College Mania-the one that kills all
By: Nithilan Pugal
Tags: Depression, First Post, College Application, Thoughts And Feelings, Stress

Currently I am a whimsical 12th grader churning through the tense year of final exams, random pieces of paper flying around, opposite yet hilarious advice from relatives, clueless grandparents, and COLLEGE ADMISSIONS!!!!!!!

How every person looks at their college application!!!

As every 12th grader and anyone who has been through the grueling college admissions process…It is the pain in your Ass!!! Moreover it melts your brain into useless garbage, tying the knotted structure of your brain even harder.

I am currently applying to 26 colleges in the U.S. Which if anyone reads, it is an overkill:

Amherst college : Bowdoin college : Brown University : Carleton College : Colby college : Caltech : Haverford College : Harvard : Harvey Mudd College: MIT : Pomona College : Princeton University : RPI : Swarthmore College : Stanford : UCB : UCLA : UCSD : UCSC : UChicago : UMichigan : UPenn : Vassar college : Wesleyan University : Williams college : Yale

I am a low-income student who currently lives in another country. When you are like me you need to apply for an abundant number of colleges for the chance of getting into a good college and study what you are passionate about. I love Physics and Astrophysics and thus I have applied to universities which have good programs.

Though as a low income student who cannot study in the country because they ask too much money for you Undergraduate since you are a Non-Resident. Your only choice is to apply to your country-U.S- and hope to get 100% financial aid.

I find that low-income students like me always have a story full of problems ranging from family to other issues which we find hard to tell. Thus colleges assume we are a student who has gone to a “good” school and come from a place which dilemmas have plagued their life and disturbed their peace of mind and heart both in academics and creativity in the most important part of their life : High school.

I feel I can talk on the behalf of the low-income society. We of the low-income apply to these colleges-not just the ones listed above but many more-because they promise fair application review for people like us. How are they able to figure out which of us have great amount of potential or ingenuity for their institution. We of low-income may not have chances to do many of the amazing extra curricular activities like other applicants or live in another country where there are few options for extra curricular activities or none at all. Sometimes we have to stay at home and help our families or parents or parent as a moral support mentally and physically by forgoing ECs.

How do universities look at low-income students and admit them? What if a low-income student like who has dreams of studying at MIT or Caltech supposed to compete with students with money and who has gone to a good school? We have so many setbacks and obstacles from-metaphorically-shuffling on our hands and knees through muddy ditches of sorrow, ripping our skin on the jagged rocks of betrayal of people you trust, braving the cold icy blizzard blowing through the treacherous mountain of stress and expectation you climb. EVEN after all this we fight through and try our best to succeed. EVEN if we do not have the right platform or the tools for our improvement or we cannot find people to help us, we still try and try again because all of us low-income student have learned to HOPE when there is none. We learn that no matter what we should never give up for any reason because WE BELIEVE we can be better than our torturers and murderers of our peace and use our benevolent tempered selves to help others and our families.

What we hope is for universities to judge us fairly and holistically on our academics but also on our story through which we have suffered through.

Sin is an easy serpent to let in your mind but Hope the eagle is the hardest but the most brightest thing in your life and can protect you from the slithering Sin — Me

Sincerely, H3retic4l_Human