<p>I don't really like giving a laundry list of my statistics..because I don't feel like that'll give you the real opportunity to get to know me. I think my best chance is the essay, and hopefully I can come up with something awesome, because I'll need it...It stinks that in the college process, you could have tried your hardest while others were out partying, getting pregnant, doing drugs, cheating, etc. I don't mean to sound bitter, it's just that U o C is my number 1 college and I'm dying dying dying to get in...But I know that the stakes are against me, regardless. I'd like to think that I excel beyond my peers, but then I read the scores and this and that of the students and the requirements..And I realize that I don't have what it takes academically. I can tell you that I'm a determined person. I'm not going to give up, and because this is my number one college, I'll do everything I can to prove to them that I'm qualified. Anyways..Let the slaughtering begin.</p>
<p>My gpa : 3.97<br>
I took AP Euro in 10th grade, received a 3 on the exam
Took AP Lang and Comp and AP US History this year, results tbd.
I'm taking AP Physics, AP Chem, AP Gov, and AP Lit next year.
I'm taking a college Mandarin Chinese class this summer which will go on my transcript.
I'm taking a college class on World War Two, 3 hours every Thursday.
I am currently 7th out of 274 students, and I hope to move up for senior year.</p>
<p>Dun da dun dun..Please don't laugh at me.
My Sats:
Verbal : 650
Math : 670
Composite : 1320/1600
Composite : 1970/2400</p>
<p>My ACT:
Composite : 29</p>
<p>Sat II :
US history : 720/800
(I'm taking Math and maybe a few other subjects at the next testing)</p>
<p>EC:
I have been involved in Motif for the last three years and plan to return senior year. It is a literary magazine for creative authors. We do publications in little booklets every month, and then at the end of the year we have a large book printed in color of all the works that students can buy for $10. The money we raise every year goes into paying for a coffeehouse held around Christmas time for students to come, drink coffee, listen to local bands play, and we always have a few creative outlets to entertain them with.</p>
<p>I'm very involved in Theatre. I was in my 10th grade production of The Wizard of Oz (As a flying monkey, which I'm not ashamed to say. In fact, it was extremely fun, because we got to run down the aisles and scare all the audience members) and then last year I was a part of Anything Goes. I will also be involved in my senior musical, Bye Bye Birdie. There are about 12-14 weeks of rehearsal, and we spend roughly about 3-4 hours a day, 4-5 days every school week practicing, and then the final week, we are there all day sunday before opening week.</p>
<p>I'm in the National Honor Society and the National Honor Society of Secondary Schools. I have aided in numerous drives and collections, as well as running the famous volleyball tournament at my school. It's a very popular event, where students come and "Sleep" over (But no one really sleeps) at the school. You can form teams and play volleyball in a tournament, or you can bring videogames, a guitar, anything your heart desires to entertain you and your friends. It's a great time. We also have a large project coming up for Senior Year in which those who enjoy creative writing, such as myself, will go and interview a Senior citizen at the local home and create a novel for that person about their life. I think that's so awesome...I get to write a novel, and to be involved in making someone happy.</p>
<p>I'm also involved in a personal volunteer group, SHIP. It stands for Students Helping International Peace. We've been very busy this year with a number of projects. We have raised over 400 letters to send to the soldiers in Iraq. We had a massive book collection and raised about 1700 books to send to the children in Africa, sorted by age and genre. We are currently working on an Appalachia Project, collecting toothbrushes, shoes, clothing, and things of the sort for these people. We also have an International food festival planned for next April, the money raised will go to the Invisible Children fund in Uganda.</p>
<p>Hobbies:
I am currently learning/teaching myself Japanese. I'm in love with Japan and the culture, and I would love to study abroad there during college. I have Rosetta Stone, which is extremely helpful. My love for Japan took off from my love of Anime and Manga, which I still love to watch and read, respectively. This stems from a love of foreign languages. I'm drawn to them, and I don't know why. Spanish wasn't my favorite, but I want to someday master English (Ah the work is never finished), Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, German, Russian, Hebrew, and Sign Language. I know a few words in sign language, because my mother used to teach it, but I really would love to learn how to communicate fully with a deaf person.</p>
<p>I recently got into video editing, and I fell in love. I like making music videos, using Windows Movie Maker (Hopefully I'll upgrade to something better soon). I also make these things called AMVS, anime music videos. I take clips from an anime show or a video game, and I edit them and put a song to it all. It's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of hard work. </p>
