<p>Long story. I apologize, but could really use some voice of reason. If you want to skip the story, read the last two paragraphs for my point in it all.</p>
<p>I'm starting my first semester at the local college in less than a month and recently a few things have made me seriously (very seriously, in fact) consider withdrawing and holding back another year to be better prepared.</p>
<p>My eventual goal is Harvard Law school, hell or high water. Considering that, I have planned a philosophy major and then an earned transfer to one of five of the top ten Liberal Arts colleges which do not require the SAT, which I never took. The college near me was recently voted by the Aspen Institute (Florida?s</a> Valencia College Named Top US Community College | The Aspen Institute) to be the top two year college in the country. The school also started an enhancement to their honors program in an honors college which has higher requirements for graduation and offers a full tuition scholarship for those accepted. According to the honor's director, I was one of the first to apply, and I was in the first group accepted. I'm ready to start in a few weeks but ran into some doubts..</p>
<p>The thing is I've used the examples of two particular students as a a backdrop for "I can do it too" in motivating me. One starts at Emory this fall, and one is starting their last year at Amherst this fall. Both of those students came from my school, so it's possible, right? Well that's what I thought too. I recently found out the student attending Emory earned the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer scholarship with a hard story a lot of hard work. He had no home for a while while attending school, and his application was heavily need-based. I hold no such story, which is somewhat discouraging for comparing myself to this student.</p>
<p>The other student, who transferred to my top target school (Amherst), I'd met Friday night at an alumni gathering and I picked his brain. Turns out he scored a 2400 on the SAT, and founding the Honor's Advisory Committee as well as the Alumni of Honor's Students organizations all while doing the heavy extracurricular work I'd come to expect from a student accepted to Amherst (of which I had planned to follow through with). Having not taken the SAT and obviously not being in a position to found two very important organizations to the honor's college at the school, I feel maybe I cannot compare to this student's application and maybe Amherst has much much higher expectations for transfers than I had originally thought. If you're not aware, by the way, Amherst is the second top Liberal Arts college in the country, and transfers in 60% or so of their students from two year colleges. They have an entire program for it.</p>
<p>Ok, as for myself: I'm in my later 20's and work full time at a job I had planned to quit starting next year to concentrate on school and extracurriculars full time.</p>
<p>My goals for the two years before transferring were the following;</p>
<ul>
<li>Start a Vegetarian/Vegan Society</li>
<li>(Plan many beneficial events for this club)</li>
<li>Continue volunteering, participating, and eventually organizing for the Vegetarians of Central Florida group (local city-wide group with many large events).</li>
<li>Present at the Florida Collegiate Honors Council Conference in Feb a very compelling project on the environmental and ethics related to obtaining from animal by-products (veganism)</li>
<li>Become a Vice President (now) of the Honor's Advisory Committee, and next year run for President.</li>
<li>Earn an invitation and later run for President of my local PTK (Phi Theta Kappa Two-year college Honor Society) chapter.</li>
<li>Continue writing for my website/blog compelling articles on my lifestyle to keep a heavy educational role in expanding my vegan beliefs for the curious and interested.</li>
<li>Continue volunteering at my local hospital, of which I have 100+ honors, for a goal of maybe 500 hours.</li>
<li>Potentially earn a nomination to the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.</li>
</ul>
<p>I was ready to jump on these above goals while maintaining as close as possible to a 4.0 in as rigorous a course-load (read: difficult in science and math) as I could with the hope that it would be of caliber for transferring to Amherst, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Wellesley, or Claremont McKenna. Now I'm not so sure if my proposed goals will even cut it after finding out more about the students that have transferred from my school to schools of this level. </p>
<p>What do you all think? Am I delusional in thinking that even if I accomplish all of these goals of mine that I will still likely not have a high chance of transferring to Amherst or one of the above schools?</p>