My family situation affected every part of my academic, social and professional life but it was intangible; it wasn’t really an extracurricular or single event, but years of lost experiences and skills compared to my peers because my dad was never really around, and my grandparents couldn’t speak English. I had to shoulder more responsibilities at home to help my grandparents take care of me and my two younger siblings.
I went to the most rigorous public high school in my district, and juggled a full AP and Honors course schedule along with family and extracurricular commitments. I always had the mentality of pushing myself as hard as possible to leave no room for regret, and the hard work got me to where I am today. But it caused many stressful nights.
In my search for a college, I was mainly considering two things: graduate outcomes in the computer science field and financial aid. I applied to most of the University of California campuses, the California State Universities, and Stanford because they were affordable for me either as a California resident or low-income applicant, and because they all had good-to-amazing outcomes for Computer Science graduates.
For my application essay I wrote a letter to my mom, who passed away suddenly when I was eight. She was the parent who cared about my academics and extracurriculars while my dad was the opposite. I hoped my essay would highlight the intensely human element of my journey, which couldn’t really be seen through my activities, transcript, or test scores.
In the letter to my mother, I wrote about how, after she passed, I didn't want to do anything but lock myself in my room and play video games all day. I lived on the internet from 4th grade until the end of middle school. I told her that because of that time, I discovered a deep curiosity for computers, everything from what makes them tick to what the future might look like for them, and how I wanted to go to college to transform this passion into something that I can use to give back to our family and wider community.
I was fortunate to have a great college mentor who was a rising sophomore at UC Berkeley. I was paired with her through the organization Matriculate, which provides free virtual college advising to low-income students. I met up with her at Cal and we got some boba together and she planned out a day for me to meet some of her friends.
Berkeley was wonderful. It really was my dream school. After my visit, I could see myself studying at the Asian Library late into the night, then hitting up any one of the dozens of boba shops in the area. Stanford was a fun school to fantasize about getting into, but it always felt out of reach. I decided to apply early to Stanford to give myself the best chance.
When I opened my decision from Stanford, I just started crying. I was with my two best friends at their house and I hugged my friend’s dad. I couldn’t fully comprehend everything, but I felt like a weight was off my chest and like everything my mom had done for me and everything I had done for her after she was gone had paid off.
My admissions officer at Stanford wrote a note about how much he enjoyed my essay (“one of the best” he’s read in his career).
Until April, I was kind of back and forth between UC Berkeley and Stanford. Berkeley was free while Stanford would cost about $12k/yr. I decided on Stanford when I considered that any loans I’d have to take out would be worth it in the long run, and that I could see myself a lot happier there than at Cal. I liked both schools in terms of academics and location. But the financial aid and the smaller student population at Stanford made me feel I would be better supported, and the name didn't hurt either.
I was prepared to take out a college loan, when the alumni association at my high school provided me with three scholarships covering about 75% of the out-of-pocket costs. I also received a state-funded Horatio Alger Scholarship covering the other 25%. So, I’m going to Stanford on a “full ride.”
CollegeData helped with college research and helped me estimate my chances of admission. CollegeData helped put all of the information I was looking for about colleges in one place, and was my main supplement as I corroborated current students’ experiences and otherwise did research online.
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Toran - Pomona College "Colleges won’t look for you: You need to do the work and the research." |
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Ella - Occidental College "I worried that my peers would find my schools 'unimpressive'— and that I was cheating myself by not applying to the Ivy League schools I had once dreamt of." |
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