The Welcome Day Experience

For those of you attending Welcome Day II (or maybe you’ll be someone reading this next year), don’t stress. It honestly isn’t bad. Good luck!

For the math placement tests, there are 3 groups: Precalculus, Calculus, and Advanced Math. Precalculus is for those currently in Algebra 2 who are looking to place into Precalculus next year. Calculus is for those in Precalculus looking to place into Calculus. Advanced Math is for those who have already taken Calculus. There are only Precalculus and Calculus tests. Those in Advanced Math had to fill out forms about their math background. I took the Calculus placement test. It was 45 minutes long with 15 questions. They are all short answer. It was actually very easy. Bring a calculator and a pencil!

For the science placement tests, there are 2 groups: those who have taken chemistry and those who have not. For those who have not taken chemistry, there is one 30 minute general science quiz with 34 questions. For those who have taken chemistry there are 2 tests. One is physical science the other is chemistry. The chemistry test is 45 minutes long with around 30 questions. The physical science is easy, but the chemistry one is really hard. Bring a pencil, but you CANNOT use your calculator.

Make sure that you bring all of your forms with you. However, if you don’t bring your forms they have extras. All of the forms are included in the Welcome Day packet. It is around 35 pages.

Welcome Day was a fun experience! I made many friends (I guess I can call them friends). Some kids were weird, but for the most part they are just like normal kids (except for being way smarter). The current students were so nice. They were friendly and willing to help. For example, I was in the PFM (Perkin’s Food Management or the cafeteria) eating lunch when this random junior sat down with me and starting giving me advice and answering my questions. They are really lovely people and I’m so excited to have the opportunity to go to school with them next year.

On Welcome Day, you can take tours of the residential halls (Beall, Bryan, Reynolds, and Royall are for girls. Hill and Hunt are for guys.) and there is a club fair. The clubs were really interesting and there were so many of them! Although I didn’t see it, one of the teachers told me that there was a robot that the students had made that was capable of throwing frisbees.

Welcome Day is the day when it all becomes real, but don’t let it intimidate you. Meet new people and don’t be afraid to open up. In a way, you have a chance to start high school again. Do it the right way.

Defeat

You know, getting on the waitlist was probably one of the most exciting days of my life. And I don’t know why. In retrospect, I overreacted. I wasn’t being arrogant or talked about it very often (I just told my guidance counselor and closest friends), but I was unusually happy for nearly an entire week. 

I’ve only been fooling myself this whole time. 

Now that Welcome Day I is here, it’s finally sunk in that I’m probably still not good enough. I never have been. My entire life, I’ve been so close to success, and still so far. I’m “good” at art, but I never got past regional competitions. I’m “good” at swimming, but I don’t even place at higher levels. I’m “good” at math, but I’ve never won awards at competitions. And this weekend, as my friends and fellow blog writers attend at Welcome Day, it finally sunk in that I am almost into NCSSM, but I still fell short. I know, there’s still some hope for waitlist finalists. But, based on my past experiences, I wouldn’t be surprised if I fell short again. 

And even if I do eventually get in, I can’t shake off the haunting fear still being right under my goal. Will I survive their classes being a student that almost didn’t get in? 

As the deadline for Summer Ventures papers get closer, I’ve had to adjust myself to the idea that I’m going there instead of NCSSM right now. It’s probably better for myself at the moment to assume I’m not going to NCSSM, and to concentrate on what’s at hand. 

But, I can’t do that just yet. What’s this about Welcome Day II? Why is there a separate day for waitlist finalists?(it’s a small crowd.) Most importantly, why is on a Wednesday, a school day, five days before AP exams? 

I feel like they’re testing us on the waitlist- pushing us to see how much we will sacrifice to still go to this school.

And in the end, there will still be people who had to write an appeal statement under pressure, balance planning possibilities for two different schools next year (I’ve given up many club/junior class leadership opportunities in the event that I go to NCSSM), miss an entire school day to go visit the school, AND forced to wait at least another two months for results, just to find out that they still didn’t get in. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of stress, and I’m really starting to lose respect for the school, or at least the admissions process. 

Regardless of the result, I just feel as if I’m going to be disappointed either way. After all the effort I put in to getting into this school, what if I don’t get in? Or, what if I get in, but fall sort, and regret coming? And to be honest, I don’t know which way is worse. 

Fear

Welcome day is coming up, and, ignoring the technical difficulties with the 101,000 dalmations of forms I have to fill out, I’m stressed.

Of course, I can stress as easily as I can whine and talk about myself, since that’s my superpower.

