in a world where you have to adulate yourself and the university you are applying to so that you can get a slimmer of hope to get into the university. Even if you have the perfect GPA, the perfect APs, the perfect IBs, and, most importantly, the perfect college essays, you still might not get into the university; it is that much dependent on the admission office's mood on that particular day. Also, for the US, you have to make everything like a story and try to make every single thing as dramatic as possible. This just simply hides your self-identity; the person seen by the admissions people isn't going to be the same person who actually wrote those essays; it is that much dependent on how much you adulate yourself.

Another example is the UK applications; you actually need to have perfect grades to get into those universities. You also have to write the perfect personal statement about how you are trying to pursue your passion and how the journey has shaped you in a particular way, which isn't going to be read by the admission team for more than two minutes.

In conclusion, if there is one, I'm exhausted by all those things that I have to do. I hope this year will pass without me being depressed. Heck, this blog is probably going to be a place where I just dump my thoughts (even when no one is reading kekL) while procrastinating on real work like college essays or the TOK Essay.

Made and written by Mehmet Kutay Bozkurt. All rights reserved.