College, so many choices

Parameters

I'm trying to come up with some minimums and maximums for college size, based on the choices a lot of the college search programs ask you for.

Do I want a college that is smaller than my high school? (Will I ever see anyone I don't already know?)

Do I want a college where the football stadium holds more people than the population of the town where I live?

Does this mean I'm a grown up now?

11 weeks.

Summer used to stretch out forever. Now I know it's only 11 weeks. Was it always that short, and I just didn't know it?

Goodbye to all this?

Junior-itis? Or is it just me?

My best friend is a senior, and he - no surprise - has a bad case of senior-itis. He's more than just a little crazy these days, but he's looking at prom and graduation and a summer job and then the rest of his life...

Me, it's just like I woke up in a new world that on one hand feels so much more serious and full of acronyms (ACT, SAT, GPA, ED, EA) while on the other hand is all about just being a kid (OK, a big kid) just a little while longer. Get a few of us together at lunch, and we are one big pile of crazy.

Is it the pressure? Maybe. Or are we just mature enough to know our days as kids are numbered?

Save the manual transmission!

Old school. And I've got it bad.

Must have a manual transmission car. The end.

First car accident: lessons learned

Things I did right:  the whole license and insurance exchange thing, after checking to make sure everyone was alright. Taking photos of both cars. Calling my mom.

Things to do next time:  call the police, even if they have said not to because it's minor, on private property etc.

Here's why:  it really wasn't my fault, but it may not matter. My car was hit on the left rear by a car turning from the lane to the left of me. Yes, that's right. And no, I wasn't passing on the right, wasn't on the shoulder, etc. He just decided to turn right and didn't look.

And then, his insurance company decided not to pay, so I had to file it under my insurance - who at least are going to try to get reimbursement through something they call subrogation.

But I have to wonder whether it would have just been easier to insist on a police report, because anyone standing there could see what happened.

Take a break. You know you want to.

ACT or SAT. That is the question.

Or is it both? Neither?

April 14 is national ACT test day, and I'm taking it to see how my scores look. What's interesting is how many of my friends tell me that colleges want SAT, not ACT.

So I researched it, and found out that it's kind of a regional difference. Most of the midwest states have a tradition of taking ACT tests, but the east coast is all about the SAT.

College websites tell a different story:  they'll take either one, and some of them don't care if you take neither.

What's more important is to take a look at something called "common data set" for each college (Google it for each college; it's faster) which shows the most recent scores for the students accepted to that college, 25%-75%, along with what percentage took ACT or SAT.

It's one way to see if that's a college where you might fit in, data wise.