And I have enough schoolwork that I don’t need NCSSM to stress me out. And extracurricular work.

I’m stressed because the fear is hitting me. It’s more than just that I watched some Breaking Bad and I’m easily scared, and someone in my family is talking in their sleep in the dead of night. No, I’m scared that I won’t fit in at NCSSM.

Like all my posts, this is going to be extremely personal and I’m just going to throw the dice and hope you’ll identify with some of it so that it’s not just narcissistic babble.

Similarly to how I’m throwing the dice on Welcome Day.

I don’t currently fit in at my home school. It’s not that people don’t like me (though most don’t, some do), but it’s more of that conundrum where I don’t necessarily like the people who like me. I can’t fit in with their conversations, I can’t mesh with their lives, and I’ve condemned myself to spending my nights teaching myself arbitrary things, watching television, deciding to do homework and putting it off, and writing a blog.

Forget narcissistic, this is just a bucket of self-pity.

I decided to try to change myself for NCSSM. I’ve changed my dressing habits, my air, my who-knows-what-else. I’m just trying to change, in hopes that this new me will fit in a whole lot better than the old me.

Of course, I’m already failing. Miserably. I didn’t hold up my end of helping the studying with Duhbagel, I often waste Auriee’s time with meaningless banter, and BegoniaEyes and I haven’t been talking for long enough for her to realize that she doesn’t like me. I talked to 3 Junior girls, insulted one, insulted one of my current classmates who may be going and who the second Junior wants as her Junior Brother, and got no offers for a Senior Sister. And I still get the same feelings I had before, react as though I was in the same position, make whiny posts like I whine, and I’m still me.

I’m still me, and I’m afraid that still being me is going to be my downfall. And why go to NCSSM if I’m going to spend every afternoon cooped up in my dorm? I like my home room fine.

But I’ve already made my decision. Welcome Day will be a preview of how, exactly, this year will go.

On another note, it’ll begin a series of replacements. As I walk through my school, I see the faces of my classmates, and remember their stories. I know their names, a memorable and perhaps exaggerated story about them, and maybe what sport they play or who they hang out with. I go to a small school, but that’s not the point.

When I go to NCSSM, that’s going to be limited. I’ll only recognize one or two kids from my school, the other authors (assuming I can recognize them, since writing tells so much about how a face looks), and one or two others who went to school with me or who are friends of my family. I don’t even know that many stories about them.

It’s all going to be new, and, honestly, I don’t generally like new. S0 why’d I decide to go to NCSSM?

Because being a Unicorn is worth it. Being a Unicorn should be worth it.

I hope being a Unicorn is worth it.

Here we go again…

So, I know that this is insanely late considering that we got our appeal notifications a week ago. But I’ve been so busy, that I haven’t been able to post anything…sorry!

Ever since I got the Nonfinalist notification, I wasn’t really that on board to write an appeal but…..at 3:30, I decided why the heck not. I sat down and wrote that appeal with a minute to spare…it even cut off the final word of my appeal. After that, I kinda just forgot about it. I had initially applied to NCSSM just cuz, I was never really positively sure about whether or not I would ever go to the school. To me, the only appeal that it had was the education offered and the maybe the possibility of a new start. I stood there with one foot behind the line, and one foot in-front of the line. I admit, it was a pretty half-motivated application. Compared to how many people were just burning for the chance to get accepted, and the ones who really didn’t care, I was right in the middle. So on the day of the Appeal results, I kept myself pretty busy, and finally checked my status at around 6 o’clock. When I saw the status, the only thing going on in my mind was ‘What?’. I reloaded the page again to check whether I just read something wrong. At that point, the thoughts in my head looked something like this ‘??!!!!??huh?????!!’. My status HAD been changed, but not where I exactly expected it. You see, I had thought that I only applied to NCSSM’s residential program. I remember being really mad at myself that I hadn’t applied to the Online program too when a few of my friends told me that they had only applied to that. To me, that was perfect…the education without the hassle of deciding whether you wanted to leave your friends and family. So imagine my surprise when it told me that I was a Finalist in the Online program. I’m pretty sure that the first words out of my mouth were ‘What the hell???’. My mother, who was in the room with me, turned around looking quite alarmed and asked me what happened. When I told her she started laughing, and told me that it was fantastic that I got into the Online program that I never remembered applying to….because according to her, even if I had gotten into the residential program she would have never let me go. That was some news to me, but if anything, it just made me happier. The whole situation was just perfect, and it was a lot better than me ever getting into the residential program. It was a win-win. I wouldn’t have to worry about leaving (which apparently was never going to happen anyway), and I got the education I wanted. In retrospect, I probably should have known that I had applied to both programs considering my family’s habit of trying every option possible (a teaching that was ingrained in my mind), and my application itself…..but I never knew. And hey, it worked out pretty well.

