I graduated from Frederick Douglass Academy 1 in 2020 and was accepted at Dartmouth College in the fall of 2021; as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I took a gap year. The main reason why I was prepared for the SATs and the college application process in the winter of 2019 was because of Mr. Murphy and The Uptown Education Foundation.
In my junior year, the Uptown Education Foundation helped me by providing me and my peers with a SAT tutor and a free chance to take the SAT a second time. Due to this, I was able to increase my SAT score from 1320 to 1430 when I took it again—an 110 point increase on my SAT exam. Additionally, we were given assistance in creating our personal statement, the most important part of the college application process, in return for us tutoring sophomores. At the time I had been struggling to create a succinct and effective personal statement for months and with the support of the Uptown Education Foundation I was able to create a personal statement that I will always be proud of.
Finally, I was provided with an advisor who helped me throughout the beginning of the college application process, making the entire ordeal much easier. Overall, the aid that the Foundation provided increased my chances of getting into Dartmouth and made the entirety of the college application process more bearable. The benefits of my participation in the Foundation didn’t end with my graduation from high-school either. After graduating, I received a scholarship to help with covering college tuition and, incidentally, the tutoring that I did earlier became useful; I helped my friends during my gap year by editing their essays using the skills I acquired through my prior tutoring experience. In the end, the Uptown Education Foundation provided me with the resources I needed to both increase my chances of getting into a good college and doing well in said college