Musings from Jessica – Post #11 – 4 September 2009

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It’s been a while! Hope this is a sufficient update for now… I plan on blogging tomorrow, too, but I never quite know when I’ll have a free moment during Tech Week (which starts Sunday – and if it doesn’t kill me, will make me stronger).

Since I’ve sounded like a walking billboard anyway for the past two weeks, there’s no harm in doing it again:

Come see Voices of the Class! September 10-13! 8pm! $5! Chemistry Auditorium!

Okay, enjoy the video! More to come!

College Admissions Checklist for High School Juniors and Seniors

It’s late, and I’ve got this new thing where I try to get up at 9am or earlier (“…what is this ‘morning’ of which you speak??”), so I’m just going to generalize a checklist I made for my brother, who will be starting his junior year of high school this coming Monday. I have a few friends who are still in high school; they might be able to use some advice.

These are pretty much the steps I took as a high school student, and I’ve done pretty well for myself up to this point, so why not? You guys can form your own opinions on whether I’m sensible or senseless and give further instructions in the comments box. We’ll discuss it later.

• If, like my brother, you don’t already have one, get an email address!
  • It will probably save you money if you get your SAT and other standardized test scores back on the Internet instead of through the mail.
  • By senior year, you absolutely needs one. This is how most schools communicate with prospective students.
  • Make sure it sounds professional: john.smith@____.com or JDSmith, whatever you want as long as it’s not sexyguitarist92 or something to that effect.
  • Gmail has great email services for free.
• Begin narrowing down your list of colleges.
  • I’m a weirdo: I had known where I wanted to go since ninth grade. You might not know so specifically where you want to go. A great tool to narrow your options is College MatchMaker on the CollegeBoard website. These are the people who organize the SAT and AP tests every year. They also write guides to college admissions, etc. The MatchMaker asks questions like, “Do you prefer a public or private school?” You then choose one of the options or “no preference,” and it eventually whittles you down to several schools that fit your tastes.
    • CollegeBoard’s website can also show you various schools’ statistics and rankings (and what sort of SAT/ACT scores you need to get in). For example, here is the stats page for the University of Virginia.
  • …then go on college visits!
    • You might know the stats for every football player on FSU’s team, but do you know what the campus is like? Do they have a good department for your intended major? What about the food or what goes on over the weekends? You need to get a feel for life at each of these universities and eventually find the one that clicks for you. College visits will help with this, and most high schools count these visits as excused absences.
    • This will whittle your list down further, preferably to somewhere between 3 and 5 colleges. (I have known crazy people who applied to nine schools, but we won’t go there.)
      • These schools should be stratified as “Safety School(s),” “Back-Up School(s)” (one you wouldn’t mind going to if you don’t get into your first choice), and “First Choice.” For example, mine were:
        • First Choice: UVA
        • Back-Up School(s): William & Mary
        • Safety School(s): VCU
• Sign up for the SAT Question of the Day.
  • Also presented by CollegeBoard, this daily SAT review (in a small, easily handled dose) is sent directly to the student’s inbox. You can then choose one of the multiple choice answers, which will redirect the browser to the CollegeBoard website with the correct answer and the reason why it is correct.
  • I used this program when I was reviewing for the SAT, and it helped me succeed on the test – especially on the Math section!
  • Also, when I was a junior, I waited until March of my spring semester to take the SAT for the first time. It gave me time to get acclimated to the pressures of junior year – as well as more time to study for the test. If absolutely necessary due to poor scores, you can take it a few more times in the fall of your senior year (as well as several times that spring of your junior year).
• Get a fastweb.com account.
  • I still have the account my dad and I made back in my freshman year. It’s really a great help to find out about scholarships you didn’t even know existed.
• Speaking of senior year, APPLY FOR COLLEGE!
  • Summer before Senior Year
    • Most colleges release their admissions essay questions in May or June or use the same questions year after year. Start brainstorming and writing first drafts of the essays during the summer when ideas are fresh and you’re not juggling writing with the rest of college applications AND schoolwork. They’ll sound much nicer that way.
  • Fall of Senior Year
    • Set a more specific personal schedule for when you will get each aspect of each application done (e.g. Personal Information for NYU due Sept. 5). Deadlines will help motivate you to get things done.
  • January 1 of Senior Year
    • Apply for FAFSA as soon after this as possible to get the best aid for that coming year.
    • Also, file for your school’s financial aid by their priority deadline so as to get the best aid for that coming year.
  • March/April
    • Congratulations! You got into some schools! Be sure to send back your letter accepting or declining admission ASAP (and definitely before the acceptance deadline)!
  • The Whole Year
    • Keep your grades up and don’t get senioritis! Just because you got into a school doesn’t mean they can’t kick you back out.