<p>I love writing, if you guys couldn't tell already :P Sorry if I'm a bit longwinded. I've always had a knack for creative writing. I've written a couple of short stories on a writing website that have won Gold Trophies in contests, and I'm currently working on two novels. I have more than one because it breaks up the tedium. If I get bored or frustrated with how one is turning out, I simply focus my attention to the other and my motivation is restored.</p>
<p>I'm a movie fanatic. I have my mom to thank for that. I'll seriously watch atleast 2-5 movies during a week in the school year, in the summer I lose count. I love all genres, and I love, especially, getting lost in the story of a movie. My mom tells me I should be a screenwriter, but I'm not quite sure. I would love to be a director, to really paint a picture that only once existed in my mind. Regardless, I've seen way too many movies, and I love watching indie films and foreign films. I actually prefer reading subtitles, probably because my affinity for foreign languages.</p>
<p>Probably my biggest hobbie is music. I'm probably in love with music. I listen to it constantly, and I'm always on the search for new and unheard of artists. I've discovered a ton of underground artists who are more talented than the mainstream ones, and I've turned a ton of friends onto them as well. I listen to every genre, and I absolutely love to sing (Whether I can or cannot sing in a pleasing way, that is for you to decide ~ ) I actually discovered this Norweigan boy (You really should look him up btw!) named Sondre Lerche about 7 years ago. Since then, my mother and I have seen him in concert 5 times, and I met him on my birthday last year and got an autograph ^-^ Now that he's starting to pick up, he created the soundtrack for Dan in Real Life and appeared in the last scene :D I almost fainted x_x Now instrumentally wise, I'm not the cat's pajamas. I know how to play a total of two songs on the guitar, Yankee Doodle and Ode to Joy. I do, however, have an organ and a keyboard down in my basement. I wrote my own song on the keyboard, and mind you I have no knowledge of musical language so to speak, and I think it's pretty darn decent! I'm taking a keyboarding class next year, so I'm excited to finally learn how to finetune my creations. I also would love to learn how to play the harmonica =D</p>
<p>I'm pretty big into reading. I love reading Russian authors especially, such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nabakov, and Tolstoy. I recently finished reading The Brothers Karamazov, Lolita, and Anna Karenina respectively. I recently finished a report on Tolstoy's Religious Anarchism for my AP Composition class. I suppose it is because I'm 50% Russian that I admire them so much <_< But no, really. I love the old fashioned sense of language that they implore. I'm not one for modern writers. It seems like these men really experimented with language and the plethora of adjectives and created a new way to write a novel. And that really inspires me. I try to avoid the common type of writing of the nowadays, and to really..go beyond that. The words escape me now even as I struggle to find a definition for what I mean, I apologize. I will say, however, that my favorite novel of all time is still For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. I was wary of the book that my teacher recommended, because I had read Old man and the Sea, and disliked it. Ernest Hemingway has definitely redeemed himself in my eyes. Also, if any of you would like to check it out...An author that is indeed strange..See if you can find Artaud Anthology. It is the workings of Antonin Artaud, a deeply disturbed but almost existential man. I love trying to find meaning in his jumbled up rants (Does that remind you of anyone, guys? lol)</p>
<p>I think maybe with what I lack academically, perhaps I can make up with personality. I'm very polite to my teachers, and I'm really a student who wants to achieve. I'm at school to learn, and sometimes I do socialize, but I really look forward to actually learning. For me, knowledge was always something endless, always something that I longed to gather more of. I've seriously asked the weirdest, offbeat questions you could ever imagine, simply because my mind drifted away. I'm also always asking hypothetical questions, because I'm always curious of how the world around me works. </p>
<p>As for teacher recommendations, I'm getting one from my 10th grade english teacher, who was very helpful for me, school-wise and personal-wise. He really got to know me through some of the drama (Hey, it happens). We talked about the grateful dead (My mom's a big dead head, our sirius radio is programmed to the dead station :P) and about Mcfly and all types of things. I loved reading whatever he had to recommend, and he even let my date at the coffeehouse play his guitar (Which was a really expensive heirloom, so I was like O_O ) We've had a ton of really nice conversations about this and that, and I feel like I was very down to earth, very open and personable, and that I was always polite. I love my teachers (Yuck, I know what you're thinking, teachers pet) but no, not like that. I just like learning, and if they're good at teaching, I like them. </p>
