Depression: my greatest extracurricular activity...

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Okay, this isn’t really a chances thread persay…more of a how do i increase my chances?? so i guess it fits.</p>

<p>My goal right now is the ivy league. It’s my dream.</p>

<p>I have maintained a 4.0 throughout high school. I have taken five AP classes and gotten 5’s on all of them so far. This year I took six more, but I’m not so sure I’ll do that well on them. oh yeah, my SAT is 2220, and my psat is 230. i will probably be 2/400ish.</p>

<p>These past three years, I have invested myself into school clubs like math and writing fiction…with virtually nothing to show for it. sure i’ve held officer positions, but we’ve never won any awards, or done anything really significant. </p>

<p>i volunteer at the hospital, also do the occasional honor society projects…but nothing spectacular.</p>

<p>and i’m on the local youth board. we’re currently working on an recycling/composting program districtwide, but i don’t know how much we’ll get done by college app season.</p>

<p>also, i played piano for 9 years, and quit this year because i never really practiced and sucked at it and never entered any competitions.</p>

<p>so i KNOW i have terrible chances. but what can i do now to boost them? to achieve my dream of going to a great school? i feel like i’ve come to a dead end in everything, and the activities i invested myself in were not worth it, and the ones i ignored and gave up on could have taken me far if i’d stuck with it.</p>

<p>sometimes it seems like i could have done better if i didn’t have all sorts of family issues at home. if i didn’t have so much to deal with, i could have focused on myself. but others have plenty greater issues, and excel far more better than me. haha, so in a kind of cynical way, i think i have depression or bipolar, would getting diagnosed help or hinder me in the college app process?</p>

<p>argh, i just feel so misguided. is all hope lost for me?</p>

<p>oh yeah, a ton of rejections from summer programs have not helped my outlook either.</p>

<p>any suggestions as to what i should do this summer? i’m interested in premed.</p>

<p>maybe volunteer in india? write a novel? how can i go about getting involved with volunteering and research outside of a set program specifically for high schoolers?</p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to read this=)</p>

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<p>“so i KNOW i have terrible chances. but what can i do now to boost them” </p>

<p>dude</p>

<p>didn’t you do all these clubs with the intention “boosting your chances” in the first place? so now you want to seem like you have some kind of passion? generic ECs aren’t enough?</p>

<p>why dont you go do something you actually care about </p>

<p>“if i didn’t have so much to deal with, i could have focused on myself.” </p>

<p>god forbid you have to pay attention to anyone but yourself</p>

<p>life comes with a free lifetime supply of emotional turmoil, dude. no refunds.</p>

<p>“argh, i just feel so misguided. is all hope lost for me?” </p>

<p>you’ve been misguiding yourself.</p>

<p>“oh yeah, a ton of rejections from summer programs have not helped my outlook either.” </p>

<p>not completely without reason. maybe that should have told you that you might need to start doing stuff you actually care about (because people can see when you’re pretending).</p>

<p>rotate 90 degrees first, then go from there.</p>

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<p>If you’re interested in premed, it doesn’t really matter if you go to an ivy, as your med school will matter more.</p>

4

<p>ok, i want to go an ivy because of</p>

<p>1) the location, i love the east coast
2) academics
3) amazing, diverse group of peers
4) world-renowned faculty
5) all those great opportunities for research and other cool experiences</p>

<p>i know other schools have all this, like u of chicago and georgetown and tufts and duke. so of course i’ll apply there too.</p>

<p>i also know it doesn’t matter for pre-med, but i really do believe i’ll be truly happy in the kind of atmosphere available at more competitive schools.</p>

<p>okay so i know it looks like i do all this to look good. truth is, it wasn’t orginally how it was. i love math, hence i joined math club. i love writing, in fact in middle school, i dreamed of being a published author before 18 (lol, fat chance, i know) but i stopped writing in high school b/c of ap classes and stuff.</p>

<p>so i’m not only in my clubs for college. i actually do like the subjects, i just feel i haven’t been able to do anything lasting or effective during my time in them.</p>

<p>volunteering at the hospital is quite literally my passion. i love helping others, and i like the atmosphere of the hospital. it gives you a poignant satisfaction to be a part of it…i know ppl are sick and dying and families are grieving over them, but at the same time, so many ppl are healed and sent off back outside to live their life.</p>

<p>so uh yeah…i’m not saying this changes anything. just thought i’d give you a perspective on why i do what i do.</p>

<p>oh yeah, and i think i got rejected from most of those summer programs b/c 1) some were aimed at solely minorities and i never should have applied to begin with and 2) my essays sucked cuz they were all last-minute.</p>

<p>@pyroclasm: how do you propose i “rotate 90 degrees and go from there” so late in the game?</p>

5

<p>Do you have any (finished) writing stored away? Even something from middle school that you could edit? It’s not too late to look for awards and publication opportunities. PM me with the type of writing you do best (fiction/poetry/etc.) and I can look up a few contests with summer and early fall deadlines.</p>

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<p>here’s a thought: if you really are as interested in all those activities as you claim, why don’t you quit stressing about making them “look good” for college, and just focus on DOING them??</p>

<p>be who you are, don’t change yourself for colleges, cuz then it just ain’t worth it;]</p>