On Saturday, I volunteered with the Seattle chapter of 826 in a College Entrance Essay Marathon: three hours one-on-one with 17- and 18-year-olds from Ballard trying their damndest to get into a good school.
My student, Anna F., is currently attempting to apply to no less than 18 colleges and universities, with a goal of trimming it down to around 12. This still feels Herculean (not to mention extraordinarily expensive) to me, but I digress.
Everything I learned about Anna F. from her personal statement and supplementary essays
Anna F. is the captain of her high school soccer team
She also plays soccer on a local club team
Anna F. has decided not to pursue soccer at the collegiate level, but is still interested in playing recreationally
She is the Editor of her school newspaper
She is not confident in her SAT test scores
Her entire family - grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - all live within a five-minute drive of her house.
Her family wants her to go to the University of Washington
She eats and apple before going to bed every night
She apologizes too much without meaning it and gets made fun of for it.
If she actually does feel sorry, she does more than say "i'm sorry' but she isn't quite sure what that is.
She likes to travel and has thus far been to: London, Mexico, Costa Rica and Norway.
She doesn't like the taste of chocolate.
Her favorite book is On the Jellicoe Road and is about a girl named Taylor whose mother leaves her at a 7-11 where she is found by the headmistress of a boarding school, and brought up there. Anna F. appreciates Taylor's vim and vigor (my words, not hers)
Anna F.'s top choice for school is Brown, but she doubts she will be accepted.
She spells Space Needle like this: Spaceneedle
After 3.5 hours of brainstorming and editing and eating fruit snacks together, I am 100% invested in Anna's getting into the college(s) of her choice. I'm desperate to find out where she ends up. I gave her my personal email address and she looked at me like I was pretty much bonkers and said "thanks" in that way like she was confused why I would do something like that: "..th..anks??" I assume she's tossed it by now, and so I am all over her on the internet.
Things I have learned about Anna F. by Googling
Her Facebook page is set to private. Smart girl.
She is the face of Rebecca Anne Photography's 2013 Senior Portrait special flyer.
