<p>I have a 3.4 weighted GPA (2 APs), 32 ACT.
I want to go to UC Berkeley.
I have leadership positions in extracurriculars, a section leader in marching / concert band and a high marching position in the LAUSD all district honor band.
3 years in cal ymca youth and government (authored/sponsored a bill and worked as a lobbyist), president of philosophy club, vice president of physics club, USC california youth think tank conference, people to people student ambassador trip to 6 countries in europe (with academic credit in Ambassadorial Studies).
Online courses - Introduction to Sociology with Princeton (starts tomorrow :D)
Introduction to Pharmacology with U. Penn (starts this month)</p>
<p>But at home, lots of problems started in 9th grade.
The background is that my family moved away from our hometown and lived there for a year before it turned out that my mom was a lesbian and my dad was having an affair. we moved back to my hometown with my wealthy grandparents until my grandpa died and we had absolutely no money, but couldn't find a place to live with room for all of us and struggled to live in the high end part of the city. So my aunt and cousin moved to one apartment and me, my mom, my sisters, and my grandma moved to another. My mom payed for both apartments rent, groceries, bills - everything. It was really hard. Then, my grandma found out she had lung cancer (she had been smoking 2 or 3 packs a day for years) and slowly died on our living room couch for a year, which was very sad having to have to live around and very expensive with hospice and things. My sister couldn't handle it at times, and ran away from home often. She ended up dropping out of high school. Because of this, my sister and I moved in with my aunt, where finance is just as tight, but we get by.</p>
<p>These things really impacted me sometimes, and at times I didn't think it was even real, I didn't think anything existed, not even myself. There were very hard and confusing times for myself internally. </p>
<p>I'm taking 5 APs next year (bio, environmental science, gov, stats, and lit) and hope to help my friends create a school organization devoted to stopping bullying or other school problems (its seriously bad at my school, especially with teachers) while maintaining all the extracurriculars listed above.</p>
<p>Anyway, would I maybe have a shot? I really want to go here - they have an excellent philosophy program.</p>