1st Semester Essay

2nd Semester GPS

1st Semester GPS

University of Houston

Brenda Cruz

Period 8

Mrs. Lopez-garcia

University of Houston

The university I have chosen to attend to is the University of Houston. I chose this university because of a few good reasons. The main reason I would like to attend U of H is because it’s as close as its going to get for me if I want to attend a good university. U of H also has the major I want to graduate on. Another thing that attracts me about U of H is that I end up saving more money since I don’t have to pay to live there because I will be able to drive there everyday. I also like the campus there; it’s pretty big at 667 acres and beautiful.

The reasons I chose this university, as I stated above, are because the campus is fairly close to me, they have the major I want to graduate on, and the campus there is big and beautiful. Basically U of H would end up saving me a lot of cash since wouldn’t have to pay rent there. I also fell in love with the campus there at U of H. I know for sure that this is the university I want to attend.

What you need to be accepted at U of H are a few different requirements. There are a few obvious requirements such as the application for the university, which can only be done online, and your high school transcript, which you get at the high school you attended. Other requirements include an SAT score of 1100 for the top 26-50%, a score of 1000 for top 16-25%, and no minimum score for top 15%; 4 English credits, 3 Math credits (algebra I, algebra II, and geometry), 2 Science credits (biology, chemistry, or physics), and 3 Social Studies credits, and the TSI (THEA, ASSET, COMPASS, ACCUPLACER).

U of H was founded in 1927 and is the leading public research university. They educate 38,500 students in more than 300 undergraduate and graduate academic programs and award more than 7,000 degrees annually, with more than 250,000 alumni. U of H main campus is located in Houston, Texas with branches at U of H Clear Lake, U of H Downtown, and U of H Victoria. U of H receives students from more than 137 nations making it the second most ethnically diverse major research university. U of H has more than 400 student organizations and 16 intercollegiate sports teams making it an active university. About 4,000 students live on campus on residence halls, apartments and townhouses.

The major I want to graduate on is biology. This major interests me because it would put me on the path to study to be a nephrologist, a physician that specializes in kidney diseases, kidney transplantation, and dialysis therapy. I will use this major in my life because kidney disease has affected my family and I want to be able to know why kidney disease take place in the first place. I also want to be able to treat it and find ways to prevent it to inform people of the dangers of kidney disease.

My Grandma :)

Brenda Cruz
Period 8
Mrs. Lopez-Garcia

My Grandmother

My Grandmother has made a real big impact in my life. She is very sick and she has showed me that no matter what god throws at you have to be strong and not let it bring you down.We went to El Salvador to visit our family and when we got there we noticed that my grandma looked sick, but we never thought that it was too bad or important.

One day she got real sick and fainted. My dad and uncle decided to get her checked because it was getting to frequent. So in the summer of 2010 my grandma was told that her kidneys were not working any more, and that she would need to get surgery if she wanted to keep living. Her feet would get super swollen, to the point were she couldn’t put shoes or sandals on. She was hospitalized for almost a week and in that week she got worse. My grandma lost her memory for about 2 days, and couldn’t do anything on her own, she couldn’t control when she had to use the restroom or walk on her own. She would talk about things that made no sense to us, like that why hadn’t my cousin put all her clothes in her room like she had told her too, it made no sense because she was in the hospital and there was nothing to put up. My mom decided to see if she had gotten her memory back and asked her about my dad, and she said that he wasn’t there because he was doing something else when my dad was there next to her talking to her. We asked her about everyone in the room and the only person she did recognized was me! When she recognized me I busted out crying because it showed me how much she loved me and that she would not forget about me.

She eventually got her surgery done and got better, but we are still struggling with her health because in any moment she could pass away, even with the surgery. She gets hemodialysis every week for four hours to get all the water out of her kidneys so she can feel better and not get sick. She was put on a special diet and can on take a couple sips of water a day. That wasn’t easy for her because she would drink a lot of water before this happened to her, but she learned to deal with it and be ok with it.

My grandma always told me that she was going to be ok, to not cry over her that she knew she was going to get better and be here with us. To this date she is still with us healthy and strong. Yes, she gets sick sometimes and scares us but in the end we know she will get better and get through it. Thanks to her I still want to become a doctor, and I might even study to be a doctor on kidneys so I can know in details what went wrong with her. Teach people how to prevent it and take care of them selves, help people with kidney failure out. She is one of the most important people in my life would take care of me since I was a little girl, would make me food and when ever I got hurt she knew exactly what to do to make me feel better, that’s why she impacts my life in such a big way.

Writing Reflection

My writing has improve a lot since the first semester. In the first semester I had horrible grammar and would barely make sense when I wrote an essay. Now I research the topic I'm suppose to write about.

In the first semester I wouldn't care about my essays do them quick thinking I had done good, but now that i see them they are horrible! They have really bad grammar, some words i used weren't even words. The essay was to short and wasn't well organized at all. I also didn't have a lot of information on what i was writing about.

In the second semester I knew what to do way better, I supported my sources, and cited them. I had to research my topic real good. I had more information to put in my essay since i had done my research, and I had much better grammar, spelled most of my words correctly, and was more organized.

Senior Plan

1st Day of School- August 22nd

Last Day of School-May 31st

Finals- May 14-18

Capstone-Throughout the year

Prom- May

Graduation- May

FASFA- January 1st

College Applications- September-December

Scholarships-Throughout the year

Financial Aid

There are different types of financial aid. For example loans, scholarships, grants, and employment. For most of these financial aids you do not have to pay back, except for loans. You can get financial from federal government, states, private sources, civic organizations and churches, or employers. The federal government is the largest source of financial aid, and they have different types of common federal aid programs. I would like to apply for scholarships and grants; try to get as many as I can to be able to pay for my college an actually be someone in the future.

College Worksheet

Second Semester Essay

College Research Reflection

It's hard to get into certain colleges because you need to have certain qualifications to get in. There are colleges that have sororities, fraternities, and club organizations. Many colleges have housing for students, and you can either stay in an apartment or in a school hall. You can have roommates in either one. If you get an apartment you can either get it furnished or not furnished. They have meal plans for the students, they have different ones to fit each students needs. Depending on the college you want to go to they will have different things to offer. For example:daycares, wellness centers, healthcare, fitness centers, and many other things. Each college is different in size and how it's set up. They have different majors and minors, and different class sizes.