<p>Sorry this is long, but please read it all! I feel kind of helpless right now.</p>
<p>Ever since elementary school I have struggled to keep my grades up. I can remember being set aside by my teacher in the fourth grade, and at that very moment, I was introduced to my very first math tutor, Ben. By the time middle school rolled around, I visited tutors nearly daily, for practically every subject in school, besides English. Somehow I still managed to pull straight A's. </p>
<p>Then in high school everything went downhill for me. The courses were tougher and moved at a faster pace, but I tried my hardest to fight through them. It was like pulling teeth, but I was determined to do well. I had sessions with tutors about 3 to 4 times a week. I went to every "extra help" session my teachers had. I did all the extra credit work I could possibly do. My freshman and sophomore years of high school, I did alright and managed mostly A's and B's. Still, I felt like something was not right with me. I had a much harder time grasping concepts than most students did, and I moved at a really slow pace. I brought this up to my parents in my junior year of high school, when my course load became unbearable. Mind you my schedule wasn't even crammed with AP's. My parents agreed that I struggled with school, and that I should speak with my guidance counselor about it. I suggested that there might be something "wrong" with me, but said counselor pulled up my transcripts, and insisted that I was a "fairly decent student". He thought I was being "paranoid". When I told my parents what he had said to me, they were furious, and rightfully so! They spoke with my guidance counselor, school administrators, and the school psychologist. My high school refused to run tests on me for a learning disability because my grades indicated I was "too smart". Still my parents and I fought them. Nothing worked, so we finally spoke to our family physician, who referred us to a psychologist who was supposed to "help" me. Junior year turned into senior year which turned into graduation. My grades suffered tremendously junior and senior year because I never got the assistance I needed and deserved in school. I graduated with a 2.7 GPA. I tested poorly on the SATs too.</p>
<p>Then the September after senior year, I ended up at a mediocre university, because it was one of the few universities that accepted me. I withdrew myself from the institution within a matter of weeks, because I discovered where there is a mediocre university there is mediocre students by the masses. I pulled mediocre grades all throughout high school, but I was not mediocre! I am a very determined and driven individual.</p>
<p>I enrolled myself in a community college for the spring semester... and flunked out of all six of my courses! If I could not succeed at a community college, what was I destined for?</p>
<p>That summer I was diagnosed with a learning disability, ADD, along with an anxiety disorder. All of that came into play with my previous years of unsuccessful schoolwork. I am still amazed that my parents and I were right all along, and that my school just overlooked it. When will people learn that learning disabilities do not equate to stupidity?????</p>
<p>I just completed my first year of community college since my diagnosis. I have around a 3.7 GPA, and hope to raise it more during the next two semesters! I am in the honors program too. I am a student orientation leader, on the campus activities board, volunteer at my church, work as a counselor for children at an after school program M-F, play guitar & piano, do some photography on the side (I have a portfolio), and am a server at a local restaurant on the weekends. I have studied abroad. I intern for a major record label, I have interned at a radio station, I manage a signed band, and work for a local music marketing company too. I also try to learn as much as I can at a friend's recording studio, and I could probably get a nice recommendation letter from him. Oh, and I write, self-publish, and sell my own books on a website which I built and manage myself. I am 19-years-old.</p>
<p>I know I am not the "typical" college applicant, but what do you think my chances are of transferring to a good school after one more year at community college? Also, what schools would you suggest for me to look at? I would love to look into schools with good music business programs or communication programs, specifically public relations, and party schools are a big "no no" for me. I want a place where an individual can actually be individual. Most importantly, how do I explain my turn around to college admissions? And do you think they would let me submit SAT scores that I took after high school, if they knew my circumstances?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>