<p>I WILL CHANCE YOU TOO! :D
Hi! Okay, so my first choice is American, but I am concerned that it is a bit of a stretch for my grades. I have a HUGE interest in International Relations, but this is a relatively new-found passion. For this reason my ECs don't entirely reflect my interest, which also concerns me, because how will admissions committees understand that? I am pretty sure that prefacing an application puts up more of a red flag than not doing so.. so I won't be doing that.</p>
<p>For frosh and soph years I went to an undistinguished school with nondescript classes and bourgeois teachers. I hated it, so I transferred for junior year to a Magnet GT/IB high school which just recently dropped out of the "Newsweek Elite," (everyone blames this on the new principal). I think we are currently ranked 128 in the nation. Anyway, I transferred for the IB program. My grades were okay, not as good as I had expected to get, but I experienced culture shock during my transfer because the work was more rigorous than anything I'd ever had. Everyone else, however, was accustomed to it, having done magnet middle school and high school.
Toward the end of my junior year I got accepted to study abroad in Spain, so I spent my summer preparing for this, not for college (because I would have to do an extra year of high school when I got back, so college wasn't in my near future), not doing internships, and not going to Governor's School. Three weeks before I was supposed to leave, though, my host family in Spain dropped out of the program due to some sort of family emergency. Of course what did that leave me with? No more IB, because I wouldn't have been able to meet the requirements in the time I had left, since I didn't anticipate graduating yet, only about 30% of the money I payed to go, and a TON of confusion.
So, here I am, at the very beginning of an unanticipated senior year, with hardly any idea what I am doing.</p>
<p>Classes this year:
AP English, Honors/Magnet African American Literature (I took it for the AWESOME teacher), German, AP Government/Politics, Theory of Knowledge Part 2, AP Macroeconomics , Honors/Magnet Conversations in Diversity, and Honors Spanish IV.
Classes last year:
Audio Production, Honors Spanish III, AP/IB English, Piano, Honors Precalculus, Theory of Knowledge Part 1, AP/IB History of the Americas, AP Psychology</p>
<p>TOTAL APs and Honors by graduation- 26, 6 of which are AP
SCORES:
IB Psychology-4/5
AP Psychology-3
AP English-4
I didn't take the History because I had a TERRIBLE teacher. As in, we didn't even get past WW2 before the AP exam, which equates to I HAD NO CHANCE.
I am pretty sure I will get a 4 or 5 on all three of my APs this year, because I excel in those courses.</p>
<p>Weighted GPA~4.2
SAT-1920 I am aware it isn't stellar, but I probably won't take it again.
I plan to take SAT Subject tests in English and Spanish.</p>
<p>Extra-Curricular Activities:
Piano from age 5 to present (I am almost 17)
-Most Improved Award
-I have led numerous recitals
-Best Performance Award
Soccer from age 4 to 16
-CASL 9th through 11th grade
-Hamilton Sportsmanship Award
Archery 2010 through present
-compete on state level
-2010/2011 State Champion in my division
Enloe Literary Organization (our school's published art, poetry, and short story magazine)
-member junior and senior year
-editor senior year
Spanish Club
-member frosh and soph years, until I transferred schools
Volunteer at a local art gallery "ArtSpace"
-I'm a docent, giving tours nearly every week to varying groups of people
-Downtown Raleigh hosts First Friday Gallery Walks once a month, so I work for that, too
Volunteer for Food Bank
-a few times a year for the past, I'd say 5 years
Volunteer for Wake County's Annual Library Sale, every year since 2008
Volunteer for Durham's Annual Centerfest, every year since 2008
Volunteer for Dress for Success</p>
<p>I have 2 FANTASTIC teacher recommendations, and possibly 1 or 2 more recommendations that probably won't be as stellar, just because I am really close with the 2 teachers who wrote the great ones.</p>
<p>I speak Spanish fairly well, due to years of classes. I understand German completely, but do not fluently speak it because I lack knowledge of their grammatical system; I am trying to fix this, though, by taking German in school. I am teaching myself French, as well, and am getting pretty good at it, might I add.</p>
<p>OH YEAH, I think this fact may help my applications a tad: I am Hispanic. Well, technically I am Cuban and German, but I am listed as Hispanic on all important school documents and such.</p>
<p>As I said before, I am REALLY hoping for American, but I am also going to apply to GWU, William and Mary (really long shot), Eugene Lang @ The New School, Princeton (because my parents live in a sad little bubble I like to call a fantasy world), some UNC schools, and probably a few others. (If only I could afford/get into NYU---my LIFE LONG DREAM, and I would get to move back to NY!!)
If you have any other recommendations PLEASE let me know, they will all be duly noted and much appreciated. And PLEEAASSEE let me know if you think I have a chance at any of these, but most specifically at AMERICAN.
BE HONEST, but not unnecessarily mean, please.
I understand- "The truth is rarely pure and never simple" Oscar Wilde.</p>