Admissions Impossible?

By Sandra Garcia

I am so glad that the college application process is over. It wasn’t as hard as I thought.

The only thing that stressed me out was the fact that everyone was providing me with different information. Teachers were telling me one thing, my high school's College Corner another, friends another thing and the Internet another. I was almost about to give up and not fill out the application.

Finally, I decided to go with the most reasonable information and I was persuaded by a teacher that I shouldn’t give up and that he would take the time to help me out. He let me know that he would stay with me after school as long as I needed his help.

I started my UC application the day before it was due and it didn’t really take me long to complete. I guess I was just putting my application on hold because I thought that it was going to be hard, since it was 15 pages long on paper.

The questions weren’t so hard; they were just confusing because of the way that they asked for the information.

I wrote my personal statement the day it was due and had one of my teachers, Mr. Gertner, go over it to see if it was good and to check for grammatical errors. He stayed with me after school, along with other students, to help us with any last minute help we may have needed. I was so lucky to have a wonderful teacher like Mr. Gertner because not a lot of teachers would take the time to help the students out.

Not only did he help me fill out my UC application, but he helped me fill out my E.O.P. and Cal State applications as well.

I am glad he helped me out with any last minute questions I had. If it weren’t for my awesome teacher, I don’t think I would have filled it out.

But I can't forget to mention that a couple of my friends helped me fill it out as well.

They helped me find the answers to some of the questions I had about the application and when things were due and what was the last day to take tests.

They also looked over my prompts as well.

Overall, I can say that the application was not as hard as I thought.

It is now finished and submitted. All I have to do is wait and see if I get accepted.

Now that I got the experience of filling it out, next year I will help people from my high school fill it out. I will also be able to help my sisters and my brother fill it out when it is their time to head to college.

People need to know that the application isn’t as hard and complicated as it looks.

I learned that I am a procrastinator, and I always work better under pressure.

Sandra Garcia is a senior at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights.