I was in the science club in high school and did a lot of community service. I did a research project that won awards at my school and placed 2nd in the regional competition, and I won a participation award at state. I began teaching myself Japanese at age 16 because it wasn’t offered at school. I was a member of National Honor society and did some community service through that club as well. Starting summer of junior year when I could drive, I had two different jobs during the year which took up most of my time. I was president of the gay straight alliance, and I was a member of the school leadership team. I was also a head editor for our school literary journal/publishing site. I was on the committee that chose books for the library. I won the highest level of a state writing award for my piece about being bisexual. I won an AP scholar with honor award. But when it came time to apply to college, I got in practically nowhere because my GPA was a 3.8 weighted and 3.4 unweighted, and a 30 ACT. My school counselor told me that I should iust go to community college (despite the fact that I would still have to move hours away to go to CC) because I was not competitive enough for a 4 year college. I graduated in 2017 with a heavy heart, and immediately got out of my area.
I went to a regional college for a semester because I wasn’t accepted anywhere else, got into honors college, and then applied to transfer after a semester because my major wasn’t offered. I got into a school that’s ranked in the top 60, but it’s extremely expensive. I got accepted but deferred my enrollment last spring. My grandfather was terminally ill due to his previous lines of work, and I wanted to spend time with him. I began working as well in order to support myself now that I was 3 hours from home, and pay for college because FAFSA counts my mother’s income against me. I began dating a man who was verbally abusive and controlling towards me. One of his friends violently raped me around 5 months ago. I am still traumatized. My grandfather that I adored passed away. I began pouring myself into my job, started learning music because I never had the opportunity to at home, and enrolled in summer classes in community college to try and help me process my hurt.
I enrolled in college again this fall, and if I keep my grades up, I should have a 3.76 GPA by the end of this semester. I am a double major, a member of student council, a competitor at hackathon, a member of an artificial intelligence research project, an employee at an IT center, an intern for a programming company, a taekwondo student, and a violin player. I am also trying to get involved with LGBT student orgs on campus. I also was selected for an international philanthropy meeting, and my goal is to create legislation against bullying of LGBT students as well as student organizations. I am taking 7 courses and about half of them are upper level despite me only completing 1 semester of college. It is my absolute dream to attend brown university, NU, or Dartmouth because of the quarter systems/open curriculum, but whenever I compare myself to the kids in some college app communities, they say I have no chance. People who have all these opportunities and amazing grades outshine me in every way, and it does bring me down at times.
I am applying to transfer for next year because my current school is extremely expensive, and instated new financial aid policies this year as well as policies that do not allow undergrads who are pursuing a BS to pursue a double major with a BA, we also can no longer take graduate courses. I want a university that better suits my needs and my goals for the future, that also offers need based fin aid (my school does not) but I’m scared my past will hinder me from my dreams. I was recently diagnosed with some autoimmune issues that explain my years of fatigue and declining health in high school. I will retake my SAT for a higher score to try to make up for my high school grades, but my chances are still so slim. People tell me I have no chance because of my high school grades. But I had to overcome so much in my short lifetime.
I’ve worked so hard to be better than my troubled past, but I feel like I will never accomplish my dreams. I want to study beside the best of the best, and push myself academically. I want to have hope for my dreams of becoming a top notch programmer and translator. I want to be the very first person from my town who gets a computer science or Japanese degree.
Thank you for reading my ramblings. Is there a chance of there ever being a place for me at Northwestern or Brown?