So I am currently a junior in high school. I feel like I would be a strong candidate for decent schools, but my GPA took a hit second semester freshmen year and all of sophomore year.
The reason for that was because of household issues. My dad was incarcerated during my freshmen year and was on house arrest up until the begging of my junior year. He’s now back in prison for another 2 years. While he was on house arrest, I was also taking care of my younger cousin most days after school + weekend. My cousin is 3 years old but hard of hearing and he cannot walk without a walker, so it’s a lot to take care of him. He also cannot talk, and doctors think he has some form of cerebral palsy. My parents (who are actually my grandparents, I was adopted by them in middle school because my mom was out of the picture up) are both manual laborers who work long hours, so it was hard to focus on studying. My (biological) dad wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around, so my household was very toxic, and he didn’t really take care of my younger cousin while at home. All these things PLUS the fact that was JUST diagnosed with dyscalculia has made things very difficult. My dyscalculia is the reasoning behind my Cs and Ds in math and quantitative science classes. My school isn’t the best for helping out with learning disabilities, but once you saw my Junior year transcript it was clear that I had something holding me back. I had all As (one of those being my non quantitative science class)and 2 Bs and my one D in math, that’s when I brought it up with my counselor about getting tested for dyscalculia. I ended up having it, but it feels too little too late at this point. I’m probably going to get a C or C+ in math this semester.
My trend is as follows:
Freshmen year-
Sem. 1: 3.6
Sem. 2: 3.2
Sophomore year-
Sem. 1: 2.7
Sem. 2: 2.2
Junior year-
Sem. 1: 3.3
Sem. 2 (expect): 3.5
HS Background:
- competitiveJesuit high school in Illinois
-Avg. ACT = 29
-School doesn’t rank
STATS:
GPA: 3.00
ACT: 31
APs/Honors:
AP US History
AP Comparative Gov.
AP English Lang.
Honors Earth Science
Honors Environmental
Honors Latin 2
Ancient Greek 1 (difficult class, not honors, but because it’s another ancient language teachers and counselors say colleges would view it was an honors class)
Senior year I will be taking:
AP European History
AP Latin 4
Honors Marine Bio
Honors English Seminar
Honors Evil in Literature
Immersion Religion (outside campus service oriented)
Finite and Stats
ECs:
School:
Model UN- 3 years
ALAS (Alliance of Latin American Students)- 3 years
Spirit Store Club- 2 years, co-founding member
Voices of Women- 2 years
String Wizards-1 year- executive board
-I and a few other girls repair violins for inner-city orchestras
**Received special recognition for the Allstate Foundation Prize Competition w/ $250 to spend on program development
Formation and Ministry (FAM)
~I was able to attend the Ignatian Family Teach In for Justice in D.C. It is a way for Jesuit high schools and colleges to learn and advocate for social issues on Capitol Hill.
~Organized a call-in about certain policies concerning asylum seekers on the border
~Give input on Ignatian Value Days for my school. IVDs are ways for the school to go to mass, have speakers, and collaborate amongst classes about topics ranging from wars to mass incarceration to sexuality.
Community Service:
Community Tutoring Alliance- 2 years- tutor younger children at a bilingual school and a specialized hard of hearing school
Local Nursing Home-5+ years- help out almost every weekend, have around 850+ hours there
Service/Internship:
I help out at a legal aid law firm 3 days every week, it counts as both an internship and volunteer hours
I started to do this this year because I felt I had a duty to do something, even if it’s just a little, to give back to my community and children that are in the same position as me.
Extra:
~2x published poet
~Was a part of a 6-month program with UChicago that focused on south side Chicago teens and poetry. It would be workshopping, podcast radio interviews, and overall just being able to hone the craft of writing.
~I am part of a community outreach scholarship program that provides low income high school students with scholarships to attend private high schools in the area. I have monthly meetings there, college meetings with counselors, financial literacy days, community service days, and even college representative meetings from places like UMiami, Occidental, and Vanderbilt.
~I am also in the running for another local outreach program that starts high school senior year until 3 years post college graduation. It’s called Chicago Scholars, interviews are this week, but I have high hopes for myself as I usually do well during interviews. I’m a huge talker.
Summers:
I do work study at my school every summer for about two weeks. That money is applied to my tuition for the school year. It’s about $800, but it helps a lot.
Went to Mizzou Journalism Summer Camp, published in the town’s newspaper
Did National Youth Leadership Forum at Univ. of Maryland
Summer 2020:
This summer I was chosen as a Youth Ambassador Program that’s funded by the U.S. Dept. of State. I and 40 other students will do service and learn about social issues in South America for 3 weeks. We will then come back and implement our own service project in our own communities that coming Fall/Winter. I am most likely going to do a project aimed at immigration and/or children with incarcerated parents. The program is completely my free, fully funded, and Georgetown is actually a sponsor. It seems quite selective so I am pretty proud of this one.
I will also be participating in the Kino Border Initiative. It is also a part of Formation and Ministry, another way I participate in the club. Only 10 students at my school are chosen to do it. It is a Jesuit imitative in Arizona/Mexico that helps asylum seekers with whatever they need from legal services to food and shelter. I am looking forward to this one as well!
I applied, but I haven’t heard back from the Boston College Ever to Excel Theology focused summer program. I hope I get it, but that’s still up in the air as of now.
I hope to major in:
1.)Theology
2.)Philosophy
On a pre-law track
Background:
Female
Hispanic
First generation high school and college student
Low-income (get free lunch)
What I want answered:
1.) Is it even worth applying to research univ. T50ish schools and selective LACs like Wellesley, Washington and Lee, Reed, or Scripps?
2.)How would state schools such as CU-Boulder, Penn State, Texas A&M, and Indiana U. view my application, especially being an out of state student?
3.) Where do you guys think I should apply? I want every level to be considered from safety’s, targets, and reaches.
My essay:
Ideas:
Write about living in a multigenerational household ranging from grandparents to my youngest cousin
Maybe my close relationship with my younger brother and what he’s taught me when it comes to being patient and thoughtful
I’m a pretty okay writer, and have already started drafting things, so I’m on top of it for this summer.
If you guys don’t think these are good, LET ME KNOW!
Recommendation Letters:
Latin teacher (Had him twice)
AP Comp. Gov teacher (Had him twice)
Ethics and Philosophy teacher
(Religion teachers aren’t allowed by school policy to give recommendations for college, but I might just make it an add on since I want to major in theology)
Thank you so much if you even glanced at this, I would really appreciate it if you can give me any tips and advice. Thank you again if you read through all of this!!! <3