Marshy

I applied for bio engineering and veterinary medicine. I am Asian but did not specify my ethnicity, despite the last name giveaway. For junior year I transferred out of a really ghetto high school (where I was ranked within the top 2%) to one of the most competitive schools in CA with nationally ranked academics. Advanced courses were never offered at my 1st school, and I had a hard time adjusting to the new environment so my weighted GPA for sophomore and junior year is low. Will admission officials take this into account from my college essay? I really hope my lack of AP's sophomore year won't hinder me. I love those classes; these year I'm taking 5 AP's, despite being unable to get all A's.

Sophomore (took 0 period class at 6:30 AM each day):

Dance: A/B+
English: A/A
Trigonometry: A/A
Chem: A/A
Sociology: A/A
World History: A/A
Spanish: A/A

Junior (transferred):

English Honors: A/A
Pre-Calculus: A/A
AP Biology: B/A
AP Physics B: B/B
Spanish: A/A
USH: A/A

Senior course load:

AP Stats: A
AP English: A
AP Calc BC: B+
AP Chem: A
AP Econ: B+
Spanish: A

So my crappy grand total GPA for soph and jun years:
~3.8 UW
~4.1 W

SAT: 2240
ACT: 30
Rank at new school: still top 20% definitely

EC's:

Science/space center intern: explained exhibits to visitors, trained others and managed telescopes, enviroscience and planetarium show development projects (over 400 hours of commitment total)

Teams: Environmental and Astronomy

Biotech lab research associate at 5 prime therapeutics company (a very professional and enriching experience)

Afterschool tutor sophomore year

~50 hours of community service outside of work

2 summer enrichment classes at UC Berkeley ATDP

played badminton 2 years

Piano player for 12 years, quite experienced and played at school talent shows
Drama club 2 years
Mathletes club secretary
Assistant stage manager for school play


For the essay I mentioned a bit about emotional struggle. My older sister has microcephaly and epilepsy and I've taken care of her my whole life. My 1st school was oppressive. Also, my parents divorced my sophomore year. Mostly I wrote about how passionate I was about my EC's, how much I learned the importance of higher education, and how my mother made sacrifices for my education. Is that cliche?