One of the most hated parts of being a senior after all the ridiculous testing and excessive work is the college search process. The process is not as bad as it seems if you can simply develop a plan or strategy and follow through with it, but who does that? So sit back, buckle up, and brace yourself as I recount the details of my adventure.

I was but a wee tyke, only 17 years of age, when I started my college search process in November of 2016. Everyone around me had been speaking of college, SAT scores, and other large official things that IB kids normally talk about. I was scared; I had a low SAT score, and I did not start my application until the end of Thanksgiving Break. The application was due on December 1. You can guess how badly I procrastinated.

So, I started the UC application in hopes of pursuing my dreams in California’s amazing educational system. People continually complain about the essays, but what I found the most irritating and difficult was the application’s pedantic requirements. They were a bit infatuated with me, asking me to put my name, phone number, address, my height, weight, body mass index, my waist size and chest size …. you get the point. After that, they started asking me about what I did in school and out of school for the past 5 years (since the 8th grade) and that made me a bit uncomfortable.

Next were the essays. I started the essays on the day before they were due and completed them in around 2 hours or so. They were very personal (hence, personal statement) and thus easy to write about. I wrote about how I am a Chinese-Afghani refugee seeking love in Uganda but I could never find any, but that was only for one question. It was mostly about my amazing adventures in the land of IB and AP. I submitted my application to 4 UCs: Davis, San Diego, Berkeley, and Los Angeles.

I was really gunning for UCLA, and got in (YAY!). The decisions came out in March, and boy, was it stressful. I was rejected by Berkeley and accepted by the others, but that just means Berkeley did not deserve a man of my caliber. I was too bright, and so they turned me down.

It is now the month of April, or the month of college touring for seniors. Upon visiting UCLA, I realized UCLA really stands for “U C Lots of Asians” because literally everyone was speaking Mandarin. I never felt so out of place since I went to Chinatown. Anyway, I met some new people, and we bonded over our mutual love of memes. It was exciting, but I hated the application process.

I cannot wait to graduate and attend UCLA in the fall!