<p>Hello, I am P. Bromide and I am new here. I would like to know what my chances are for getting into Swarthmore, my top choice, as well as some of my other schools (Oberlin College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Florida). Swarthmore is my top choice, so I shall focus on that, but anything pertaining to the other schools would be extremely helpful as well.</p>
<p>Academics
I have a 3.9 GPA unweighted, and a 5.7~ GPA weighted. I am in the Cambridge Global Studies program, which allows me to take AS and A-level classes. It is best explained as the English equivalent to IB (although I am not located in England :P). I have taken as many AICE classes as possible with a few AP classes (AP French, and am currently taking AP Government/Macroeconomics) and one regular class (Debate). I do pretty well and I am very interested in my classes and academia in general. On the SAT I received a 780 in reading, a 680 in math, and a 740 in writing. Recently I took the US History and French SAT subject tests and will receive my scores in three weeks.</p>
<p>I would like to major in Linguistics, maybe Psychology as well? Linguistics is really my passion. I basically studied AP French on my own due to scheduling problems and received a 4, which was the highest grade anybody in that class got (and everyone else had the actual class!). I am taking the most advanced AICE mathematics course my school offers (pure math II) and basically doing independent study there too (three other people passed the exam and we just study on our own). I have taken pretty much every social studies course my school offers - US History, Sociology, Psychology, Human Geography, Economics... as you can tell, I really want to study social science!</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities
My most significant and "official" extracurricular activity was taking piano classes for around four years. Unfortunately due to a dire economic situation I have been forced to no longer take them this year. I have participated in one recital. I have basically taught myself music theory. I am rather good at piano, but I am not sure if I am "competitive." I like making music; I try to cover a wide range of genres and occasionally use unusual chord progressions and time signatures. I have written a few poppy songs and I would love to be able to make a whole pop album with a band.</p>
<p>I have been in the Amnesty International Club for four years. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts with piano I was rarely able to stay for the events. I have participated in several of the letter write-ins and phone-ins, but I was not as active as I would have liked to be.</p>
<p>I was in the English Honor Society last year and have reapplied this year, but I considered it a huge waste of my time and also had scheduling conflicts with piano. The only reason I am in it this year is because I feel that it would look bad if I did not join it again and also because I have been assured that there will actually be activities this year (we did nothing related to English last year. Nothing.). I was in French Honor Society freshman and sophomore year and I was nominated to be Vice President, a position I really looked forward to accepting, but the French Honor Society was replaced by "world language honor society" next year and I really did not want to participate in this sham of a club, so I was unfortunately never able to really participate in French Honor Society. I consider most clubs in my school to be a waste of time and think that being president of such a waste of time would be an even bigger waste of time on my part, so I had no interest in becoming an officer in any other club.</p>
<p>I was in debate my sophomore year, when I took the class. I did Public Forum and had a series of very awful partners except for my last partner. I advanced to the semifinals at one competition. We did no debate prep whatsoever in class ever, so compared to the kids who obviously practiced we did rather well. I liked debate, although it made me nervous like no tomorrow. Unfortunately I could not participate in debate competitions if I was not in the class, so I was unable to continue debate. I was nominated "Most Outstanding Novice" and had around 100 NFL points.</p>
<p>My freshman and sophomore year, I participated in this economics competition called "Euro Challenge." I was a back-up member the first year and a major team member the next year. We advanced to the semifinals in New York, which was pretty amazing considering that our school had only started doing it my freshman year. I thought it was a pretty awesome experience and I definitely learned a lot about the European Union and how the economy works. The competition was limited to freshmen and sophomore, so after I left 10th grade I was unable to participate.</p>
<p>Those are my most notable extracurricular activities. There are other small ones (Geography Bee) but they did not amount to much. My actual, "unofficial" extracurricular activities include teaching myself languages and doing some web design. I have been teaching myself Russian for three years and I can, with a little difficulty, read a newspaper and understand not just the general gist but also point out details that would not have been present in an English translation. I love Russian - it is my favorite language. Recently I have been messing around with Swedish and Hindi for fun, but Russian is my serious, "I want to become totally fluent" language. The others are just distractions, at most I hope to be able to understand pop music (which I can do rather well in Swedish) and engage in small talk. I do not know if I can list this as an extracurricular activity, being that it is not sanctioned by school or any private tutor.</p>
<p>Community Service
Oh, here comes the bad part. My community service is... less than outstanding. I have 130~ hours from Amnesty, mock trials, random things, and a project completed freshman year which involved making an English-ASL powerpoint dictionary to help the parents of deaf children. I have done other things for which I never received hours, but besides my ASL PowerPoint I have no project. :| Yeah, I am worried.</p>
<p>Other?
I run a fan website for Pokemon, Paper Mario, and EarthBound. Yeah, a video game fan. The site has existed in one form or another since 2005. There are two distinct periods: 2005-2009 (then our server crashed and I lost every single file), and then 2009-2010, where I recoded the site from scratch, recovered a little content, and expanded the site to include Paper Mario and EarthBound. Unfortunately due to a very hectic and plainly awful junior year, I was unable to update it during 2011. I update it sporadically, whenever I have something to put up; I do not believe in having a schedule.</p>
<p>I also designed and coded our academy's website. I am Adobe Certified in using Flash and Photoshop CS3.</p>
<p>I self-published a book that I had written for NaNoWriMo, although it is not exactly my opus magnum and I wouldn't show it off for its quality... it was written in a month, after all.</p>
<p>Why Swarthmore
I will try to make this short seeing as my post is a dang monster. My original first choice was Georgetown because I read that it was very commendable in linguistics, as well as offering a good foreign policy program and just generally having cool classes (I have never watched Star Trek, but I would love to take Georgetown's "philosophy of Star Trek" class). I liked the location and it seemed academic life was rigorous.</p>
<p>However, when I was looking up back-up schools that were good for linguistics, I came across Swarthmore. Now Swarthmore had once sent me e-mails, so I dismissed them as "one of those schools" that is just desperate for students. Upon researching it, however, I started to like it. They had a lot of linguistics graduates, and the linguistics classes offered there seemed more 'core' than the ones offered at Georgetown. I researched the populace and found that apparently it was very rigorous academically, which I liked, and did not have a ridiculous party life (I really cannot stand fraternities and sororities and so hearing that they did not rule the school was a relief). I just generally liked the feel of them - the sort of people that went there seem to have a good sense of humor but are also serious and dedicated. Their mascot is a phoenix, for crying out loud. That is just too awesome. In addition, they are somewhat near Philadelphia, so I will not end up stranded in a college town with nothing to do.</p>
<p>I liked University of Pennsylvania because I knew Language Log was published by them and I recognize that they are rather prominent in linguistics. In addition, I felt like I could get into the University of Pennsylvania, that it was not a long shot. Oberlin, I have not done much research on but I just liked its vibe. UF is just in case money difficulties force me to stay instate.</p>
<p>In conclusion!
I am very sorry for this monster of a post! I tried looking at some of the other 'chance' topics to see what sort of stuff I should put in. I feel it is worth mentioning that although my taxes may not say it, I definitely, definitely need student aid if I want to go out of state. Loans are out of the question. I am trying to apply to as many scholarships as possible, especially those that require essays. We have recently found ourselves in a very dire economic situation, although unfortunately our taxes will not reflect that and so we probably will not get aid. :c I am very grateful to anyone who responds!</p>