Hi, I’m finishing up my junior year at an excellent very small alternative public high school in NYC. I have always loved school, but suffered from severe anxiety and depression at the beginning of high school that was not properly treated and therefore heavily restricted my ability to thrive in school. A somewhat crackpot psychiatrist put me on very strong mood stabilizers and anti anxiety medications that killed my ability to concentrate and made me feel exhausted all the time. I still have periods of depression and anxiety but I’m in a much better place to push through these times and keep school, work, and volunteering my first priority.
I want to go to a college filled with the type of students that want to debate for hours and who asked for extra reading in high school without the incentive of extra credit. That being said, I don’t want to go to college with only highly priveleged intellectual types who don’t recognize the advantages of their class and race, and who think they’re superior to others because of their large vocabulary and private school education. I audited a class at Sarah Lawrence and I was irritated by how pretentious a lot of the students were without actually being able to make interesting points in the class discussions. I suppose that I’ll have to deal with that at most small quirky liberal arts colleges.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could chance me at the following colleges:
Reed (Reed is probably my #1 right now, but i know with my early grades it’s a reach for me)
Oberlin
Bard
Clark
Bennington
Hampshire
Eugene Lang
If you have any advice about those schools or any other sugguestions for colleges to add to my list I would appreciate it! I’m planning to major in psychology, so if anyone has info about psychology departments that would also be helpful.
OK here’s my info:
ACT composite- 34
English- 34
Math- 31
Reading- 36
Science- 33
SAT 2 lit- 760
SAT 2 american history- 780
Grades
Freshman year
first semester- no grades, medical absence
second semester- 2 Fs, a C, a B-, 2 B+, and an A-
Photography- F
Human Behavior- F
History of American Slavery- B-
Creative Writing- A-
Speech writing- C
Geometry- B+
Art history- B+
Sophmore year
first semester- 3 Fs, 2 C-, 2 B-, and a B
Russian History- B-
Gender Studies- C-
Filmmaking- C-
Jazz Age Literature- B
Art History- F
Advanced Algebra- F
World War II History- F
second semester- 2 B-, 2 B+, 2 A-, an A
Trig- B+
Physics- B-
Theatre- B-
Political Science- B+
Queer Studies- A-
Deconstructing Literature- A
Debate- A-
Junior Year
first semester- 1 B+ 3 A-, 3 As
Ethics- A
Poetry Analysis- A-
Statistics- A
Robotics- A-
Advanced Algebra- A
Advanced Logical reasoning- A-
American Sign Language- B+
second semester- 2 A-, 5 As
Chemistry- A
Pre Calc- A
Social Science Research- A-
Civil War and Reconstruction- A-
Dystopian Literature- A
Poetry- A
Painting- A
I also audited a philosophy class at Sarah Lawrence and kept up with reading and papers which my guidence counselor will probably put in her rec. I would have taken the class for credit, but it would have been a couple thousand dollars which was unaffordable for my family.
Senior Year
first semester-
taking Ancient Greek and Latin course at Hunter College (I expect to get a high grade)
Calculus
Forensics
Animal Behavioral Science
Russian History
World Literature
Debate
Painting
My school is very non traditional, and though public, it has a waiver for standardized testing and language classes (although i took an ASL class offered my junior year). We also don’t have APs, but the classes are difficult. Most literature and history classes require regular 5-10(+) page papers.
Extracurriculars
- 4 years and hundreds of hours working with a high school for students with autism. The higher functioning students take 1 or 2 classes at my school each semester. I have taught a poetry class on Friday afternoons for these kids, as well as worked with many of them individually and in a group on social skills and school work.
- head organizer of yearly walk- a- thons that each raised $15,000- $20,000 for an organization that helps Afghan girls get an education and Afghan women and children escape abusive homes.
- Second semester junior year- present i've taken 2.5 hour weekly ASL class
- Part of a student collective that registers young voters, interviewed candidates for the 2013 NYC Mayoral election on education policies, and has met with members of the board of regents as representatives of schools that use Performance Based Assessments as opposed to standardized tests.
- Sophmore year- present I've served on my school's admissions committee, which means interviewing prospective students and discussing their applications with faculty.
-Summer before sophmore year I worked as a full time camp counselor teaching acting and creative writing to kids
(40 hrs/week)
-Summer before junior year I worked part time as a production assistant to a Spanish language learning video company
(20 hrs/week)
-Summer before junior year I also took intensive Spanish classes for a month (15 hrs/ week) and passed the A1 and A2 levels. SInce that class I’ve done Spanish Rosetta Stone.
-This summer (summer before senior year) I will be working 30 hrs/ week as a barista/ baker’s assistant at a cafe/ bakery. I will probably work on weekends during senior year.
-This summer I’ll also be taking painting classes at the Art Student’s League (10 hrs/ week)
Oh also I have some gold keys and a national silver medal in poetry from scholastic
College Recs
I know will be very very good. I attend a school with only 130 kids (all classes are multi age and grade level), and 14 teachers. I have many teachers who I’m very close with and who i spend a lot of time outside of classes with.
I’m close with my college counselor and I think she’s going to do a very good job explaining why i had trouble in the beginning of high school. My school has had a lot of very smart students who have had similar upward trend situations to mine, so the counselors are used to selling that story.
I am getting a rec from the teacher I’ve taken most of my literature classes with and who is the head of Admissions committee. We are very close and we spend lots of time outside of class talking about books, the world, and our lives. She gives me lots of extra reading for classes and always has lovely things to say in comments on my papers and in the written evaluations that accompany grades in my school.
I’m getting a rec from a science teacher I’ve taken Statistics, Chemistry, and Social Science Research with. She pushes me to do work beyond what’s assigned for the whole class and I’ve done several experiements with her that resulted in 15-20 page lab reports. She told me recently that I’m her best science student and that she thinks I could go far with a career in psychology research.
I’m also getting a rec from my supervisor at the high school for autistic students. I am also very close with her, and I have been very dedicated to my responsibilities there, even when I was doing poorly in school. She told me she was going to write a college rec for me without me asking.
Essays
I haven’t written my essays yet but I’m a strong writer and I have a lot of ideas for college essays.
Sorry for the super long post!