stentonan
vol; XXXIII, issue 3
north Carolina schooi of science and mathematics
October 2013
stentorianl23@gmail.com
Common Application brings
struggles for Seniors
By Su Cho
Many seniors are in the
proeess of applying to different
eolleges, mostly through the
Common App. However,
many students, counselors,
teachers, and even some
college admissions offices are
struggling with the glitches
found in the newest version.
The Common App continues
to lock students out of their
work or bill more than once for
a single application. The newer
version was designed to look
simpler and show colleges the
same information as before.
Many colleges such as the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill and Northwestern
University extended their
deadlines because of student
complaints of not being able to
log in and tell if their payment
had been accepted. College
admissions offices were also
having problems retrieving
needed documents.
Even colleges with later
due dates like the University of
Chicago, Duke University, and
Cornell University extended
multiple times for one college
and also the whole system
was really slow. A lot of error
messages showed up. It made
me worry about deadlines, but
I was really happy that most
THE COMMON
APPUCATION
Photo courtesy of commonapp.org
their early deadlines from Nov.
1 to Nov. 8.
Some students feel aimoyed
and irritated about the technical
malfunctions of Version 4 of
the Common App.
Senior Grace Guo says, “I
was really frustrated because
it charged some of my friends
colleges eventually extended
their early action or decision.”
Senior Evan Brooks says,
“It has been very frustrating
of course. Dealing with the
frustration of applying to
college is already stressflil but
dealing with a new developing
system that most of my colleges
use for their applications adds
even more to it. Hopefully
Common App will improve for
the class of 2015 and beyond.”
However, other students are
indifferent about the situation.
Senior Abby Smith says,
“I wasn’t using it [Common
Application] at the time, so it
wasn’t a big deal for me. But,
for the students who were
applying early decision, it was
definitely more worrying.”
Senior Puja Patel says, “I
wasn’t too worried about it.
Although I was applying early,
many schools extended their
deadlines.”
As of now, the Common
Application says most of
the bugs from the site have
been fixed. Students should
be able to log in and college
admissions offices should no
continued on
Page 2
News from
around
the world
By Jungsu Hong
Earthquake of magnitude
7.3 hits Japan
An earthquake of magnitude
of 7.3 struck early Saturday
morning off Japan’s east
coast, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey. Japan’s
emergency agencies declared a
tsunami warning for the region
that includes the crippled
Fukushima nuclear site. The
earthquake hit at 2:10 a.m.
Saturday Tokyo time about 170
miles off Fukushima. About
19,000 people were killed.
Miranda Kerr and
Orlando Bloom split after six
years
On Oct. 24, 2013, it was
announced that Miranda Kerr
and Orlando Bloom will be
splitting after a three-year
marriage. The British actor,
36, and Australian Victoria’s
Secret model, 30, met in 2007,
and married in 2010. Their son,
Flynn, was bom in Jan. 2011.
Prince George gets
christened
Prince George made his
first public appearance in
three months Wednesday, as
he arrived with his parents.
Prince William and Catherine,
Duchess of Cambridge, for
his christening at St. James’s
Palace. George was dressed
in an elaborate lace and satin
christening gown that’s a
replica of one made in 1841
for the christening of Queen
Victoria’s eldest daughter.
(Source - AP)
HIPPO all the rage
for Hunt residents
By Steven Liao
Two champions, knees
flexed, gazes intent, swing
furiously as they sweat out
shot after shot, point after
point, and match after match.
The winning shot is
delivered. Thunderous cheers
flare, vuvuzelas blare, and
the victorious individual, in
his tmsty striped pajamas,
is mobbed. Under a mass of
humanity emerges a victorious
fist, clutching a single, savory
ping pong paddle.
It is official: HIPPO season
has begun.
HIPPO, short for Hunt
Intramural Ping Pong
Organization, is an annual
‘underground’ ping pong
tournament that pits three
celebrated ‘champions’
from each Hunt hall against
‘champions’ from other
Hunt halls in a round robin
tournament.
The showdowns occur on
Friday and Saturday nights, are
unsupervised, and give each
hall a chance to claim glory
through the art of the paddle.
The hall lounge transforms
into a raucous arena within
minutes of the ‘champions’
taking the field.
Describing the atmosphere,
Shouri Gottiparthi, this year’s
HIPPO organizer, said, “It’s
not really about the ping pong,
it’s more about just the hype, I
guess, because it’s really fun.
“I mean, if the entire hall
is cheering one person on,
sometimes it’s dumb, but they
just like harass the other team,
and it’s kind of fun, and it
builds the hall’s unity, and it’s
just a fun activity.”
According to Gottiparthi,
after the initial round robin
tournament, playoffs will
begin in January.
Quickly becoming a Hunt
tradition, HIPPO was founded
two years ago by Zach Herbst
’12, Jin Kang ’13, and Corey
Su’13.
Su started the idea, but at
a smaller scale, in a match
between Fourth East and
Fourth West. HIPPO then
expanded to all the Hunt halls
under Herbst’s direction. Kang
made his mark by coining the
name HIPPO.
Since then, HIPPO has
survived to its third year and
is steadily becoming a Hunt
tradition. The victorious hall
in 2011 -2012 was Fourth West,
while the victorious hall last
year was Fourth East.
And to all past HIPPO
participants, organizers, and
Hunt residents, Herbst passes
on the following remarks,
“HIPPO provides some ftm
competition and bonding - after
hours - in Hunt. I encourage
everyone to continue playing
and enjoying themselves, as
that’s what HIPPO was really
about.”
While the jury is still out
on this year’s favorite to win,
one thing is for sure: there’s
still a lot of ping pong to be
played, a lot of hall pride to be
displayed, and a lot of glory to
be gained.
SG
update
By Kim Ngo
This past month. Student
Government has been work
ing on improving the school to
the request of the student body,
ranging from reconfirming
student discounts to providing
students with a more effective
way of grade transparency.
Student Government is divided
up into different committees
which have been working on
various things in response to
the request of the student body.
The goals and progress of each
committee includes:
Academic Affairs-
Teachers have been notified
about providing students
with a pre-trimester grade
report as a way to increase
grade transparency. Academic
Affairs has also changed mid
term reports from numbers to
letter grades.
Outreach- Every two
weeks, a new Vlog describing
the goals, progress, and future
events Student Government
is hosting along with pictures
of the student body at Student
Government run events are
posted on the Student Govern
ment Facebook page and on a
newly created YouTube Stu
dent Government page.
Programming- Hosted
the first fall Lock-in and the
Senior breakfast The focus of
the Programming Committee
now is on Mr. Uni, an all-male
pageant which will be held in
December.
Student Affairs- Student
discounts have been recon
firmed for the 2013-2014
school year. The Student Af
fairs Committee has also been
representing the student body
at the I-week planning meet
ings.
In addition to this. Student
Government has been work
ing with the Director of IT in
order to design a new SGA
website that includes a peti
tioning system that wilf allow
students to raise awareness and
get electronic signatures for
important issues, as well as an
online bill management system
so everyone can see the con
tent and status of all legislation
that goes through the senate. A
new Student Government seal
was also created thanks to Co
directors of Public Relaions
Julia Hu and Josh Jiang that
will be used by Student Gov
ernment from now on.
The new NCSSM Student
Government Association Seal
pictured left will be featured
in all SG materials.
Photo courtesy of Kim Ngo