I'm so ****ed...why does God play around like this?

Applying to College
1

<p>It's amazing how God sometimes just knows how to play around with someone's life...like mine.</p>

<p>So what's been happening? Look at this 5 chain of events:</p>

<p>1 - Junior year - I fail a class because my stupid brother never woke up on time and got me enough tardies to get me to do a reinstatement project. What does my father say? He says I should have just ditched him when he never woke up on time. What does my mother say? She says "Just one more minute, please..." every single day when I'm in the car and my brother's still brushing his teeth. So tell me...what was I supposed to do? After I reached a point where 2 more tardies would kill me, I ditched my brother a couple of times. I'm safe...right? Wrong. The office...they said I exceeded the limit...a week (of no tardies/absences) after my first period teacher says I was still under the limit. I should note that this was near the end of the 2nd semester when I already got my grade for the class! This hurt , realizing that all of the hard work I put into that semester class was for NOTHING. And of course, my brother gets away scotch-free because his 1st period class was on a hill where there were no bells, meaning he got away with a few minutes of being late.</p>

<p>2 - end of Junior year - To make up for the incomplete class, I'm supposed to do a reinstatement project. The office tells me that they will call me when it's ready. Now listen to this: I never got a call all of summer. When I come to school beginning of senior year, what do they say? I fail the class. I tell them that they never called me. Even Mrs. Smith, the secretary, said that she ASSUMED that it was me who picked up the phone when they called my house ONCE. Why don't they call multiple times? She said it'd be "badgering"...well hm...does she think I WANT to fail a class? I don't care if it's badgering, at least make sure that they call the right person! For all I know, my youngest brother could have picked up my phone and never told me. SOMEONE picked up that phone and never told me! And of course, them being the office and me being the student, they say it's my fault and deal with it. I'm now doing an independent study course on that same class to get back the credit I should have gotten then.</p>

<p>3 - DECEMBER 12th, 2005 - I send my application to the University of Washington in. Here's my stats (WITH the failing grade...):</p>

<h2> GPA: 3.69 unweighted.</h2>

<p>SAT I:
06/2005: 1850/2400 (Math: 670, Reading: 530, Writing: 650)</p>

<h2>10/2005: 1970/2400 (Math: 740, Reading: 600, Writing: 630)</h2>

<p>Extracurricular:
-I taught as a Ba-dook teacher for my Korean church.
-Tae-Kwon-Do + Gum-Do.
-Piano.
-Violin + Violinist for Tacoma Youth Symphony.</p>

<h2>-Medical Transcriptionist for Group Health Clinic.</h2>

<p>I'm also a legacy (my dad went there).
I'm in-state.</p>

<p>4 - JANUARY 2006 - Senior year - I get a letter from UW that said they needed my family information. Ok, what's going on here? I'm holding a copy of my online application and it specifically has the family information all filled out already. They should have received it when I sent in my application nearly a month ago. Regardless, I send the letter back with a portion of the online application that had all of my family information on it that they needed. </p>

<p>5 - APRIL 1st, 2006 - On April Fool's of all the days...This must be God's prank on me. I get the letter of rejection from UW. Now I go to the forums and hear that UW pushed my application to the very back of the pile because THEY didn't get the family information that I had already sent to them back in December. By the time they get my family information, it was already January and pretty much too late. So basically, looking back at numbers 1 - 4, I hope you guys realize that I got rejected all because of ridiculous reasons that were outside of my control.</p>

<p>I can't stand this. And for the love of God, don't go lecturing me that it's not the end of my life that I got rejected from my top pick college. I know better than that. It just hurts knowing that I got rejected unfairly. But of course...all of the adults would say "Life's not fair. Deal with it.". I just love it.</p>

<p>...</p>

<p>Suicide?</p>

2

<p>man... I m really sorry.. yea my brother gives me a hard time too in the mornings. F******** Siblings....</p>

