Hi everyone! So the schools I’m applying to are as follows;
- Columbia University (which I know is a reach, but if it’s absolutely impossible, I’d like to know now.)
-Northwestern
-University of Chicago
-American University
-University of Maryland, Baltimore
-Georgetown
-Sarah Lawerence
-Fordham
-NYU
-University of Miami (Miami, FL)
-Universiry of Florida
-Claremont McKenna
-Eckerd College
So, here’s what’s up with me;
-State of Residency; Florida, in the absolute tiniest beach town.
-High school status: Public, kind of dumpy, maybe 400 kids in my class? I’m in at least the top 12%.
-Ethnicity + Gender: Caucasian Female.
-GPA: 3.95/4
-SAT: 1450 composite, with a perfect score on the writing portion
-ACT: 31 composite
-Courseload: All AICE courses since freshmen year; AICE is essentially the British version of IB, and counts as a college class. Rigorous, intensive from the very start to the very finish.
-Senior year class load:
- AP Calculus
- AICE Psychology
- AICE Global Persoectives
- AICE English
- along with the three arts classes I’ve been taking since freshman year, all at the highest levels in our center for the arts; Company Drama, Chamber Choire, and Honors Musical Theatre.
- Academic Honors: Along with being an AICE scholar, I’m a national merit semi finalist, one of only two in my entire school.
- College Essay - Now, here’s where I get a little unique. This summer, I contracted a flesh eating disease after a near fatal car crash, and had to spend a month and a half in the hospital, undergoing 14 major surgeries in a race against the disease to try and basically cut it out of me before it spread to my major organs and killed me. In my essay, I open on the first sunset I see after leaving the hospital, go on to discuss what happened, how it changed me as a person, and close with a reflection on the simple beauty of knowing what death feels like, but choosing to love life anyways. I’m a strong writer, and have been told by several people both teachers and advisors that it is one of the best personal essays they’ve ever read. Of course, I take this with a grain of salt. But still, I think even the subject matter sets me apart.
- Extracarriculars:
- Florida had two major hurricanes in two consecutive years, and each one hit our hometown, which is right on the coast, hard. After the first one in 2016, I used campaigning on social media, getting in contact with congressmen, county officials, and volunteer organizations, and sheer power of persuasion to organize over 90 high school students to join what I dubbed the Youth Task Force for Hurricane Rehabilitiation. (YTFHR). One of our more notable achievements was cleaning up the campus of the Florida school for the deaf and the blind, the largest school for people with hearing and visual ailments in the country. The group started up again after the most recent hurricane in 2017. This is what I put as my most important “activity”.
-President(senior yr)/Secretary(junior yr), Equality Club. As president, I organize biweekly club meetings, coordinate major events such as the GSA Prom (because our schools still stuck in the 1950s and doesn’t let you take the same sex as your date. Lame.), and lead healthy and honest discussions on activism and acceptance in modern society. Equality Club is NOT a GSA, although we do focus on those issues one quarter per year; we are a club dedicated to all forms of equality; sexual, gender, racial, National, and international.
- Soprano Section Leader(junior and senior)/Executive Board Member of Chamber (traveling) Choir all four years of high school, winning numerous awards such as Most Valuable Member and Outstanding Singer. Chamber is the most prestigious, locally known level of choir, and performs at over 40 different local charity and fundraising events per year. As section leader, I was responsible completely for my section; their attendance, their performance, and their abilities all landed back on me.
- Link Crew Leader (junior, senior year). Peer mentor ship program that pairs groups of incoming freshmen with role models throughout the school. Leaders offered advice, a shoulder to cry on, someone to ask questions to, and resources when a problem couldn’t be directly fixed by the leader.
- an absolute MULTITUDE of volunteer ventures and projects, the ones I dedicated the most time to being my work at Another Chance Ranch (a safe haven for old and sick farm animals + dogs that no one will adopt/keep. I did so much farm work, guys. I learned how to sheer a sheep.), and my work with SAHS Best buddies club (peer program for ESE children)
And some other clubs not worth mentioning because I didn’t have specific leadership positions in them.
My intended major is International Studies/Human Rights!
So give it to me straight… what are my chances?
And also, if you have a college you feel I would enjoy as a liberal hippie pursuing academic excellence, and think I have a good shot at getting into, PLEASE feel free to let me know!