*stabbity*

[bedlamsbard]

Have I mentioned how much I hate the UW app? I hate the UW app bucketloads. And then both the essay questions are about diversity and culture and all that -- which was the first thing that turned me off schools when I was still considering. Talking about how diverse you are? Oh, off into the pile of NO. Unless they were women's colleges, in which case they got extra mocked. You're so diverse, but you only let women in!

*scowls at UW* I don't even want to go to this school.

Comments

[jedi-em.livejournal.com]

As I seem to recall, we don't tend to have a lot of essay questions involved in our undergrad university application process here in Canada. At least not at any of the ones to which I applied. I plan on probably doing graduate work in the U.S., however, so I'll no doubt have to face some heinous essay questions at the time when I start applying. Ugh. Though to be fair, a lot of grad school programs here also have essay questions in their applications, so I guess I'll have to face it either way!

You have my sympathies at any rate. Applying to school is, in general, a nerve-wracking process, essays or not.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I have to do essay questions for most schools -- there's a standard essay question I did for the Common Application, and then some schools require more (Stanford and Davidson require lots more *haunted look*). It wouldn't be as big a deal if it wasn't for the fact that the questions are precisely the kind of statements I hate. I mean, I really don't like talking about diversity or my experiences therein (and I'll add that I do have quite a bit of experience); I don't like the fact that the school evidently cares more about diversity than about the caliber of students they admit.

Plus, the UW made me dig out my grade reports for the past seven years, so I'm a little irate. They don't want me to send my transcript in. (And I don't even want to go there in the first place; it's my last ditch school in case I don't get enough financial aid from anywhere else.)

When are you applying to grad school? And in what, if I may ask?

[jedi-em.livejournal.com]

I have two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in Biology, one in Nursing. I'm thinking of either a Master of Health Administration or Master of Science in Nursing. Or I might go an entirely different route and apply for journalism or law school. Heh.

I've been away from the nursing field for a few years (had some personal stuff to deal with), so I'm doing re-entry coursework right now, which should take me approximately another year to complete, after which I plan on working for at least a year to get practical experience under my belt again before committing to more school. And for us Canadian-educated nurses, U.S. hospitals seem to love us (I think our educational preparation is generally viewed as more 'advanced', or something, what with more Canadian nurses these days coming from actual university degree science programs as opposed to the basic nursing school diploma programs; and our university nursing programs are pretty rigorous, including courses such as pathophysiology and biochemistry -- not just 'here's how to insert a catheter' for us!) and they all appear to encourage (and subsidize the cost of!) the pursuit of post-grad education.

Anyhow, I recall a couple of friends in high school who ended up applying to American schools, and I was taken aback at how involved the applications seemed, particularly for the Ivy League schools (one friend ended up going to Cornell). And on top of that, they had to write their SATs, which we do not do in Canada. (We do provincial exams, if I remember correctly, but they don't seem to actually count for anything; I know my applications consisted solely of: 1) Fill out this form, 2) Attach your transcripts, and 3) Submit this application fee. And that was pretty much it, in a nutshell. On the form itself there may have been one brief question of 'Why do you want to go to this school?' and that was IT.)

Wow, I love my parentheses, don't I?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. That is very intense. (My cousin was a nursing major before she switched to criminal justice; now she's working on getting her nursing degree again.)

It depends on the school. I only applied to one Ivy -- Yale (I was going to apply to Brown too, but Brown doesn't have an AFROTC program) -- and its application wasn't as complicated as Stanford's, which is a "new Ivy." Stanford made us print out mailing labels because they didn't trust us to write the address of the admissions office down. *rolls eyes* Plus, ten million essays. Most schools don't require additional essays besides the Common App one; a few of them do, but they're mostly more school specific. Wellesley, for example; I had to write why I wanted to go to Wellesley. Davidson's is school-specific as well. Duke's is optional, which is good, because I can't think of a compelling reason to want to go to Duke besides "OMG DUKE!"

*sulks at the UW some more* Only public school. Only in-state school. One school I DO NOT want to go to.