I’m a freshman from Puerto Rico currently studying at the state university’s main campus of Rio Piedras. My stats are below:
- Major: Economics
- College GPA: 4.0
- Credits Approved: 30 (taking 18 next semester, so 48 by summer)
- College EC’s: Member of my college’s Model UN directive board (I’m the only freshman with a leadership role) and that’s about it because my college doesn’t have much clubs and associations, and freshmen are highly limited regarding what they activities they can participate in.
- High School GPA: 4.15 (weighted, school didn’t measure unweighted)
- Class Rank: 5/104
- SAT: 2210 (superscored); 2190 (individual highest)
- High School EC’s: Spent six years in Model UN (won 10 awards during high school, plus had a leadership role senior year), Math Club (won over 10 awards during high school, including Distinguished Member), was President in senior year, VP in junior year, Treasurer sophomore year), and the Honor Society (won 3 awards during high school), Student Council member (sophomore and senior years); also participated in island-wide Science Fair and received 2nd place for my investigation.
I am very much regretting staying close to home for college instead of going over to the states last year. I don’t feel challenged at my current university. There is a severe lack of opportunities: no internships available for freshmen or sophomores, very few for juniors and seniors; no research or research assistant spaces due to lack of funds; lack of diversity in major courses – also due to lack of funds, and professors; etc., it’s also nearly impossible for students to take courses outside their declared major, limiting my courses to only Economics, and not other of my areas of interest. The environment isn’t what I’m used to or even what I’d expect from the top university of the island: there isn’t much of the academic rigor I experienced in high school, students and professors are very detached, there’s very little interest in the student’s intellectual growth, just in grades in passing courses, there’s barely any healthy competition – the type that pushes students to perform better under stress, etc, etc, etc…
I’m planning on applying to Brown, Cornell, Columbia, George Washington U, UPenn (all majoring in Urban Studies), and Boston U (majoring in Int’l Relations). I know they’re very high targets, but last year I got into Boston U and Northwestern, and was waitlisted at Columbia and UChicago, and I have my many, many reasons to want to transfer, so I’m hoping my luck sticks by this year too.