So while the rest of you go to Raleigh, I’ll be continuing the NCSSM journey in my own way… 🙂

Shipwreck

To be honest, this has little to nothing to do with all of you. I just want you to know that if you’re in my boat… we’re sharing a boat.

The week after I decided to was accepted and decided to attend NCSSM was exciting to say the least. I was busy thinking about NCSSM, exploring focus, moodle, gmail, reading every post, comment, and document on the facebook page. I re-prepared my schedule over and over and over, spent way too long talking to Juniors, and continued to spend all my time thinking about NCSSM.

Unfortunately, my teachers got a quite opposite memo, one more with the gist that the school year’s getting close to ending and it’s time to give SeeTheDawn lots of tests and quizzes and homework.

And you know what I did? Not those homeworks, not studying for those tests, and I barely wrote those papers. I got three zeroes, a 64 on a test, and I’m falling apart. I got five hours of sleep in three days, and that lack of sleep was school-related, not NCSSM-related.

I’m a wreck, still behind on work, and about ready to get to NCSSM already.

Well past ready.

Admissions Statistics and Info (v.1)

Here is a collection of information I’ve found while scouring the internet for statistics on anything NCSSM related (mostly admissions). You may or may not find these useful, but can help answer some questions nonetheless. I’ve added links to the sources and quotes some related information. Feel free to read them all, if you wish. Most come from pdf files or documents of faculty meetings.

Some of these are a few years old, so keep that in mind when reading.

The Waiting Game

Today was total déjà vu for many of us, I’m sure. 

In my opinion, today was a completely heightened version of the original notification day. I could easily give myself stomach butterflies just thinking about the appeals notification. This was probably more suspenseful than April 8th ever was. No, this is more suspenseful than the first day ever was. Mainly because, if I didn’t get in, this was surely the end of the road. The end of the journey…

All this past week, I’d have to admit, I’ve been a bit down, and NCSSM was surely one of the contributing factors. (My brother also goes to school in Boston, so this previous Monday was a huge scare for our family. He’s completely safe now, thankfully.) But even though I was upset, I really hadn’t felt defeated because of the appeals. People were comforting me as if it was all over, because being a nonfinalist is pretty binding. Most who are defferred by colleges for early decision/action usually don’t have much hope into getting in later. 

Even though I was feeling defeated, I was still thinking so much about still going to the school. I couldn’t quite imagine seeing myself in the 2015 class, but at the same time, I still can’t NOT imagine seeing myself there. 

My decision-opening story isn’t as exciting as some of the stories you’ve read around the internet before, but the stakes felt high. They were released at 5:00pm this time around, unlike the 4:00pm time of the initial results. So today, I had to wait around for 45 minutes just desperately trying to keep my mind on something else. 

There I lay in my bed, iPod in hand, trying to pass the time, when I realized the time had turned to 4:58. Without a thought, I logged into the status page, expecting my April 7th “nonfinalist” decision to be there. I wanted to wait until 5:00 to refresh the page, because there was no way I could type my complete email and password correctly on that tiny keyboard under the nervousness I’d soon get. 

I was met with something different. 

Date,                    Residential Program          NCSSM Online  

April 16,2013              Wait List                               –

I literally fell out of my bed. This was not what I was expecting to see, especially a minute earlier. Even once I got over the time difference, I still was not expecting it. According to an admissions office meeting pdf, there were 400 appeals for the class of 2014, and they accepted 61 to the wait list.

 I had been talking to myself (a lot, frankly) this past week; talking myself out of NCSSM in the case that my appeal was rejected. And now that I’ve gotten the chance to have dinner and clam myself down a bit, I realize this still isn’t over. This is definitely good news concerning my admission, but it seems that the waiting game still continues on. 

Arrogance

I’m going to be straight with you guys, and this is going to be a short post.

I have an arrogance issue. I think I’m smart, I think I’m good at what I do, I think I’m the stuff. I brag about my grades, my school, my awards, my SAT score, and now, my acceptance to NCSSM. Especially that acceptance to NCSSM.

And I brag to people who will congratulate me, tell me I’m smart, and so on, which doesn’t help. Especially with the NCSSM acceptance, people think I’m brilliant.

And I’m starting to believe it, too. Who am I kidding?

