I brace myself before I walk in. Take a deep breath, crack my neck, and roll up my sleeves. As I enter, I see a varsity lineman sitting on the counter waiting for his ankle to be taped, the school's tennis star needing her shoulder iced, and a freshman water-polo player looking around as if he doesn't even know his own name. They see my face and within a matter of seconds I am bombarded with demands like ...

The New York Times published an article this summer regarding the “Naked Confessions of the College Bound” in which Frank Bruni discussed my generation’s tendency to “over share” personal anecdotes for the sake of grabbing an admission officer’s attention. Pardon me for being predictable, but I spent a great deal of time neck deep in a very dark, very unpleasant, and very personal personal anecdote, which, in all honesty, made me more afraid than one could ever imagine....

Psychologist and Philosopher, William James said of Mary Whiton Calkins that she was “the most brilliant examination for the Ph.D. that [Harvard had ever had].” Her brilliance earned her the nomination to be the first woman ever to serve as president of the American Psychological Association, and her research in self-psychology is still recognized to this day. However, when Dr. James uttered those words, it was the turn of the century, Mary Whiton Calkins was a woman, and there...

Following a trip to New York City last spring to visit colleges, I noticed after my departure that there was a a feeling in my chest brought about by the thought of Barnard College. This feeling was not one easily named, for, it was found in the very essence of the school. It was found first at the threshold of the inspirational gates which guard a 125 year legacy devoted to the empowerment of women through higher education. It was found...

"What does your depression feel like?" I was asked this question by eight pseudo-freudian psychologists who over-analyzed my mental illness last year. Because I was stubborn, and for lack of a better word, I would retort with: "bad". "Now, Annabelle, what exactly does 'bad' mean to you?” they would ask condescendingly. I would sit there, on some cliché leather couch, with an equally cliché troubled-teen-you- will-never-ever-ever-understand-me look on my face with my arms crossed, and refuse to speak. Beneath that...

If you were to poll every high school senior in America questioning the inquiry they receive most often, I am confident that nine out of ten would put something along the lines of “So, what are your plans for next year?” at the top of their list. By this time, most of us have perfected a (30 second or less) speech on the colleges we’ve applied to, what we want to major in, and who we hope to become. I...