This month's Super SmartGirl Award goes to Annie, age 16, for her excellent Poem about college admissions!

Congratulations to Annie, this month's Super SmartGirl! College admissions are weird, aren't they? They ask you to tell all about yourself with little checkboxes and just a couple essays. Then they look at the numbers that are somehow supposed to define your ability to succeed: SAT, GPA. They they judge you. It's enough to make someone feel angry! Or helpless.

Annie's poem shows us all the tricks she uses and hoops she jumps through just to impress the colleges she wants to go to, flowery language and all. If you've been feeling frustrated by all the things you have to do to prepare for college, you're not alone!

Lamentations of a Prospective Student

Are your pamphlets
Supposed to seduce me?
Into something
That I'll
Profusely
Loathe
It's true
That I
Have been judged before
But not only
By what I've
Written on a card
No fair warning
Only that once entered
College is "hard"
These educators
Masquerade as Gods
Deemers of the worthy
And not
Who deserves this opportunity
So who does this fate beget?
Will the chosen ones
The winner of high school
Popularity contests
And extreme sport-like
Grade grubbing Olympians
Fill these institutes?
Must I write in fancy words such as these?
If I wish an adminstrator to please
Perhaps I'll get caught
Talking as I should not
My SATs
Are the only thing
That will please
So bottle up
My "personality"
In that neat little box
And try to see
Which box to check
Describes the real me

by Annie, 16