Proudest Personal Accomplishment Secondary Question

[ScrubswithnoSleeves]

"What personal accomplishment are you most proud of and why?"

Hey All,

So I have come to this question and wanted to pass this potential answer topic by you: My growth as a student. Hear me out before you tell me to be more interesting.

I came into college for the wrong reasons initially and it manifested into a very low GPA, 2.7. I did some serious introspection and decided that I was better than that and that I wanted to go to college because I wanted to become adept at something that would allow me to live a fulfilling life and benefit my community and the world. I ended up dropping out of my 4-year university and returning home to go to a community college where I took 42 credits in a year, drove 2 hours to campus every day, dealt with my mother's abusive boyfriend and still ended up improving to a 3.75 GPA. (the boyfriend constantly told me I couldn't do it; fun stuff. Parents didn't much believe in me either)
I then got accepted into a new 4-year that was much more challenging than my previous 4-year and obviously my community college. I got a 3.6 my first semester and was a little disheartened, but I challenged myself to do better once again. I found a major I loved (<3 Microbio), and my GPA steadily rose until it couldn't and I maintained a 4.0 for my last 3 semesters.

I know to talk about your GPA for this may not be interesting enough, but truthfully this is one of my proudest accomplishments. People whose respect I cared about didn't believe in me and I did it, not for them but for me.

let me know if you think this still isn't what adcoms want to hear, I've got plenty of cheesy cool things I did that benefitted impoverished nations and communities.

Cheers

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[Moko]

"What personal accomplishment are you most proud of and why?"
I came into college for the wrong reasons initially and it manifested into a very low GPA, 2.7. I did some serious introspection and decided that I was better than that and that I wanted to go to college because I wanted to become adept at something that would allow me to live a fulfilling life and benefit my community and the world. I ended up dropping out of my 4-year university and returning home to go to a community college where I took 42 credits in a year, drove 2 hours to campus every day, dealt with my mother's abusive boyfriend and still ended up improving to a 3.75 GPA. (the boyfriend constantly told me I couldn't do it; fun stuff. Parents didn't much believe in me either)
I then got accepted into a new 4-year that was much more challenging than my previous 4-year and obviously my community college. I got a 3.6 my first semester and was a little disheartened, but I challenged myself to do better once again. I found a major I loved (<3 Microbio), and my GPA steadily rose until it couldn't and I maintained a 4.0 for my last 3 semesters.

This topic is fine in my opinion, as it's not simply a 'I got a 4.0' essay. Having said that, if you do have non-academic accomplishments that were not highlighted elsewhere, mentioning them here would help round out your application so we get to know you beyond just what your grades and CV tell us.

If you do use this topic, I would avoid getting bogged down in the details such as your 3.6 during the first quarter, or a 4.0 during the last three semesters, etc -- we can see that stuff on your transcript. Instead, focus on the things that we can't tell based on your grades; for example, the events and introspection that prompted this paradigm shift, your motivations for trying again (apart from 'I wanted to prove everyone wrong'), resources employed, etc.