alexisxdawn
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Hey all! I'm Alexis, 23 y/o female, Florida resident, first-gen low-income first-time applicant, Stetson University C/O 2020 B.S. Biology, minor in Chemistry. I know I want to apply to University of Florida (in-state), but I'm not sure where else would be smart to apply to... but that's a question for the WAMC thread. Here's some info if you need it:
Cumulative GPA: 3.5
science GPA: 3.46
last 45: 3.64
hoping this is accurate, I was decently confused doing those.
Degree: B.S. Biology 2020
GRE results: taking it soon!
Veterinary Experience (1715 hours and counting):
(840) Animal Hospital 1 Veterinary Technician, including exotics
(875 and counting) Animal Hospital 2 Veterinary Technician
Animal Experience:
(104) Fostering injured animals
Also, I'm going to be starting a volunteer position at a wildlife rehabilitation center and doing about 8-12 hours a week, possibly more.
Research Experience (~430 hours):
(210, for credit) Host species and prevalence of the invasive pentastome parasite Raillietiella orientalis among snakes in Central Florida, USA. Wrote this paper and presented my research to over 200 students in the biology department at my university. Also co-authored my mentor's presentation on our research for his talk at JMIH (The Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists).
(170, for credit) Performed months of lab research to fully identify a specific microbe utilizing multiple laboratory testing techniques such as DNA extraction, ligation reactions, transformation reactions, etc.
(72, for credit) Identified a human's genotype of a specific protein involved in metabolizing caffeine using multiple laboratory testing diagnostics including Sanger sequencing, and SnapGene analysis. Wrote a paper titled "Human CYP1A2*1F Gene Mutation Found to be rs762551(A;A)" and gave a presentation to over 50 students of the biology department at my university.
(33, for credit) Gathered 50+ sources of primary literature to efficiently write a species profile following the style of the journal Mammalian Species. The species profile focused on Panthera pardus.
(48, for credit) Induced a G77R mutation in the Fus1 protein using site-directed mutagenesis. Performed plasmid transformation, plate-mating assays, replica-plating methods, microscopy. Identified the effects of a single nucleotide (transition) mutation and how the (missense) mutation effected the phenotype of Fus1. Wrote a scientific piece on my findings, created a detailed and concise visual of the research, and presented it to over 30 people via oral presentation.
Also, I took an animal behaviour class where I performed experiments followed by a formal research paper, every two weeks. I'm not sure if I should include that. If so, that would be ~120 hours.
Awards/scholarships:
Stetson University Presidential Scholarship (highest awarded academic scholarship, all 4 years)
Stetson Achievement Award (all 4 years)
Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society (given to freshman students)
Joe Peck Memorial Scholarship (donor-funded scholarship awarded Sophomore-Senior years)
Florida Bright Futures Academic Scholar (awarded all 4 years)
Dean's list (Spring 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2020)
Honor Roll (Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019)
Extracurriculars:
Pre-vet Club (1 yr, ~18 hours)
Students Against Sexual Assault (~a year and a half, ~20 hours)
Gaming club (~a year and a half, ~96 hours)
Gaming eSports (~a year and a half, ~32 hours)
Employment (non-animal related):
So because I'm a low-income student, I had to hold jobs the entire time during my undergraduate studies. This definitely effected the amount of time I could put into my classes, as well as my class load and my extracurricular involvement, which I will be including in my explanation essay.
(640) I became the Office and Field Manager for the Florida Conservation of Voters, Education Fund, Deland Location before the fall voting sessions of 2018.
(500) I was a writing tutor for a year and a half at my university.
(375) I was a writing fellow for a year and a half at my university. The writing fellow program is a program that dedicates a writing tutor to a specific class to specialize in their class's topic/discourse to better aid in the writing process.
Before I was a writing tutor and fellow, I had a waitressing job my entire freshman year, and then a hostess job during my sophomore spring semester.
In between summers, I held minimum wage jobs like working at Jimmy Johns and Firehouse Subs.
