<p>I am gonna tell my story here because I feel that it is relevant. If it sounds like bragging when I talk about any accomplishments, then I apologize, as it isn't the intention -- I'm simply relaying my experience to show people an unusual outcome and situation. I worked extremely hard to get where I am now.</p>
<p>I attended public schools all my life. Was never really happy with them, but my parents always said private schools were too expensive and not necessary. They weren't able to ever proofread any papers or teach me math -- nothing. It isn't so much that I am blaming them for this, but it was disappointing to me as a child. I'd hear about all my friends and how their parents were able to teach them various things and it would make me feel like I was missing out. All I seemed to get from my parents were groundings for using the computer too much or for fighting with a brother who was given special treatment despite his antagonistic nature.</p>
<p>My parents also never drove me to extracurricular activities because they felt it was a chore. So I'd either have to find alternate transportation via buses or sheepishly ask friends for rides. Basically, my parents were totally out of the picture when it came to education, growing up. Neither of them did that well in high school, and since they never went to college, they didn't know anything about it at all. I love them to death, but when I needed help, I couldn't turn to them.</p>
<p>Come high school, I took my SAT's three times and got a composite of 1590 with 800's on all my SAT2's, eventually graduating as a valedictorian. My father had also passed away in a fatal car accident senior year. As a result, we had no income. I was incredibly devastated... I had lost my father, my mother was in poor condition, and my brother went further down the wrong path with the wrong group of friends. I had a rank to maintain, SATs to take, colleges to apply to, recs to ask for, money to manage, emotions to consider, and a family to hold together.</p>
<p>Most people in my school simply went to the local state schools. Nobody really left the state or sought better schools more suited to their interests. It was just something you did. Graduate high school -- go to the state school. I had a desire to do well on the SATs, and I eventually found this site, and it taught me tons about colleges.</p>
<p>I applied to 15 schools (Penn, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, UVA, Tufts, Georgetown, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Lehigh, and the state school). It took me forever to finally finish all the essays and fill out all the relevant financial aid forms. It was especially hard since after my father's death, my mom was no longer home. She was in too much of a mess and she didn't want to talk to me about anything regarding her own emotions -- she was simply unable to and I couldn't get close to her. So I had to do everything alone again.</p>
<p>I was eventually rejected by Princeton but I heard good things otherwise. Probably one of the happiest days of my life -- I had worked extremely hard for so many years, and I felt like that day was my reward for all that had happened. There was such a nice array of colleges to choose from. I decided to attend Penn, where I am now.</p>
<p>Basically, I'm just relaying this story to let everyone know that it's possible to achieve whatever you want. I grew up with such envy -- I hated how so many kids had educated parents with money, and I still do envy to some extent. But I had my own desire to do well and choose a path that was different, and so I did the necessary research and prepared as best as I could. I'm proud of these accomplishments because I was first-gen and had go to seek out college information alone and figure out the whole process with respect to applying to the schools, properly getting financial aid, calculating general costs, etc.</p>
<p>Anyways I am not sure if anyone's gonna take the time to read all that, but that's my story. I probably forgot to mention important things, but eh. There you have it :P</p>