Writing an appeal for admission, can anyone help me?

What recommendation did you use? I think I want to have a teacher from this year but maybe it should be someone who can talk about my growth. Thanks so much, here it is:

When my father and I searched through universities to find the ones I would apply to last summer, one in particular stood out: The University of Washington. No other school that we found gave me the same sense of excitement (how many universities in the US have a great economics program and a view of a mountain from the quad?). I was accepted into schools like UIUC and Tulane, schools that offered excellent programs but had severe flaws in location and diversity. UW offers a great strength in both its location and diversity, and as a student from the largest and most diverse school in Tennessee, I have seen the advantages of diversity in a student body, and I believe that being a part of UW’s community would allow me to thrive as both a student and a person. UW was one of the most competitive schools I applied to, so I had anticipated the possibility of being waitlisted. I write this appeal to you, the board of admissions, so that I can prove that I am a competitive student and that I will be an excellent addition to your school for the next four years. When I began high school, I began with mental health issues that impacted my ability to perform well in all of my classes. I had just switched schools (and states) from Georgia to Tennessee following the passing of my mother. My father understood that I was struggling, and gave me the attention, affection, and access to psychiatrists that I needed to recover. My friends, Keegan, Megha, and Shwetha took time to study with me after school and show me how to develop functional study habits and techniques to retain information (as well as ice cream and movies). I found happiness and purpose in doing all that I could to improve my school and myself through throwing myself into my extracurricular activities, pursuing Model UN, Mock Trial, French Club, DECA, Muslims’ Student Association, and volunteer work. I learned to support myself through stress, and became ready for the rigor and stress of college level classes, and college itself. This would be reflected in my grades, which improved significantly following my recovery, with my junior year being notable for a 4.0 GPA. Since then I have continued to involve myself in extracurriculars, although I have focused them more around my key interests, and been elected officer positions in them so that I can cause real change. My interests in economic development primarily stemmed from Model UN, however, and I have worked several times on creating plans for economic recovery at conferences throughout my Model UN career. My interests in economic development primarily stemmed from Model UN, however, and I have worked several times on creating plans for economic recovery at conferences throughout my Model UN career. Last year, for example, I was looking through the news while writing a paper, and I noticed that the UN published their expectation for how much rebuilding Syria would cost. 250 Billion US Dollars seemed to be an almost incomprehensible amount of money, and yet that number still stood as the final estimation. I couldn’t stop thinking about that number, about where the money would come from or what it would be used for. I have been doing Model UN for all of my high school career, and I have always been attracted to analyzing numbers of spending for development projects and humanitarian aid. To me, this number represented a challenge. I want to know which percentages of this money will go to rebuild each particular sector of the Syrian economy, and the milestones that the UN will set for each sector. I want to know the tariffs that will be applied to Western imports into Syria, so that the Syrian economy can grow back. I want to know how the government will allocate money to construction firms to rebuild the towns and villages that have been ravaged by conflict. These numbers intrigue me and make me want to study economics so that I can one day analyze data and organize spending so that the people of impoverished nations can have the same lives we lead in the West. I believe that only the University of Washington can provide me with the best education to achieve this goal. The University of Washington offers an economics program that focuses on economic theory; not just applications in business. The developmental economics field is very well represented at UW, with seven different professors specializing in it within the economics department. Moreover, UW has a study abroad program that allows students to perform a research project in an approved country, and I believe that I could use this program to gain practical insight into just how developmental economics is applied to instigate actual change in the world. One of the most prominent advantages of going to UW in my career would be the chance to intern at an economic consulting firm in Seattle, such as ECONorthwest, that offers specialized work in developmental economics. The opportunities that are available in Seattle for economists are unparalleled among the university cities I am considering, and none are even remotely as appealing as UW and Seattle. As a University, however, UW stands out as an institution that actively instigates change for the better. The Muslims’ Student Association at UW is one of the most active in the US, and has interfaith activities and events each week. The Model UN team at UW is both very active and transparent in the structure they use for conference funding and fundraising. I can easily imagine myself going to break fast in Ramadan with the UW Muslims’ Student Association and traveling around the US to compete in Model UN with the UW Model UN team. Finally, I am very interested in the Global Experience LLC that UW hosts, both in the special programs it offers and the community it creates. I fully believe that I am both a competitive student for admission to your school, given my passion for community involvement and academic success. Additionally, I believe that the economics program at UW would give me a stellar education and allow me to pursue my goals of international economic development work. The community at UW is amazing in it’s acceptance and encouragement of an active student body (Dawg Daze is unparalleled). I would be honored to be a UW Husky for the next four years, and the rest of my life.

/r/udub Thread Parent