<p>I was a senior last year (05-06) and was having a terrific year during the beginning. Up until January I maintained marks that put me well within the top 5-10% for my senior year.
However I have been suffering from clinical depression for a great period of time. I was diagnosed at the beginning of my junior year but it was a problem that stemmed way before that. Only now was I able to come out to my psychiatrist and parents about the issues or memories that troubled me. When I immigrated here to Canada from Hong Kong in grade 7 I encountered major bullying problems. I faced much discrimination and bullying. I regret even today how I kept quiet. In fact I've continued for 5 years with those memories and angry feelings boiled up inside me.
When it was finally the January of my senior year I cracked. At the time I had an extremely poor relationship with my parents and I also had frequent disputes with them. This obviously didn't help my emotional state and so in January, after sending off and completing my college applications, I bursted. I began binge drinking heavily. I began smoking. Ultimately my binge drinking led me to the point of staying at the hospital for 2-3 weeks. After that I just completely lost the will to finish school. I ended up not even showing up for my classes. I would just sleep for hours and hours every day. And so in the end I dropped out my senior year.
After this disaster my parents and psychiatrist agreed that it would be great for me to take a break. So I visited Hong Kong with my parents and spent much time with family. Although I continued drinking and smoking into the summer this visit really gave me the time to think and recuperate. After a while I realized how bad of a situation I landed myself into. I was even smoking. Something that I never planned on starting. In the end I opted to come back early to Canada and get my life in order. Right now I've sort of achieved that. I've quit smoking and I am currently preparing for a half marathon in October, something that I've always wanted to do as a running addict.
So here is a troublesome decision that I must make in the next couple of months. I am obviously going to continue my schooling and finish my senior year. Since the school that I dropped out from ran by terms I have no credits from my senior year meaning that I must redo a full year. Now, I did apply to some US colleges before and I was accepted at U of Michigan and waitlisted at Stanford. Here is the stunning aspect of my story. I only had a 1920 SAT with a gpa that would put me in the top 10% -- excluding my freshman year of high school. My freshman year gpa was extremely bad (top 30%). I am also a no-aid applicant since my father teaches at a public university, which has a system to support the tuition fees of his children. Anyways here is the ultimate question. Should I reapply to US schools? I feel unworthy of such an opportunity because it is like having a second chance, although not really a better one. I was also thinking of applying to schools like Rice, Pomona, and Cornell. Am I wasting my time? I already took the SAT 3 times with some minor improvements, because I thought I would never get into a situation where I must take them again. So I'm also not sure if I should take the SAT again this October... My head hurts from just thinking about this. Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading a really long post..</p>