Edit: This is so long and I am so sorry. Thank you if you make it all the way through!
Hello! I attended Seattle University for one year, crashed and burned with undiagnosed ADD, and am now in my second year at community college (I had tried a court reporting vocational program for two semesters).
Seattle U was not my first choice for school, but I wasn’t necessarily a top achiever in high school. Mainly B’s and a few A’s in a mix of AP and regular classes, and mostly 3s on my AP exams. I was only involved in dance for a couple years and did a musical once, but I just wasn’t very involved on campus.
I chose to attend Seattle U because it was my cheapest option away from home and I had family that lived in Seattle. I spent my time in the honors program and really enjoyed it, but had trouble finding my place on campus and my mental health slowly slipped away as I was trying to manage everything with really horrible executive functioning. I ended up missing my flight home at the end of Spring Quarter and failed two classes, with a C in my third class.
I came home and enrolled in the court reporting program at community college and enjoyed it but disliked the pace of the program. I ended up dropping CR a week into Spring semester, so I was only able to enroll in a Pre-cal class and an educational psychology minimester course. I finished precal with a B and educ psych with an A. I took speech, state govt, English, and macroeconomics this summer and finished all with As. I’m now enrolled in the first part of US history, microeconomics, religion, sociology, and geology. I’m working on an honors project for history and will be completing one for sociology as well. Next semester I need to take the second part of US history, US government, another science class, and an elective in order to finish my associate’s degree. I also plan to do a couple of honors projects next semester. I’ll be eligible to join Phi Theta Kappa next semester. I currently have a 3.44 GPA; a D in a court reporting class is dragging that down.
I have a work-study position and I did some volunteer work over the summer. I want to start an Esperanto club and am working on that with campus life right now.
I’ve already started my transfer applications. I’m applying to Wellesley, Scripps, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, Tx St, New Mexico, ASU, Utah, BYU, and I want to apply to an Ivy. I know that’s a lot of schools, but I have a fee waiver and I don’t really know which part of the country I want to be in.
NM is my safety - they offer my major (Film Studies) and my mom is a NM resident so I’ll have in-state tuition. My biggest issue right now is knowing whether or not I have a chance at getting into a women’s college or an Ivy League school. Watching all of my AP and IB friends in HS go to prestigious schools made me want that too, I just wasn’t able to accomplish it. I’m viewing CC as my second chance to do what I didn’t do in high school. It’s been a lot of work but I already feel accomplished. If I end up at UNM or Texas State I’ll be perfectly satisfied - my happiness isn’t riding on whether or not I get into Wellesley - but I want to know if I have a shot or if I’m just messing around here.