Wasn’t sure if I should post this in “College Admissions” or “What Are My Chances?” but I suppose it doesn’t really matter in the end.
I’m still a sophomore (class of 2017), so there’s no rush or anything. I know full well that everything could change completely once junior year rolls around, but I just wanted to see what people thought early-on.
I just wanted to know if some of the decisions I made in the past couple years were positive, negative, or just “meh.” Some background info:
Two years ago, I attended one of the best (top 10) school systems in my state for middle school. Incredibly competitive, especially for 12- and 13-year-olds. I was a straight-A student; in fact, I rarely even had to study. My parents’ one biggest worry for me was that I would become “just another studious Asian,” which would obviously put off a lot of colleges. But I digress, I don’t want this to turn into an affirmative action thread. In order to give me a leg up and make me “unique”, my dad found out about this one-year program in Hangzhou, China. I attended for my freshman year, 2013-2014. Basically, it’s a boarding international school with a mandatory Chinese course for all students. I don’t know if I’m allowed to post this or not, but here is a link to their website (let me know and I’ll take it down ASAP): http://www.cis.edu.hk/cis-hangzhou/home/index.aspx
It was the very first year that the campus was open, so the ~60 of us were essentially guinea pigs (lol). My parents did not come with me (a lot of people have asked that, for some reason); I returned home twice that year, once for Christmas and once for Lunar New Year. While I was away, my parents moved to a smaller town closer to the big city and I’m currently doing sophomore year at a different public school. It’s a pretty good school system but it’s nowhere near the caliber of my middle school or the high school I would have attended if my family didn’t move.
At the beginning of the year I was struggling to catch up because I missed a lot of things (I’m taking Bio and Chem at the same time and everything, which is pretty rough). The school last year ran on the IB MYP program, so there were a lot of things, such as in-text citations and grading, that I had to learn in middle school, unlearn in freshman year, and then relearn in sophomore year. I’m trying really hard not to sound like I’m complaining here, but I was really struggling, not only socially and academically, but also emotionally. It caused me to get low grades, at least by my standards: mostly C grades, some C+ or B- grades with a single B+ in math.
In middle school I was really into debate and cross country but, because my school last year was just trying to get on its feet, it didn’t have any extracurriculars whatsoever (plus, it was in China, so there’s that). While I do regret not taking initiative and assuming a strong leadership position last year, I was honestly just trying to survive academically, as I didn’t understand MYP at all. This year, I tried to get some clubs started, but none of my teachers or any of the teachers I emailed were interested in becoming an advisor, and I also didn’t make friends very easily. Thus, nothing happened EC-wise this year, either. And, to top it all off, my grades for the last 3 years look like the mass of a deflating balloon. Though I’m working on improving them now, my courses for next year are all low-level and won’t do much for my GPA. I also intend on joining a few more ECs next year but by junior year it’s too late to go for any leadership roles, especially for a new-ish student.
I know I sound really negative, but I feel like it’s just so hard not to be pessimistic about my situation right now.
Though it’s all said and done, I still have some concerns about my choice:
Would college admissions officers even consider my year as something noteworthy, or would they see right through it? Wouldn’t it just be another “building houses in Haiti” or “teaching impoverished African children how to read and write”? Would you guys say that, overall, my year in China benefited me or hindered me, college-admissions wise? There are probably thousands of anecdotes in which I learned a life lesson that I could write about for a college essay, but should I even bother to write about that year if admissions officers think of it as “just another” anything?
A couple people even told me to go overseas AGAIN junior year, in order to “play up the world-traveler vibe.”
Any (gentle) advice/encouragement, or your opinions about the questions above, would be much appreciated! Thanks everyone!
