Hello all,
I’m a seventeen year old male Latino student at a small private high school in Massachusetts, and I am considering applying to HADES post-graduate programs next year to better prepare myself for college and to improve myself academically and athletically. I will need a lot of financial aid, but I would automatically qualify for full financial aid at some of these schools.
Academics:
Standardized Tests:
8th Grade SAT (for practice): 1340/1600
PSAT 10: 1400/1520
PSAT/NMSQT: 1490/1520
Notes: This is enough to qualify as a National Merit Scholar in my state.
May SAT: 1570/1600
SAT Subject Tests:
World History - 760/800
French - 790/800
Course Load:
I have taken all honors courses throughout high school, barring required classes, electives, and my AP’s. Some of these exams are ones I studied myself out of personal interest.
AP’s:
9th Grade:
None, they weren’t offered for this grade.
10th Grade:
European History - 5
World History - 5 (Self-Study)
Human Geography - 5
These AP’s do not have scores yet, as they will be released starting July 5th. Generally, I feel that these scores will turn out well. I will update this section when scores are released.
11th Grade:
English Language and Composition
United States History
Macroeconomics (Self-Study)
Comparative Government (Self-Study)
Capstone
I will be taking the following courses and/or exams next year.
12th Grade:
English Literature and Composition
United States Government
Calculus BC
Microeconomics (Self-Study)
Environmental Science
Spanish
Research
French (Already fluent; just for credit)
Grades:
These GPA’s are not weighted.
Freshman Year: 3.2 GPA
Notes: Two C’s
Sophomore Year: 2.4 GPA
Notes: Failed one class… I do have some reasons why that I will include in my application. Though, the threshold for failure at my school is higher than at others, so my grade would have been seen as D+ at other schools. This subject was math.
Junior Year: 4.1 GPA
Notes: I moved on from my failure and had a much better junior year; I managed to move on from the issues that plagued my prior year. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain this next year to partially rectify my bad first two years. The added .1 is from the way my school weighs grades. In any course where a student receives higher than a 93, they get .1 added on to their grade point in that class.
My school does not have a class ranking system, but I would estimate that by this point I’m only barely in the top half of my class.
Academic Awards:
National Spanish Exam Gold Medalist for three years in a row
AFL-CIO Scholarship Recipient
National Merit Semifinalist
Extracurriculars and Interests:
Mock Trial, four-year member. Our team has been consistently ranked as one of the best teams in the state for the past few years.
Model UN, four-year member. During my freshman year, I was elected to replace a club officer after they were impeached from their position, and have served this role ever since. I also participate in a Model UN team outside of school, where I have been able to compete in international conferences in India, Poland, and Spain. I have won Best Delegate at two conferences.
Student Government:
9th Grade: No elections.
10th Grade: Class Representative
11th Grade: I unfortunately couldn’t run because of my academic errors from the prior year.
12th Grade: Secretary
Spanish Club, three-year member
Two-year member of the varsity football team. I didn’t play any sports at all my first two years because I was unathletic and overweight, but I lost weight last summer. Would this hurt my chances for potentially playing on a team? Some colleges ave expressed interest in recruiting me.
One of my main interests is politics. I did hundreds of volunteer hours during the 2018 midterms. I participated in the Telluride Association Sophomore Seminar, a selective summer program about critical Black and ethnic studies. My local congressperson, whom I volunteered for, offered to write me a recommendation letter.
I have played the violin for eleven years. Though, I haven’t had any formal lessons or been in any concerts or recitals since the eighth grade, but I do practice with it a few times per week.
I have a small, but rapidly growing video essay channel on YouTube. At the moment, it has several thousands of subscribers, and, at its current rate, I may surpass 10000 by the end of the year.
I’m not sure if this helps too much, but I speak four languages other than English fluently: Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Russian. I speak Portuguese at home, learn Spanish at school, and taught myself French in middle school and Russian throughout high school.
Would I be competitive for HADES? The weakest part of my application is obviously my poor grades, but hopefully this can be overcome with a good senior year.