Hey there, to whoever is reading this I hope you could learn from my mistakes but at the same time show that there is still hope no matter where you are and where you dream college is.
To start it off, I am a freshman attending Emory University. My high school GPA was subpar, didn’t have any stunning EC and no hooks. I had big aspiration to get into top universities I was always ambitious (now that I look back at it, I just didn’t put in the effort in high school). I was so fixated getting into HYPS, etc. I wasn’t focused on the right things, I was only focused on the “prestige” that these colleges had.
At first, I decided to apply to Williams ED after seeing that acceptance rate a nearly 30% and didn’t apply to the schools I really liked. Even during my first semester senior year, I was chasing prestige over what truly fit me. If I truly applied to the schools that fit me I should have applied to around a top 40 university to have had a chance. I was over my head.
So a brief break down on my statistics, I had a 3.5UW and a 4.0 W which placed me around top 30-40% of my school. I had a 35 ACT. Pretty much I was a “typical” smart kid that never tried. But by the time college applications came I was dreaded. I wanted to get into those colleges but I knew my stats were subpar. Even my counselor told me that getting accepted into top 30 universities would be a really slim chance with my application and she reluctantly wrote recommendation letters for these intuitions.
Knowing that at this point I had no choice but to work on my personal statement I poured my heart and soul into the applications. For the first time in my life, I gave it my all and did the best to advocate myself to these universities.
My application was subpar that I got rejected from universities that were ranked top 30-50 (think GW, UCI, etc). I was quite devastated, at this point in time the only acceptance letter I had was from American University. At that moment of time, reality set in. I just wasn’t a good enough applicant, but there was a 1% hope in my mind because I worked so hard on my essays. And then I got my first acceptance letter from a top 20 university.
I remember opening the account, with my hand trembling I got my first acceptance from Emory. And then from that a I started getting acceptance letters left and right. After all the college fiasco I ended up with
Emory
Cornell
Northwestern
CMU
Rice
Middlebury
Georgetown
Dartmouth (waitlisted- ultimately accepted)
Although some things were just impossible (HYPS) with my stats I’m here to testify that the primary reason I got into all these institutions was because of my personal statement. Work hard on your statements even when you think you have no shot, you’ll never know. And in high school, don’t infatuate about grades and test scores. Find your passion and interests, that will set you up for success. Don’t be like me and think about prestige, do what you want and be the best at it and the acceptance letters will come.
