<p>In 7th and 8th grade I attended Gretchen Whitney High School, the #1 high school in California and #3 in the U.S. I transferred out after middle school to a regular public high school in a different but nearby city due to several reasons but two of the major ones being one, that my brother did not make it in and it already took 15 minutes just to drive to school each day (meaning 30 minutes total for my mom to and from…we live on the other side of the city; still in it but near the border so it only take 8 minutes to drive to my current school) and my mom just couldn’t deal with having to take and pick up the two of us back and forth across the city; and two, my family and I were having personal problems and with Whitney being already stressful as it was, I couldn’t deal with two things going on at once or else I would have gone crazy. Even if I did have all A’s, it wasn’t worth my sanity, I thought. So, in good judgment, I left.</p>
<p>Now a freshman at a different school, I have found academics to be quite easy (ranked #1 in my class) and with this I am able to also focus on tennis, piano, volunteer, and clubs with relatively great ease even whilst taking an AP class (which I couldn’t have done as a freshman at Whitney either). This school has over 15 APs; Whitney only 9. I don’t think I would have been able to do all this at Whitney. I have all A’s here and I am set to be president in National Honors Society, Math National Honors Society, Science National Honors Society, American Red Cross, and the club for academic program for my school (I will not name it because it contains the school name of which I do not wish to disclose) next year and the years to come here due to my popularity I have gained from my cousins who also attend the school. I don’t think I would have been able to gain these positions at Whitney due to the extreme competition. I am also able to do community college classes but not at Whitney because there are tight restrictions made by the counselors there because of people obsessed with doing everything. The counselors also love academically inclined people here at my school since there are a few. Everyone else either does drugs, gets into fight, ditch etc</p>
<p>My family problems have been resolved and I guess this is an emotional thing but after imagining my graduation with my friends at my current school and my friends at Whitney, I really want to graduate with my friends at Whitney with my childhood friends from elementary school and middle school who went through so much with me compared to the people at my current school who I will probably only know for a maximum of 3 or 4 years. I am not unhappy here and it’s just soso. I sort of want to go to Whitney because there’s excitement and fun…and I relate more the people there. This will sound arrogant, but social class does come into play. People at my current school, uh well, don’t come from that rich of families and it’s been hard to relate to my friends on some time because of this but at Whitney, where almost everyone is Asian with Asian parents, I have found it easier to relate to them because of the strict Asian parents thing and also money-related issues. </p>
<p>Sigh, I really don’t know. I’ll be done with SATs and most of my APs as well as summer research after 11th grade but I will have to give up these extracurriculars if I switch back but I really want to graduate with people who I feel closer to. What should I do? Will this affect my admissions to colleges? What about recommendation letters? do I satisfy my heart or my college dreams?</p>