Greetings, Current college students and prospective student, after spending ample of time into reading forums about college admission for UCs that was shared by many students on this forum, I came to decide that I would like to share my experiences and my admission status for college in the past year.
First, before I start: Congratulations to every one of you that have been accepted into your Dream Schools! Also to those who are incoming High School Seniors: Good Luck!
Let’s start with a bit of information:
Universities applied with decisions: UC Berkeley(Rejected), UCLA(Rejected), UC Davis(Infinitely- Wait-listed) , UC Merced(Accepted), and Hofstra University(Accepted)
Weighted GPA: 3.62
Majors applied for: Business related Majors(Management, Economics, Accountant, or Statistics), in some other cases, Art Studios.
SAT Score: R/430 M/660 W/440 Total 1530
SAT subject test on foreign language with listening: 800
Extracurriculars: Club treasure for 3 years, Student Senator for 1 year, Academic Decathlon team member for 2 years.
Residency: California Resident
AP classes with test scores: US History(2) ,Statistics(Unknown), Macroeconomics(Unknown), Microeconomics(Unknown), Drawing portfolio(Unknown)
Class Rank: 153/600+
Application Essay: Gone through many English teachers in my High School and revised. However the essay was heavily focused on my philosophy,since I did not feel comfortable sharing my story.
Other:
1.I am a trilingual, with 2 other languages in process of learning. ;
2.Non-US citizen, in fact I came in the country with almost no English skill in 9th grade, 4 years ago, received English Proficiency two months ago. ;
3.Graduated with Golden State Seal Merit Diploma. ;
4.Being in Foster Care almost as soon as I entered the country, moved a couple of placements, which had a large impact of my academics, especially during my 11th grade, I was placed in Receiving Home of my local city for 9+ months,at the time I had 0 period and after school team practice until 6:30 P.M., They scheduled special early transportation for me in the morning, which requires me to get up before 6 A.M., while staying in school participate in Team practices were often identified as AWOL by staff due to lack of communication, in a few occasions, I waited from 6:30 P.M. until almost 9:30 P.M. ,after I negotiate with the supervisor, for them to schedule a New Transportation again. Yet in most days, even if everything went as planned, I don’t get back to Dorm until after 7:30 P.M., and Dinner is not guaranteed as it’s always served at 5:00 P.M., depends how hungry are my dorm-mates, I might have left over in the fridge, at one point I started a protest, fasted for 3 + days and almost pass out from it. Hardest of all was to finish my homework from classes, it’s almost a chain-reaction, as I was not able to finish my homework the last day, I suffer a new day, and then new day become the past day, it goes on and on and on…
5. Ample of struggles brings more negative affects, I fell into serious Depression as I was put into the Foster Care System(again, 4 years ago), as I try to do the best to cover it, I was still hospitalized 3 times in Psy hospitals in the past 4 years for 1-2 weeks each time.
It’s not an amazing portfolio, due to unpleasant GPA and test Scores, which is the biggest part of the application.
At this point of the year where applicants finalize their decision to universities that they applied to, I am however stuck in my situation. Rejection from Cal and UCLA was the hardest, I did not expect to get in at the beginning, however, with other’s praises, I was over-confident that I am not going to get rejected right-away. Now I am still waiting for the UC Davis Waitlist confirmation, I check my portal more than once a day, as well as the UC Davis Waitlisting thread, to get an idea of other’s situation. However, to those who are familiar with UC Davis’ waitlist this year, we know how the waiting feels,it’s pushed and pushed, one time after another, at the moment, Davis have already begin to release Transfer students Waitlist confirmations, but as a Freshmen, many of us are still waiting. The most disgusting truth of the college that accepted me was: They contacted me first, imagine that if I was rejected by a university that had interest in me at first, it would be unacceptable. However, with the two accepted, I only have one option: UC Merced, as I was funded by FAFSA and other Scholarships, College is still too expensive. By no mean UC Merced is a bad school, since UCs are the finest public Universities that we could find, but because the school is still new, it did not give me much room for my focus: Business and Art. In the other hand, Hofstra University is older and have more choices, I do not have the money to attend since they charge a total cost of attending of 60K per school year, nearly twice the amount of a UC.
I am all set to attend UC Merced, however, I still had hope for a miracle which UC Davis will accept me into the incoming Freshmen class, as they now pushed the announce date to June 30th, I can’t say much more than this quote: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” I have totally lost my faith in the waitlist as it is a reputation of waiting games, I dedicated myself to waiting long enough, but now I would like to keep what I have for myself. At this point, when I am writing this, I am not begging for a space in the Freshmen class by posting all the hardships, to gain the pity of the Admission office, but expressing my barbaric awakening that the dream is been a lie all along. People could say:“Oh you are just not lucky right now, it will get better soon enough.” For lack of better example, if I am not lucky enough in a video game, I could stop play for a few days. but when I am not lucky enough in my life, I CANNOT NOT LIVE FOR A FEW DAYS.
Of Course, in every lives, there is the word LIES, as now it is just a game of lies for me, lies from people to make you feel better, lies to people make yourself feel better, and lies people make to other people to make them feel better. I left my native land and come to the State for a better path, carrying everyone’s faith from my family and my village, as I am the first to come so close to this so-called “High Education” in my community, yet I became the archetype of what not to be. Each time I called back to my relatives and they asked me about my academics career, I always respond with only good news, it’s just funny how it just seems like a country in wartime telling its citizen that they are winning while they are not.
For suggestion to others, I summarize a few things that you should do to help you the best to not to get into my situation:
To Do: 1. Take more Challenging classes; 2. Join more clubs in High School ; 3. Find a good family before you come to this world, money does have its power ; 4. Carpe Diem ,seize your days.
Not To DO: 1. Play video games and waste time ; 2. Do something stupid and regret for life later on ; 3. Have too much faith on colleges.
But if you are already in my shoes…Congrats, you are now another Petite Bourgeoisie with twisted values. At last, I have to say, Thanks a lot all the Universities, it was totally a pleasure waiting for nothing.