<p>Though not really elderly, 23 is elderly enough by college admissions standards.</p>
<p>I'm applying to the Frances Perkins program at Mount Holyoke, the Ada Comstock program at Smith, and the Elizabeth Kaiser Davis program at Wellesley. These are all programs for women age 24 or over, or younger women with spouses and children. As you undoubtedly know, these are selective (Wellesley being the most selective, Mount Holyoke the least) women's colleges in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>I did not graduate high school, but took a G.E.D. and graduated from my local technical college magna cum laude and Phi Theta Kappa in 1999, at age 17. I joined the military reserves and was an honor graduate. I've been published once in an anthology. In my youth, I won dozens of music awards on an unusual instrument. I've raised two children as a teenaged mother.</p>
<p>My major problem is that I spent a year and a half at university when I was 19-21. It was a major mistake, as I was working two jobs and raising two children alone, while dealing with an unsupportive and abusive partner. None of my professors knew me, I was always running in to class late and leaving early, I consistently missed deadlines, and my grades were in the B-C range -- a far cry from my actual capabilities, but on 3 hours of sleep a night and constant personal crises, it was the best I could do.</p>
<p>That was a year and a half ago, and I've separated permanently from the partner, I've found other means of financial support so I don't have to work myself into the grave, and my children and I are much more stable. Now that that's completed, I want to go and finish my bachelor's degree.</p>
<p>However, my most recent college transcript is lackluster, my professors from technical college 6 years ago probably don't remember me from any other students, those few who are there (many were adjuncts), and having not worked in some time, I have precious few people to recommend me. I've volunteered extensively, but in a one-on-one situation, so my supervisors could really only say that I wrote my reports on time and no one's complained about me. I have many interesting characteristics to recommend me, but no one really to back them up and a lackluster recent college transcript to boot.</p>
<p>Any advice, besides write a very strong essay?</p>
<p>I've used a pseudonym here because I don't want this Googlable under my name, should any officials do that.</p>