<p>I went to the communications high school of the Monmouth county vocational school district in NJ. They called it a "career academy" and made it seem prestigious. In fact, every report card said, "All students accepted via a competitive application process and follow the same rigorous course of study…All courses are taught at an honors level." Personally, I didn't think the classes were very difficult and always pointed out that an honors class can only be honors when compared to non-honors classes and that since all of our classes were honors they really weren't honors at all.</p>
<p>I got a 1260 on my SATs and my cumulative GPA for all 4 years was 92.045. (92 or above was an A+ in our classes.) They didn't do class rank, so I wouldn't be able to say how I compared to my peers. I was, however, VP and co-president of my student council and wrote for the school newspaper. I graduated in 2005.</p>
<p>Instead of trying hard in school, I focused on becoming a humor writer. I had a zine, was profiled by the local newspaper, was published online, and was featured in The Best of McSweeney's Humor Edition by Vintage Press. At 17 I started interviewing comedy makers about making comedy and would go on to have my work featured online and in print in such venues as Time Out New York, NY Press, Philly City Paper, and Pittsburgh City Paper. In 2007 my work was nominated for an award in the field of best comedic commentary by the Emerging Comics of New York. I am currently in the process of branching out from entertainment writing to socio-political and cultural commentary, investigative reporting, and the sort of pieces where one has experiences and writes about them, like Hunter S. Thompson or David Rakoff. I think I'd make a good contributor to a school's news and humor publications.</p>
<p>During my time away from academia, I took a humor writing workshop, performed stand up, took Improv classes, and produced a comedy show. I got a lot of first hand experience that was useful in my writing and provided me with invaluable contacts.</p>
<p>Last year, at 20, I started going to community college. I'm a philosophy/creative writing double major, but I'm holding off on creative writing classes until I get to a 4 year school since I don't want to give feedback on stories about wizards that are illustrated by large-breasted anime vixens. My GPA is 3.88 and I take mostly philosophy, honors classes, and independent studies. I'm 21 now. I have been on the dean's list for both the spring and the fall (they don't have it during the summers). I am also a member of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honors society for 2-year colleges. I think I would be a good contribution to a school's philosophy and creative writing department.</p>
<p>I did a co-op in the fall semester for an entertainment oriented website as well, conducting interviews with many irrelevant celebrities both famous and non-famous, including Ashley Simpson, Lewis Black, and Dave Navarro. I also got to speak with a lot of people I personally enjoyed, despite the fact that readers had never heard of them, such as Saul Williams, Mike Patton, Daniel Johns from Silverchair, Spike Feresten, and Crispin Glover.</p>
<p>I am also a first generation American, with my parents emigrating from the Soviet Union in the late 80's.</p>
<p>I feel that these reasons as well as my ability to discern when to use emigrating rather than immigrating make me a good transfer candidate for an institution such as Columbia School of General Studies. What thinks you?</p>