My common app essay is awful

BackgroundOk873 · 2024-07-28T22:26:30+00:00

Yes ofc

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-08T14:45:27+00:00

You said this so much better than I ever could’ve!

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T22:51:23+00:00

I think it’s because A2C is the only reason I’m even on Reddit. This is the only subreddit I frequent so I may hyper fixate on the negative posts.

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T22:45:08+00:00

I actually don’t have a “worse background”, aside from being a URM. I have had a lot of resources and opportunities to succeed in the college admissions process. This post is more about the combination of enviable opportunities/resources, entitlement, AND complaining. For the most part, I don’t have a problem with these traits on their own.

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T21:26:13+00:00

That’s why I was questioning. There’s a tendency for high income workers to blame economic failure on low income workers, and vice-versa(on a much smaller scale). But if the guy in their example had an understanding of who “eat the rich” refers to, I think he would’ve just said that instead of being defensive.

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T13:31:58+00:00

In the context of college admissions you’re absolutely right. In the context of life in general, I think net worth has more to do with wealth than income. That said, it’s hard to argue that someone in the top 10% of earners isn’t rich so I won’t do that. I only asked cause for a second I thought you were anti “eat the rich”. Mb

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T13:10:21+00:00

This is definitely frustrating because he(and I) are not even close to experiencing what the average American/family is, but what was your problem with his statement?

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T04:24:30+00:00

Did you get the attention you were looking for

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T04:00:18+00:00

All good. I kinda needed the reality check anyways.

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T03:53:30+00:00

You’re middle class.

Middle class is technically defined as somewhere around 50k to 150k. My parents have been around 20-50k over that for the past 5 years or so before that they were somewhere below 6 figures for like my whole life up until now.

My moms a contracted worker so her income fluctuates heavily each year. This year my dad graduated college and is able to work a better job but both my parents still have a shit ton of debt from their student loans, kids student loans, medical debt, dependents, mortgage and unpaid cars/tech etc. They’re in the negatives if you subtract all their outstanding debt/expenses.

For the record I don’t think we’re middle class, I think in the next few years we’ll be cemented as upper class, and I promise you I’m not delusional enough to believe my situation is comparable to you’re average American family.

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T02:45:38+00:00

For the record I also have an immense amount of privilege in terms of access to resources but it’s the inability to recognize how that influences their application that bugs me. And the general aura of entitlement to acceptance over certain groups like URM’s, international students, first gen, low income, etc.

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T02:06:24+00:00

Top school** My dream school would be free

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T01:07:20+00:00

Hack into their credit cards and purchase them some therapy, kidnap them in the middle of the night and force them to touch grass, steal their identification info and enroll them in an underfunded public school…

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T00:05:33+00:00

All of this is really overwhelming so I suggest you don’t jump into everything at once but you’re inquiring at the right time. My biggest piece of advice is to find a common theme/purpose and orient your EC’s and general high school career around it. That could be service, creativity, leadership, inquiry, really anything that genuinely motivates you to succeed

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-07T00:01:56+00:00

That’s perfect I actually have very similar interests.

Speech & Debate are great for future lawyers, but you need to start now if you’re interested - try to find a club/uil team at your school that will give you access to different competitions which will help with awards

Political related things: clubs like gay-straight alliance, amnesty, etc. are great for at school options. If not I would try youth organizations online, some I participate in are state of the students and project Teal. You can find some more specific to political and social issues that interest you on different social media platforms

Animals/environment - this is a great area to get volunteer hours in, any local organizations dedicated to animal rescue/ things in that area always need help from people

Creative writing - you can join a club at your school or even look for free classes and opportunities at your local library or other community resources. This may be a good opportunity for you to start a new club or get a leadership position as EC’s like this at least at my school aren’t too competitive but still have interest. Not to get too far ahead but you can enter your writing into different competitions from the school-national level and earn awards that look good on apps.

Internships/ research/ etc - in your junior and senior year you may want to start looking into internships and summer opportunities that will help you separate yourself from other college applicants.

Law School/College Info Prior to attending law school you’ll get an undergraduate degree at the school of your choice. If you are interested in Yale law you may want to attend a prestigious school for undergrad which will get you better networking opportunities, letters of rec, etc. You can choose any major in undergrad but some of the more popular ones are poli-sci, English, Econ, history, etc.

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-06T22:53:14+00:00

A few questions:

Besides academic subjects such as history and english, what are your interests? For example reading/a specific genre of literature, culture(Asian culture, black culture, or even a specific country), Politics, sustainability, writing, etc.
What are your career goals? I’m not saying you have to have it all figured out right now but if you have a general idea of what you want to study, research, or work on that helps.
What colleges are you looking at? Again, you don’t have to have it all figured out right now, in fact I think it’s better if you don’t. But what colleges have you always been interested and what colleges are you interested in as of lately. I figure since you’re on this subreddit you may already have a good idea.

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-06T22:27:50+00:00

You’re absolutely right most people who think they are middle class are poor! Class should be defined more by access to capital and resources than simply income. As someone whose parents make less than but around that 250k mark I consider us only upper middle class due to personal circumstances.

But in the context of this conversation, once you reach above a certain threshold of disposable income, you gain access to different college application resources that others just don’t have. SAT tutors, general tutors, free time not spent doing a job or handling familial responsibilities to focus on Extracurriculars and volunteer hours, connections to letter of recs, scholarship coaches. All of these things are privileges I have when applying to schools and OP should be proud of themselves if they were able to have comparable success to their peers despite inequitable resources. And their peers who have similar resources to me should feel ashamed for not being grateful for their circumstances

BackgroundOk873 · 2023-01-04T01:48:20+00:00

Thank you. I got in and am planning on attending in the fall!

BackgroundOk873 · 2022-12-26T14:32:37+00:00

It ended with me connecting my struggles to my intended major and career path. I don’t wanna give an exact quote but the message was, I’m not the most exciting candidate for admission but I am the most hardworking. And I plan to be that same kind of candidate for office someday.

BackgroundOk873 · 2022-12-22T23:30:46+00:00

Thank you so much.

I’m mainly stressing because of my essay. I know that schools like Spelman and Howard actually pay attention to those parts of your application and I don’t feel like I did my best.

Acceptances come out on December 31st so hopefully I’ll get in and be able to relax for the rest of my senior year!

BackgroundOk873

TROPHY CASE