When I was getting ready to send in my apps, I used to scour these forums looking for someone who had a similar story to mine and tried comparing our stats to try and calculate my chances. Because of this, I assume there are others out there like me who doubt themselves and feel like it’s too late. It’s not. It IS possible.
After being assaulted, I dropped out of high school at 16. I eventually took a high school proficiency exam and started at my local community college. The problem was I had no direction, no goal, no ambition and my grades reflected all the lack of control I had over my life. Soon I had repeated classes the maximum amount of times and still failed or dropped them. I thought I could just go to another community college to “start over.” At a new campus I’d be in a better environment, I would tell myself… it would be a new beginning.
By the time I was writing up my UC application, I had attended 8 community colleges including taking a UCLA Extension course, in which I received a C-. There were many times when I felt too old or too stupid. Everyone used to tell me I had so much potential when I was young, but the older you get, the less you hear it… even from my own parents. My dad just wanted me to stick with a job and my mom just wanted me to be happy but I still had no idea how to find either.
It wasn’t until I challenged myself to apply for a summer research internship. My 3rd biology professor at my 4th community college pushed me to go for it. He knew I had an interest in medicine and said since I’m still unsure about my future, it couldn’t hurt to try something new. I was all about new beginnings so I applied and it ended up changing my life. I was surrounded by these doctors and patients and scientists and postdocs and I realized this is where I want to be.
Now I’m not saying just because something bad happened to me and I had a sad story to tell adcoms… that’s why they accepted me. No. I worked my tail off to pull a 4.0 the last 3 semesters before I sent my apps taking classes like Ochem, Biochem, and Calculus II. And I literally shed tears while writing my personal statements because every single word I wrote was like giving them a piece of my heart. My admission was not by luck nor chance.
I can say all this now with a sigh of relief because I have the luxury of knowing I got accepted. But just a few months ago, I would find myself staring at my transfer application with an overall GPA of 3.14 having just celebrated my 31st birthday living in the guest bedroom of my brother’s 4 bedroom “starter home”… and it was even scary to get my hopes up. I was afraid of the rejection that was surely headed my way. But the rejection never came. I got accepted to every UC I applied to. I even said no to my #1 choice because it was too far. Can you believe that? I turned down what I thought was my #1 dream school.
I’m writing this not to toot my own horn (though I am incredibly proud of how far I’ve come) but rather in hopes of proving to other nontrads that it can be done. I had all those questions like “Should I not include some bad grades? They won’t find out, right?” Or “Maybe I need more ECs? My app’s not impressive enough yet.” Anyone reading this for whom my story rings with a bit of truth, my advice is this: be completely honest. Be honest with your application and be honest with yourself. If you can study harder, study… don’t make excuses. If you can be better, work on being better. Trust that you are unique and worthy of the opportunity to pursue your dreams. Don’t judge yourself based on your failures, prove what you’ve learned from having to pick yourself back up. The key is figuring out how best to show others what you have to offer. Once you do that coupled with some good old fashioned hardwork… everything will work out.
Good luck to everyone anxiously applying for school! Feel free to pm me if you have any questions… I’d be glad to help anyway I can.