u/flowersforminerva

Eurovision is over so I can get back to panicking about my future... hooray. Just finished my junior year.

Demographics: Female, White + Black + Native (w/ tribal number), small rural public school

Intended Major(s): International Relations/Studies, Russian/Slavic Studies, Political Science (for schools who don't have dedicated IR majors)

ACT Superscore: 33C, 27M, 26S, 36E, 36R, 12W (I'll probably take it one more time to get the math up)

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.84UW/4.22W, top 5 out of 47 students (see notes below)

Coursework: Max rigor, over 8 weighted college courses. School only offers AP CSP, which I took my sophomore year. (I passed barely with a 3, but it's not incredibly relevant to my profile.)

Extracurriculars:

1. Quiz Bowl Participant and Captain [captain since junior year, participated in local game show and was part of a two-time top three placing team at state]
2. Theatre Multi-Production Lead Actress [seven shows total, four lead roles]
3. High School Democrats of America State Chair [grew state chapter from 0 to 30+ students (and counting + in a ruby red state), and has spoken to and conducted events with politicians and political leaders from across the state. I'm also the founder and chair of a regional political campaign support initiative committee.]
4. Foreign Aid Advocacy PAC Intern [I've coordinated and held meetings with congressional offices and contributed to materials for the PAC to use in meetings with US Senate offices]
5. Volunteer Conversation Partner for Ukrainian English Learners [one hour per week, but program also entails preparing conversation plans and activities, which has proven to be a lot more insightful than I thought it would]
6. International Relations Think Tank Member [Organization has over 10k social media followers, this one isn't as strong, but I've been in it for a while, and have written multiple articles on international politics and US national security.]
7. International Relations Substack/Medium Writer [Largely a project planned for the summer, but I've already published a few articles and gotten some published in some smaller orgs/publications]
8. Russian Self Taught Speaker (A1-A2) [Sort of what it says on the package. I've primarily used Youtube videos and publicly available US military resources]
9. State Senate Page [Only lasted one week, but I feel as though it was a very important experience.]
10. School NHS Secretary [tied (again) after a week-long campaign and a run-off election]

Awards (not the strongest part of my application):

1. 1st in Statewide Comp. in Government
2. Regional Acting Award
3. Girls' State Nomination
4. State Senate Page Nomination
5. 1st in Statewide Comp. in State History

Essays/LORs: I haven't thought of my essays much apart from researching things to mention in my "why [college]?" essays. I plan on asking for rec letters from my drama and government teachers, both of whom know me very well.

Notes: My GPA was primarily impacted by advanced STEM classes. STEM is not my strong suit, but there aren't a huge amount of opportunities where I live, and so I took what I could get. I received a B in college level Physics my first semester and another B in college level Calculus my second semester. I'm generally fine with those, I've cried enough and learned to accept them.

The bigger problem is with a college macroeconomics course I took online. The class was super difficult, and so I had a B until the final, which brought my grade down to a C. A few weeks prior, we had an extra credit assignment from which I earned bonus points which would have raised my grade back to a B. These weren't implemented when the professor said they were, but I assumed he was busy, and so I waited until the last week of the course. After reaching out to him, I received no reply until I reached out to the department leader. Tldr of the conversation: The professor was withholding those bonus points because Honorlock had flagged some things during my completion of the assignment. I had committed no wrongdoing, and I attempted to explain so, but to no avail. It was never explained what I did exactly, which makes a formal appeal nearly impossible. Due to state laws, this course has to be on my high school transcript, and I have to be honest, this hit to my transcript and GPA has completely shattered my confidence. I've taken schools off of my list because I don't think I have any chance at all anymore, and I might be removing some that you see below.

Prior to the most recent semester, I was first in my class. I do not know where I am now, but it's possible I've dropped. I've considered taking a concurrent course this summer to bring my weighted up to a 4.24, but honestly? I've been dealing with both physical health issues and mental burnout + severe academic anxiety, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I'm mildly traumatized by the Macroecon-Honorlock situation. (The amount of crying was insane lmao) I think I really should take a break this summer for my own health, but I know that doing so might jeopardize my chances at college acceptances.

I'm considering applying ED to Bryn Mawr. It has a really good program for what I plan to do, the NPC said that I'd be paying $3k per year, and I like the environment. (I thought I wanted a big city environment for a while, but the closer I get to graduation, the more I realize that I'm terrified of being in a huge city that far away all by myself. I still want to go out of state (get me tf out of Oklahoma) but I'm starting to think a place like Bryn Mawr, with a safe, suburban campus with city access by train, might be the best fit for me.) I haven't made up my mind fully though, as I haven't visited (I don't know if I can) and there are still a few places which appeal to me equally (namely Barnard, although they don't have a dedicated IR major. That being said -- hard to beat a 4+1 SIPA program.)

Schools:
Reach/Target: Bryn Mawr College, (maybe also Swarthmore + Haverford??), George Washington University, Wellesley College, Barnard College, New York University, American University, Vassar College, Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, I need more in the 30-50% acceptance rate range ngl
Safeties are my state flagship and Hollins University

Hello,

As a disclaimer, I am not a military official, nor do I have any affiliation with the US military. I'm simply a teenager with an interest in learning languages.
I discovered the https://hs2.dliflc.edu/ resource online many months ago, and began using it to learn Russian (I stopped for a while because it's hard, but things are hard sometimes, and what better way to learn a language than by the world's strongest military?), and I came back to find that they had developed a system to store login information so you can learn across browsers and devices. Great! (Especially great for me as I once deleted all my progress accidentally by resetting my browser.) So, I try to sign up under the new system. Whenever I try to make an account, it tells me that:
"Your password must be between 12 and 50 characters long and include at least two uppercase letters, two lowercase letters, and two numbers. Please try again with a valid password."
Which does not make sense, as I've created a password with all of the above requirements. I have also tried changing the password and adding and deleting characters and nothing has changed. I checked to see if maybe the system already had an account with my email, it did not.
I tried using a different email, and that did not work. I attempted also to sign up using a different browser. This, likewise, did not help. My only thoughts are that maybe this is a glitch in the new system or that they're trying to keep civilians from using the service by locking it down according to IP addresses or email domains. I have not tried using the local downloaded version, but I would much prefer to use the online edition. I assume that most on this subreddit are military or military affiliated personnel. Is this also an issue with your devices, email addresses, and locations, or is this a glitch unique to me? I have not tried using a different device altogether, but I will after posting this and edit with an update.
Thank you.