Hi! I moved schools not once, but twice during high school, and even more during middle school. Going into high school I knew absolutely no one, as I was in a new country. Then I moved again the next year to a different country, and had to adapt to my environment. Alas, the next year I moved again. Thankfully, my senior year I stayed put where I was, so I was able to get a lot of really good ECs, but since I had moved so much I was really just focused on adapting and making friends and finding my place.
But still, my concern is that my ECs are all over the place. Freshman year I did a sport and was in a musical group, which I scrapped when I moved. If I had stayed I would have continued as I was passionate about them. Sophomore year I did absolutely nothing besides volunteer at this place because I was just really trying to adapt and desperately find a group of friends so I could feel like a normal high schooler. When I moved again in Junior year I was more prepared. I adapted and overcame my obstacles, found new friends really fast because I had become really good at approaching people and introducing myself, maintained my grades, and was even able to pick up a few awards.
When senior year rolled around, I was confident. I knew my school well as it was my second year there and was determined to take advantage of my opportunities and reveal my full potential. I took upon really good extracurriculars. I created a non profit. I volunteered at a bunch of places, raised money, did humanitarian work, TA’d, did cancer research, mentored kids and more, all in half a year. I don’t know how I did it.
I do not know my final weighted GPA, but it is well over 5.0. My math SAT score was very close to a perfect, but my english lacked because I made the mistake of thinking it would be common sense stuff. So overall, my SAT is weak (Although my essay score was very good), but my GPA is extremely high.
Also, I took 16 APs and got A’s in all of them.
I submitted my applications already and my essays are good. My recommendations are probably good although I haven’t read them. My English teacher who I took in Junior and Senior year personally told me I was his favorite student and was “brilliant”, so I’m sure he included that.
But I can’t stop thinking of how pathetic I was in sophomore year, and also kinda Junior year. My ECs are clearly all over the place. I should’ve joined a club or two to meet new people while also attaining ECs, but my mentality was that clubs were lame and nonsense extracurriculars.
So what do you think? Do you think colleges will be able to see everything that I overcame and accomplished? Will they not like that I ditched my sport and the musical group I was in and interpret it as me “giving up”?
There’s nothing I can do now. I applied to very competitive schools. Fingers crossed.