LOR's:
- One from the owner of the animal hospital I work at who is also a veterinarian that I work daily with
- One from a small and large animal, wholistic veterinarian I'm currently working with
- One from a small animal veterinarian I'm currently working with
- One from my research mentor from my university (involved with my herpetology studies that he's actually still continuing and using my research for!)
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Anyways, working on my explanation statement annnnnnnd... I have faced a large amount of adversity in my life. However, some of it feels very "oh me, pity, boo hoo" and just feels unnecessary to include in my statement. Here's the background info:
I grew up in a household with a brother and a sister, and a mother who has bipolar disorder and was an intense drug and alcohol addict. I faced a lot of physical and mental/emotional abuse, aside from all the adversity I faced. We moved A LOT, from no-bedroom hotel rooms to one-two bedroom trailer homes to one bedroom apartments, and we always lived in very low-income/poverty areas. We lived off food stamps and food banks and a lot of days, I didn't even get meals. I slept on a mattress on a floor my entire childhood, and always shared a space with my brother and sister. For about 6-8 months, I even lived in a hotel-like room with everyone at a rehab center while my mother got clean, because DCF and police came and found a lot of drugs in our home and forced my mother to go and she refused to let any family take us children from her. I mean I can go on and on but needless to say, I had an intense childhood. Around 14 years old, I ended up getting adopted by my grandparents, when my mother was taken to jail for an 8-month sentence, and I had nowhere to go. My grandparents are decently middle class, and I finally went to a great high school (that was also predominantly white and of course snobby). And since they adopted me, I have had opportunities I would have never had before.
I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder at a young age and had suicide attempts and self-harmed starting at the early age of 7 years old. At the age of 16, I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Throughout high school, I had a few major suicide attempts and was hospitalized, and missed a lot of school. However, I managed to graduate Magna Cum Laude with a 4.5 GPA. In college, I had two major suicide attempts, one during my sophomore spring semester (and my grades definitely reflect that, I had my first C in a class and it was Gen Chem II), and the last one (February 2020) had me hospitalized. However, I finished that semester with all A’s in four rigorous science classes (and during the start of a global pandemic!) and I graduated successfully.
Now... here's what I've drafted for the explanation statement:
As a first-generation, low-income student, I worked all throughout the semesters and summers of college. I took less classes per semester to allow my schedule to align with my jobs. However, this allowed me to focus more and be more successful in the classes that I was taking instead of struggling with the course load of an added class or two. Although I could not make it to a lot of meetings and events that would allow me to be more involved extracurriculars, I attended as much as my schedules allowed and when I was present, I was engaged and helpful. Also, because of my work schedules, volunteer/experience work near my university did not align with the hours I could provide. Now that I am graduated, I am able to dedicate my time to being a full-time veterinary technician, and I use my two days off a week to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center.
During the spring semester of 2018, I struggled more than usual with my Major Depressive Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder, and I had a suicide attempt. My grades reflected this and unfortunately, I had my first C in a class (General Chemistry II). During the spring semester of 2020, I had a major suicide attempt after a 7-month long toxic and abusive relationship ended, and I was hospitalized. However, I finished the semester with A’s in every course, even despite the start of a global pandemic. I started SSRI’s, dialectical behavioral therapy, daily journaling, and weightlifting for two hours a day, six days a week. It's been a year since that attempt and it is the first year of my life that I have finally overcome the struggle with self-harm and suicidal thoughts. I have never in my life felt more optimistic or healthier, and I just keep growing!
My questions/concerns are:
1. Is it okay that I left my childhood out? I feel like it is super pitiful and just not really relevant. I have no way of tying it into my studies, so as it is, it sounds like a pity story. However, it is a good example of how I faced adversity and have completely turned my life around from being around drugs and poverty to becoming successful in health and my career.