<p>I'm also getting the other one from my 11th grade Chem teacher who is also going to be my 12th grade AP Chem teacher. We get along very well, and she loves how many questions I ask, which are a little out of the ballpark. I volunteered to be the tester for the safety shower next year, which will be pretty fun :P</p>
<p>Dreams:
I have had so many fleeting dreams in my short, or long depending on how you want to look at it, 17 years. There are a few that stick with me, no matter how much I evolve over time.</p>
<p>I've always had an affinity for nature. I love the wilderness, and I become lost in it all the time. I've seen the movie Into the Wild (And I still need to read the book), as well as a few other selections from Henry David Thoreau (Walden, ofcourse) which have really inspired (Don't mind if I have a few outlandish dreams) to go live in the wild for a little bit. I doubt I could survive even a month, but to know that I lived, truly lived, for even a week on survival mode...That would really change everything that I know about living. And I'm always looking for those kinds of changes and adventures.</p>
<p>Going along with Alaskan wilderness, I've always loved the Iditarod. In elementary school, every year in math class, we would track the Iditarod race as a part of some project. And every year I would watch, and wonder..Would that ever be me? I'm no stranger to the cold - In fact, I love it. I love the snow..And I love the sledding dogs. Again, I probably wouldn't be able to even finish the race, but to just reach the first post in such an event..It's been something that I've always dreamed of doing. </p>
<p>Haha, I'm pretty big into crime and what not. My mother reads True Crime, and I've read a lot of her old books, as well as watched a lot of nonfictional movies detailing crimes and the criminals, including some of the most infamous serial killers. I've always had a passion for CSI, and I even went to a CSI camp at Penn State main campus one summer. It was awesome; They set up a (Fake) murder, with real crime scenes, and real suspects. Then you had to go looking for clues, establish a motive, interview the suspects and then present your case at "Court" at the end of the camp. Not only did it ignite the flame within me for such a career, but it also showed me a little bit into college living. We stayed in the dorms, ate in the cafeteria etc along with real Penn State students.</p>
<p>Anyways, I would love to study Forensics and perhaps acquire a job in the FBI, whether it be as a Forensic technician or as a linguist (I'm keeping my options open currently). That is one of the things that makes U of Chicago so appealing to me. Other than Washington DC, it's the best place to be for the FBI. I recently saw Public Enemies, about John Dillinger's bankrobberies in Chicago, and how the FBI sought to capture him. Hollywood glam aside, I really feel like Chicago is the place to be for me. </p>
<p>I could keep going on and on, but I figure I should stop and let you add your comments and questions, and hopefully you aren't asleep by now :o lol, but yeah. So please...Let me know what you think. Be honest, be critical. I think I should be able to take it. I know the odds are looking a little weak right now, but that's when a miracle really occurs. I hope maybe the school really gets a feel for me in my interview and in my essays. That's really where my hope lies currently.</p>
<p>Also, what were the interviews like? I had one other interview at U of Rochester (My second choice school) and I thought it went pretty well. It was very laidback, my interviewer and I gushed over things like Bubble Tea, Robert Pattinson (Don't ask!), Computer Programming and the what not. </p>
<p>Also, question. I'm sorry, It's a bad habit v.v Does anyone know if U of Chicago has a very rigid curriculum or if it's more open ended? We went to a local information session and the school gave a fabulous presentation (Ok, I might be a little bias to the others schools there) but I'm very curious. I need a lot of freedom to study what I want to learn. I'm very..all over the place. I don't think that's a bad thing, but I know that I looked at Cornell University (Yes, another stretch) and I hated instantly how they were like "If your major is this, first year you take this this and this. Next you take this this and this." Etc. You only had about 5 elective classes for the whole 4 years. Uh uh, that ain't gonna work (Don't mind the slang.) So I was wondering where UoC fits into that ballgame.</p>
<p>I want to learn Japanese as my language for college. But I also want to take C++ Programming (My friend is trying to teach me, but he says that it would be better if I had a professional teacher) And maybe I want to learn fencing. And maybe study film and linguistics, as well as international relations. I want to explore my interests until I find where I fit. I need a school that can accommodate that need. </p>
<p>Thank you very very much for all of your time, and for your responses.
Brooke</p>
<p>PS. I'm always open for any questions you might have :D</p>
She said that I was very ambitious, which I hope is a good thing. I don’t want people to think that I’m flaky because I have so many interests. </p>
I mainly use some Kingdom Hearts clips because they’re the only ones I can find, but I recently got this program that has a ton of anime clips to use, so I’m starting to do ToraDora, Fruits Basket, Ouran Highschool Host Club, Vampire Knight, Cowboy Bebop, Wolfs Rain, Inuyasha anything you can imagine xD </p>