Spring breaks were always used to pay back my sleep debt for burning the midnight oil on a regular basis.

This year was different.My parents,counselors,and friends all encouraged me to go visit colleges.I thought,"those tedious application forms and essays were a pain,now I have to give up a week of vacation touring the USA?"

I went.Visiting 7 schools in 5 days was a great feat in itself.My mother and I first flew to San Francisco and rented a car.That day,we went to UC Berkeley and Stanford.On day 2,we drove all the way down to LA.Day 3 is for visiting UCLA and USC.We flew across the continent to the east coast,arriving in Boston at midnight.The next day,we toured MIT and Harvard for a while,then drove to Newark,New Jersey for the night.On the last day,we saw U Penn in Philadelphia before catching the plane back to our home in Texas.

The tour showed me waht different colleges were like.It was a valuable experience,even though in the end,none of them accepted my application.