2. I tried only including information that was relevant to questions they would have about my app. Why did she only take 3 classes some semesters? Answered. Why was she not as involved in extracurriculars? Answered. Why doesn't she have much veterinary/animal experience? Answered. Talked about low grades. And ended everything on positive notes.
Please give me feedback <333
Cumulative GPA: 3.5
science GPA: 3.46
last 45: 3.64
hoping this is accurate, I was decently confused doing those.
Degree: B.S. Biology 2020
GRE results: taking it soon!
Veterinary Experience (1715 hours and counting):
(840) Animal Hospital 1 Veterinary Technician, including exotics
(875 and counting) Animal Hospital 2 Veterinary Technician
Animal Experience:
(104) Fostering injured animals
Also, I'm going to be starting a volunteer position at a wildlife rehabilitation center and doing about 8-12 hours a week, possibly more.
Research Experience (~430 hours):
(210, for credit) Host species and prevalence of the invasive pentastome parasite Raillietiella orientalis among snakes in Central Florida, USA. Wrote this paper and presented my research to over 200 students in the biology department at my university. Also co-authored my mentor's presentation on our research for his talk at JMIH (The Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists).
(170, for credit) Performed months of lab research to fully identify a specific microbe utilizing multiple laboratory testing techniques such as DNA extraction, ligation reactions, transformation reactions, etc.
(72, for credit) Identified a human's genotype of a specific protein involved in metabolizing caffeine using multiple laboratory testing diagnostics including Sanger sequencing, and SnapGene analysis. Wrote a paper titled "Human CYP1A2*1F Gene Mutation Found to be rs762551(A;A)" and gave a presentation to over 50 students of the biology department at my university.
(33, for credit) Gathered 50+ sources of primary literature to efficiently write a species profile following the style of the journal Mammalian Species. The species profile focused on Panthera pardus.
(48, for credit) Induced a G77R mutation in the Fus1 protein using site-directed mutagenesis. Performed plasmid transformation, plate-mating assays, replica-plating methods, microscopy. Identified the effects of a single nucleotide (transition) mutation and how the (missense) mutation effected the phenotype of Fus1. Wrote a scientific piece on my findings, created a detailed and concise visual of the research, and presented it to over 30 people via oral presentation.
Also, I took an animal behaviour class where I performed experiments followed by a formal research paper, every two weeks. I'm not sure if I should include that. If so, that would be ~120 hours.
Awards/scholarships:
Stetson University Presidential Scholarship (highest awarded academic scholarship, all 4 years)
Stetson Achievement Award (all 4 years)
Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society (given to freshman students)
Joe Peck Memorial Scholarship (donor-funded scholarship awarded Sophomore-Senior years)
Florida Bright Futures Academic Scholar (awarded all 4 years)
Dean's list (Spring 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2020)
Honor Roll (Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019)
Extracurriculars:
Pre-vet Club (1 yr, ~18 hours)
Students Against Sexual Assault (~a year and a half, ~20 hours)
Gaming club (~a year and a half, ~96 hours)
Gaming eSports (~a year and a half, ~32 hours)
Employment (non-animal related):
So because I'm a low-income student, I had to hold jobs the entire time during my undergraduate studies. This definitely effected the amount of time I could put into my classes, as well as my class load and my extracurricular involvement, which I will be including in my explanation essay.
(640) I became the Office and Field Manager for the Florida Conservation of Voters, Education Fund, Deland Location before the fall voting sessions of 2018.
(500) I was a writing tutor for a year and a half at my university.
(375) I was a writing fellow for a year and a half at my university. The writing fellow program is a program that dedicates a writing tutor to a specific class to specialize in their class's topic/discourse to better aid in the writing process.
Before I was a writing tutor and fellow, I had a waitressing job my entire freshman year, and then a hostess job during my sophomore spring semester.
In between summers, I held minimum wage jobs like working at Jimmy Johns and Firehouse Subs.
