Abnormal Circumstances: Test scores vs GPA

Applying to College
1

<p>I am unsure how to give an appropriate introduction to this issue, so i shall simply "dive" in:
I have caused myself the issue of a massive discrepancy between my ACT/SAT scores and GPA (see below)
and to be frank, have no idea how admissions offices will react to the aforementioned issue,
and would like your advice/opinion (directed at members of the community experienced in this sort of issue, but all comments are welcome). I will also give a list of some of my extra curricular activities, as well as a list of classes taken.</p>

<p>SAT: Critical Reading Math Writing Total
800 780 770 2350</p>

<p>ACT: English Math Reading Science Writing Subsection Comb. English/Writing Composite
31 35 36 36 10 (out of 12) 30 35</p>

<p>Weighted GPA: 2.7525</p>

<p>Other Tests
AP European History: 4
AP United States History: 5
AP Biology: 4
SAT II Chem: 660</p>

<p>Classes Taken/In Progress (* denotes that a class is or was to be taken senior year)</p>

<p>4 Years History; two of which are AP (NJ requires all students to take 2 years of US history, thus for my Senior year I
am required to take the only other course that I am eligible for to fulfill that requirement, Standard (Non-Honors/AP) US Issues<em>, Which also prevented me from taking AP US Government</em>:
Global Perspectives, AP European History, AP US History, US Issues*</p>

<p>2 Years French (Regular): French 1 & 2</p>

<p>4 Years Math (Hon/AP): Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, Honors Pre-Calc/Trig, AP Calculus BC*</p>

<p>5.5 Years Science; would have been 6.5, but due to overcrowding i was chosen, due to lower GPA, to be prevented
from taking AP Physics B* (C is not offered) (1 section offered, 40 students signed up for it, max class size of 26)'
(No Hon/AP offered in science during freshman year, just (remedial) earth science, or Bio I):
Biology I, Honors Chemistry, Organic Chemistry (Half Year only), Honors Physics, AP Biology, AP Chemestry*</p>

<p>4 Years Standard English: English 1, 2, 3, & 4*</p>

<p>4 Years Academic Lab; This is the name of the "pull-out" class my school requires special education students to take,
I have no choice in this, if I wish to keep my I.E.P, and the school has promised to fight any attempts at conversion to a 504
before graduation in court. (District has lawyers directly employed as well as on retainer.)</p>

<p>1 Year "Practical Arts": Cooking 1 & 2*
1 Year "Fine Arts": Ceramics, and World Craft Sampler* </p>

<p>Extra Curricular</p>

<p>Clubs: Breast Cancer Awareness Club, Latin Club, Young Republicans Club ( I am not a Republican or Democrat, but this club has a reputation of getting high profile speakers.)</p>

<p>Charitable/Volunteer: PAL Mentoring Program: This is a program sponsored by the police athletic league, to have Intelligent High School Students Tutor, and interact with, students, from in or around the district, who are currently having academic difficulty. This is both my own and the program's second year. </p>

<p>Non-School Related:
Programming: I taught myself how to program in C++, and Java (note: C++ is such a Gargantuan language that it is doubt full more then a few people world wide, are practiced in and understand ALL of it, java is suffers from the same issue to some degree, but does not even approach C++ in this regard. I Do not claim to be a master of either, merely one who has some understanding of them)
Computer Networking/Network Administration: A skill I picked up by experimenting with Home and School networks.
Building of Home Electronics: Just as it says, I learned how to build some simpler home electronic contraptions, small computers, IR sensors, digital clock etc.
Encryption/Information Security: This one I just got curious about, and at this point, i can with very little difficulty create a file container that would be difficult if not impossible for The FBI to read its contents, Rout traffic through proxies, set up vpn connections and more.
Penetration Testing (eg "hacking"): I often set up or find purpose made challenges online, to test and work through because i enjoy it, and have on one occasion been asked to attempt to test the security of a network by trying to hack in. (Which is what a Penetration Tester/Network security consultant does for a living, among other things)
Bash(and similar) CLI: Pretty much a requirement in the use of any Linux distribution for anything but day to day tasks, and basic setup and even those for some distros
Small Amount of experience with Maya (from autodesk): Maya is a 3D graphics program used by most major studios that do not use in house software to make special effects, and by some video game studios.
Excellent miniature painting skill: Warhammer 40K tabletop figures and similar. ( I am aware this one means little to nothing, but I am extremely proud of what I have created, even if people do not care, I will put this on applications. )
Cycling: I would also be more then capable of competing on a competitive level in long distance cycling races or Mountain courses, although there are no teams for this at my school.
Military History in the Western and Near/Middle Eastern World: I pride myself on the amount of material I read, and understand in this field, Roman, Hellenistic, Early Medieval, WWII, Arab-Israeli conflicts (Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, etc), Gulf War, War on Terror, and The Libyan Revolution being the ones I have the strongest understanding of.
Global Awareness: I am unsure how to convey this any better, but I have been told by multiple admissions office Workers (up to an assistant dean of admissions) and a few professors at colleges I have visited, that they were shocked by the level of detailed information i knew and understood regarding global politics at this time, after having conversations with them regarding current issues. (Ended up on this topic very often, despite the fact that I never did more to initiate then make a passing remark on something or some situation.)</p>

