Hurray! Almost like an Olympic athlete who trains every day for years with a razor focus and commitment to discipline, Amie has been in training for her college education. This is the moment her life will begin.Although I think it’s safe to say Amie is gorgeous, talented, and creative what’s different about Amie is her intellectualism. She is applying to 7 schools: Columbia, Georgetown, Tufts, NYU, American University, Boston University and UT Austin. As she is in the top 5% of her class, she has a guaranteed admission to UT. The others, who knows? These schools are competitive, but I hope she will capture the attention of one of the Admissions officers.I wrote her IB counselor a note with these words:

When other young teenage girls were busy pimping up their MySpaces, IMing each other about the next party or the latest gossip, my daughter was quietly sipping tea in her bedroom reading a book on literary criticism of Ernest Hemingway. At first, when she first discovered Lord Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H., and began writing her own beautiful poetry (in four-line ABBA stanzas of iambic tetrameter), I thought it was a fad. Something, perhaps, she was doing for attention or to appear sophisticated, as teenagers are prone to do. But Tennyson ignited something deep-seated, something magical within Amy that inspires a natural-born intellectual to absorb vast resources of knowledge and learning.

If any readers have any words of advice for getting into college or have any insight into the acceptance criteria of these schools, we’d love to hear it. I’ll keep you posted in the spring on which school she will be attending in the fall.UPDATE: 3/31/09 Wow. Time has flown, hasn’t it?Here are the results:

• Columbia – no
• Georgetown – no
• Tufts – WAITLISTED
• NYU– YES
• American University – YES
• Boston University – YES
• University of Austin – YES

The challenge now becomes opportunity and financial aid package. She’s leaning toward NYU (her best friend also got admitted), but American gave her what amounts to $80K in a merit scholarship. Of course, UT is the least expensive option (less than the private school we sent her to in NJ!), but, well, she wants to go back East.If you have any advice at this juncture, would love to hear it! Meanwhile, stay tuned. I’ll post what school she finally decides on.UPDATE: 06/25/09 Amie is going to NYU.