2011-12-18, 11:57 PM
FrozNlite Wrote:I should clarify: I've made important changes to my life, but ones that aren't radical. Quick specifics: this semester I worked 14-20 hours a week in luxury retail (which, as I've recently been happy to discover, is more important for my future career as a fashion journalist than I'd thought), worked as the Media Chair for the College Democrats of Madison, and wrote as the Men's Style Consultant staff member for MODA Magazine, a fashion/lifestyle magazine that a group of students and myself are starting and building on campus and beyond. In addition I had a funky academic schedule that wasn't really conducive to fitting in all of these responsibilities.
Changes: resigned from my position on College Dems, but will still be an "active" member, though with time commitments obviously in line with what I can give, no longer forced to give. Changed jobs from 14-20 hours a week retail to 12 hours a week on campus, exceedingly flexible biology lab work. And created a great academic schedule for me with no Friday classes.
Long story short is I've perfectly cut out the excess in my life and focused it all on, like you said, the elements essential for my future aspirations. And I have bigger plans beyond the aforementioned, ones that will fit well in my schedule without sacrificing any time/effort needed in bolstering my GPA, which is, of course, the biggest issue of the moment. To give a little more information, that includes doing more creative writing in my free time to build my portfolio and submit for publication, and do a fashion journalism internship in NYC this summer.
So with all that stated more specifically, would I still make for an appealing candidate? I'd gather that the answer is yes, considering it was beforehand, but I'm curious as to your more specific commentary on this matter with this new information.
And if it helps, quick demographics: also white and 25% puerto rican (though that counts for pomegranate being less than 50%), also gay (and have an extensive history of extracurricular involvement and work in the LGBT community on campus and in the Midwest), both parents have Bachelor's and Master's degrees.
While I'd like more information (but that crosses the line for incredibly obvious reasons), here's what I have to say based on what you have provided:
You indeed have a nice variety of extracurricular, as well as work experience. You helped start up a fashion magazine at UW-Madison. Be Media Chair of UW-Madison UDems. Salesperson in a luxury retail store. Combined on-hands extracirriculars and work experience made me see why you chose the fashion journalism path.
But of course, I noted (and somewhat remembered some months back) that you had a crazy-ass academic schedule for this semester alone. With that in mind...
At the current path you're going, you're doing quite well. Potentially your profile could be stellar. Now its dem grades you have to worry about now. Right now you know that your current GPA will turn off grad admin officers. But if you bring that GPA up to something along decent, you'll be a bit better off. Given that you said that next semester everything's going to be a bit less hectic academically, see if that works out. If so, try to maintain the academic workload equivalent to what you're doing right now (next semester) for future semesters. Also, do keep what you're currently doing with extracirriculars and work(and they are indeed wonderful and such, I won't deny that, and could really help you get to bigger things in life in the future), but be mindful of how finite your time is.
tl;dr - you're doing great things right now, and that will indeed help you get in the right direction in the future. Just need to fix a few broken links and you'll be alright.
If I misinterpreted anything Dan, please let me know.
(And for the record, I did not emphasize academics over extracirriculars; I simply emphasized balance. Just something I want to clarify)