In 2014 I happily decided to attend The University of Iowa making the move from NJ to Iowa, I always thought of myself as a smart kid who got good grades even though I would normally skip school during high school, but like every young high school kid, I thought once I would get into college it would be different and I would strive, I was dead wrong. Once I started my freshman year, my old habits started again after a few good weeks of attending classes and doing good, I decided to start not attending classes multiple times, I would prioritize having a good time over striving in school. The results were 3 C+s and only getting 12 credits during my first semester. I was upset about the lack of care and how if I had just attended class a little more and not failed those quizzes cause of it, I would had most likely gotten B’s or A’s. I decided it was time to really focus and push myself during the spring semester, thats when things only got worse. I had been battling some personal demons within myself and had failed to take the time to seek help or care for myself, pair up with my immaturity and concern for my grades, it was a recipe for disaster for my spring semester. I stopped attending classes completely and withdrew out of most of my classes except for calculus and a history online class. I managed to finish with a B on calculus and failed my history exam as it was a class that allowed me to pace myself and since I was lazy I figured I would do all the coursework the last 2 weeks of class, but when my back went out and I couldnt get up from bed for 2 weeks, I failed the course. I decided to go back home for the fall semester and work on myself, as I realized I wasn’t ready yet for college. I attended a semester of community college the following semester as I was pressured by my parents to attend school, I managed to get an A and B+ on two classes and withdrew from two other. I signed up for spring semester, doing all online classes, but once again I wasnt prepared and failed to realized that unlike UIowa the classes werent at your pace classes, and you had weekly datelines. I withdrew from all my classes that semester and have the W’s on my transcript from it. I attended the next fall semester once again and for the first time managed to finish 4 classes, 2 A’s, a B+ and a B, I was starting to mature and had now gotten some urge of urgency. I took off spring semester due to financial aid issues, during this semester my mother fell extremely ill, thats when it hit me, I had found my drive to want to succeed. My mother had raised us all alone for most of her life and had sacrificed everything for me and my brother against all the odds stacked against us. I didn’t want to fail anymore, I didnt want to disappoint her anymore, I wanted to succeed for her and myself. The following semester I took 6 classes and dedicated time and effort to make sure I did good in every assignment, even getting a B was seemed as a failure was my new mindset, I ended the semester with straight A’s. Now to the present, Im currently on my last semester before graduating with an associates, Im once again on course for 5 straight A’s. My gpa is currently around 3.8, but should rise up to around 3.9 after this semester. I applied and got into Rutgers, both NB and Newark, but opted for Newark’s business school due to their RUN to the top program, which would allow me to go for basically free. I plan on attending for a year, and plan on dorming to be extremely involved in my school, my goal is now to help make a difference in my community. I plan on starting two clubs at Rutgers, one for mental health where I could help students who went through similar struggles like I did, and a bone marrow awareness club, where I would work on educating others on how seeing if they are match for a bone marrow transplant could make a difference, my goal is to increase the numbers of people who get themselves tested to see if they are a match. I also plan on working on an organization that pairs up students 1 or 2 at a time with a volunteers who would teach them how to work out, I credit my turn around to the dedication that weight lifting has taught me, it helped me increase my confidence and deal with my anxiety, and I strongly feel that it could do the same for many other students, who want to start, but are too embarrassed to go to the gym by themselves or/and have no idea on how to work out and about proper nutrition. I plan on majoring in finance at Rutgers and seek a career in investment banking after graduation, due to the low recruitment of front office jobs in IB at Rutgers I decided that I want to push myself and seek a transfer to a top finance program that could prepared me better and allow me better chances to land those top internships and positions (I do understand the importance of networking). I plan on applying to Stanford, Georgetown, UVA, University of Chicago, UNC, Amherst and a few other schools that Im still eligible to transfer to. My concern is that my bad first year at college and my lack of EC’s during my time at a community college( commute was about 4 hours, 1.5 hours to go, 1.5 hours to come back and normally an hour of waiting for the bus, which made working an being active at my school extremely hard for me) can affect my chances of being accepted. I do understand that competition for transfers is fierce, thats one of the reasons I plan on applying to multiple schools, at the end of the day if it all fails I wont be upset as my current situation at Rutgers isn’t bad at all. All the schools that I will applied to meet full financial need, so in a financial sense they wont severely affect me. A few more things about me: First generation student, latino, single mother, immigrant, mother on disability (wheelchair bound her whole life), brother a marine. (not sure if any of those would improve my chances at all). What do you guys honestly think about my chances of transferring to a top college at his point?
TLDR: Bad freshman year at 4 year school, found myself and matured, had an academic resurgence 3.9 GPA at CC no EC’s, transferring to Rutgers plan on being involved in EC’s, trying to transfer to a better finance program for better chances at IB FO positions.