<ul>
<li>Applied to UCLA (1st choice!) and UCI (Eh) for Fall 2014 admission. Planning to apply to USC, Occidental, Loyola-Marymount… and CSULA/Northridge (BOOOOO)</li>
<li>Transferring from LA City College with a GPA of 3.77, but after this semester (fall 2013), I’ll have a 3.83! They should have an updated GPA calculated before accepting/denying me!</li>
<li>Work around 30 hrs per week as a server at a restaurant (addressed in application)</li>
<li>All A’s except for one (URGHHH!) “C” from a year and a half ago.</li>
<li>Won the Annual Social Sciences Research Paper Contest at my city college in Washington state (last year)</li>
<li>Born and raised in CA (in-state residency). I was only in WA for a short time and never declared residency. </li>
</ul>
<p>I already applied but if anyone wants to give some (hopefully) positive feedback on my Personal Statement, I’d appreciate the ego-boost! </p>
<p>I’M A BRUIN I SWEEAAARRRR</p>
<ol>
<li> Toto’s Death</li>
</ol>
<p>The first time I can remember being depressed, I was five. I was visiting the Hollywood Forever Cemetery with my family and at the time, I was obsessed with The Wizard of Oz. As my dad and I walked through the cemetery, he pointed out the graves of deceased, once-famous Hollywoodites. I didn’t recognize a single name… until my dad drew my attention to a gravestone boldly inscribed with the name “TOTO”. If youve never seen The Wizard of Oz, Toto is Dorothys faithful terrier and to say the least, I was shocked to learn of his passing. To make my confusion worse, my dad proceeded to bark, as if Toto himself was barking from the grave! Up until this point, I guess I had just assumed that Toto was alive somewhere, young as ever and well loved, but my childhood self became convinced that Toto was still conscious, six feet under, barking. Now, before anyone concludes that my dad was a heinously insensitive parent, I want to give a disclaimer that my parents are wonderful and loving. What I find important about this event in my life is, yes- how could my dad have thought that this was an appropriate joke for a five year old? - but mostly how a seemingly inconsequential prank influenced my perception of death. After that day, I believed that humans remained conscious and felt the sensation of life, even after death. Of course I eventually developed a clearer understanding of death, but the moment had been frightening enough to send me spiraling into despair. That afternoon at the cemetery obviously had an initial impact on me but could my experience have been so traumatic that it influenced who I became later in life? My interest in psychology comes from the possibility that certain events in our lives are able to have a lasting impact on who we become.</p>
<p>Ive been intrigued by the development of human cognition and behavior since my days as an elementary school kid, when I first attempted to understand what distinguished me from my peers and the disparity between how I saw myself and what my classmates thought of me. As I grew up, I became more analytical of the people in my life. As an especially under-qualified 7th grader, I played therapist with my group of friends, inspired by my first meeting with a counseling psychologist. Although perhaps a guilty pleasure which is no more fruitful than self-diagnosing through WebMD, I sometimes engage in my own over-analytical Freudian psychoanalysis of those close to me. As an adult I have been able to reflect on the hopelessness and anxiety I experienced following Totos proverbial death, and it became apparent that this had been a significant early childhood experience, during which time much of human development occurs. </p>
<p>I have described this time during my childhood in order to illustrate the type of psychological inquiry that has attracted me throughout my life. I find the various factors that contribute to human development and individual identity particularly meaningful, leading me to a lot of important questions: How do we determine which experiences in life are significant enough to change someone? Are all occurrences, even the ones that seem entirely insignificant at the time, part of an instruction manual on understanding you? Did Totos grave actually have any long-term affect on me? Do early childhood experiences, like the one I had at the cemetery, have a greater impact on development than events that occur later in life? Whether nature or nurture had a greater hand in my development, I have a certain psychological curiosity that has inspired an ambition that could only come from an internal passion for the subject. I cannot imagine anything more gratifying than dedicating my time to better understanding the cognitive, behavioral, and social tendencies in humans, which is why I will major in psychology.</p>
<ol>
<li> Compassion and Cats</li>
</ol>
<p>If you were to follow me on Instagram, youd quickly realize that Im deeply involved in an intimate love affair with my cat, Leo. I began to identify with the title Crazy Cat Lady early in life, when Boots, my first love, would lie on the foot of my bed all night as I slept. The only words that might describe the intensity of my feelings for Leo are mother and child. Although I cannot walk by him without stopping to rub his belly, he isnt the only cat that tugs on my heartstrings. Living in Los Angeles, I now see stray and homeless cats every day. While my friends walk by them, shrug and say, sa la vie, it affects me more than it does others. If I could open the largest no-kill cat shelter in the world where all stray cats could find refuge and a saucer of warm milk, Id do it in a heartbeat. I believe in following your true passions because genuine empathy is necessary for the well being and improvement of a community.</p>
<p>We all have inclinations toward certain causes, whether it be the environment, the homeless, victims of domestic abuse - or the well being of cats. Despite the fact that sensitivity is often associated with weakness, I view it as one of my greatest assets. Like cats, human beings are so vulnerable and complex that even a small gesture of empathy can positively impact their life. As a server at a restaurant thirty hours a week, I bring that sense of empathy and compassion to my customers every day. Although neither my empathy for cats nor customers is going to change the world, I believe that genuine concern for others can have a meaningful impact, and I believe in pursuing a meaningful cause even if it is not completely understood by others. I bring empathy and compassion to all areas of my life that inspire me, from the smallest things like my own cats happiness to the well being of the people around me.</p>