<p>I am freaking out because I go to a complete *****-up of a school that can’t do anything right.</p>
<p>Please allow me to list my grievances, and tell me how much this will affect my chances at highly selective schools like Stanford, Pomona, and UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>I went to a charter high school for two years, which offered no AP or honors classes to underclassmen, except for honors chemistry, which I took. I absolutely hated this school and its teaching methods (it made me retake two years of math that I had already aced) and was desperate to get out. </p>
<p>I then found another charter high school which had a specialty in performing arts. I met with the principal, and brought him my academic record. He convinced me that it was an academically rigorous school and promised me that I would be in three AP classes and an honors class. When I arrived in September, I found that I was only enrolled in one AP class, and when I asked to be put into the others, I found out that they did not exist. However, I was able to make it through my junior year because the performing arts program was amazing. </p>
<p>In August, I learned that I was one of only two people that passed the AP test, and the only one who got a 5. However, many people who failed the test had gotten A’s in the class and had 4.0’s due to years of grade inflation. Because some of them had gotten A’s in a sophomore level AP class that was not offered to me (and failed that test, too), I am now seventh in the class when I should be first. Because it is a small school, seventh is not particularly impressive. </p>
<p>Now, this year, they let in so many freshmen that there is no room, and we are literally having classes in the janitorial closet. I was once again promised three AP classes, two of which came to be, but one disappeared after everyone except for me dropped out, and one had its enrollment drop from 13 to 4 in under a month, and is on the brink of disappearance because the teacher can’t stand the school and wants to quit. My performing arts time has been cut down because they scheduled AP calculus at the same time, so I miss the first hour. Also, there is no fourth science being offered, except for remedial environmental, which I can’t stomach.</p>
<p>Because they scheduled Spanish 2 during the designated performing arts time, we had to put all the Spanish 2 arts kids in Spanish 3, making it almost impossible for the advanced students (i.e. me) to get anything done.</p>
<p>Additionally, the government class I was put in is ridiculous and we do absolutely nothing all period. There is another government class, and because they do slightly more work than we do, the students have petitioned and succeeded in making it honors 10 WEEKS INTO THE SCHOOL YEAR. There is no feasible way for me to transfer into this class without dropping another.</p>
<p>The only way for me to make up for this ridiculousness would be to take classes at a community college, but in order to do that, I would have to drop performing arts, which consumes four hours of my day and is the only reason I am at that craphole in the first place. It is too late for me to change schools.</p>
<p>I have sunk into a really deep depression, half about all the disorganization and not feeling challenged and how I am ever going to make it through this year, and half about the implications this will have on my application. I know that there is a space for extenuating circumstances, but I can’t think of a positive way to say that I regret my entire high school experience and that I feel used and cheated by this school, or a way to explain the idiocy of my school without it reflecting badly on me. If I do, they will realize that my classes weren’t challenging in the slightest, even though my scores reflect that I can handle college-level work.</p>
<p>Fortunately, we have an amazing new college counselor who is on my side all the way and has done her best to explain this in my rec letter. I feel that my essays are good enough to get me by at most private schools. However, I am still worried about the way that my classes will look to statistic-oriented school like the UCs that barely read the essays or to schools like Stanford where you have to be a god to get considered in the first place.</p>
<p>If you are still reading this, I thank you, and I apologize if I sound arrogant and obsessive. But if you are on here, you probably understand the painstaking process of college applications and the complete anxiety that I am feeling right now about every little thing, especially amid the chaos of such a ridiculous school. If you know anything about how much of this is seen by colleges, how much it affects admissions, and ANYTHING that I could possibly do to just get me the hell out of this situation, please share the word.</p>