LOR's:
- One from the owner of the animal hospital I work at who is also a veterinarian that I work daily with
- One from a small and large animal, wholistic veterinarian I'm currently working with
- One from a small animal veterinarian I'm currently working with
- One from my research mentor from my university (involved with my herpetology studies that he's actually still continuing and using my research for!)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyways, working on my explanation statement annnnnnnd... I have faced a large amount of adversity in my life. However, some of it feels very "oh me, pity, boo hoo" and just feels unnecessary to include in my statement. Here's the background info:
I grew up in a household with a brother and a sister, and a mother who has bipolar disorder and was an intense drug and alcohol addict. I faced a lot of physical and mental/emotional abuse, aside from all the adversity I faced. We moved A LOT, from no-bedroom hotel rooms to one-two bedroom trailer homes to one bedroom apartments, and we always lived in very low-income/poverty areas. We lived off food stamps and food banks and a lot of days, I didn't even get meals. I slept on a mattress on a floor my entire childhood, and always shared a space with my brother and sister. For about 6-8 months, I even lived in a hotel-like room with everyone at a rehab center while my mother got clean, because DCF and police came and found a lot of drugs in our home and forced my mother to go and she refused to let any family take us children from her. I mean I can go on and on but needless to say, I had an intense childhood. Around 14 years old, I ended up getting adopted by my grandparents, when my mother was taken to jail for an 8-month sentence, and I had nowhere to go. My grandparents are decently middle class, and I finally went to a great high school (that was also predominantly white and of course snobby). And since they adopted me, I have had opportunities I would have never had before.
I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder at a young age and had suicide attempts and self-harmed starting at the early age of 7 years old. At the age of 16, I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Throughout high school, I had a few major suicide attempts and was hospitalized, and missed a lot of school. However, I managed to graduate Magna Cum Laude with a 4.5 GPA. In college, I had two major suicide attempts, one during my sophomore spring semester (and my grades definitely reflect that, I had my first C in a class and it was Gen Chem II), and the last one (February 2020) had me hospitalized. However, I finished that semester with all A’s in four rigorous science classes (and during the start of a global pandemic!) and I graduated successfully.
Now... here's what I've drafted for the explanation statement:
As a first-generation, low-income student, I worked all throughout the semesters and summers of college. I took less classes per semester to allow my schedule to align with my jobs. However, this allowed me to focus more and be more successful in the classes that I was taking instead of struggling with the course load of an added class or two. Although I could not make it to a lot of meetings and events that would allow me to be more involved extracurriculars, I attended as much as my schedules allowed and when I was present, I was engaged and helpful. Also, because of my work schedules, volunteer/experience work near my university did not align with the hours I could provide. Now that I am graduated, I am able to dedicate my time to being a full-time veterinary technician, and I use my two days off a week to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center.
During the spring semester of 2018, I struggled more than usual with my Major Depressive Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder, and I had a suicide attempt. My grades reflected this and unfortunately, I had my first C in a class (General Chemistry II). During the spring semester of 2020, I had a major suicide attempt after a 7-month long toxic and abusive relationship ended, and I was hospitalized. However, I finished the semester with A’s in every course, even despite the start of a global pandemic. I started SSRI’s, dialectical behavioral therapy, daily journaling, and weightlifting for two hours a day, six days a week. It's been a year since that attempt and it is the first year of my life that I have finally overcome the struggle with self-harm and suicidal thoughts. I have never in my life felt more optimistic or healthier, and I just keep growing!
My questions/concerns are:
1. Is it okay that I left my childhood out? I feel like it is super pitiful and just not really relevant. I have no way of tying it into my studies, so as it is, it sounds like a pity story. However, it is a good example of how I faced adversity and have completely turned my life around from being around drugs and poverty to becoming successful in health and my career.
2. I tried only including information that was relevant to questions they would have about my app. Why did she only take 3 classes some semesters? Answered. Why was she not as involved in extracurriculars? Answered. Why doesn't she have much veterinary/animal experience? Answered. Talked about low grades. And ended everything on positive notes.
Please give me feedback <333
