Crunch Week

When you are in the thick of it, applying to colleges can be a full time job .  Deadlines hang over your head.  You have to juggle applications, ask teachers for recommendations, ask guidance counselors to send transcripts all the while keeping up with your school work and outside activities.  The hardest part might be trying to write essays that grab the attention of the admissions counselors.  They view thousands of well deserving students' applications so your essays can be what sets you apart from the rest.

UNC Chapel Hill Old Well

Like most UNC Chapel Hill applicants, Dawn struggled to find the best prompt to describe herself.  I could have written an essay about Dawn from every prompt given because I was the experienced outsider.  There were 5 prompts to choose from.  One of the UNC Chapel Hill's prompts was:  "Tell us about a time when you failed. How did you react? What if anything did you learn?"  Dawn did not feel she could write about this because she did not feel she had failed.  I kind of laughed to myself but I REALLY understood what she meant - for all practical purposes, she hadn't failed - she had succeeded despite all her obstacles!  Another prompt was: "Tell us about a time when you struggled to convince someone of something you believed to be right. How did the process go? What was the end result?"  Dawn's first reaction to this prompt was she was a coward for not standing up to her parents, therefore, she couldn't use that one.  I said YES you can, Dawn!  Metaphorically, you stood up to them by becoming a success!  And that is the one Dawn chose.

We made plans to meet at Burns at various times over the next week.  Dawn had been given a laptop that needed some repairs so I would bring mine with me for her to use while hers was being repaired (or so I thought it was being repaired).  Mine was an Apple.  She was a PC snob so she felt like she

Dawn taking break from essays to work on Spanish project

was using an inferior laptop.  I knew better and besides she couldn't be picky.  We spent as much time at school as we could but Dawn needed access to internet and a laptop outside of school and I couldn't go without mine, so Jim gave Dawn his laptop to use at school and home during this crunch week.

Dawn would write an essay, we would read it out loud, talk about how to make it better and Dawn would edit and check for all the details like character numbers, spell check, etc.  There must have been 10 essays or more that first week that Dawn wrote.  Most of the prompts in the NC State and common application were more direct like, tell us obstacles that you overcame.  Those were easier for Dawn to write about.  It felt like we were cramming for a college exam and she was a trooper to stick with it.

Dawn made it clear that she did not study or work on weekends.  They were for sleeping since she got little during the week.  I understood that, but being her senior year, I told her she might have to nudge a little on that strict rule.  October 15th was deadline for UNC and NC State applications which happened to fall on a Saturday.  Determined to send applications off on Friday before Saturday deadline, we spent many hours that week which included all day Thursday writing and editing.  Luckily, Thursday night was parent's night at Burns so school was open until 7:00 p.m.  We found an empty room and got busy trying to wrap up the week's work.  I went and got us take-out from Subway and Dawn worked relentlessly until we were satisfied with her essays.  Dawn submitted those 2 college applications and we checked those off the list.  It felt good!

NC State

I was emotionally exhausted after the week's work and I had fallen in love with this child.  I would leave Dawn alone to write and I would walk the halls and go to the bathroom and cry.  I ran in to June and she pulled me in to a closet and we cried together.  I wondered if Dawn knew that I was crying.  I was hoping I was performing an academy award winning performance as I would walk back in to the room she was working, trying to keep it together.  There was still a lot of work to do but we needed a well deserved break.  We said goodbye and made plans to meet the next week.

I was encouraging her to submit applications to more than 4 colleges.  She had 4 free vouchers so she felt like 4 was a good number but I told her that I would pay for the 5th, 6th, etc. if there were some colleges she was interested in.  I wanted her to have more options.  She was bucking the idea.

Warren Wilson College Farm

With UNC and NC State's applications submitted, she decided that Davidson and Warren Wilson were the other 2 she wanted to apply.  Davidson is a superb small liberal arts school that is extremely tough to get in.  A major reason Dawn chose Davidson is because they have a huge endowment and provide 100% need based scholarships.  That is very important and necessary for someone like Dawn.  Warren Wilson, as far as we could tell, did not have comparable financial aid to the other 3 schools, but it is a very unique and beautiful college that Dawn knew about, having lived in Asheville.  I told Dawn if that is where she wanted to go we would work hard to find outside scholarships but my advice to her is the same I always gave my 3 children - do not take out student loans unless there is no other option and do not get married until you are at least 25.

Davidson College

From the four schools that Dawn was applying, I felt  she had a pretty good variety - the large public research universities to small private colleges.  Yet, there was a nagging that would not go away telling me that Dawn needs to apply to Harvard.  I would tell Jim that I really thought she would get in and I was hoping she would listen to me and apply.  Part of the college application process is rejection and disappointment and that is a chance you take, but it is also a part of life.  Maybe Dawn knew that part of life all too well and wasn't interested in doing a lot of work for a "sure" disappointment.  Maybe she was just being practical Dawn and did not want to waste money on such a gamble.  I believed in her so much and I had enough experience to know she had more than a decent chance.  Her story told would convince any school to take a chance on her!