<p>i read all of these statistics about people thinking of applying. wow. how intimidating. should i even try? realistically?</p>
<p>a little bit about me:
*9/10: best public HS in Massachusetts (according to newsweek at least, personally i though it was a pressure-cooking hell hole) got B’s in accelerated classes.
*11/12: moved to california. finished junior year rank 11/450 at a less competitive HS, 3.83 UW GPA.
*weaknesses:
-lets see my SATs were horrible. 1900. i simply did not have time to finish anything. i have a reading disorder and mild dyslexia. applying for extended time and i will retake ACTs and SATs.
-umm my 9/10 grades i didn’t get any A’s. granted i hated school/learning with all of my heart. i didn’t know i had a reading disorder at the time, i would get so fustrated.
-very little involvement in my school grades 9/10. no community service those years either AHHH that is killing me.
-my current high school in on a tight budget and does not have the funding for many Honors/AP courses. i take all the hardest classes available, and i have to go to another HS to take an AP class not offered at mine.</p>
<p>*on a brighter note:
-i sort of made a “turn around” 11th grade, and i actually started really enjoying school, getting involved, doing 100 hrs of service, etc.
-i dunno if this helps me or hurts me, but i guess my learning disability. homework literally takes me twice to do as “normal” people…so i end up staying up til 2am or later just trying to finish stuff all the time.
-i took a pyschology college course and got an A
-my one and only, beloved EC: an unkown sport called vaulting (a combination of gymnastics and dance on horseback, similar to circus like stuff) i’ve been doing it since i was 5 years old, and it is basically my life. my amazing parents moved to CA so i could train to go to the world games in 2006. so that was about 20 hours per week of practice time, and probably at least 5-10 hours a week of cross training. i hold a few national titles…however this past i tore ligaments in my elbow and i can’t really start again until december 
so there goes that. now my only EC is dance and running to stay in shape.
-selected for board of directors at my HS for an organization that fights racism.
-worked teaching gymnastics to 4 and 5 years olds for 1 year.
-raised $500 for refugees in Kosovo through a Benifit Breakfast in my neighborhood. it wasn’t a lot of money, but i tried.
-since i couldn’t vault this past summer, i went to Peru to do build stoves that help cut back on deforestation.
-i guess my interview went okay. i bluntly told the admissions officer that i hated learning until last year which probably was not a good idea (lol)…but other than that i felt good about it.</p>
<p>i’m going to compete against all of these class presidents and students with straight A’s all four years and 1029834019283 hours of community service and 23290834 EC’s. </p>
<p>also i feel like my reading disorder is going to make the college work load impossible. ahh. im so overwhelmed. i love Bates so much, i would die to go there…</p>
<p>advice?</p>