<p>I have a question regarding graduate school admissions. If there are any admissions personnel out there with advice, I would greatly appreciate it. As a warning, this may be lengthy. I have come from a very unorthodox background and have had some situations the last two years of my education. Here goes.</p>
<p>Growing up I did not live in an education based family. In fact, I lived with quite the opposite. My parents were did meth and my father was also a bad alcoholic. Now, I know this sounds bad, but my parents were just caught up in something that they couldnt get out, or didnt know how to get out is a better way of saying it. I did not know of this until I was much older. They loved me and they tried to support my endeavors, but this lifestyle could not give the child the support that is needed. I did not do well in school and dropped out of high school. I started partying and doing drugs also. I did this for six years from 16 to 22. When I was 18, I met a restaurant manager who took me under his wing and taught me how to manage restaurants and fix up failing ones. He also was living the same lifestyle as me, only he was 40. More so, he taught me a great deal about business fraud. I spent four years running restaurants and living in an underground world of drugs and business fraud. This was great, or so I thought. I was making over 60k a year, and most of it was not taxed. I was always high and lived the life of fast cars, big stereos, and girls. Plus, I was able to work with my friends and party all of the time. A couple of years into this, my younger brother had died in a car accident and I just dived further into this world as a way of dealing with the pain. It seemed I was a loser for life. However, one day I woke up and was looking at two of the posters on my wall. One was a set of quotes from Einstein and the other a detailed schematic of the solar system. I realized that the path I was going down was either going to go one of two ways. I would end up in prison, or I would end up like my mentor, lonely and sad on the inside while high and rich on the outside. Plus, I realized that was not going to learn much more. I already had learned the ins and outs of business fraud and restaurant management, and the only thing that was going to make me better was experience. It felt like a dead end. I wanted more. Plus, I could not wake up anymore without my meth, or sleep without my alcohol. To be honest, I probably would have ended up dead before going to prison.
I quit. I slowly weaned myself off of meth and alcohol. I left the business world, and tried to find how a burnt out high school dropout could realize the childhood dream of becoming a scientist. I got myself enrolled in a community college in order to obtain the education I missed out of in high school. I started taking elementary algebra and worked myself through calculus 4 in 3 years. I graduated with an Associates degree with a 3.8 GPA. This took me three years. I transferred to a four year university and started a major in chemical engineering. Since then I have switched to a double major of materials engineering and physics. This will take a total of 4 year. I anticipate graduating with a 3.3 GPA and want to go to grad school. I wish my GPA were higher, but since going to a real university, I have had friends from my old life ask for help leaving it behind. I have obliged and worked with them for almost two years. This took a hit on my education as so much time and energy was spent helping these four people. Eventually I ended up homeless while helping out the last of them and am now living in a dorm for the remainder of the semester. I know that helping my old friends was a terrible idea when considering my future, but I also know that many people do not have what it takes to do that on their own. I guess what I want to know is if it is possible to still get into a quality graduate program. I have been doing research for a year and am working on my first published paper. Starting this summer I will be working in two labs. One studying surface chemistry (current) and a new one in the physics department studying wuantum computing materials. I anticipate at least three publication before I apply to grad schools and have awesome letters of recommendations. When writing my personal statement, I do not want to sound whiny, because I love my life and it has made me into who I am. I am a strong and wise person who has plenty of street smarts. I only ask because I have no idea what to write in my personal statement because who I am is not simple, and everyone writes about their love for knowledge or what have you. I am lost on this whole process. </p>
<p>Thank you for your time.</p>