I graduated from Hamilton in 2016 with a 4.33 UC GPA. To everyone’s surprise, I was offered a full scholarship to UCLA. Many of my classmate’s parents spent years trying to get their children into a good college, at some point in my life everyone doubted if I would even finish high school.
I finished ninth grade with a 1.2 GPA; I then transferred to Hamilton for tenth grade. When I arrived at Hami I realized I had a choice, I could continue my past behaviors and fail out again, or I could do my best to catch up on the classes I missed and try to change my life story.
I didn’t want to be a high school dropout. Who does? School wasn’t exactly my favorite pass time but I didn’t want to look back, full of regret, in five years and wonder what
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It takes unrelenting dedication to go from straight Fs to straight As in a single semester. But I did it. I showed up on time every day and went to every class, then, after a few months, at a teacher’s suggestion, I transferred into two honors classes. I didn’t take my first AP class until 11th grade, and even then, I only signed up for English, because I was worried about the workload and difficulty. I was right, it was a lot of work and it was hard but thanks to that class I bypassed freshman English. After succeeding academically for two years, I decided to up my …show more content…
Hence, I was faced with a choice once again. I could choose to sink or swim. To give up or refuse to go down without a fight. I needed to have a radical surgery immediately, before the cancer could spread any further. I considered leaving school, not applying to college and figuring everything out when I got better. The problem is, no one would have faulted me, had I decided to do just that. I had the perfect excuse to curl up and let the world win. However, I thought once again, will this matter in five years? Do I fight or do I become a passive participant in my own life? I fought. It mattered, if I had given up I never would have known that some of the top schools in the country wanted me. My Personal Statement showed strength instead of defeat, I was offered thousands of dollars of scholarship money before my dreams came true and UCLA came back with a new offer, a full tuition scholarship including on campus dorms and
People say high school is supposed to be the golden years of your life. I don’t know what else in life is to come; however, my philosophy is to live in the moment and make the life you’re living in the present worthwhile into the future, not only for you but for those who surround you. I live my life participating in our community and getting involved in our school. The activities, and the people I’ve formed relationships with, are what have formed me into the person I am today. The person I am today is not perfect, but I have learned from the mistakes I’ve made.
Society puts too much pressure on high school students to attend a 4-year college right after graduation. Though this is an attainable goal for some, a great majority of students are not fully prepared for the demands of college. 4-year schools require an incredible amount of maturity and preparation, leaving very little room for mistakes. Schools often overlook this aspect because their main goal is to get as many students into 4-year college as possible. This is a great goal to have however they send students off to college who aren’t ready to be handle the difficult of their courses while being away from home. My senior year of high school, my family and I came to the conclusion that we were not going to be able to afford four-year college tuition. This upset me at first because I felt like all my hard work and good grades went to waste. I dreaded the thought of going to community college because my who...
Middle school was a amazing experience, for me anyway. I, myself have changed tremendously from the beginning of 6th grade to the end of 8th grade. Not just in appearance either, on the inside as well.
While I wish finding my way around the school was my only problem, I was faced with some internal challenges. As the school year started, my friends slowly started to leave to these “big shot” colleges or simply move away to other community colleges. I, too, wanted the complete “college experience” somewhere in Arizona or across the country; yet I felt stuck and unaccomplished. I also felt jealousy which could have been because I did not get to decorate my dorm room.While talking about dedicating hard work to your education, Gina Rodriguez said “Just remember, during those times of fear and doubt, that you are right now discovering your true strength.” And in those times of doubt, I reminded myself why I could not just move and leave everything behind. The root of my challenges and concerns are my family. As I enrolled as a full time student, my family was fighting some financial problems which created marriage troubles for my parents. I could not leave at a time like this. I knew it was not the first time my parents were talking divorce but somehow I knew it was best to stay. I got financial aid from the school which saved me the fuss of asking my parents for money. It really meant so much to not put another worry on their
Throughout my four years in high school I have been fortunate enough to fulfill many of my aspirations and my thirst for knowledge. One goal that I would like to achieve is to become an international attorney. I have aligned my involvement in specific academic and extra-curricular activities to aid me preparing for the long road between my present situation and the day I pass the bar exam. Through my high school activities I have learned three virtues that I have deemed necessary to achieve my goal, passion, self-discipline, and perseverance.