Hope this helped!

Hugs, Jessica

Goodbye, last shred of faith in bureaucracy.

So, I’m not very happy with the student account server or with Financial Services right now. I learned today that they’ve teamed together to put a financial hold that doesn’t even exist on my student account. I mean, it’s called the “Do Not Place Financial Hold” for crying out loud! And under the instructions on how to lift it, it says special arrangements have been made to lift the hold. How paradoxical is that?! Is it the financial hold that was never held? Do they mean I can’t be placed in classes until it’s lifted, or do they mean for the Financial Services people not to place the financial hold? Ack! What a conundrum!

Unfortunately it still has the power to freak me out because, assuming they can’t just remove it on Monday morning (or by Friday the 28th at 5 pm), I’ll be dropped from my classes until they can sort this out. I’m getting screwed over for someone else’s error! I have lost that small smidge of faith I had in bureaucracy. I’ve done all I can do, though, so I’ll just go on normally until Monday. Or as I like to call it, JUDGMENT DAYYYYY! *dies*

I’ll keep you posted, Comrades. (Awww, Time Traveler’s Wife reference if you’ve read it. )

(By the way, I’m not an anarchist. I’ll continue to live under bureaucracy for the rest of my life – unless there’s a new world order – but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I can be disgruntled. …and distrust government workers and officials.)

Musings from Jessica – Post #10 – 20 August 2009

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Sorry the video quality is so fuzzy – I didn’t bring my film camera to school with me. How lame, right? I’ll get it as soon as I can. I promise. Until then, you’ll just be stuck with crappy video quality but relatively okay sound quality. Whoopee!

Katie and I saw The Time Traveler’s Wife today after finishing reading the book yesterday. Reviews of those two things will be coming up shortly.

Meet SoundbiteStory! A new and improved Twitter brought to you by Jessica.

So… my Twitter profile “NotLikeEggs” wasn’t doing much. If you were curious about that name, by the way, it comes from how people learn my last name and say, “Oh, Hatch like an egg!” No. Not like an egg, dammit.

It was yet another way to keep in touch with friends and celebrities, and I didn’t need one more thing to check every time I logged onto my computer.

…unless it had another purpose.

Enter SoundbiteStory. I wanted it to be called “SoundbiteStoryhour,” which is catchier and more apropos, but Twitter has a thing about maximum character limits, y’know. At any rate, I’ll still use Twitter to chitchat on the side, but starting tomorrow, once a day, everyday, I will post off and on for an hour and create a little short story to entertain my readers. It probably won’t be great everyday, but hopefully it will be worth tuning into.

One hour. One story. Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. Each and every day.

Hemingway once wrote, “For sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn.” This is the world’s shortest story, poignant and presenting a message in thirty-three characters. I’ll try to live up to his example in 140-character posts. One at a time. Over the course of an hour.

SUCCESS!!

That was the fastest I’ve ever been in and out of a DMV: 38 minutes!! It pays to wake up early and get there at the opening, people.

There were no complications with any forms or with the test – though I got a little nervous when I was at Question 20 on the “General Knowlege” portion and had made three mistakes. I’ll get my renewed license in “7-10 business days,” and until then I have my thirty-day temporary license – AKA ye olde printed paper from ye olde DMV.

…YAYE! SUCCESS!!

I’ve come to hate the phrase “all of the above.”

My license is up for renewal on my birthday this year, but I’ll be busy on and around November 6, so I’m renewing my license tomorrow. I would do it online, but because I’m under 20 and got a speeding ticket (in a speed trap) when I was 17, I have to go into the DMV itself.

Also because of those two variables, I have to retake the knowledge exam. I thought I’d put that hassle behind me. I passed on my first try when I actually got my license, so let’s see how it goes this time around. (The LAST time around!!)

