Demographics: California citizen. 17-year old male, Dad is German and Mom is Mexican. Culturally I have been Mexican all my life. LGBTQ+
Middle class (about 60k + SS), only one income from my mom who is a single parent (has been since 2008). Two other sisters, I’m the oldest.
Intended Major/Field of Study: International Relations/Global Studies, but I’ve been considering going into something like History/American Studies/Education (I think I want to be a higher education teacher when I’m older)
GPA Weighted: 4.00 (this is including freshman year, which was horrible for me. without freshman year it’s like a 4.18), school doesn’t do Unweighted or Class Rank Scores: ACT: 33 (trying to get it up to a 34) Subject tests: World History (770), United States (n/a), Literature (n/a) I find out the other SAT II scores next week. I want to take Spanish next and potentially Biology.
APs: World History, US History, English Lang and Comp, Environmental Science, Human Geo (self-study), Psychology (self-study), got 5’s on all of them except for APES which was a 4. Senior Year Courseload (all APs unless otherwise states) American Lit, Statistics, American Gov/Microeconomics, IB Global Politics. Took Government of the United States over the summer at a local community college. Going to take Anthropology at the same school in the fall.
ECs:
- Marching Band/Color Guard (three years, unavailable during freshman year)
- Co-Captain for Color Guard Varsity team, member of Student Band Council (basically Marching Band club but only for section leaders)
- 100+ volunteer hours from an animal shelter (didn’t volunteer there just to look good, I wrote something about why I chose an animal shelter specifically and how it connects to my personal life)
- Volunteered at smaller events that aren’t associated with one large group (done a few beach cleanups, volunteered at pride parades and Orange County fair, etc.)
- Part-time job at Michael’s (work on the weekends and on some Wednesdays)
- President of Animal Rights Awareness and Protection Club, Treasurer of Armenian Club (not Armenian)
- Peer College Counselor at school (takes up an entire period of my schedule, basically we help organize college events at our school and guide students through the application process, help seniors stay on track with graduation and applying to schools, etc.)
- Interned over with the Democratic Party in one of California’s counties, mostly desk and paper work but I got to meet some people running for office positions, helped register people for voting, etc.
- Created a website for APUSH help and tutoring ((I’ve made multiple practice exams and study guides for people to use, I made it because I actually really love U.S History and notice there weren’t many online sources for direct studying)
- Self-taught Portuguese over the summer (basic level but I’m pretty okay at it actually) since if I go down Global Politics career-wise I would like to study/visit Brazil.
- Questbridge College Prep Scholar and Hispanic Heritage Recognition Award from Collegeboard (Don’t know if either of these things really mean much)
Overall, I think my ECs are pretty decent, but I still have a month of summer left so I would like to do something more that will make this whole thing appealing. I want to be more involved in LGBT+ activism and such, and I plan on joining my school’s Gender-Straight Alliance next year. Does anyone know any LGBT organizations based in California that I could consider applying to/joining? I’d like to volunteer at more pride parades and events and just become more involved in the community overall. (I live in the San Fernando Valley)
Essays: So these will most likely be the main hook of my application. I have had a lot of life experiences and struggles (dad leaving us when we were young, mom going bankrupt, living in relative’s basement for a while, not having our own place until I was in the 6th grade, my dad dying in the middle of my sophomore year, etc.) so I plan to talk about all of these things in my essays. I have been told I am a good writer (don’t want to brag but just trying to give a better image of how my essays will turn out) so I think if I do really well with my essays I’ll have a shot. I don’t plan on making them sob stories but rather showing how those events have turned me into the person I am today, and just talking about all of the little quirky things that make me, me. Showing my personality through my essays is going to be my main shot at being competitive for some of these schools, and hopefully that’s what I can do.
LORs: APUSH teacher (had her for 11th grade APUSH, loves me and she said I was the best in her class? not supposed to be a brag, just trying to provide more context about how she feels about me), APES Teacher (11th grade, likes me a lot I think). Will ask AP Lang teacher if I have to (or one of my senior year teachers)
My GPA is really low because I had a trash freshman year and first semester of sophomore year. Second semester of sophomore year and my Junior year all had great GPAs (4.5 and such), so it has been nothing but an upward trend since my freshman year. Hoping I have a really good first semester for Senior year as well in case they ask for those grades.