<p>Your essay is evocative but unclear, written in a strange manner, and reads as “weird kid/got expelled”. The “not again” at the very beginning makes it sound like you were expelled for doing something for the umpteenth time (because in a dream, there’s no “again”, a defining characteristic of dreams is that in them you don’t have any past). Your going from one school to the other makes no sense and parents’ crying or thinking you idiotic don’t reflect well on you. The beginning would have promise if it segued into a frank declarative sentence (“It was just a nightmare: in my daily life I’d left this event behind but it came back in dreams”) instead of into a paragraph trying to be vaguely literary. It’d need a LOT of work to pass muster. So either scrap it, or get to work. 2nd paragraph should talk about who you are, now, what you do - 3rd paragraph can be a flashback to “recovery time” (skip the parents). You can spin the junior year repeat by saying you so desperately wanted to start anew that you did - you deliberately held yourself back and started junior year again to prove who you really are and dissociate yourself from the punk who acted up because he was 6,000 miles from home.</p>
<p>I don’t think you understand the impact that this combination, “student/gun/school” will have on American school administrators. Sure it was a BBGun, sure you changed, you’re no longer a smartass punk who thought a BBGun was whatever it was you thought it’d do for you back then, and wouldn’t be so reckless and stupid… but it doesn’t matter if they have to make choices and select among students. They may see you as a liability, who’ll be reckless on campus, perhaps even who is dangerous. You HAVE to disclose it on your application but it may be wise to focus your essay differently. I understand this was a turning point for you but to pull it off you’ll need to rewrite that essay.</p>
<p>That’s assuming you’re one of the lucky internationals whose parents have money and therefore can afford to be full pay. If not, that’s another issue.</p>
<p>You can keep your list, but add a few schools where you won’t have to really write an essay and you’ll be judged strictly on SATX GPA (plus, only marginally, on EC’s, etc.) - what about adding UMaryland, Penn State, and Miami-Ohio? </p>