>>>Virginia Sample Knowledge Exam Online, if you need to practice for some reason or are curious how well you know your traffic rules, road signs, and ridiculous “general knowledge” questions – like the legal vision for drivers in Virginia.<<<

First Attempt:

• Part One - 10 out of 10 traffic signs correct. You have to get 100% on this part to move on, so I would get to go to…
• Part Two – 5 out of 10 general knowledge questions correct. Wow. On the actual exam, there are 25 questions and you have to get 80% correct to pass, so… I have some work to do. (Also, one question freaked me out: if you are convicted of one or more traffic violations under age 21, you have to reapply for your license. Have I done that already? I’m sure I did, but if I didn’t, that means I’ve been driving around with a revoked license for two years. God.)

Second Attempt:

• Part One – 10 out of 10. Good, I know my signs. My favorite multiple choice question is one that shows the sign for “deer crossing” and one of the options for the sign’s meaning is “hunting area.” Oh yes.

You might be a redneck if this sign looks like it could mean "hunting area" to you.

• Part Two – 8 out of 10 general knowledge questions correct. Exactly 80%. That’s pushing it. I’m going to practice just a few more times to make sure I’ve got this.

Okay, I practiced two more times and got 100% once and failed once on Part One, and 80% and then 100% on Part Two. Actually, the first Part Two exam of these died after Question #6. I hope to Jesus that doesn’t happen tomorrow in the DMV. I refuse to be penalized for computer error. Also, to retake it within 15 days – which I would need to do – costs a $2 retake fee. That’s two dollars I shouldn’t have to pay.

I’m a smart girl, I’ve scored in the pass range thrice on each of these parts tonight, and I can get this down. It’s the rest of the DMV experience I’ll have to stomach now. So, I will get my proofs of ID and  legal presence, a book for the inevitable long wait, and my debit card for the renewal fee; I will march down there tomorrow; and I will get my eight year license!!

Ugh. It’s not even tomorrow yet, and DMV is already driving me crazy.

Goodnight, everybody!!

Musings from Jessica – Post #9 – 1 August 2009

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Happy First of August, everybody!

By the way, that noise you hear, like a sixth grader practicing his cello in the apartment above yours? That’s the train that goes by my house. Oh yes. I was surprised to hear it on camera because I’ve gotten so used to it in real life that I didn’t even realize a choo-choo was chugging along at that moment in time.

Enjoy!

Anticipating the School Year

I miss having free access to the OED online.

I miss Bodo’s Sundays.

I miss the libraries and the lovely architecture.

…especially the Harry Potter Room.

I miss social living.

I miss having a tight schedule and actually needing to use my planner.

I MISS WRITE CLUB!

I’m itching to get started on Voices of the Class.

I can’t wait for Fondue Fridays and Monday dinners in Lambeth.

I miss the opportunity to do great things at every turn.

I miss living in a city that has approximately twice as many people as Chester and more restaurants per capita than New York City.

I miss Thomas Jefferson, UVA, the whole shebang – I’m a Wahoo through and through (I even miss “The Good Ol’ Song”) – and I can’t wait to move back in!

…just 30 more days…

(I’m working on my proposal to gain entrance into Intermediate Fiction Writing, so maybe starting on that will make term get here faster.)

Savings Progress (?)

I finally signed up for a Way2Save savings account through Wachovia! Basically instead of having to remember to put money in your savings account – you know PYF and all that, it puts $1 in for every purchase you make with your debit card or through Wachovia Online BillPay, and it won’t overdraw if there are insufficient funds in your checking account. You can also set up an automatic monthly transfer of up to $100 from your checking to savings. It has the same withdrawal and teller fees as my old savings account, but it has a 5% APY the first year and a 3% APY the next two years after that. My old one was like a fraction of 1%. So, yeah. Yay! (By the way, if anyone I know personally signs up for a Wachovia account due to this Way2Save advert, please let me know before you do. That way, we both get $25 added to our checking accounts. Yeah, let me know.)

I don’t know if that counts as progress. It certainly is better than what I was saving before now. Also, Manswers on SpikeTV says panhandling can rake in big bucks, so maybe I’ll try begging, ha. Of course, this is the same show that suggest a correlation between breast shape and personality (which, on this show, always means “desire to have sex”).

…Yeah. Maybe I won’t panhandle.