3

<p>dude im sorry to hear what happened to you....About a week i was in the same position, about the feeling of dying...Trust me its not worth. I KNOW YOU FEEL...its sucks to be rejected from school...But dont take it to the extreme....there is lots of options in your life than committing sucide...thank god i realized that and i hope you understand it...if you need someone to talk to was in your position, im right here
just read my thread and you'll see what i mean...i have gotten losts of advice from people and that helped me recover
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=162774%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=162774&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

4

<p>Why don't you appeal and tell them all the information you just posted here?</p>

5

<p>^</p>

<p>I'm considering appealing, but...I have no idea where to start. How could I tell them everything that's happened like I did here and not have them hang up on me after 2 minutes of what they would consider a whiny complaint?</p>

6

<p>can't you get on the waitlist? how does it work? don't you call in and have to tell them you want to be on the waitlist?</p>

7

<p>Make sure you're talking to the Director of Admissions when you appeal.</p>

<p>Colleges usually have something like this posted on their website regarding appeals:
If you choose to appeal, your letter should describe information not included in your original application. This may be compelling information regarding personal circumstances and its impact on your academic performance, or possible errors in your application. You should include your fall 2005 and/or winter 2006 courses and grades, and your current spring 2006 courses. You must write the appeal; an appeal written on your behalf (by a parent, counselor, etc.) will not be accepted. Appeals will not be accepted by phone, fax or e-mail, and interviews will not be granted.</p>

8

<p>Be accountable for yourself. </p>

<p>Don't make excuses.</p>

<p>Don't blame others.</p>

9

<p>dude shut the hell up with your stupid preaching. This kid is trying to get help, not bs.</p>

<p>I think your case is definitely grounds for an appeal. The information you presented in the first post of this thread will definitely get your application a second look.</p>

10

<p>i agree, thats not required.
If his bro was responsible, I dont see how he can 'be accountable for himself'</p>

<p>Man, i deeplt sympathise.... appeal and let us know what happens</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
If his bro was responsible, I dont see how he can 'be accountable for himself'

[/quote]
As another old geezer ... when you are in college or have a job you would almost always be held responsible. I feel for the OP and hope everything turns out OK for him/her ... but I also hope s/he learns to step up and figure out solutions when things start to go wrong. Two situations were mentioned in the original posting ... given little background info this is one grumpy dads take ... </p>

<p>If you need to do a project do make up an incomplete then you, the student, should badger the school to get an assignment ... and not sit back and wait and wait for a call ... I promise you that is the maturity expected of you later in life.</p>

<p>Your brother is delaying your ride with your parent for school ... if this is a local public school other options would be walk, take the bus, or get a ride with a friend ... assuming the school expects you to walk (if close) or take a bus (if not so close) then why is the parental ride necessary? ... blaming the parental ride instead of figuring out how to get to school on time will not fly later in life. (That said if this ride is to a private school with no other options I agree you're screwed and apologize for the critism).</p>

<p>The punchline is as you get older you will be expected to make things work ... even if you have to do things others said they would do ... it's your responsiblity to make sure it happens.</p>

12

<p>Im with LFWB dad. Listen to a grown-up.</p>

<p>Op is saying he got into trouble because of his bro. WU rejected him becos he thinks they lost the family info. See the pattern?</p>

<p>Even his bro was irresponsible, the fact is he "let" him drag him down. Any episode of Apprentice will tell you that. You are responsible for solving your own problem. He could have found some other ride to school.</p>

13

<p>OP Just think about this....Dont Worry Everything will be fine
We shall overcome, we shall overcome,
We shall overcome someday;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday.</p>

14

<p>I had the same problem. I didn't know I was suppose to turn in my green card until a month later (the site wouldn't let me log in before then) and they rejected me.. how gay. Oh well</p>

15

<p>I think you need to take some responsibility.</p>

16

<p>It's amazing how God sometimes just knows how to play around with someone's life</p>

<p>Okay, do you know how many people WISH they were in your situation. There are tons of people who aren't even able to attend college.</p>

17

<p>Let me go from the most recent poster to some of the first:</p>

<p>Drew00: Going on and on comparing to others who may be in worse shoes is ridiculous, because no matter WHAT situation you're in, there will always be someone worse off than you. I'm not stupid, I know that. There is nothing wrong to be angry for getting rejected due to circumstances that were beyond my control.</p>

