To Whom This May Concern,
I am writing a letter to UCLA in order to try and get an appeal. I personally feel that the Admissions office did not get the entire sense of my background based on my personal insights, but I have myself to blame for that, as I didn’t completely explain my situation.
When I was a child, I lost my mother, and although it may not affected me then, it really did change events in my life. My dad married my stepmom, and has a had a very troublesome relationship with her. About 7 years ago, my stepmom went to jail, and my father was left alone to take care of us. At this time he developed a drug addiction which was extremely severe, as he would sometimes leave the house for various days before returning, leaving us home worried.
When my stepmom was released from jail, she was deported, so my dad quickly moved to Tijuana to help her out. In Tijuana, the same routine that I noted in my application occurred for us to get to school. I wasn’t able to, however, comment on the process after school. It was really difficult for me to participate in almost any sport at my school, or any activities, due to the border. Right after school, I would have to take the bus, which would take hours to arrive for one to pick me up because so many students needed to go to the border. When I would get at the border, I would take a small bus to my house that was about 25 minutes away. It became a problem from sophomore to my current year, because I have a science teacher that asks for mandatory tutorings after school. As a result, I would come home at about 7-8 PM to do my homework, shower, and sleep. This became harder from sophomore to junior year, where my classes got more difficult by the year, leaving me to go to bed by 2 to 3 AM and wake up the next day at 5 AM. Living in TJ practically didn’t allow me to be the student I always wanted to be in high school.
Unfortunately, the location was not the only problem. As time progressed, my father’s addiction had started to affect us. There were times when he would leave our house for a week and fail to take us to school when he promised, leaving us with no choice but to stay home. This really destroyed me, because my stepmom never really liked me. She treated me horribly, and I would always look up to my father for help. But when his addiction continued, I had no one else to relate to, except for my sister, who unfortunately, in my case, moved to college at UCLA. This really affected my performance, mostly in the beginning of senior year on my SAT and ACT, because I felt very alone, almost like nothing mattered anymore because no one in my family cared about me.
In all reality, I worked extremely hard in high school. I took many complicated classes, as I wanted to prove myself, like yours. I felt like I was extremely humble in my application process, because that’s the kind of person I am. My purpose here was not to build pity, but to demonstrate the numerous obstacles imposed on me throughout my high school life. Even my social life deteriorated, as it was almost impossible to hang out with my friends, because my dad never wanted to take me to the border, as he felt it was a waste of money. And yes, to add insult to injury, money was extremely tight the past few years. It limited the amount of things that we could do. I really think I proved myself worthy of attending such a fine institution like UCLA based on the many hardships I overcame, my grades, and the work I did for my community. These experiences and hardships molded me into a person that would try and make the lives of others with a similar experience for the better. I’m sure that at UCLA, I will develop my skills into ones that will help the people living on the streets to have comfortable homes to live in.
I hope this appeal will allow you to reconsider the outcome of my application, as I had an extreme and uncontrollable burden that deprived me of doing many influential things at school, such as extracurricular activities. I thank you all for your time that you put in evaluating my application.
Sincerely,
Ivan