<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I'm 17 and looking at Reed for Fall 2011. My education has been pretty unorthodox-- I started homeschooling in 6th grade, and stayed in district-based programs through middle school. In 9th, I was admitted to a technical (science, math, technology) magnet program at a local high school. I did pretty terribly my first year-- my teachers allowed me a lot of freedom-- I was far below the required GPA for continuation the next year, but I enrolled anyway. I dropped out before the first semester of 10th grade ended.</p>
<p>At the start of my junior year, I had six credits, and a 1.8 GPA from freshman year. The last math class I had passed was integrated algebra in 8th grade. I took the ACT COMPASS test to place in a dual-enrollment program at the local community college (where I would have made up all my high school credits and earned an AA by the end of my senior year), where I hit the ceiling on the reading and writing sections (99, 94 out of 100), and my math score placed me in calculus (which is as high as the COMPASS goes).</p>
<p>Haha, it was my resolve to focus and get through-- try and work with my interests to get through community college as well as I could. I dunno. Something else happened, though, and I got stuck with the best/worst professor-- my English professor had us read Foucault and Berger and Nietzsche-- this class changed a lot for me on a personal level, and I became so consumed with the material that I dropped my calculus course and failed the history class I was taking.</p>
<p>I tried to start a campus group with this professor, but after we got into Saussure the other two kids I had left. Hahahaha. Um.. that's another story, though.</p>
<p>I'm now almost done with my GED, which I have tested well on so far. I plan to take SATs in October or November. Studying for those lately. This professor is more than willing to write me a recommendation letter. I think we had a good relationship, she has said a lot of very nice things about me--</p>
<p>I may be able to get a letter from a mathematician I knew when I was in high school, through math team. I worked with him for a year on personal studies. Perhaps also from the Reed alumni I know, who has been so supportive and told me about the school. He's one of my closest real-life associates at the moment.</p>
<p>I guess I am incredibly self-directed. School was difficult because of my autodidactic tendencies. I had alternately good and tumultuous relationships with teachers because of this.. I had teachers tell me they would no longer discuss academic interests with me until my actual coursework improved.. that was all that mattered. I dunno.</p>
<p>I test well. I write well. I have had a general idea for some kind of research direction forming for a year or two-- it might be early to declare at 17-- I just hope this counts for something. I expect my SAT scores to be good. My "Why Reed?" essay is going to be about my work ethic; I'm tempted to go into exactly why my academic record is so bad, though I'm a little afraid to take the chance that my argument won't be enough to offset my shoddy record.</p>
<p>Do I have a shot here? I want to be an academic. All I've really wanted to do is study and read and work-- be productive-- I happened to discover my academic tendencies early on, when there's a strong conflict of interest between intellectualism and the education system you are bound to. I'm in a space where that doesn't have to exist anymore. I just hope I haven't ruined my chances.</p>