Academic Crisis: I am Officially not Intelligent Enough.

Hello all,

I am minorly freaking out as of about thirty minutes ago. I started looking at requirements for study abroad programs. Two of the three schools I at which I was really interested in study are gone from my world. Not really, just somewhere on the edge of the stratosphere and I am tethered to the Earth's crust by a short and very hefty chain.

I want to study in England or Ireland. Those are the two places I most want to go in the world, with the possible exception of Auschwitz. Naturally, University College Dublin, Cambridge, and Oxford were the highlights of my list. I have not yet spoken with whichever department I need to about study abroad. Based on some preliminary research I have done in the last hour, Dublin and Cambridge are both somewhere South of "Difficult." 

My University does not have an exchange program with University College Dublin. Okay, I still have two other tentative selections. Oh, wait, Oxford qualifications include a 2,100+ SAT and three SAT subject tests with a 700+. For anyone not familiar with the SAT, the general exam is scored out of 2,400. The Subject Tests are out of 800.

Now, I did not do horribly at the SAT. I scored a decent 1,890. I chose this university with Early Decision, so I did not take any subject tests as I would have if I had looked more at Princeton and Brown. I like the University I chose. I do question if it were the right choice sometimes. It is not as intellectually rigorous as I would like; far too much of the focus is on sports. Hooray U.S. priorities! I would have graduated with less debt had I chosen Brown or Princeton, odd as that sounds. I wanted to bring my horse with me, though. That and I graduated secondary school with 18 other students. Yes, you read that correctly: 18 1-8, dix-huit, eighteen! I did not think it would be too wise to jump to a University with several hundred students in each year. There are fewer than 350 students in my year at this university.

I am sure Cambridge would be out as well, if I had managed to locate their requirements. So, I have to meet with a representative of the department responsible for coordinating study abroad when offices open after Christmas Break. Maybe University of Montreal will be willing to take a (only slightly, apparently) above-average student from the U.S. I despise feeling utterly inadequate.

Bon soir.