MysticDistance
Banned
I had to put a lot of thought into how I was going to put this to the weird and specific way these events worked out.
I'll start with some backstory as it fits in to all of this. So, here goes: I lived in Manhattan throughout my entire life until a terrible series of events committed by my step-father lead to us going homeless. We lived in special housing and had to go from place to place, until we hit Staten Island. Once Hurricane Sandy hit, we were unable to afford living there.
For my first full year of high school I was homeschooled. This is because we moved to a very small area in New Hampshire which had no major opportunities (e.g. AP exams, IB, school ECs) So, I was homeschooled. It was a great experience. I read a lot more books than my peers did, got a lot more opportunities, mastered a second language, as well as came out with more experience in certain life experiences. My mother homeschooled me and was able to afford textbooks and other materials because it was cheaper to do so where we chose to live.
I graduated at 17 and also took extra high school courses alongside the tenure. At the end of the day, my GPA was 3.71. My strongest subjects were reading (I used Goodreads and the NYT Bestsellers lists for recommended books to read; Great Global Conversation speech collection for reference and speechwriting, as well as a resource to use alongside some of my historical courses)
As for ECs, there were no major volunteer opportunities and the local high school had none of the major EC opportunities such as class president or editor for the school newspaper. So, I furthered a project I began working on at 14 -- starting a translation group dedicated to translating video games, printed materials, news, and other similar types of things for people around the world. This was brought to fruition when I was 15. I purchased the domain and web hosting; setup the server and other necessary elements, as well as designed the site and invested in its graphic design and branding. After that, I scoped out work.
So, to continue with that, a skill of mine began to really mature after graduation. This skill was Japanese proficiency. I studied the language from second grade up until I became proficient in it. As of today, my JLPT ranking is "N2," the second highest proficiency rank you can get. During this time (from age 15 up to 18; the game was announced in 2013 and released in 2016), I was enlisted by a reporter to translate information (This includes: printed interviews and media; trailers; text interviews; video interviews) for a major new game that was launching in Japan within three years (The game was Persona 5; I did and still do translations for Persona Central)
I took on the offer and had my translations publicly published and would translate for every event, as well as translate every new bit of official info revealed. This would sometimes mean staying up at odd hours, translating four hour events live for viewers, and more. I did this from 2013 to 2016, and I was offered earlier this year to partner with a composer in Japan on translating materials for his concerts, which I will start working on in the spring of 2017. This means that I will be heading down to Tokyo to appear at the venues and meet with this composer.
The reporter wrote me a letter of recommendation. I was also chosen to be a student ambassador before I was homeschooled, but could not afford it. My main issue was not affording major things outside of the necessary tuition as part of my homeschool curriculam. So, a lot was sacrificied to pay the bills.
Before that, during the years of 15 up to my graduation, I worked on deencrypting and reprogramming a game in order to translate it. I also went to California for two months. As part of my homeschooling, I was taught political science and US history as an honors course. Throughout my homeschool tenure, I read sources such as The New York Times every day as part of a "Current Events" discussion class.
Doing the work I did and with me readjusting financially, I could never take the SAT and ACT before or right after graduating. There was a lot of work to balance, including a part-time job I started. Due to where I currently live, I had wanted to craft my own skills and ECs that challenged me and interested me, both educationally, socially, as well as business-wise. I also used the opportunity I got by translating for a wide and diverse community by speaking to people from countries such as India, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, France, Canada, Italy, as well as Germany and Brazil.
Now I'm recently 19 and finally have time to take both tests and rebalance my schedule in preparation to enter college, and am realizing it's late to apply to NYU 2020. I'm not nervous about getting mediocre scores, but I'm nervous about it being too late -- or rather, too late to enjoy the carefree college years or the experience of writing for a a school newspaper.
I worry that maybe someone like me wouldn't be able to get into NYU, or that my prime years have passed. A lot happened to me when I was young, from being abandoned by my biological father to being abused by my step-father and watching him gamble away all our money, leaving us penniless to pick up the pieces and experiencing financial and social challenges -- these hurdles that I had to leap across as hard as they may have been.
But now, it feels like maybe it's too late for me to go to NYU, my dream school ever since I was in grade school due to the fact that I'd be enrolled in 2018, when I'd be 20 turning 21. My other fear is that maybe I won't get in because I was homeschooled and due to me not being as financially able as most.
It's truly made me depressed. I feel like I'm past my prime when it comes to going to a university like NYU as a freshman/undergraduate and am not like a traditional student in any way. And it's that which lead me to making this thread.
I also really do want to go back home to Manhattan, and this feeling that I won't be able to live out these dreams at all has made me feel pretty sad.
Any advice? Did I mess up in how I did things? What should I do now? I originally posted this somewhere else (not on GAF), but didn't get any responses there yet.
