When I began high school, I was certain that I was going to go to an Ivy/ top-ranked school like Stanford or Rice or Duke. They were the “good” schools that would give me bragging rights and would make my family proud. Throughout my elementary/middle-school years, my peers and teachers were sure that I would end up at a tippy top school. I was always a straight-A student and the top of my class, and I expected that I would continue to be that in high school.
However, there was an unexpected turn of events during the beginning of my high school years. Due to a multitude of familial challenges, I was constantly moving, constantly changing schools. My freshman year, I attended four schools, and my sophomore year, one online school and two public schools. Every time that I switched schools, my academics were affected. Each school had a different curriculum, and often I would be placed into classes that I had not taken at my previous schools, which made completing projects/ doing well on final exams very difficult. Furthermore, I was unable to take full advantage of the AP classes and extracurricular activities that the schools had to offer.
So there I was, a student dreaming of attending a prestigious university, just like many of you. However, I lacked course rigor, honors/awards, extracurricular activities, and the perfect grades that I believed were necessary to attend a top school. To top it off, during my sophomore year when I was enrolled in online school, I was taken into custody of the court and placed into a home without any way of accessing the internet, which resulted in a semester of Fs. Yes, you read that correctly. The right column of my report card looked something like this:
F
F
F
F
F
F
At that point, there I was no way I was getting into ANY college. As a student who always dreamed of going to Harvard/Rice/Stanford, this was very difficult for me to accept. However, I began looking at my different options, and realized that this was an opportunity for me to not have to worry about grades any more. I would never be number one in my class, I would never have a 4.0 GPA, and I would never get into Harvard. Admitting this was difficult, but it took a large weight off my shoulders of always having to be the best. I could focus on learning and on growing and on being a role model for my siblings to follow.
I tried my best to do exactly that. When I enrolled in public school, I felt so relieved in class. All of the pressure was off. I was able to dedicate myself to my studies because I enjoyed it. I loved being in class, learning. I loved doing more work than was expected. It didn’t matter if I earned that 100% or not, as long as I was doing the best I could do and maintaining an optimistic outlook while doing it.
As it turned out, I ended up not only learning and growing more than I ever expected to, but earning nearly 100% in all of my classes. Spring semester of my sophomore year and every subsequent semester, I earned all As. I retook every class that I had failed, viewing each as a new opportunity to learn and catch up with the rest of my peers.
From this experience, I gained self-introspection, humility, perseverance, a 3.97 GPA, and an acceptance to an amazing (although not prestigious among the general population) college.
I learned that the amount of prestige a school had was insignificant. I learned to keep an open mind about which colleges I wanted to apply to. I realized that I wasn’t getting into Stanford or Harvard, but I also realized that I didn’t want to go to either of those schools. I wanted to go to a school where students really wanted to be there because of its qualities/environment and not its prestige, where students liked learning for the sake of learning, where students were collaborative rather than competitive. I wanted a nurturing atmosphere where I could have discussions with my peers/professors about fascinating mathematical concepts. I wanted a school where emphasis was placed on growth rather than grades. I wanted a place where I would be challenged, where I would fail and learn to pick myself up.
I realized that the perfect school for me was a liberal arts college. They were small in size, typically made up of a very intellectual student body, and had very strong academics. After pondering over some other ideal factors, such as lack of sororities/fraternites, non-preppy atmosphere, and surrounded by nature, and getting some suggestions here on CC, I decided I wanted to attend Carleton College. However, given Carleton’s low acceptance rate, my poor academic background, and lack of consistent extracurriculars, I knew that getting accepted was going to be an uphill battle, but it was one that I was willing to fight. I knew that I couldn’t go back in time and change my academic record so I had to focus on what I could change. I could show Carleton how much I wanted to go there, how great of a fit I was for the school, by interviewing, pouring my heart into my “Why Carleton” essay, and applying ED. I could show that I was ready for Carleton’s rigorous academics by taking rigorous courses and doing well in them. I could show my passion for learning in my essays. I could explain my circumstances and straight-F semester in my essay, candidly without making up excuses. I could show how I grew from my experiences and was excited to face new challenges. This was about all I could do, and it worked, because I was admitted into Carleton’s Class of 2019.
I’m posting this because I remember how much anxiety I had around this time of the application season, and
I hope that some of you can take something away from this.
Now that I’ve had a taste of college, I’ll come back and describe some of the challenges I’ve faced, primarily due to my lack of academic preparation in comparison to the rest of my peers, as well as some of the lessons I’ve learned. Stay tuned.
