A note on the mid-November slump
November 22, 2008 – 7:34 amNovember, ah! November. What a sweet month. It begins with sugar-induced, post-Halloween paralysis and ends with Thanksgiving indulgence. Days are shorter, mornings brighter and cooler, school days slower in passing. But college applicants: hold fast! This can be the pleasantest of times, but also the deadliest of times if you let it have its way
Following the recommendations of college publications you’ve received in the mail, the CollegeBoard website, or your humble columnist, you should be about halfway through regular decision applications. (Most are not, and a few are done with all applications. React accordingly to the mid-November slump. Horror is appropriate to the first situation and shouts of glee to the second.) Chances are, you have spent numberless hours in front of a bright electronic screen and have developed mild carpel tunnel. You are halfway there, but do not neglect the flipside of this: you still have halfway to go. What you just did—be ready to do it again.
And this month affords ample opportunity to do it. Teachers begin to get lazy; they suffer from a mid-November slump too. Fall sports end. Homecoming stress is relieved. Breaks from school pepper the month’s 30 days as snow will never pepper South Orange County. My advice: spend five minutes every day either revising or drafting remaining essays, filling in personal information pages, or practicing for interviews as they apply to your situation. Along with a few marathon afternoons, this should make college applications, Act II, manageable.
Do not give in to a corollary of the mid-November slump: the mid-December temptation. Yes, everyone knows that school recesses for weeks in mid-December. And also yes, everyone knows that most regular-decision applications are due in early January. Do not wait until December 19 to begin scrambling together last-minute applications. At least try to complete them now. Schools are not only evaluating your credentials, but also gauging your interest in them. Submitting a thoughtfully conceived application now, it stems to reason, will make you appear more enthusiastic about a school than submitting the same application New Year’s Eve. In addition, you want December recess to be reserved for hanging out with friends (those people you liked to be around before the UC filing period began), for shredding down mountains on long carbon-fiber boards, and for playing with toys from whichever religious-capitalist festival you adhere to.
The slump has hit many before you and will surely devastate many after you. Your devoted columnist knows it well. Save yourself. Make a mug of hot chocolate, grab a slice of warm pumpkin pie, and sit down at that faded, beaten up desk to do some work. It will pay off with early-April bliss.
By Mike Danto, Columnist
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