<p>Hey guys, I'm new here. I've been looking around CC and to be honest, it's kind of intimidating me. But hi! :)</p>
<p>I would call myself an above-average student, but I'm not an excellent or even a good student by any means. I, like many, many teenagers, focused more on Facebook and my social life for the first two years of high school.</p>
<p>Freshman year, I took 7 classes: gifted and talented English (I understand the label doesn't mean much, but the course was the most rigorous available for freshmen who qualified as "gifted"), combined algebra II/trigonometry, biology, French III, gifted and talented world geography (again w/the label), band, and phys ed.</p>
<p>I received all A's first semester. I received six A's second semester and one B in math. I didn't have much as far as extracurriculars go. I was a member of the honor society and I was the first chair principle flutist in the regional honor band (junior high school division, so impressive, but not very impressive--only sophomores and up are allowed to audition for the high school honor band), but that's it.</p>
<p>The summer before sophomore year, I did 40 hours of community service at the local government as part of the teen interning program. It wasn't too competitive to get into, but it was a good experience nonetheless.</p>
<p>Sophomore year was where I really screwed up. I took rigorous classes, but received some pretty craptastic grades. I took English honors, journalism, precalculus, phys ed, AP chemistry (this was the first chemistry course I ever took; I never did regular chem), French IV honors, and band. First semester, I received 4 A's and 3 B's. The B's were in AP chem, precalculus, and French IV honors. Second semester, I once again received 4 A's and B's in French and chem. But here's the whopper: I got a C in precalc...ouch. I'm not lying when I say it physically hurt me to see that C. I wasn't expecting it at all...it was my final exam that killed me.</p>
<p>As far as EC's last year, it's not that impressive either. I was a member of French club, Key club, National Honor Society, and Random Acts of Kindness club (it sounds weird, but it's a service club), and I wrote for the school newspaper and worked for the local community news radio station.</p>
<p>My passion is journalism. I am really serious about a career in journalism. I love to write, and I love finding out people's stories that need to be told and synthesizing them into a format that can be shared with the world. One thing I considered a really important accomplishment is that I was hired by the city newspaper as an editorial assistant. It's a job that an adult could do--it's not some wishy washy teen thing. I will have the opportunity to write for the newspaper in the future and get tons of experience in a professional, legitimate newsroom environment. I will work for them until I graduate. My teacher specifically chose me and two other candidates to even consider applying. The thing is...I considered it really important. Then I came here and read about all of these other awesome things that people are doing, and suddenly, working for the local newspaper doesn't sound so hot anymore. So I'm guessing it's not really that big of a contribution.</p>
<p>Here's what I'm planning to do to mitigate the effect of a C on my transcript. Most importantly, I went through a huge attitude change after I saw that C. I'm now dead serious about my academics, and I'm already using this summer to prepare ahead for next year, and I'm taking AP US history at a community college as well. Next year, I'll be taking English honors, journalism (I will be the news editor of the school newspaper as a junior--mainly seniors are editors), calculus AB (I'm preparing EXTENSIVELY for this class), AP art history, AP French V, and AP biology. I plan to do whatever I can to get all A's in these classes. Like I said, I am dead. Serious. Haha, not to sound too hardcore or anything. :) But a C really does open your eyes...</p>
<p>Next year, I'll also be vice-president of Random Acts of Kindness club and secretary of French club, in addition to still being members of the clubs I did last year. I'm also going to apply to Northwestern's summer journalism camp, Asian American Journalist's Association J Camp, and TASP.</p>
<p>Gosh, this is a long post! If you got this far, I'm sorry for my blabbing, and thank you for reading all of this! I guess...it comes down to this.</p>
<p>How bad does that C look, really? </p>
<p>I'm not looking for admission into the top of the top schools, but I was hoping to attend UC Berkeley, somewhere around there. Admission into Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern would be GREAT, but then again, I'm probably not a good enough student for it, and I might want to major in something else before doing journalism in graduate school.</p>
<p>Cal's looking like a pretty far-fetched dream right now. My GPA as of now? It hovers around 3.8, 3.9 weighted, not too sure on the exact number. If I get all A's next year, it should bump up to around 4.2 weighted. Unweighted? Right now, it's awful. Yech. You can probably figure it out. Unweighted after next year should be around 3.7 or 3.8 out of 4.0. I have no idea about my class rank. I recently took a practice SAT and my score was 2040. Not too great.</p>
<p>So, thanks for evaluating! And please...honesty by all means, but be respectful about it.</p>
<p>Thank you, thank you!</p>