Nothing wrong with your style, but it looks funny with spelling mistakes. Also I don’t see how you can be “everywhere in terms of your interests” and still lack extracurriculars.
It may be possible that you’re the smartest kid in your school, but do realize there are thousands of others who are as intelligent or more. Intelligence by itself won’t get you anywhere. If there are no adults in your environment who can support and mentor you, there are always libraries and the Internet. There are lots of famous scholars and great teachers you can learn from, and not all of them are at Harvard. In fact, some of them are dead for centuries.
Get realistic, stop congratulating yourself on how intelligent you are and get into a growth mindset, then you’ll be able to succeed no matter what college you go to.
You cannot wish your want into a top tier college. Instead I suggest that you find a group of colleges that you can reasonably get in with your GPA and standardized test scores and that your family can afford. Once you get there work hard, befriend passionate students, develop relationships with professors, and get involved on campus – if you do these things I can almost guarantee that you can have a successful college career.
One other thing: I would work hardest at trying to up your ACT and/or give the SAT a shot to see if it is a better test for you. If you find it difficult to improve you score much, I would put some test-optional colleges on your list.
@KingJohnRocks why is autism an insult? there are some great and very smart people on the autism spectrum. I’m not saying you have autism, just reacting to that response
If you are planning on someday going to law school, it honestly does not matter all that much where you go for your undergraduate degree (source: both of my parents are lawyers). As long as you maintain a strong GPA, stay in the top ten percent of your class, and ace the LSAT, you will have a really good shot at getting in to an elite law school. Both of my parents went to a state school. It was by no means an “elite” school, but they worked their butts off and were accepted into several top law schools.
My advice to you: while the ivy leagues (or even Mercer) may be off the table, that is certainly NOT the end of your future. Go to one of your state schools, work super hard, and then use all of that money you saved and put it towards financing your law school career (who knows, maybe in four years you’ll be walking into orientation at Harvard Law!)
Best of luck to you kingjohnrocks!
@KIngJohn Rocks - Have you researched colleges that have generous resources/services devoted to students with learning disabilities? If you haven’t had the benefit of this type of specialized help yet, then it is high time you found it if you are going to get the ACT scores and grades consistent with your apparent intelligence. Your ambition to become a public interest lawyer is laudable. Your admiration for William F. Buckley Jr. is highly unusual for someone your age and could be integrated into an essay about important intellectual influences in your life. All that said, the above posters that have criticized your writing style are trying to be helpful. Even those of us who are much older and fluent writers typically edit our posts on these CC threads. Your writing, to these folks, sounds pretentious, but they forget what they sounded like at seventeen - at least the ones who were obsessed with politics, political writing and political philosophy! Good writing requires extensive editing. This requires patience and discipline. But the best practical advice I can offer is to have a learning disabilities specialist provide a written diagnosis, with all relevant test results, to your College Counselor. These can be attached to his/her letter of recommendation and may go a long way towards explaining your low ACT score and GPA. Just my two cents. Best of luck!
@KingJohnRocks In my opinion, you write well, but you do make quite a few usage errors. Your somewhat formal syntax reminds me a bit of my own (not-autistic, just well-read) daughter’s. Your attitude about Harvard/the Ivy League borders on fantasy. They are just colleges. Go to whatever college you can get into and pay for and find the other intellectuals there. People who care about ideas and want to discuss them exist at every college. Do your best to learn as much as you can and to shine in your areas of interest. I don’t doubt you will go far.
Just to give those that care an update: I was accepted into Mercer University and I’ve enrolled for the fall semester.
I have grown a lot since I first made this post - in maturity, writing style, and otherwise - but I still use the criticism I got here to propel me into my future instead of keep me down.
Best of Luck, @KingJohnRocks ! Bloom where you are planted. Be a big fish in a small pond. Take the opportunities o get to know your professors and get involved in research. Get involved in student government or the school newspaper to have chance to share your ideas with others.
Look into St. John’s College in Annapolis MD. (Not a religious school BTW.) It may be just the thing for you…its Great Books curriculum, small seminar/discussion classes with a philosophical bent, strong student/professor relationships (I think professors are called something other than professors because they are seen as mentor/tutors) may be just what you are looking for, and yet I don’t think it’s impossible to get into with less-than-stellar stats…I believe admissions look at the whole person. It’s not the school for everyone, but might be just right for you. I think it would also be a good base for law school.
Love it when people come back to give an update. You rock, KJrocks! Would you mind sharing with us what your app looked like in the end after working hard (stats, essay topics etc)?
I think US News has it at 3.