I'll start with some backstory as it fits in to all of this. So, here goes: I lived in Manhattan throughout my entire life until a terrible series of events committed by my step-father lead to us going homeless. We lived in special housing and had to go from place to place, until we hit Staten Island. Once Hurricane Sandy hit, we were unable to afford living there.
For my first full year of high school I was homeschooled. This is because we moved to a very small area in New Hampshire which had no major opportunities (e.g. AP exams, IB, school ECs) So, I was homeschooled. It was a great experience. I read a lot more books than my peers did, got a lot more opportunities, mastered a second language, as well as came out with more experience in certain life experiences. My mother homeschooled me and was able to afford textbooks and other materials because it was cheaper to do so where we chose to live.
I graduated at 17 and also took extra high school courses alongside the tenure. At the end of the day, my GPA was 3.71. My strongest subjects were reading (I used Goodreads and the NYT Bestsellers lists for recommended books to read; Great Global Conversation speech collection for reference and speechwriting, as well as a resource to use alongside some of my historical courses)
As for ECs, there were no major volunteer opportunities and the local high school had none of the major EC opportunities such as class president or editor for the school newspaper. So, I furthered a project I began working on at 14 -- starting a translation group dedicated to translating video games, printed materials, news, and other similar types of things for people around the world. This was brought to fruition when I was 15. I purchased the domain and web hosting; setup the server and other necessary elements, as well as designed the site and invested in its graphic design and branding. After that, I scoped out work.
So, to continue with that, a skill of mine began to really mature after graduation. This skill was Japanese proficiency. I studied the language from second grade up until I became proficient in it. As of today, my JLPT ranking is "N2," the second highest proficiency rank you can get. During this time (from age 15 up to 18; the game was announced in 2013 and released in 2016), I was enlisted by a reporter to translate information (This includes: printed interviews and media; trailers; text interviews; video interviews) for a major new game that was launching in Japan within three years (The game was Persona 5; I did and still do translations for Persona Central)
I took on the offer and had my translations publicly published and would translate for every event, as well as translate every new bit of official info revealed. This would sometimes mean staying up at odd hours, translating four hour events live for viewers, and more. I did this from 2013 to 2016, and I was offered earlier this year to partner with a composer in Japan on translating materials for his concerts, which I will start working on in the spring of 2017. This means that I will be heading down to Tokyo to appear at the venues and meet with this composer.
The reporter wrote me a letter of recommendation. I was also chosen to be a student ambassador before I was homeschooled, but could not afford it. My main issue was not affording major things outside of the necessary tuition as part of my homeschool curriculam. So, a lot was sacrificied to pay the bills.
Before that, during the years of 15 up to my graduation, I worked on deencrypting and reprogramming a game in order to translate it. I also went to California for two months. As part of my homeschooling, I was taught political science and US history as an honors course. Throughout my homeschool tenure, I read sources such as The New York Times every day as part of a "Current Events" discussion class.
Doing the work I did and with me readjusting financially, I could never take the SAT and ACT before or right after graduating. There was a lot of work to balance, including a part-time job I started. Due to where I currently live, I had wanted to craft my own skills and ECs that challenged me and interested me, both educationally, socially, as well as business-wise. I also used the opportunity I got by translating for a wide and diverse community by speaking to people from countries such as India, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, France, Canada, Italy, as well as Germany and Brazil.
Now I'm recently 19 and finally have time to take both tests and rebalance my schedule in preparation to enter college, and am realizing it's late to apply to NYU 2020. I'm not nervous about getting mediocre scores, but I'm nervous about it being too late -- or rather, too late to enjoy the carefree college years or the experience of writing for a a school newspaper.
I worry that maybe someone like me wouldn't be able to get into NYU, or that my prime years have passed. A lot happened to me when I was young, from being abandoned by my biological father to being abused by my step-father and watching him gamble away all our money, leaving us penniless to pick up the pieces and experiencing financial and social challenges -- these hurdles that I had to leap across as hard as they may have been.
But now, it feels like maybe it's too late for me to go to NYU, my dream school ever since I was in grade school due to the fact that I'd be enrolled in 2018, when I'd be 20 turning 21. My other fear is that maybe I won't get in because I was homeschooled and due to me not being as financially able as most.
It's truly made me depressed. I feel like I'm past my prime when it comes to going to a university like NYU as a freshman/undergraduate and am not like a traditional student in any way. And it's that which lead me to making this thread.
I also really do want to go back home to Manhattan, and this feeling that I won't be able to live out these dreams at all has made me feel pretty sad.
Any advice? Did I mess up in how I did things? What should I do now? I originally posted this somewhere else (not on GAF), but didn't get any responses there yet.
