First, before I discuss my new year’s resolution for 2012, I thought I would see how my new year’s resolution from last year turned out: well, I failed miserably, having gotten myself excited about blogging more  often at the year’s beginning and then choosing not to.

Hopefully I will actually follow through with this resolution…

This year, my goal is to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and to finish reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, a book that I got half way through once upon a time and then stopped reading.

Oh, and if I could get in better shape, that would be nice too.

Due to inclement weather here in Dallas, SMU was closed the last two days, giving me time to write this post! While I should be learning finance and accounting in the business school pictured below, I am instead keeping warm in my dorm room.

Last year I wrote that 2009 was “my greatest year so far,” mostly due to what I saw as positive, new trends in my academic results and personal life. 2010 was equally great in that those trends continued and resulted in academic achievements I can take pride in and social experiences that produced lifelong memories.

Academic Success

My academic accomplishments in 2010 were widespread, showing up in high school class performance, standardized tests results, and college grades. During the senior of high school many students suffer from “Senioritis”, an “illness” with a major symptom of decreased motivation in completing one’s work. “Senioritis” may describe my attitude in the early years of high school, but in my last semester of high school I actually earned my highest grades. I also graduated high school under the highest recognized academic achievement program.

As far as standardized tests go, I took a significant amount of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams at the end my senior year of high school. My AP exam results were significantly higher than previous years of testing, and I earned the “National AP Scholar” award as well as enough credit hours to be classified as a sophomore upon entering college. My IB scores were high enough to be awarded an International Baccalaureate Diploma and an additional scholarship to SMU.

My first semester at Southern Methodist University saw more academic success, resulting in a current GPA that is much better than my high school GPA. Additionally, my first semester English professor was quite impressed with one of my papers, and I am currently in the process of revising it for submission to Criteria,  an annually published book containing the best student work of the previous year.

More important than quantifying academic success is reflecting on the qualities that brought it about. Having the motivation and ability to independently learn new material without an instructor allowed me to earn top marks on AP exams I had never taken a formal class in. Exceptional planning and time management skills allowed a 3-month, highly-technical group project to be successfully completed. Above all, raising my standards for academic achievement helped motivate me to work harder in classes I considered less interesting as I wanted to earn top marks.

Social Life

Admittedly, 2010 was the year I got a great social life. The end of senior year was quite fun, and I enjoyed going outside to a park to play sports with friends and to celebrate the Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors. The highlight of my senior year social life was prom. However, after prom came the month of May, in which socializing had to be dramatically cut in order to study for a large number of exams.

My social life was much better in the summer. I was happily unemployed, hanging out with great friends and having the best summer ever. Some highlights include going to a couple of awesome graduation parties, playing a variety of boardgames with friends (this is actually quite intense), visiting my extended family and going to sporting events (I became a baseball and basketball fan), and going bowling, playing pool, and eating out with friends. Fall and winter break were equally exciting.

Of course, my first semester of college was a whole different social experience, but still a great one as I made a ton of new friends. I was very concerned about earning good grades, so I usually saved socializing for weekends. My weekends were filled with football games (Go Mustangs!), fraternity parties (I will not say much other than see the picture for an example), and my new favorite Saturday afternoon activity: ballroom dancing (many of my friends have been quite shocked by my new found enthusiasm for the activity, as I was never known as the dancing type)!

Well that is it for now… I guess this post is quite heavy on personal experiences, although I sometimes shy away from being too specific. After all, this is a public blog. As for my goal to blog more often, I have some catching up to do. In my next post (coming soon) I will be writing about more of my 2010 experiences, specifically those of which were the first time for me.

 

Last year, on the first day of January, this blog was created. I had never blogged before, and I was excited to get started. Admittedly, I had a fairly minimal and inconsistent first year, writing a dozen entries, the majority in the first half of 2010.

This year will be different, hopefully reflecting the variety seen in the image above.  My new year’s resolution for 2011 is to blog more often. At minimum, I plan to quadruple my writing (without losing quality) so that I’m averaging a post per week instead of a post per month. We will see how this turns out!

I had been wanting to watch a Bollywood (Indian Hollywood) film for awhile, and I finally got to see my first one. This post will not only review Lagaan – it will also note some of the key differences between Indian and American cinema based on my experience watching this film.

Rating: 8/10

Lagaan refers to the land tax that Indians paid to the British during the Victorian period. The central conflict revolves around a British officer’s decision to double the Lagaan for the coming year, which would leave the Indian village in economic shambles. A rivalry between Bhuvan, an Indian villager, and British Captain Andrew Russell results in a lopsided deal: if the Indians defeat the British in a game of Cricket, then the Lagaan will be eliminated for three years. If they lose, the Lagaan will be triple instead of double for the coming year. The catch is that the Indians have no experience playing Cricket, while the British have played for years, and the match will occur just three months after the deal.

