<p>Hi guys,
I just found this forum and I have a question about some of the activities I did this summer. I don't want to seem like a rich kid or the kid with the silver spoon, because frankly, I'm far from that, and I have had to work a lot for my stuff.</p>
<p>I'll start from the beginning (it's a long story, so please bear with me). It's totally cool if you don't feel like reading the whole thing :).</p>
<p>Last winter I did some research on my two main fields of interest, biology and physics. I narrowed down my interests and figured out some specific topics that I wanted to research. I looked for labs with research on my topics, to my dismay none were willing to accept high schoolers (or maybe it was just me :)).</p>
<p>Later, I found a summer program that offered kids the opportunity to do research abroad, in a country that I was fascinated with, Germany. I had wanted to learn the language, and to learn more about the culture for a long time. In addition to this, I found a lab at the host location that specialized in my area of interest. I was ecstatic - to say the least!</p>
<p>Anyways, here comes the kicker:</p>
<p>the program price was extremely high (think Harvard SSP high).</p>
<p>I come from a middle class family, and my parents place a lot of value on education, so they were willing to pick up the tab. However, I could not and did not let them do that. </p>
<p>So, I worked like a mad man for the month or so before the trip and managed to scrounge up the money for the trip. My parents didn't have to pay anything, not even the plane tickets. While I was there, I conducted a great deal of research (sometimes 10 hours a day, and sometimes on weekends too), and I will be submitting my paper to Siemens Westinghouse and Intel STS.</p>
<p>However, I'm concerned about how the admissions officers will view my trip. I'm afraid they view it as a big vacation for some rich kid with nothing better to do during the summer, when in reality, that's probably about as far from the truth as you can get (in my opinion). It doesn't help my case either that most of the research was conducted in English (I picked up most of my German outside of work).</p>
<p>I read in a different forum about how admissions officers view international volunteering - they wonder, why this kid had to go help some aborigines 10,000 miles away when he could have helped in his neighborhood. In my case, the modified version of that argument is valid as well (Why Russia when you can do the same thing in the USA?)... It's true that my research probably could have been done somewhere in the USA, but I also wanted to pick up some of the German language and culture. I wanted the whole experience. Taking German classes in the USA just isn't the same as being completely immersed in the culture. Maybe, it was stubborn, thickskulled, and even spoiled of me to do so, but I made the choice, and I made the money with my own sweat, time, and labor. </p>
<p>I can't justify the spending in words or in writing that well, but it was an incredible, life-changing experience.</p>
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<p>Anyways, the focus is, how should I get this message across to the adcoms? Should I say something about it in the interview? How else should I do it (in case my interviewer doesn't relay it on)?</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your time.</p>