College admissions: the bogeyman lurking in the shadows of every American high schooler's life. For some students, the college admissions process begins the moment they start high school; for others, it's like a game of procrastination—suddenly, it's senior year, and oh no, it's real. One thing is sure, for all high schoolers: from the moment they start thinking about the process, the pressures and anxiety that come with it will live rent-free in their heads until that decision letter arrives in their inbox. Students spend their high school careers juggling advanced courses, extracurriculars, and other activities just to gain a slight chance of being admitted to elite institutions and quell the fears that come with college admissions. And for
If interested in attending college after high school, being accepted to a “dream” college or a college of interest could end up being one of the largest milestones in a person’s life. Being accepted to that college could change a person’s life forever however, on the other hand if acceptance to the university was denied; it could result in detrimental effects on a person’s life. Although being accepted into a person’s dream college may not the maximal point in their lives’, it could cause an array of different things to occur. They would then be faced with the challenge of making the decision to attend a different university. However, another situation may transpire such as that person not being accepted to any college that they apply to, or one that doesn’t supply the inspiration that was present prior to the application of their dream college being denied. In almost any circumstance of denial to a person’s college of choice, upshots could occur that have life-long effects on a person’s life which is something most future college students would rather not have to deal with. Being admitted to a certain college is an extremely delicate process which varies from university to university which creates an ideal atmosphere for denial to a certain college if certain aspects of the student’s admittance application do not meet the universities’ requirements for admission. This is where problems begin to rise in the collegiate academic system which could prevent some future college students from getting the education they desire and being forced to settle just because they scored poorly on a single test or struggled through high school for some reason or another. Colleges rely too heavily on academic performance based upon prior knowledge ...
My college career started with me just going to school to take PE classes while neglecting my main required core classes and always pushing them aside without any urgency to succeed in finishing school. A couple of years would go by with little to no progress and lack of motivation to succeed in finishing my college required classes. Soon landing a career oriented job and finding myself dropping out of college to focus on my work career. From this point and time I would learn the importance of school and the value of finish college through my years of experience at work. This awareness of value in finishing college would motivate me to want to go back to school. Soon I would find myself at American River College counseling center. Here I was coming back to school unsure of myself and in an environment where I previously never found success in school. After meeting with my counselor I was recommended to take a college success course. This course is part of a program called the Accelerated College Education (ACE). Because I was able to learn along the years being out of school the importance of gaining an education I gained a new motivation for school, signed up for this ACE program, and enroll in the college success
Before I enrolled into SAC, I was a non-fan of sports, nervous, young man, who heard about SAC from a friend in Upper School and has tons of hopes for Grade 9. Something was hold me back to go to SAC. , although that "something” terminated after I knew that everyone were Andrean Brothers and that's why I'm currently aiming to perfect the role of a well-rounded citizen. As they say, “Friends are the most ingredient in the recipe of life”. Friends, like Daniel Zhao, who told me about this school changed my whole life. Once I stepped on Andrean soil, I knew that I was part of something special. In addition, I never had "fun" in sports events because I thought I might get hurt. Yet when I joined SAC sports teams, I was afraid
When I was entering into High School, I tried to join as many clubs as I can, since I wanted not only to be superior in grades, but also extracurricular activities. So as usual, I joined Key Club. At first volunteering at the events was fun, but as I went to more events, it felt as if it was a chore. I did not feel any passion; it was rather tiresome.
Let’s flash back in time to before our college days. Back to then we had lunch trays filled with rubbery chicken nuggets, stale pizza, and bags of chocolate milk. A backpack stacked with Lisa Frank note books, flexi rulers, and color changing pencils. The times where we thought we wouldn’t make it out alive, but we did. Through all the trials and tribulations school helped build who I am today and shaped my future. From basic functions all the way to life-long lessons that helped shape my character.
1. I encountered the most significant challenge when I moved to Canada in January, 2012. Before I came to Canada, my English grade was very good in China, thus, I thought living and studying in Canada would not be too difficult. However, I did not do well in the ESL evaluation at all, and I was placed in ESL 1 at my high school. Most of my classmates there spoke very little English, and they did not spend much time and effort on studying English. It was very difficult for me to study if I wanted to be their friends and at that time, they were the only friends I had in Canada. However, I expected much more effort from myself. I studied very hard and became the 2nd fastest ESL students ever to complete ESL 1 to 4 in my high school. Today, when I recall what I have accomplished, I think I learnt to trust myself and at the same, success in anything only comes from hard work.
At first, good grades were just the keys to passing on to the next year, which may seem like an easy goal to achieve, but I was new to these expectations, and it actually took a while to get the hang of it all and adjust to a strategy that worked perfectly for me. I needed a functional
My life has changed all because of one person, the best person in the world. It all started at Conley Elementary school, but we first need to go to 7th grade at Marlowe Middle School. Once starting 7th grade, I would never care about my grades and dreaded going to school itself. All I cared about was sports and video games. I even used to look forward to being sick, unlike most people.
Things must go on Back in my sophomore year, during the second most important time of the year, the midterms, something major occurred in my life that would change my highschool life and perhaps my whole worldview, my dad had a stroke. I came to America when i was 3-4 years old, I had come from a small country to the east of India called Bangladesh. Coming to a new country during that time really changed me. I had no friends in America like I had in Bangladesh and because of my initial language barrier, I could not make many new friends. My Dad at that time was working for nights and days trying to pay off debt from college and providing for us.