I watched the movie with English subtitles (both English and Hindi are spoken in the movie), and I was lucky enough to have Indian friends that could point out some of the nuances that were missed in the translation. The acting and music were wonderful, and the Indian culture and setting were captured beautifully. Having read Passage To India in high school, I understood the conflict between the Indian and British people. However, when it comes to fully understanding the movie, knowing the rules of Cricket is essential. Having never played Cricket, my helpful Indian friends explained the sport as we watched the movie.

Bollywood vs Hollywood

Length: Just before beginning the movie I noticed the film’s length was 3 hours and 44 minutes long, making it one of the longest movies I’ve ever seen (Gone with the Wind is similar in length). Apparently it is not unheard of for Bollywood films to exceed 4 hours in length, and is it typical for them to run past 3 hours. On the other hand, Hollywood films are typically about 2 hours in length.

Intermission: Approximately half way through the film there was a signal to take an intermission. This is common in Bollywood films, but virtually unheard of in films produced by Hollywood.

Multiple Languages: The characters in Lagaan spoke English, Hindi, or both. Sometimes the dialogue in the film was a bit strange, with a character saying a phrase in one language and then saying the exact same thing in the other language.

Dancing: Periodically the characters would break out into choreographed Indian dances while lip-synching Indian songs. These random dance scenes are typically not in American films, but they occur in most Bollywood films.

Summer is here, and naturally that means that I have increased leisure time to watch movies such as Shutter Island. This will be my first movie review, and I plan on adding more reviews to this blog over time.

Rating: 9/10

Shutter Island is a mystery-thriller movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels, who investigates the activities happening in a psychiatric ward on Shutter Island. The acting is fantastic, but the film’s real beauty is in the special effects that bring Teddy’s dreams and hallucinations to life. While at times the film seems to have shoddy transitions between scenes, these transitions actually add to the very haunting mood. The plot is quite complex, and the twists and turns keep it interesting and unpredictable.

My favorite part of this movie is the ending dialogue:

Teddy Daniels:You know, this place makes me wonder.
Chuck Aule: Yeah, what’s that, boss?
Teddy Daniels: Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?

Without giving away too much of the plot, I can say that these last lines left my friend and I pondering the plot for quite some time. The lines allow for multiple interpretations of the nature of DiCaprio’s character – was he insane or not, and did he willingly choose a path that would lead to him getting a lobotomy?

For those of you who enjoy a complex plot and are willing to pay attention to detail, this movie is for you! It is one of the few movies that would be worth an additional viewing, in order to better determine for yourself what exactly happened.

I graduated from high school today! The ceremony was nice and it was good to have my grandfather, who flew in from Arizona, in the audience. I would write more, but I have a party to attend!

I had three good college choices:

• Arizona State University
• Southern Methodist University
• University of Texas at Dallas
  

Several other colleges accepted me (I applied to a lot of “safety schools”), but they did not pique my interest in the months before decision time. Usually they were simply too expensive, were academically less competitive than the above schools, or did not invite me to join their honors programs (which are extremely important to me).

As a prospective first-time college student, I spent hundreds of hours researching, visiting, applying to, and communicating with various universities. I also prepared for college in other ways. I took the ACT once and the SAT twice, waiting to earn a score I was content with. I enrolled in numerous Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) starting sophomore year in an attempt to earn a lot of college credit, learn the necessary study skills needed to be successful in college, and impress college admissions. I also participated in marching band throughout high school, as well as several other extracurricular activities and clubs. Summers were dedicated to extensive volunteerism.

The months leading up to my decision presented several questions. How much more money should be spent on a better education? What is the value of a college’s reputation? Should having close friends going to the same school influence my decision? How much debt would I feel comfortable taking on?

Arizona State University (ASU) was the first college I visited, and my impression of it was extremely positive. Admittedly, two of my uncles attended school there, and all four of my grandparents hoped to see me choose a college close to their homes. My family was attached to the school, and the school’s competitive honors and business programs attracted me further. As the only out-of-state school of the three, it offered the best opportunity to get away from my home in Texas and explore new things. It was the first school I applied to (in the early month of September), and I was accepted into both the general honors and the business honors programs. My main concern was ASU’s cost of attendance: an estimated $32,000 would be needed without financial aid or scholarships.

I visited Southern Methodist University (SMU) during the summer before my senior year. It had the nicest campus by far, and I was thoroughly impressed with its array of luxurious services. It was the only private university of the three, and with that status came an enormous price tag of $53,000 per year to attend. It also had the highest ranked business school, and arguably reputation and prestige exceeding the other two schools combined. As much as I wanted to go, I knew the chances of affording the school would be slim. SMU admitted me into their exclusive BBA Scholars program (allowing me to start my business curriculum early than most students), but I was not accepted in their University Honors Program. This fact was slightly depressing, but I knew I could always work hard and join second semester.

I visited University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) during the same weekend I visited SMU (they are about 20 minutes away from each other). UTD has the best living facilities of any college I’ve visited, and I was impressed that their student body has the highest SAT scores of any Texas public university. My biggest concern was that seemingly nobody had heard of UTD outside of Texas – it is an up and coming school with practically no national reputation. Like SMU, I was admitted into their business honors program but not their general honors program. I applied because I knew they were generous with scholarship money, as many students from my high school had received generous offers in previous years. While their undergraduate business program was not as highly ranked as SMU and ASU, I felt there would still be a high level of academic competition and that the school had a bright future.

