I am documenting my experience and thoughts (for myself) throughout this whole process. I recently just left my previous school, a highly ranked and recognized magnet school. I was one of two black kids in my grade. The reason I left was very personal and I wrote about it in my common app. I hope the adcoms don’t take me leaving my senior year to a public school as me giving up. Besides I had a pretty good upward trend and my grades were good.
Stats wise I think I’m alright
Highest SAT: 1500 but a 1540 superscore
GPA: 3.995
Rank: did not get one because I came in late
EC: several school clubs related to my major
I own an organization that I will not name here
I sing in a choir
I have worked at a place I will not name
A lot of volunteering
Photography
ED:
Cornell (deferred/ accepted) (there’s a reason for this)
EA:
Case Western (accepted)
Drexel (Almost 100% sure I’ll be accepted)
Northeastern (accepted)
RD:
Howard (Almost 100% sure I’ll be accepted)
Duke (I really think Duke will accept me)
Brown (waitlisted/accepted)
JHU (waitlisted)
Rutgers (almost 100% sure I’ll be accepted)
Yale (rejected/waitlisted)
I’m so anxious. I just want to make my parents and most importantly myself proud. I always put myself down. In the last post I almost put down that I would be rejected and waitlisted at all those institutions. But I stopped myself and chose to be realistic.
I also have a fear that if I get admitted to a super selective school I will be criticized by my old classmates and they will downplay all my hard work for affirmative action.
I worked so hard to get to the point I am at now. I had to work twice as hard as them to prove I’m worthy because if I messed up I don’t get a second chance. After all, I don’t want to be labeled that black kid in class who got the question wrong.
I am not rich like 99% of the kids at my school. I didn’t get 5000 dollar Per class SAT lessons. I gave up my whole summer trying to figure out the SAT for myself.
I wasn’t invited to anything because I was “poor(I’m not even poor just not anywhere near where my classmates were)”, I was too dorky, and I was too black (I was either fetishized or my skin color was made fun of).
My smartness was downplayed to make others feel like they were above me but it was exaggerated when my classmates wanted to label me as dorky and give my classmates a reason to ignore me, etc.
My classmates thought I lived in the hood because I didn’t come from a rich town like them. I remember a time where one classmate talked about my hometowns high school being constantly shot up by gangs (which has never happened). I’m not even poor. I’m very middle class.
But even after all of this, and regardless of what the results are…I am proud of myself. I am proud of my hard work. I am proud that I am in the process of pursuing my dreams. I am proud that I have learned and continue to learn from my experiences. I’m proud that I am noticeably mentally stronger.
I guess this thread isn’t just documenting my admissions process but my senior year in general. But that’s ok. I’m getting tired and I’m meeting up with someone for breakfast tomorrow morning. I’ll just try to go to sleep and update when something comes to mind. This thread already looks insane…and scattered…with no focus…but that’s the reality of my mind
@4MyKidz Thank you so much. I just want to talk about my experience and let off some stress. But, I hope I can find other people I can relate to as well
@ucbalumnus Yes I have. If the net price calculator matches what I receive then my parents will be able to afford all the schools. My dream school was NYU, but my parents would not be able to afford it. My older sister went there for undergrad (a long time ago) and it was a serious financial burden for my sister and my parents. So, sadly I am not applying there.
Today my Molecular Cell Bio teacher curved the last test. I’ve never been so happy. He teaches us at a college level because he wants us to be ahead of the kids we have classes with in college. But this often results in the class average being a 50…so he curved them
I’m currently trying to write a grant in order to help build a new school in an underfunded school district. The problem is the plan would be several million dollars. This is a huge project and I don’t know how I am going to do it.
