I originally wrote this during spring break for myself so I could maybe one day remember what I went through during HS, but I’ve decided to share this story. Warning: It’s pretty long.
Before I start, here’s some background info on me: I’m an Asian male who goes to a school district where the average income is probably above 200k. I can’t play a sport to save my life. I suck at math and science. So basically, I have no hooks.
Back when I was a kid, I’d say I did pretty well in school. I got by middle school with straight As without much studying, and I was on par with all of my high achieving friends (who are going to top universities next year). However, once high school started, everything started to go downhill. I go to one of the top public schools in the state, and it is very well respected by universities for its rigorous and strong academics. Of course, I didn’t know this when I started high school, and I thought I could get straight As and not study – just like I did in middle school. Big mistake.
I ended my first semester of freshman year with across-the-board Bs and B-s. I thought to myself, once I get used to this environment, I’ll be able to pull off straight As like before, no problem. But it didn’t get better. By the end of my freshman year, I had straight Bs while all of my smart friends got mostly As.
Sophomore year was even worse. I struggled through my first AP class (chem, which was the hardest AP in the school), and consistently got Ds and Cs on tests. I was also too lazy to do my homework or study for my other classes. Usually, I’d just go home from school every day and watch Youtube videos/play video games instead of focusing on schoolwork. My filthy work habits resulted in even worse grades than last year’s – my sophomore GPA was below 3.0.
Now by then, I knew that junior year was the most important year of high school and that I couldn’t screw up. I went into junior year determined to turn myself around. Still, the allure of Facebook, Youtube, and Warcraft III was still too strong, and destroyed my attempts to get a better academic record. As a result, I ended my first marking period of junior year with 3 Cs. I was angry at myself for screwing up – for handicapping myself so early in the year.
During my second marking period, I did a little better and got all B+s. However, my slacker attitude had not prepared me well for midterms, and I was completely destroyed by them. I got a D- on my AP calc AB midterm and got low Bs in the rest of them. This was when everything began to change.
Right after midterms were finished, a lot of my high-achieving friends began to talk about colleges and their plans after high school. I consistently heard about their dream schools – Penn, Cornell, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, UNC, UVA… While my friends were already looking into their dream schools, I didn’t even KNOW what school I wanted to go to yet. Worse yet, I didn’t have the stats to make it into any school beyond my flagship state school, Rutgers.
That was when I really decided to turn my life around and stop being such a slacker. SATs were coming up, and I knew that they would be my best chance to improve my academics for college. I got a 2150, a respectable score, on my first try, but I wanted more. I went to Barnes and Noble every weekend to study for the SATs. I borrowed various prep books from the shelves to do problems in my notebook for hours on end.
At the same time, I worked harder in school, and actually managed to get some As for my third marking period. Fourth marking period was even better, and I got straight As for the first time in my high school career. My final year report was – 2 As and 3 Bs in my core classes. I talked with my GC about my college prospects next year, and he gave me some advice that I don’t really remember. The only thing I remember from that conversation was that he gave me my class rank. I was in the top 40% of my class.
Over the summer before senior year, I really started to freak out about colleges. I finally knew that GPA was the most important factor, and that my horrid transcript would probably disqualify me from all of my college choices. Still, regardless of my 3.2 UW GPA, I found a “dream school” (UCLA) that I could work towards.
Once senior year started, I wasted no time with my essays. The college essays were my chance to stand out and show that I’m not the typical 4.0/2200/president of 130101359710 clubs applicant, and I decided to take full advantage of that. Instead of taking the traditional route of writing a generic essay about generic topics, I tried to make my essay unique by imbuing them with my own style and creativity. I read books like “X College Essays that Succeeded” and tried my best to make my essays look nothing like the essays in the book. Meanwhile, I took the October SAT and scored a 2290/1540.
By November, my essays were pretty much all finished, and frankly, I was very proud of them. They were all unique and I had a feeling they would do me well by setting me apart from the rest of the crowd.
I applied to a ton of schools: Rutgers, NYU Stern, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, UNC, UVA, UCLA, Berkeley, Georgetown, Wake Forest, Boston College, Duke, Cornell, Vanderbilt, and WashU. This list was laughable for someone with a GPA like mine.
Then came the agonizing wait. Although everyone was nervous about colleges, I was particularly anxious because there was a very real possibility that I would end up at my safety, Rutgers. My parents’ attitude didn’t help – they had no hope in me and constantly told me that they were disappointed in me and that I would end up at Rutgers.
I checked College Confidential EVERY DAY, looking up decisions threads from previous years, seeing if there were any applicants in the past like me who got in.
Over three months after I submitted my applications, my first decisions came back on March 23rd. I was hit with a total of FIVE rejections that day, including my dream school, UCLA. Receiving all those rejection letters from WashU, UCLA, UNC (waitlist), Boston College, and UVA left me devastated. I became depressed, knowing that I was screwed.
However, Monday, the 25th, had much better news. I received acceptances from Carnegie Mellon and Wake Forest and a waitlist at Vanderbilt.
My final college results were: Duke (reject), Cornell (reject), Georgetown (reject), Boston College (reject), UCLA (reject), Berkeley (reject), UVA (reject), WashU (reject), NYU Stern (waitlist), Michigan (waitlist), UNC (waitlist), Vanderbilt (waitlist), Carnegie Mellon (accept), Wake Forest (accept), Rutgers pharmacy (accept).
In the end, I feel really fortunate that I got into three very strong schools with my GPA and class rank(was way below the average accepted GPAs for my HS). I think my story really shows how important the intangible factors like essays and recs are. I’m pretty sure that if I had written generic essays, I wouldn’t have gotten into any of those schools.
I’m trying to get off the waitlists of Vandy, Michigan, and UNC, but if those don’t work out, I’ll be attending CMU next year.
Anyway, thanks for taking your time to read my story 