I’ve always believed it.

The fact is, I’m an arrogant a**hole, and I hide it with modest comments. Not too well, you may have noticed.

I’m sorry, I’m having a sort of revelation and wrestling match with myself, and I’m not sure how to articulate it, but it’s NCSSM related and I felt like I needed to say it.

I need to calm down. I need to realize I’m not the best, I need to be more modest instead of just faking it, because I’m going to NCSSM.

There, I’ll see some real brilliance. And it’s going to hurt.

In Preparation of Welcome Day

I wanted to write more about how I felt this week, but it was too chaotic to fully describe. Let’s just say you go from cloud nine to “oh no, this is too much!”. Thank goodness that my mind has now come back to earth.

On Friday afternoon we received an email about setting up our network credentials: account information to get into NCSSM’s system, fill out forms, apply for classes, check grades, and even get an email address! There are a bunch of forms to fill out before Welcome Day and you can even take your language placement test online.

Pre-registration gives NCSSM an idea of what classes incoming juniors are interested in, and has to be turned in on Welcome Day. You do not know your placement yet, so you have to predict where you will be placed.

When pre-registering, there are a ton of classes to pick from and it is a bit overwhelming. I recommend that you find a list of all the courses. For those filling this out as part of the class of 2015, print the Possible Course Offerings Class of 2014/2015 sheet. You can use this to eliminate classes that you don’t want to take, can’t take because of prerequisites, and select those you want to take next year. This sheet also tells you what trimester the course will be offered in. NCSSM even offers a few online courses for residential students. Most first trimester juniors take four classes and then take five starting second trimester. In addition to core classes (humanities, math, physics, chemistry, biology, and world languages), you must have core electives (additional classes in the core areas that are not used to fulfill the graduation requirement in that area), a PA (physical activity), and a residential education course (juniors must take the basic course in first trimester and by graduation you must have taken three additional RE courses). Also, there are optional electives (music, drama, art, and photography).

If you thought application was a lot of work, just wait until you get this stuff!

Loyalty 2

Yeah, it’s a sequel, and, like the Matrix Reloaded, it’s not going to be as good as the original.

So, when I first heard about my friends – no one writing on this blog – being accepted, it made me mad. They didn’t care as much as I did. They couldn’t tell you how big the school was, any TLA’s, what a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) was, the names of any dorms, and it took about until they were accepted for them to know that the NCSSM mascot was a unicorn. Meanwhile, I can cite for you the most competitive districts from last year, the average SAT Scores (Though I’ve forgotten it now), course requirements, how to test out of courses, how many people are applying, how many spots there were, and how many hours until notification. I freaking read the course catalog.

Deep down, I was hoping that they wouldn’t get in and I would just because I wanted it all that more. I did more research.

I wasted more time on researching things that I could have learned in a moment once I got in. Once they got in, I could get nothing more than them, and if I didn’t get in, I would have wasted hours learning about a utopia that I would never reach. I wasted so much time doing pointless research.

That was the next thing that annoyed me most. Then something else started to annoy me.

My classmates accepted, but aren’t sure they’re going. They told NCSSM they were going to go, but aren’t sure.

That’s understandable. If I didn’t have the foresight to think about it before, I would do the exact same thing.

What pisses me off is what one of them is doing. You may have heard that NCSSM might be paying for college again. This guy didn’t even take the tour of the school, but he told me (implicitly, not explicitly) that he was waiting to see how that fell, waiting to see if they paid for college again, and that would be the deciding factor.

That is what makes me mad now.

I didn’t want to say whether or not I got accepted because it would feel like rubbing it in people’s faces, but I need to to finish this article.

I got in. I’m going to the school. Not because of the possibility of them paying for my college, though that is nice. I didn’t accept until I knew I was attending, after having talked to a student who went to my school and then graduated to NCSSM, and I was as sure as I could be about my decision. I’m going to have less APs, less quality of some classes I love, they’re going to let me do less academically challenging things that go outside the limits, and I’m probably going to get worse grades and get into a worse college, because that’s not why I’m going to NCSSM. It’s not application fodder.

It’s because I frikken love the school. It’s because I wake up in the morning and see the Facebook page, I know that I’m going to be a Unicorn, and I start to tear up from joy.

In Spanish class, we sang a song, “Bonito”, by Jarabe de Palo, in which he says

“Bonito es el dia, y acaba de empezar”

More or less, English: The day is beautiful, and it just started

I feel the same way about NCSSM. And you know what? I self-righteously expect every other Unicorn to, also.