#selective schools

Story time from primary school era undiagnosed chiari 1 Contains: vom

So, my compressed cerebellum meant ya standard issue ‘automatic breathing while you sleep’ was downgraded to shitty used-car stick-shift p-plater breathing. So every morning I’d wake up with a head full of phlegm, a backlog of bile, and a shitty stomach that hadn’t had a rest… in years, I guess. I’d start the day with a brisk vom in the bedside bucket, get dressed, have another refreshing vom in the toilet, poke around at the obligatory one weetbix in milk, and make sure I didn’t need another vom before we left the house. If I ate the weetbix, it would invariably initiate vom number three. Mum was reticent as how to enforce the value ‘Your Child Should Eat Breakfast’ when specific child’s stomach was a horrifying trampoline.

So it was unlikely I’d eat anything before midday. I’d still be perky as heck, running on the kind of adrenalin you can get from throbbing pain and fluid purges. One day I had a good morning without voms. Turned out it would be scheduled for later in the morning, my rush to the toilets punctuated with the teacher assigning me a buddy, and me explaining to this new friend at a new school that I was fine and would be done in a minute after I washed the last chunks out of my hair, no really, I’m fine, sorry, is that the first time you’ve seen someone vom?

But the thing was, there were always fundraisers at school to help Kids Who Don’t Get To Eat Breakfast Before School: the days we could come to school in PJs and eat cereal later than vom o'clock, LIKE A NORMAL. And they always emphasised how missing breakfast would make you a slower, less capable, deficient, shit student. My ego was more than willing to equate my pretty good grades with some kind of personal superpower on par with national geographic mystics who lived on air alone. It would be a few years before realising the fundraisers were about poverty, not about how 1 in 7 Australian kids also had my morning vom routine.

Vom practice meant I didn’t really have a gag reflex. I was really good at swallowing tablets (which was handy for the regimen of hopeful cures the doctors prescribed). Also good at swallowing ants, batteries and coins. The number of intestinal x rays, gosh. But my brother couldn’t swallow shittttt, I elected for the most obstructively shaped vitamin C tablets to distress him.

Also, the constant headaches set the parameter for pain quite high, so I thought I was a tough guy. Turned out I recovered a lot of sensation post surgery, so the rest of my body’s pain was likely not getting processed at all HAHA.

Hello! Having a 3.3 definitely does not mean that you don’t have a chance of getting accepted at University of Chicago. While 84% of students accepted have a 3.75 or higher, about 4% of students accepted have between a 3.0 and a 3.49. Their acceptance rate is just under 9%, so even if you had a 4.0 GPA, your chances of getting in would be slim.

With your GPA being lower than their average, to be accepted you would have to be outstanding in some other areas of your application, such as test scores (middle 50% of accepted students had a 32-35 on the ACT), teacher recommendations (they require two), essays, interview, special talent, character, etc. They allow some optional parts of their application, such as the interview, additional recommendation letters (from more teachers, counselors, employers, volunteer coordinators, religious leaders, coaches, etc.), a creative writing sample, or a scientific research abstract. Take advantage of that! Supplement your application with some things that you know will highlight your strengths.

What you write in your application is important, too. First of all, University of Chicago prides itself on offering unique essay prompts that draw out applicants’ creativity and originality. Devote some serious time to writing a stellar essay. Start now! Then get an English teacher or someone else good at editing to look it over and help you make it even better. The essay is a really important place to shine if you have a lower GPA! 

Secondly, the application itself should have a section where you can give additional information you want the college to know about you. This is where you can explain that your illness affected your grades. You don’t have to go into extensive detail. Just give the facts. If any of your recommenders know about the situation, it would be a good idea for them to mention it in their recommendations as well. Colleges are willing to take those kinds of circumstances into account when making their decision.

Most importantly, apply to other colleges as well. Choose some colleges where you know you are likely to be accepted based on their requirements and your qualifications. That way you know you have other options if UChicago doesn’t accept you. And remember: with a 9% acceptance rate, UChicago is difficult for ANYONE to get into, not just you. GPA is certainly one of the things they emphasize, but they truly do consider your application on a holistic basis, so a high GPA alone wouldn’t get you in either.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/opinion/college-admissions-shocker.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

“Instead of essays – Brown will require haiku – and kale recipes”

By Anonymous

White Australia needs to stop scapegoating Asian students and educate themselves instead.

As a person of Asian descent living in Sydney, there is a certain level of everyday racism that you can learn to tolerate day-to-day. When you’re drowning in pervasive racism it’s best not to panic. Just slowly, and calmly, wade your way through the bullshit. The longer you do it, the stronger your muscles get, the easier it is to hold your water.

Reading the Sydney Morning Herald’s outburst of racist paranoia over the “Asianisation” of Sydney schools today, however, made me stop and realise how truly exhausted I am, and have been for a long time. Because, despite her never having met me before, the person that Anna Broinowski is scapegoating in this article is me. I went to coaching school to pass an exam when I was 9 years old to enter an ‘Opportunity Class.’ Then at 11, I took another exam and I was enrolled into a selective high school. And yes, it was full of “Asians.”