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Well, I was a poor white kid from flyover country. I slacked off all through high school while hating the cruelty and boredom, and did my best to get terrible g
by avn2109 12y ago
Well, I was a poor white kid from flyover country. I slacked off all through high school while hating the cruelty and boredom, and did my best to get terrible grades. I knew nothing about test-prep, and buying a Kaplan book would have been a stretch. But my HS's counselor gave me a SAT fee waiver so I took the test and got near-perfect scores.
That made me feel like I should apply to good schools, and I liked Thai food and the New Yorker mag so I applied to Columbia. I wrote them an admissions essay about living in an Indian tipi and having a single mom, and submitted an application photo of me standing in front of my tipi. CU admissions ate that up and the rest is history.
However, I did have a supporting, loving, literate mother and I avoided becoming a meth addict/pot smoking loser. Both of those things really help avoid small-town stagnation.
- ProAm 12y agoWell now we need to see the photo. Good story.
- avn2109 12y agoUnfortunately that photo was on a spinning-platter hard drive and I knew nothing about backups. Of course it's still on one of Columbia's servers somewhere but liberating it would involve an unbelievable amount of red tape.
- gnarbarian 12y agoI think the fact you lived in a tipi and managed to not smoke pot is a greater accomplishment than perfect SAT scores. You're probably the only one!