Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. (minimum 250 words
Being snubbed by my dream school and the top school in the state of North Carolina opened my eyes to my four years of idleness in high school. Holding rejection letters from the University of Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill induced my vow to never let myself slip into the lifestyle of getting by through classes and procrastination. Pride was evicted and reality moved in as I set off to Wilmington, NC to start my collegiate career at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. From which point, goals were transcribed in stone and a continuous sweat broken. I told myself I have one life to live, and it is what I make of it. I had aspired to attend the very two schools I had been rejected from for the entirety of my high school tenure and did nothing about it. Attending my first class at Wilmington marked the death of procrastination and getting by.
Year one for college students consists of taking a core curriculum of classes called basic studies, in which freshmen get a little sample of what every discipline tastes like so that they better discern their field of choice. My year one consisted of just that, and while my peers succumbed in adoration to the sandy beaches and blue skies of beach life, I succumbed in determination to my classes’ quizzes, exams and coursework. By year’s end I had cumulative 3.93 GPA, enough to receive the Chancellor’s Achievement Award, and enough to keep my dreams of attending the University of Notre Dame or University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from drowning.
Year two came with a two newly succeeded classes taken at UNC-Charlotte over the summer and a year’s worth of classes at Wilmington under my belt. With a desire to delve into sciences, year two’s transcript had ink running down the pages from all of the physics, chemistry and biology classes I chose to undertake. Unlike the basic studies courses completed with relative ease they year before, year two’s load carried a lot more unexpected weight. Struggle ensued and still does. But with this fall semester completed, it can be noted that my dreams still tread water, with an accumulative GPA of 3.86. Whether or not this type of performance remains with another semester of feverous rigor and a newly found girlfriend is another story.
Lest my academics see a fall to the likes of Rome, I stand an overachiever, with a GPA inflated relative to my IQ and sustained by hard work. My dreams and aspirations still tread water. Others “get it” at the inception of high school. I am a late bloomer. At this season of my life, this is my most notable worldly achievement. And for the record, I would also love to attend UNC-Asheville. I have not visited the campus, but for the first time, visited downtown, and am infatuated. The integrative liberal arts studies program is exactly what I am looking for. It is the only program in North Carolina, and consequently the only program my family can afford. Getting a chance to finish my schooling in such a program is a newly found dream of mine. I hope my achievement thus far transfers into a final success.
