All of my applications are complete. When I write for official purposes I tend to be extremely critical of my own writing.. so it took me quite awhile to actually get them in a form I felt was acceptable.

In some cases it was hard for me to write such personal stories when I knew there would be groups of people sitting around and discussing the merits of... well, me.

On another note, I really wish every school would use the Common Application (http://www.commonapp.org), it made things so much easier for me to be able to write all of my basic information down once, select a list of schools, and then submit the applications once I'd done any school specific supplements and additional essays.

And additionally, the College Board / CSS Profile fee is quite excessive, and seems completely unnecessary given all of the financial information given to schools on the FAFSA. I can understand schools wanting you to submit tax documents and the like, but I shouldn't have to pay more than the cost of a fax to do it..

Since I'm applying broadly in order to have the best chance of success, I wound up spending nearly $100 to submit everything.. when it could have been done directly and sent to every school for less than $10.. and it was $100 I had to dig deep to find, since I don't make much money right now.

It's incredibly silly that the fee reduction is ONLY for dependent students who meet certain criteria. Students like me who are considered independent have to pay the fee, regardless, even if getting an application fee waiver for the application to the schools.

I would hope they would take the financial status of ALL students, not just dependent ones into account in the future.. but I guess it wont matter as long as one of the schools I applied to wants me!

I've been wanting to write this for awhile, but I haven't been sure how exactly to start it.

Right now I currently attend a local college, where I have been taking general education courses that I (think) I'll need wherever I end up.

Thus far, I've completed:

• Calculus I, II, & III
• General Chemistry I & II
• C++ Programming I & II (Advanced C++)
• English I & II
• Western Civilization I & II
• American Literature I
• Principles of Macroeconomics
• Introduction to Sociology
• General Psychology

My current GPA is 4.0, and I have nearly two full years of coursework to transfer somewhere.

Now I'm in the process of trying to finish my applications to various schools that I want to apply to, and I'm finding it difficult to frame my life in a way that's going to make a school which has the major I'm interested in (Some form of undergraduate Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, etc) overlook my educational history.

While the grades I do have from High School are good, I never graduated as a result of North Carolina screwing me out of over a year of credits and wanting to me to restart as a Freshman when I should have been a junior. I have my GED, but as a result of never finishing, I never took the SAT's.

Unfortunately, many schools that have that major provide no exceptions for their SAT score requirement. It's amazing to me that they wouldn't consider nearly two full years of college level work a sufficient replacement for an aptitude test designed to predict how well you'll do in college.. but many don't.

I think I could do pretty well on the SAT's if I were to take them now, but it's too late in this application cycle to take the test and have scores sent by the deadline.. so, we'll see what happens.

As a consequence, the number of schools I'm applying to is narrowed down significantly, and the 'prestige' of schools that are willing to waive the requirement seems to be quite high.. meaning it's going to be significantly more difficult to gain admission. That is, if they're willing to overlook the fact that I don't fit the standard mold of a normal applicant.

There's a lot to do, but I'm going to get some sleep for now.