Resumes Cover Letters - Cabrillo College: Fill & Download for Free

I transferred from a community college (two-year college, aka junior college) to Stanford. I’m not sure this qualifies as a “low-ranked” college, but students often consider junior college a step down from any four-year institution. Those that do are dead wrong, of course. I got a world-class education at my community college, and it prepared me to finish my undergrad degree and then go on for an MA at Stanford. In many respects, the education I got at Cabrillo College was just as good as what I got at Stanford, sometimes even better.I barely graduated high school. I hated school and spent most of my time skipping class with my friends and smoking pot down by the river. With a low C average, no glowing letters of rec, no awards or extra-curricular activities, low SAT scores and less than zero interest, I wasn’t exactly planning on spending the next four years in the hallowed halls of any elite learning institution.Instead, I moved from Illinois to California, hoping to get a job that paid enough to cover rent and marijuana. I had no idea how hard it would be for an unskilled 18 year old to make a living in an expensive beach town. In hindsight, it was perhaps my cheerfully over-confident ignorance that eventually set my foot on the right path.After working a series of low-wage dead-end jobs, I was lucky enough to land a position as a warehouse assistant at a little mail-order telescope retailer. I worked my way up to data entry clerk and decided to take a few classes at the local JC so I could spiff up my resume. To my astonishment, I discovered at Cabrillo that not only was I capable of getting good grades - I actually liked school. For the first time in my life. I started to think about going after a Bachelor’s degree.It took me 8 years to earn enough credits to transfer to a four year university. During that period, I worked full time as a preschool teacher while earning Associates degrees in Child Development (what’s considered a vocational degree) and in English, which I was told over and over was foolish and borderline stupid. What good is an English degree?When it came time to apply to four-year schools, my counselors told me to aim high. My grades were good enough to get me into one of the second tier UCs, I was told. If i played it right, I could eventually get a BA from UCSC or maybe even Santa Barbara. What about Berkeley, I asked. Stanford? They all laughed ruefully and commended me for thinking big, but said I’d be wasting the $50 application fee. It was a nice thought, but wasn’t I on a tight budget? Surely that money would be better spent elsewhere. I had a good shot at UCSC, a fine school and certainly much more ambitious than I ever would have dreamed after just squeaking by in HS. It was a plan to be proud of.I applied anyway. It couldn’t hurt, right? I could cut back on smoking and take the application fees out of my pot budget. Yes, that’s right. I had a line item in my monthly budget for marijuana, and it was from that category that I subtracted the money to apply for Cal and Stanford, as well as to register to take the SAT again at the age of 28, since I had blown it so badly the first time out. I sent my applications out, five in all, and promptly forgot about all of them except UCSC, where I was hoping to land if all the transfer gods blessed me. I mentally filed the Stanford application under “good learning experience”, because of course there was no way. Even if I managed to get in - which I wouldn’t, no possible way - but even if I did, there was no way I could pay for it. I was living paycheck to paycheck, with no savings and no benefactors. I was on my own. UCSC was perhaps in my reach, and I was more than happy to plan my future around it.One by one, the acceptance letters rolled in. San Jose State, my safety school. Nice! Then UCSC! Oh my God, Santa Barbara, no way!!!When the letter from Berkeley arrived, I did a double take on the name and address. Surely they had made a mistake. But no, there it was, my proper name attached to a letter that began “Congratulations!” I think I actually pinched myself.I was just arriving home from an interview with a prospective employer in Berkeley when I met my mailman at the door. He handed me a stack with a wide grin that I didn’t know how to interpret - until I saw the piece of mail at the bottom. Stanford. And it was a fat envelope, y’all. I opened it with shaking hands, and there it was. My invitation to the rest of my life.They offered me a scholarship that covered all tuition and room and board too. A full ride. Cal was offering a nice package, and I was grateful, but I was looking at graduating from Stanford in two years with an undergraduate degree and no debt. It was no contest.I won’t pretend it was easy. Those years at Stanford remain to this day the most stressful time of my life, especially the last one (that’s another Quora answer). But I never gave up. I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity I had been given. I graduated in the top 5% of my class, with a BA and MA in English. I knew what I wanted to do with those degrees. I was about it. Today, I am exactly where I should have been all along, a tenured full-time English instructor at a local JC, still marveling at my unbelievable luck and encouraging my students to aim big when they set their sights on transfer - application fees be damned.I am fully aware that my story is atypical. Most students who barely squeaked by in high school will not see Stanford or MIT on their horizon. But it is a reminder that there are many resources in this great country for those willing to use them and work hard. You never know until you try. We are capable of a lot more than we give ourselves credit for.