This is part of our monthly series 'Mission: Accepted,' in partnership with Minds Matter, which chronicles the lives of four students as they apply for college in their senior year.
I sit in the front of my house... waiting, I'm impatiently tapping my feet up and down and constantly checking the ends of my block. The sun is out and the bees are buzzing, but I pay no attention to them. My mind is on other things: Who will Frank Underwood target next? Will there be a Frozen 2 (the first one was AMAZING)? But most importantly, my mind has been revolved around one thing: college decisions. This is when I can finally see the fruits of my labor.
The past couple of months have come and gone in the blink of an eye, and it is no longer winter, but rather finally spring. This marks the nearing of the end of college acceptances for seniors all over the country. All of our hard work from the past four years has finally paid off and we are now being blessed with acceptances to top, amazing universities all over the world!
The Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship Program notified applicants in early March about their placement in the next round of the scholarship. I am proud to say that I have been blessed with the honor of making it to the next round for a Gates Millennium Scholarship. I was busy at work when I received the email notification and the moment felt so surreal! I have moved on in the scholarship and will be notified in mid-April of my new status, and if, God permits, I move on, I will officially become a Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship recipient.
Speaking of funds, there have been two fundraising events this past month that I have attended, one for my school and another for Minds Matter of Los Angeles. My school's fundraising event, Mardi Gras, brought together the different companies and benefactors that take part in my school's Corporate Work Study Program. I was honored to be selected as a student speaker for the event, where I thanked the donors for their time, money and belief in each and every one of us students. The reception I received from my speech was fantastic as I was approached from Georgetown University and Princeton University alumni who offered to put in a good word for me with admissions! I could not have had a better night than that one! The spring benefit for Minds Matter was held just recently, and I had the opportunity to meet many of the donors for the program and talk about my success in Minds Matter and college acceptances. As we were being honored that night, the students made sure to talk to as many individuals as possible, all of who were pleased and impressed with our accomplishments.
I have heard back from many universities in the past few months and I have been blessed with such great opportunities offered to me. I received acceptances to 15 out of 18 schools so far and have been waitlisted at one (Villanova University). A few of the schools that I have been accepted to are Loyola Marymount University, Pepperdine University, Xavier University (with a renewable $18,000 scholarship), Morehouse College (with a renewable $20,000 scholarship) and University of California Davis!
The top three acceptances that I have received at the moment are from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California San Diego (UCSD), and Claremont McKenna University (CMC)! These three have offered the best financial packages so far and have moved up in my interest as a result. Based on the financial packages I have received, I have earned a full ride to UCLA and a family contribution of less than $4,000 from both UCSD and CMC. These universities have shown me the importance of hard work and are helping me achieve my dream of becoming a first-generation college student. Most of these acceptances occurred around the time of birthday (March 16th), so these were very generous birthday presents.
There are many more to arrive during this month and it seems as if March 27, 2014 is going to be the day where seniors are celebrating over their acceptances to top-ranked colleges in the nation or feeling a great deal of emotions to rejections. March 27 is a very special day for me as I wait to hear from many of my top choices including Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Yale University, Georgetown University, University of Southern California, and University of California Berkeley. As the day approaches, the amount of stress and anxiety that I have felt has been ever increasing and I am very anxious to hear back from so many schools on that day.
I will once again be at work when many of these notifications are made available so I am currently planning a celebration to enact when I receive the news. There is also going to be cake that day as we celebrate the birthdays of the month on the last Thursday of each month, so I will either have celebratory cake or cake to get over my emotions.
Either way, I get cake, so who's the real winner?