<p>Hey everyone; I'm new here, and would like to hear some of your thoughts concerning my plans for my next senior year, since I have a critical decision to make my counselor is just biting her nails over (<em>heheh</em> I love making her squirm). But first, some background, since my high school years are, to say the least, not very, er, normal:
Lessee, currently I'm a fifteen-y-o Chinese (which just about ruins my Ivy chances - not that I'd have had a shot in the first place) chick who skipped middle school thanks to an enterprising principal who wanted to use my PSAT scores (which really weren't that high, but I did qualify for national merit in the tenth grade, when I was thirteen); though I decided two grades were enough, and dammit if I was going to skip another one just to boost my school's prestige. During those freshmen and sophomore years, I majored in piano (it was an arts school) and managed to win semifinalist standing several times in a world piano competition (but, naturally, was too lazy to ever practice, and so never medalled). When I moved a thousand miles away to the East Coast, I actually held myself back a grade since I wanted to graduate at the same time my mom finished her residency, so we could move together. So I repeated tenth grade, taking junior classes, and eleventh grade, senior classes. Thusly, my senior year is, well, blank. I've scheduled every single other AP I could find (most extraneous ones) - AP English Language, AP Environmental Science, AP Latin V (LATIN!! YES!!), AP Spanish, AP European History, AP Government - though I do already have more than enough credits to graduate NOW. I finished all the math courses offered in my sophomore year, so I took an online Stanford course last year (junior year) in Calculus II.
But my parents have come up with another idea: they think that I should study abroad next year in Beijing, living with my relatives, working in a Chinese high school to improve my Chinese (especially since I'm interested in international affairs and business) while keeping in contact with my current school to work out graduation credits and taking some distance courses. I dunno how colleges would see it: is it too risky? Or is it unique? If I stayed, I would have an easier time with college apps, six AP courses (fairly rigorous), and more chances for EC and comm service. On the other hand, maybe studying abroad helps me stand out among the bazillion other candidates who have far better credentials.
Speaking of credentials, what nonexistent chance do I have at an Ivy shot? (I'll apply anyway, since I'm just masochistic like that <em>grin</em>) My last year was especially .... interesting, in a cruel and sadistic way.
SATs - first-time, 2310 (Verbal 800, Math 800, Writing 710* 710?! HOW?! I've never gotten below a 780 in Writing -_-;;) Am considering retake based on stupid Writing score alone.
GPA - A+; 4.0 unweighted; class rank = 1 in a small, not very prestigious, private school
SAT IIs - Biology 760, took Latin, Chemistry, and Physics a week ago and am waiting results; plan to take some math and some history next time
APs - Biology (5), Stats (5), Calculus (5); took five (Chemistry, Physics, Latin, World Hist, English Lit) last year, definitely didn't pass some of them (more on that later); got 9 credits of U.S. Hist at a university over the summer (freed time in my schedule)
My ecs and comm service is my weak point (and my nonexistent sports, since I'm motor-impaired). All the community service I've ever done had something to do with piano (back in the Midwest), and right now with peer tutoring after school (I specialize in Chemistry and Physics); I've tried to get more involved, but either because of age restrictions (never could do much as a 13-y-o) or my own fault (procrastination, social impairment, etc.) At school, I've always been an outsider to my own class, since I never took classes with the juniors, and thusly have no chance of getting elected to anything (social politics rulz all); however, I am the editor of a yearly publication, a Quiz Bowl team member, a Model UN member, Operation Smile Club member, Jazz Band keyboardist. I know I SHOULD hang out with my peers more, but most of my time is spent sleeping in the courtyard (I don't even bother with class anymore; my teachers trust me <em>hugs them</em>) or drawing manga (yes, I live, eat, and breathe Japanese anime and comics - my one goal in life is to publish my own in America, or start an American manga magazine. Heh - screw Ivy League if I could - I'd die happy, and rightly so.) I'm planning to work my ass off for Quiz Bowl next year; last year was our first year, and next year I REALLY want to carry us further.
More personal stuff that led to my considering China for next year. Last year was NOT good for me. Sure, I had straight A's, took five APs, along with Spanish III, but I finally cracked. It wasn't like I had any pressure from my schedule (I almost never study anyways; most of the time I just draw. and draw. and keep drawing, even after my parents start screaming at me). I just cracked. I just felt trapped in a small, rich, white school and became disillusioned after my best friend moved to Shanghai. I was diagnosed with eating disorders and multiple mood personality disorders, and locked up in an evil hospital that literally FRAMED me to keep me there to leech money off my parents (they hid laxatives in my room, accused me of being mentally unbalanced, etc.). My dad almost lost his job, he stayed with me so much, and my mom, her medical license for begging the doctors to let me out (which made me, for the first time in my ungrateful life, realize how self-sacrificing and absolutely AMAZING my parents are). My PSAT scores, thanks to two years of starving my brain cells and decaying gray matter, dropped from a 2370 to a 2210.
Locked in a white room, unable to move more than five feet in any direction because of multiple EKG straps on my chest, barred from the bathroom unless a nurse "allowed" me (and some of them were truly sadistic), I believe I really did go insane, if I weren't before. I was finally released a few weeks before AP exams. Did I feel like reviewing several months worth of crap? Hell no. I winged them <em>grin</em> (my Physics will be especially easy to grade - almost perfectly blank).
Well, at least there's a novella's worth of Sylvia Plath depression to write about in my essays - so long as I don't scare away colleges when they consider the mentally unstable part. (But I think I'm quite sane.) My parents decided that this environment was detrimental to my health, so we visited my relatives in China, I fell in love with Beijing, and thus emerged the idea that next year, I would take a break in a totally different environment.
Well, I had a hard time convincing them that I COULD go to college. They thought I would wind up permanently insane. I had to fight for the right to even apply, and I don't want to jeopardize that, even if I am psyched about spending a year in a foreign country.
I'll be spending a month away this summer, at Governor's School, to test myself and see if I really am ready to just grow up. I'd rather not be saddled with the suicidal, disillusioned genius stereotype I seem to have cultivated. I'd like an Ivy League, being Chinese, but I'd be cool not even going to college - I haven't spent the last fifteen years of my life preparing for it - if I had, I might've studied more, applied myself more, taken the initiative, not gone crazy. I'd rather spend the rest of my life publishing manga, living under a bridge, and trying to learn everything in the universe.
Many apologies for writing a biography here (holy crap, what am I going to do with my essays?!) when I initially intended a paragraph or two. Feel free to flame me - I have thick skin. Literally.</p>
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<li>P.S. So is Princeton cool for academics/intellectuals who just want to learn? And keep learning, and never have to take a real job? I was a bit enamored with A Beautiful Mind (heheh...).</li>
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