<p>My first year at Harvard is almost over, and I'm proud of my 2.998 GPA.</p>
<p>I grew up in a shabby apt in an impoverished neighborhood near downtown LA w/ eight family members. My mother immigrated here from Guatemala when I was two; my father remained in a village there until 2005 because we couldn't afford to bring him over any sooner. We wished we could pay to bring the whole poor village over.. but I digress. </p>
<p>Anyway, if it hadn't been for College Confidential, I wouldn't have known about any of amazing opportunities available to me through college. I worked very, very hard in high school and overcame uncountable obstacles to get into Harvard with an EFC of 0, and I appreciate CC for the knowledge it brought me. Though I never posted a chances thread or contributed to a discussion until now, I understand a lot about college admissions and I know that if I hadn't been a "URM", my stats probably wouldn't have gotten me in.</p>
<p>I had a 3.9 GPA at one of the worst high schools in the nation (we were on probation four years in a row), a 1990 SAT score, and very little time for extracurriculars-- I was busy taking care of my siblings. I wrote excellent essays and my recommendations were moving to say the least. I am Latina, a first-generation college student, and a semi-legal immigrant.</p>
<p>I applied to Harvard, UCLA, and UCR, gaining entrance to Harvard and UCR. I won't bore you with the details, but my culture is heavily focused on family and it took a lot of money and frustration to send me all the way cross the country. I've had an awesome experience at Harvard and I don't regret my choice at all. However, I have to say that an Ivy education is different for us "AA babies". I am among peers who are much more intelligent than I am and I have to work doubly hard to barely keep up. My GPA is a well-earned 2.998 and I am proud of it. </p>
<p>I'm not taking the easiest classes but I am not taking the most difficult courses, and a lot of concepts and grades come easier (on average) to whites and Asians here. It's just a fact; we URMs get in a little easier so we don't excel as much when we get here. I think the achievement gap will slowly disappear as generations go by. But this has taught me that people who claim that AA makes things more equal mean that it will make things more equal once the achievement gap is narrowed. In some ways this is good and in some bad.</p>
<p>Overall, I just want to thank CC for the great public service it is doing with these forums--the knowledge base here is much better than that of my HS guidance office. Also, I'd like to dispel some common perceptions about the goals of AA and explain the possibly negative effects: AA is not necessarily as useful to me, the "AA baby", as it will be to my children and the next generation of URMs. Hope that was a enlightening. ^_^</p>