Feeling retrospective...

...or perhaps just procrastinating from what is sure to be a long night of essay writing!

If only I had known how much work these applications were going to take, I think I would have approached things a bit differently. Luckily, I have a few more applications to go about things the right way. Some things I wished I had realized along the way:

1) It takes longer than you think! Sure, in college, I could whip out a 10 page paper - in Spanish nonetheless! - over the course of 24 hours. (thank you, red bull and diet dr pepper). However, to really weave all of your essays together and paint a cohesive picture, you need to do something called a rough draft. and draft 2. and 3. and 10. Yeah, that takes time.

2) If you are applying to 3 schools that have the same R1 deadline, you best be finishing your first one at least a month before it's due. (refer to point #1) I did not do that.

3) Choose your proofreaders carefully. I consider myself pretty apt when it comes to grammar, so I picked my readers and gave them specific things to look for. ie - natural leadership, real voice, themes. 2 of them came back with grammar changes. Only 1 came back with content.

4) Don't forget about the data portion of the application! Filling this in last-minute will surely be obvious to the reader.

5) Have a goodbye party. You will not be seeing your friends for awhile. (what? that sounded bitter? no...)

And before I go edit my awful kellogg's essays - one bright spot of the day: did you know on abc.com you can watch the shows you missed?? Grey's anatomy will not be lost to me forever... :)