Fast forward to the beginning of last week. UTD offered me a scholarship including full tuition and fees and a housing stipend, making it the most affordable university of the three. In fact, it was so cheap that I doubted if I should incur a penny of debt through four years of attendance, as my parents could pay the remaining costs. ASU offered me a scholarship for a significant amount of money per year, but it would still cost about double UTD. SMU was simply out of the picture: although several merit scholarships had trickled in, the cost was several thousand per year greater than ASU, and there was no way to afford the school without incurring massive debt, even with them offering need-based “tuition-equalization” grants. My decision seemed inevitable: I would be attending UTD. I was comfortable with this decision (no debt is very appealing), and several of my friends were going, including one of my closest. Still, I hesitated to commit to UTD as I saw greater opportunities at ASU (where another close friend is going) and SMU. At this time my mother told me she was going to a class on how to afford college, and she told me not to commit to a school. I would wait a few days.

Last week was intense. One day I came home from school and my mother looked super excited. She had spent the day calling the three colleges on my behalf to see if there was any way for their financial aid packages to be adjusted, following the advice she had received in her class. Sadly, ASU was not able to offer any assistance. They were already having budget issues, and their support belonged exclusively to in-state students. I determined that I would not go to ASU. On the other hand, SMU began adjusting my financial aid package. Two days later I had received another merit scholarship and increased need-based grants, bringing down the cost significantly! SMU could now be afforded provided I took a few loans and did work study. I was on the verge of selecting UTD, and yet here was SMU, a private university I never thought I could afford, doing everything possible to make attendance possible. It was by far the biggest surprise of my entire college selection process.

I scrambled to gather advice and do additional research on the two universities. I spoke to and messaged several family members, friends, and students committed to both schools. Opinions were varied, and so was advice. I found myself on the fence just two days before the deadline to make a decision, weighing the financial risks of attending SMU over UTD with the benefits of attending SMU over UTD (reputation, prestige, networking potential, and a significantly higher ranked business school). I concluded that the benefits of SMU were worth the increased cost over UTD, acknowledging that I would likely have to take on a reasonable amount of debt along the way.

My college decision is probably the most important choice I have made in my life so far. I chose Southern Methodist University!

Thank you so much Mom, for making this possible! I’m extremely impressed with you!

I had been looking forward to prom since the beginning of my senior year, and tonight was prom night. Without delving too much into my personal life I’d like to make a couple reflections on why the night was amazing.

Planning

There is no question that I planned for prom more than just about any other event in my life. From the prom schedule (including photos and dinner) to matching the colors of my vest and tie with my date’s dress, the close attention I paid to detail allowed the night to go extremely well. Perhaps it is a bit lame, but I must confess that researching prom-etiquette before the event allowed me to confidently prepare for the night. Additionally, by asking out my prom-date nearly a month before the event, I prevented the possibility of showing up dateless.

Going With The Flow

Often times in a group situation it is difficult to get all the decisions to go the way you would like. Prom is no exception. During the day’s events there were a couple of less than ideal situations, but I went with the flow. By choosing not to make a big deal out of the few less–than-desirable things, I was able to focus on enjoying and appreciating all the good things, and that is what counts.

Upon further reflection, it seems that both planning and going with the flow would allow more of life’s events to go so successfully.

Disclaimer: this entry is not about who I voted for or my position on certain initiatives.

In the end of my last post I discussed how 2009 was a year of many firsts. Today marked my first time voting in an election, starting a new firsts list for 2010.

I have mixed feelings about voting. On one hand, I had been told for several years in school that I should exercise my right to vote once I got it (social studies teachers will be proud). On the other hand, I observed many family members choose not to vote knowing that their vote was basically a drop of water in a pool here in Texas. I had been interested in voting for several years, so when today’s Texas primary came up, I finally exercised my new-found right.

My philosophy during this first time voting was straight forward: I chose only to make educated votes. I cast a vote only if I had researched the candidates beforehand, and only on initiatives which I had researched (albeit briefly). I also wanted to make my vote count for as much as possible. Today this meant choosing to cast my vote on one party’s ballot instead of on the other party’s ballot because the former had five initiatives to vote on while the latter had zero. I only voted for one individual on the list because I had only researched the gubernatorial candidates and not the candidates for other local positions.

The entire process went smoothly, and I was glad to use a paper ballot instead of an electronic voting machine (I personally feel paper is more secure). The volunteers running the voting process were all very supportive, and I had been the only first-time voter of the whole day, which earned me a round-of-applause. This is a little bit concerning – I know several other high school seniors who could have voted but did not.

The only thing I missed was an “I Voted” sticker to show off at school tomorrow. None of the volunteers had one. Either way, I’m glad I finally voted!