<p>Do you all know who you’re going to ask for your letters of rec?
Obviously I have to ask my counselor, but I’ve met my counselor maybe once, it’s a big school, and she doesn’t know me, so quite honestly I don’t know what she’ll write. I also know she has to write a bunch of them for seniors so hopefully she’ll be ok with it.
As far as my teacher goes, I had the same math teacher two years in a row and is the advisor for the club I’m starting this year. Though I know she likes me, I don’t really know her too personally and I haven’t talked to her much this year. My math teacher this year though was talking to the class about how he will write anyone who asks him an outstanding letter of rec as long as they get A’s and a few other criteria. I’m thinking I might ask him now. I honestly don’t know who to ask.
Lastly, my extracurricular advisor… I am going to ask the woman in charge of the service group I am very involved in and have been for a while. I know her really well and I told her about the program and she asked me if I wanted a letter or rec- I didn’t even have to ask, haha. But having a letter or rec from the office of the mayor seems tempting (I interned there over the summer)- but I don’t feel I know them there as well, so I’m a bit conflicted :P</p>
<p>@lindzmm For mine, I have to have an academic and community reference. My academic is easy (my beloved English teacher - a near god in awesomness and pure charity) but for community…I’m not sure. Perhaps my piano teacher? If I were you, I’d go for people you feel closest to, in the toss up between prestige and reliability. But that’s just my two cents :)</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know how this will make you feel, (a bit more confident I hope) but you are scaring the life out of me with your amazing community work. I’ve been trying to get some for 4 and a half years, but couldn’t find a single place. I sent out TWELVE applications to do volunteering within the last two months, and got zip back 
So, even though the flesh is willing, the trust in teenagers around where I live is weak :L</p>
<p>@ev2414 There were definitely lots of extra stuff she did that helped her get in. First of all, she has lived in 5 different countries on 3 different continents, she was a swimmer, went to a sports school and competed at national and international events (and won many medals), she did MUN (which looks really good on your application form, so I’ve heard), she was in the student council, went to an international school that offers IB, among others.</p>
<p>As for application, she applied directly to UWC Atlantic, not through a national committee.</p>
<p>I think the fact that she is a permanent resident of the UK and she was applying from Africa, where relatively few people apply from, also helped her. I hope this helps!</p>
<p>@lindzmm I’ve already got one of my letters in, from my bio teacher who is also the IGCSE coordinator at my school. I get to sent in up to three supporting documents, so I’ve also asked my music teacher and counselor. My school is not very big, so all teachers know their students personally. I choose those teachers because I know that my bio teacher really likes me, and he would write really good things about me (which my counselor told me he has). As for my music teacher, he thinks I’m a really talented musician (even though I don’t think so) and I’ve actually confronted him about making my class (which only has 5 students) perform so often, and the organisers of the events don’t even appreciate our help. I was the only one with the guts to stand up and speak out, so it definitely made an impression on him. My counselor actually told me today that one of my teachers told her what they liked best about me was the fact that I was straightforward and said what I thought, but in a respectful way. Hopefully he would mention that in the letter.</p>
<p>@applesauce21: I’m sorry! That’s so frustrating- I know because I’ve been rejected multiple times too. Luckily for me, there is a program out here that decided to start a program for high school girls because they felt there weren’t too many opportunities for us. Since I have been part of the group since the founding year, I’ve been able to be involved a lot. The good news for you is, I’ve realized that once you get involved somehow, you tend to meet people that can help you get even more involved. Most of the community stuff I’ve done is through connections I’ve made and kept in touch with- including interning in the Mayor’s office 
I don’t know if your school does this, but my school is really big on clubs, so I started a club to bring baked goods to the wounded warriors once a month. Something like that would be a great way to give back. Also, are there any nursing homes near you? They always love to have younger people come by and volunteer, plus it can be fun. I hope you find something because not only will it look good on your resume, but it really changes who you are and your perspective on life… however cheesy that sounds :P</p>
<p>@applesauce21: Also, I don’t know if this is something you’d be interested in, but I’m sure you could work with some elementary or middle school students in your area and help them with school work but not for pay.</p>
<p>@windowpainting16 and @linzmm thank you guys so much! You’re the best 
I’ve never used a forum before, and so got such a shock at the lovely experience of strangers helping each other And also, @yoghurthamster - I am doing a similar thing to the tables thing but in my head. I keep reminding myself that I’m really lucky to be going to a good school now, and have great friends, and a family which can afford to go on holiday, and it is really ungrateful to be wanting more.</p>
<p>But then I’m like OMG UWCsssssssssssss!!! :OOOOO</p>
<p>And my plan sort of fails :D</p>
<p>And your advice was so helpful!! Thank you <3 Like, I worry that I won’t be able to prove my potential without shed loads of ECs, but on the other hand, doing volunteering for the sake of personal gain is perverting the foundations of charity, and so I really want to do stuff that I love. I mean, that’s the raison d’etre for volunteering right? You are so passionnate about something, you’ll help aide that cause for free :)</p>
<p>Also, I’m english, so although I sort of know what you guys are talking about with GPAs and APs and stuff…not really haha XD</p>
<p>I’m from India and I’ll be applying for the 2013 session in MUWCI. My form is here and I haven’t even started filling it! I really wanna get in there!
