<p>I feel like I'm just punching myself in the stomach by posting here. (I also hope no one recognizes me here.) But here goes!</p>
<p>I'm currently a junior at a highly competitive all-girls prep school.</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.5
PSAT: 221
SAT I: 2240
(Critical reading: 760; Math: 780; Writing: 700)
I plan to retake this because I only wrote one paragraph on the essay, eek.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
- Editor-in-chief of the high school newspaper
- Made varsity fencing as a freshman, and captain of the team last fall
- Musical composition; I produce/record original songs and have my own CD currently. I'm well-established in the local music scene
- Weekly volunteer at a rehabilitation center for victims of political torture, trafficking, etc; I teach ESL and guitar there
- member of Amnesty International; I'm working on an independent project, researching sex trafficking rings in my city
- First flute in orchestra; made all-state band, all-state solo & ensemble
- Trained in vocal performance; all-state solo & ensemble
- 3rd year member of the (very selective) diversity committee at school and I was picked to go on a trip to Seattle for SDLC
- Intern for a literary agency
- Poet... does this count? I hope so... I won the memorial prize for poetry at my school last year, have been recognized in local magazines, and was honored in the gold circle awards by Columbia</p>
<p>Colleges:
- Brown (this will take a miracle)
- NYU (Gallatin)
- Northwestern
- USC
- BU
- Kenyon
- Syracuse</p>
<p>My GPA is obviously very low and that pretty much shoots my chances at any top-tier colleges. A large part of that is my commitment to my extracurriculars. I really truly love all the things that I do. A fault of mine is that I obsessively immerse myself in them...which is good for the newspaper or the team, but not so great for my academics.</p>
<p>I think this is turning into an autobiography now, but bear with me.</p>
<p>Almost two years ago now, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Unfortunately it was caught quite late, so she ended up doing lots of high dose treatments for long periods of time at an out-of-town hospital. As for me, my parents placed me in boarding for a year. This was really difficult because I felt so separated from my family. Moreover, our house is literally 10 minutes from school! Luckily my mom is recovering now, and I am so happy for that.</p>
<p>Basically -- I keep finding myself flitting back and forth between my life philosophies. On one hand, I feel the need to perfect myself in every way; pain now, happiness later. But on the other, (brace for the cliche).. life's way too short. I may be too young to say this, but I have a really strong sense of myself. I know what I love, and I want to do what I love.</p>
<p>For that reason, independence is really important to me. Not independence in the sense of being a hermit, but independence in that I can explore myself and meet other people. The reason Brown and NYU are at the top of my list is that they promise exactly that, plus a great education. Columbia (REACH!) is obviously the top j-school, but their core classes seem all-consuming.</p>
<p>Anyway perhaps all that blah-blah-blahing was to distract from the obvious red flag - my low GPA. Let's focus on that! It's a bit too late to do anything much about it...</p>
<p>So should I even bother applying to my reach schools?</p>