Examine Religious Life Among Slaves in the Pre-Civil War South

Personal Admissions Statement

As a transfer student, I am not new to the process of putting my life down on paper. This is the third time I am approaching a college, attempting to encapsulate my life in several paragraphs and to demonstrate my fitness as an applicant on paper. With every time I move do so, I find myself reevaluating my previous experiences and academic performances anew, with a more mature and hopefully a wiser light. Every time I do so, I seem like a slightly different person, and dare I say, a better person, or at least a more emotionally equipped person to deal with the stresses of life.

Twenty-four years seems both old to be writing a personal statement to a university, yet I know that it is still young in comparison to many. Regardless, I offer my age, at least in relation to my fellow first-time students and my checkered experience at my first school, George Brown, as an asset to York University in Toronto, not as a detriment. I hope that the appreciation I have gained for education and my subsequent improved performance at Humber College will enhance, not detract from my qualities as an applicant.

Currently, I a college student at Humber College. Although I have been grateful for the opportunities that this college has given me to begin my academic career anew, I know that I need a more stimulating and challenging academic environment to realize my life's goals. I seek such an environment at York University in Toronto.

Any admissions officer who makes even a cursory scan of my transcript will note that I have done considerably better at Humber College, as opposed to my previous college of George Brown. In fact, my GPA at my last college was 2.65 and my GPA at my current college is a 4.0. How could this be the same student, one might ask?

The reasons are less academic than they are personal, although I do believe that I have considerably improved my work habits as a student. However, at the first school I attended, my grandmother passed away quite suddenly in the middle of my studies. My mother fell ill shortly after, suffering a severe depression for almost half a year. I wished to leave school to care for her. Well-meaning friends and family advised me to stay and finish as best as I could, but my mind was never fully occupied with my studies, only with her. I left George Brown, soured to the place as a whole because it was so full of memories of a past I would prefer to forget.

After helping my mother through the difficult process of recovering from a major depression, I have become a mature human being as well as a more appreciative student. I have cared for my mother as she cared for myself, when I was a child. Now I am ready to become a student again, but not simply to have fun once again and to forget about life 'on the outside.' Unlike many first time students, I have learned to deal with personal problems in conjunction with my studies and work.