Anyone else here from India?</p>
<p>I’m not from India, so I’m sorry that I can’t help you with your application process, but I would love to hear more about why you chose that UWC
Sent from my ST25i using CC</p>
<p>@applesauce21: Glad I could help! I’m so glad we’re all supporting each other.</p>
<p>@windowpainting16 ikr? XD I sort of dream that this is what a UWC will be like :D</p>
<p>WoooOOOOooooW - 11 pages of UWC ramblings
I think I’m gonna start on my essays tomorrow, but I have a ton of revision to do, and a debate on Monday ahhhhh
Sorry, irrelevant complaining!!</p>
<p>@applesauce21 Thank you so much for providing the link of the blog, I’ll read the stories later!</p>
<p>I’m going to jump in to the discussion about recs now (a bit late, oops!) - I’m in the US, so I need a teacher, counselor, and extracurricular advisor letter. Surprisingly enough, the counselor is the easiest one for me, because at our school we have the normal counselors by alphabet (I don’t know this counselor at all, actually) and then two that take care of stuff for people with our so-called Individual Education Plans (which means they help people take harder classes, skip grades, do competitions, and they do a lot of college application help), and one of those counselors knows me very well. She was both of my siblings’ counselor as well, so she’s known my family for 10 years now. For the teacher, I’m probably either going to ask my AP English teacher or my AP Euro teacher to write one for me, but the extracurricular one I’m a bit stumped. It’d be good to have a service-related letter, but the person who I volunteer under at the library doesn’t know me very well…I’m thinking of asking my Biology teacher last year who is head of a few of the clubs I’m in (they’re connected to the school, but they’re extrracurriculars). He knows me the best, but I feel like it’s kinda strange to have a teacher be your extracurricular advisor. I don’t know, I’ll think some more…</p>
<p>@applesauce21 Luckily, I have my work placement next week and the october holidays after that so no school for the next three weeks!! (albeit i have to study for preliminary exams) I will probably start my essays after my work placement. What GCSEs are you taking? or Are you taking the Scottish Standard Grades like moi? Sorry for my off topic questions, just being curious.</p>
<p>@stuffzhappenin I’m actually doing AS Levels 
So neither! </p>
<p>But for GCSEs, I did Triple Science Higher, Maths Higher, English Literature Higher, English Language Higher, Italian Higher, French Higher, Geography Higher, Drama Higher and Music Higher. </p>
<p>Don’t be freaked out by all the highers, it just meant that I took a course where the highest possible grade wasn’t a C </p>
<p>Now I’m doing Biology, Chemistry, English Literature and French.
How about you?</p>
<p>@Stuffzhappenin Also, what are your thoughts on fees? Because, like, as I mentioned before, my parents are strongly against private education, and - to be honest - so am I. </p>
<p>But to me, a UWC isn’t private, because its aim is to be free, and they’re not a business. I just had a conversation with my dad, which wasn’t quite an argument, but wasn’t wholly amicable, where he basically said that </p>
<p>“The UWC Experience could be achieved by going to university - there you meet intelligent people from all over the world. A true education is going to school with kids of all creeds and kinds, rather that going to an elitist, fee paying private school. You aren’t from the slums, we’re a middle class family, why would anyone want to give you a scholarship or sponsor you? Even if you get in, where are you gonna get the money from?! If I had £50000 then I would give it so save the children, or buy a house, or send you and your sister to university - not only give that money to you, one person, when you could get that education for free”</p>
<p>You see, if I don’t get a full scholarship, I can’t go. And I doubt I’ll get one of those.</p>
<p>applesauce21, you need to look at it this way : you are applying for an $80,000 two year scholarship that puts you in a unique circumstance. You will be getting a two year head start on university culture, and potentially one year ahead on courses. You will be with a great number of students who have the desire and ability to truly impact the world, through social, political, economic and educational networks. Why on earth would you NOT want to go?</p>
<p>I do want to go!! I believe in that so much! But my parents don’t. I think that winning this scholarship is THE best thing that could ever happen to me. </p>
<p>I know I’ll apply. But I don’t know what I’ll say. I guess, I’ve just got to try and show them inside me? If that makes sense. I don’t have anything to really prove it, but I know that I am in the extremely rare and special position, of having the drive and passion to get out there and change the world. Or at least, all the bits of it I can get to during my life span A UWC would give me the ability to smash the box my school are determined to put all their students in - you become a teacher/lawyer/doctor (all positions that you’ve heard of when you’re three) and live in England, and have two kids and go on holiday to Cornwall for a week every year. </p>
<p>It would be my idea of hell, to know that I have the ability to come up with solutions, the memory to learn languages, the desire to help people and all I was doing was living the life that all the other 2000 odd teenagers around me aspire to. I can do and be more than that and if I don’t I’ll regret it and resent it for the rest of my life!</p>
<p>If for some reason, you DON’T get into UWC, you are not done. Look closely at the education you could receive there, and find another way of getting to the same point. All in all , you need to consider 3 things: Who are you? What do you want? What are you willing to do to achieve that goal? If you answer honestly, you will be well on your way, regardless to acceptance or not.</p>