if you’re unsure of your major you should try community college. lets you figure out what you want to do without getting in debt for the same two years of education. don’t just go straight to a low tier UC school just because you feel that a UC is the only route. i knew many people like that who thought the greatest accomplishment in life would be getting into UCSD and now they have a biochem degree but are flipping burgers cuz they dont want to look for jobs in their field. no passion for what they studied. they just do it cuz it’s what everyone else is doing.
you have great SAT scores. you should try to go to community college and try to excel there and aim for even better schools. aim for berkeley, aim for some privates. it’s easier to get into ucsd and other uc’s when you’re a transfer. there’s the TAG program for several and the there’s university link for ucsd if you’re from san diego. if you don’t know what you want to major in, i highly recommend community college. you’ll save so much money and time. plus if you excel highly in community college, you may have a better chance of getting into better schools and getting better financial aid[better financial aid if you do great…since not much aid given to transfers but if you’re great you may get some. even if you don’t get as much as you might get as a freshman, which tbh, with those grades you may not get that much in terms of merit aid, it’ll still be cheaper than if you had gone for 4 years at a university]
apply to FAFSA for the 2017-2018 school year on january 1st, 2017.
and the thing about your father, that’s a great thing to write about in your essays. GPA isn’t everything. they’ll look at your entire application in context of the circumstances you were in. for example you can talk about how you never spoke up about it because you thought it wasnt relevant to your school life. i went through some family stuff during high school that i never even thought of telling my professors about, i never even wrote about it in essays. i felt like if i wrote about it or told professors about it, it would just sound like an excuse to do badly. but you can talk about how you learned about how important it is to be in a right state of mind and what it means to work hard or struggle financially when the breadwinner is gone and about family roles and learning to adapt to chance, staying resilient and knowing that sometimes life happens and you have to change and adjust and accept the hardships and get through them ect.
im not saying to not apply or to just go to community college cuz it’s bad or anything. im just saying in terms of not having a major, it’s great to explore without having that financial burden of a $14,000 tuition. if you can write a compelling essay i think UCs will definitely consider you. you only did “badly” on AP classes and those are tough. some people in your situation wouldn’t have passed. i know cuz im one of those people that got Fs and Ds on even non-AP things when i went through things. your essay will give context to why you don’t have many extra curriculurs for example. and your SAT score is your saving grace, honestly. it shows that you’re smart and that the potential is there. don’t worry about what your classmates are getting. focus on yourself and in giving 110% in everything that you do. sometimes your best is an A, sometimes it’s a C-. sometimes a half-hearted effort can earn you an A, or even a D. but as long as you did your best you can hold your head high and know you gave it all. it’s important that you’re learning how to do your very best now. i didn’t really try much in high school and i wish i could have tested my limits back then in an earnest manner. it’s something to be proud of when you give something your all. don’t worry too much about the points, in the end you earn something much more valuable than just an averaged number.