<p>celebrian25: Tell me how I'm supposed to take responsibility over matters I had no control over. </p>

<p>yourworld: my brother couldn't have found some other way to school. Bus rides and all of that, he wasn't willing to do and neither were my parents going to let him for his safety. Call it pampering, but in my case, I had to either take him or leave him. What I decided to do was take him until I was right below limit, then I'd ditch him after that. Problem was, the teacher that told me I was fine was wrong (or the office didn't know how to count; one or the other), and to my dismay, when I thought I had 9 absences, I really had 10.5 according to the office. </p>

<p>3togo: first off, they said they had the reinstatement project already, and only had to prepare it for me. They never tell me I was to pick it up over the summer, only that I would receive a call. This was a few months before summer would start, and they didn't say whether I'd get the project during junior year, summer time, or even senior year. They only said they would CALL. And how many times do they call my house? Once. And they assumed that the person who picked it up was me, which it wasn't. I called them a few times over the summer, but to no avail. I even visited the school during its construction, but the office was closed. As for my brother, he could care less. My parents? They're never around to give a crap about it. I tried suggesting options like those, but they were against the bus idea for protection's sake, and having friends drive him because many, if not all of his friends lived at least 20 minutes away and thus weren't willing to carpool over what they would presume to be a minor issue. </p>

<p>LFWB Dad: You're the perfect example of a person who always gives textbook remarks. "Be accountable for yourself" --> these are situations that were outside of my control. How can I be accountable for those? "Dont make excuses" --> I'm not making excuses over my rejection, only to vent out some steam and asking others if this would hopefully be valid as an appeal. "Dont blame others" --> I'm so sick of adults lecturing me over this. Do you know how hard it is not to blame someone that's already ruined much of my life? Why can't I blame my brother for not waking up on time? My fault that the teacher couldn't count correctly, right? My fault that my brother never wakes up on time, right? My fault that UW lost my family info, which I did put down when I did their online app, right?</p>

18

<p>SChoe,</p>

<p>It can't hurt to appeal. And I agree, it REALLY SUCKS that you got rejected in the first place. But if you DO appeal, make sure your appeal doesn't sound like this posting. Colleges want you to be sincere, mature, and able to accept personal responsibility. If you go in, and the first words out of your mouth are "But it wasn't my fault!", you'll get rejected for sure. Explain the situation to the admissions director, but try to place as little blame on others as you can.</p>

<p>That's my two cents. I got into UW, too...are you in-state? Where from? Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll see you in the fall.</p>

19

<p>^</p>

<p>In-state. And of course...I know better than to give them an immature appeal...If you or anyone out there has some pointers or tips on how I could take my initial post and turn it into a formal, clear-cut, and mature letter, that'd be awesome.</p>

20

<p>Obviously, I'm not going to write your letter for you. :P But, I can try to give a few suggestions. </p>

<p>Even if you had no part in the situation whatsoever, and you KNOW it wasn't your fault, try not to let it sound that way. Tell them that you had a part in it, even if you don't believe you did. Tell them that you screwed up a little. You meant to turn in your family information on time, and there was a bit of a misunderstanding...but if you had turned it in earlier, that whole drama might have been avoided, so you're really quite apologetic. </p>

<p>More than explaining what went wrong, try to explain what's gone right. The best advice I could give is, really, to avoid talking about why you DIDN'T get in as much as you can. Try to concentrate more on why you SHOULD get in. Rather than telling them why you failed a class, remind them of all the classes you DIDN'T fail. Instead of explaining your mistakes, try to highlight your successes. If you can briefly touch on the mistakes, and then move on, you're demonstrating a lot of maturity. Tell them "I did a few things wrong, but I honestly don't think those incidents are a full reflection of my character." Then tell them all the good things about you, and how you think you can impact the UW. The admissions directors will be impressed with your maturity, and I think things will go a lot better for you.</p>

<p>Oh, and I noticed the Tacoma thing about 10 seconds after I posted. Duh. My bad. I'm from Burien, by the way. :D</p>