Katie, Tim, and I went to see Accepted last night. We weren't really expecting anything particularly wonderful, but just felt like we needed to do *something* on a Saturday night. First off, the movie takes place in Ohio: big bonus points there. I enjoyed seeing all the Ohio license plates. Of course, it was filmed in LA. :-P Nobody saw *that* coming, I'm sure. Aaanyways. Just in case you don't know what it's about: This kid (Justin Long) got rejected from every college he applied to, so, in a panic, he fabricates a university just to make his parents think that he's going somewhere. There's a little glitch in the plan, though, which is that other college rejects find out about it, and come in droves. So, yadda yadda yadda, they make this LIBERAL liberal arts college, and fight the good fight against their snooty traditional college neighbors. Anyways, it was actually pretty funny in that un-original kind of way, and I had, surprisingly, a blast watching it.After watching this movie, and seeing them showing the high school kids talking about their SAT scores, and freaking out about getting in, and writing essays, I realized that compared to many kids, I didn't have that freaking out about college experience. This is especially shocking considering my Bexley upbringing. I didn't have parents breathing down my neck, taking me on college visits, telling me to study for the SATs, telling me to *take* the SAT, or asking how my essays were going, had I applied, and was I goign to take the SAT IIs? Instead, I just wa
ndered in to take the SAT one Saturday morning my junior year. Some kids' parents actually fill out their applications for them (weird), whereas I at least got Ben's helpful hand as I procrastinatorally (w/e) was rushed to the post office to send off my apps in time.I hate you, College Board, and your evil prep books.
Canadians have it totally different though. Faith will be able to tell me if I'm totally wron ghere or not. Maybe it's different in "populated Canada," instead of this sparse area of Nova Scotia where I am. But! No one here has taken the SATs. There are very very very few universities around. So few that I already know of every single one in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. So when they're thinking about what uni. they want to go to, they don't buy three 4,000 page books on what colleges there are out there, with every statistic and rating you could want. My friends (from many parts of Canada) just sat down, easily contemplated most of the choices without difficulty, probably did a visit or two, and here they are! No three essays on their applications, no SATs and SAT IIs required. Just. like. that. So, yeah, I just find this entirely different experience both weird and refreshing. Seems like most of these students haven't spent 6+ years of their lives stressing about whether they'll get into a prestigious university or not. Btw, I can't even *find* adequate nit-picky statistics on StFX.
I have a bad habit of putting fruit stickers everywhere.