<p>I could go on but I have already made this post very long, so I will conclude on the last section</p>

<p>Disabilities
I Have been independently diagnosed and verified as having: ADHD (combined type), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (although I believe I have outgrown this) and Dysgraphia.</p>

<p>Sorry for the length.
Thanks for your time!</p>

2

<p>bump. bumping is allowed right?</p>

3

<p>Hm, well you would have to explain very well why you have such a low GPA. Otherwise your SAT score won’t hold too much ground because they’ll be wondering what happened every day in high school rather than that one test sitting… Good luck though.</p>

4

<p>IF your disabilities explain your poor grades, then you have to make sure that is abundantly clear in your application. Otherwise you are just a smart kid who spends way too much time cycling and hacking.</p>

<p>If they don’t honestly explain it, then you might come out even worse for trying.</p>

5

<p>I was in the exact same situation and I managed well. Obviously you can’t apply to schools where the 35 ACT is normal (i.e. Ivies) since you don’t have the rest of the package, but you can still apply to a ton of great schools where your ACT, essays, recs, and ECs will outweigh the GPA.</p>

<p>Your essay is <em>extremely</em> important, though. Spend a lot of time on it and make it good.</p>

6

<p>Intended major?</p>

<p>It isn’t that unusual for a student with a mediocre high school record to go to community college, become more studious there, and transfer to a state flagship to complete a bachelor’s degree there. Some follow that with study toward a PhD at a top university.</p>

7

<p>I think your biggest job is to explain in your essay why your grades will be better in college than they were in HS. Is there an upward trend from 9-12th grade? Are there certain courses in which you consistently do well? What aspect of your disability do you think led you to have such a low GPA? Executive function stuff? Forgetting to do/hand in stuff? or what?</p>

<p>BTW, D2 in 9th grader with IEP in NJ and is not required to do a pullout class. Sorry your school system is so rigid. </p>

<p>Good luck…</p>

8

<p>ITA with ucbalum. If you were my kid, I would encourage you to start at community college.</p>

<p>I am not sure that the ADHD and anxiety disorder diagnoses will be enough to persuade many colleges to overlook the discrepancy between your grades and your test scores. The trouble is, colleges want to know not just what explains the difference, but also why they should believe you won’t continue to underperform. I haven’t seen that second piece in what you’ve written. You seem to have some remarkable accomplishments in areas that interest you, but I don’t see why I should think you won’t get bored and shut down completely in your freshman composition class, or your college foreign-language classes, or something else that doesn’t play to your interests and strengths.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the replies, what I’m pulling out of these responses is that i need to show that I will not be lazy/preform poorly in college despite my intelligence.
In regards to the upward trend issue, its rather strange, the best way i can explain is that if my GPA where to be graphed it would look like a parabola. Given that I still have my senior year to complete, I am considering waiting to apply until the next year, thus allowing my (presumably) improved senior grades to push my GPA up a bit.
Finally, in regards to explaining, I feel i left something important out: my home life.
Since my birth (and before) my parents have been highly volatile in temperament, and I tend to catch the “overflow” of their fighting, so as to prevent it from being directed at my (currently) 9 & 14 year old sisters. This is something I am still unsure if I should include, as I fear that if a college learns I was subject to parental abuse from an early age, I may be seen as “damaged goods”, not a stigma I want associated with me. In regard to my parents issues, they where both abused as children to some degree, my father also being bipolar, and my mother having OCD, chronic depression, and social anxiety disorder.
Thanks for the responses!</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>That could certainly be a plan.</p>

11

<p>Interesting… You sound a lot like me. My UW GPA is 3.02, I also have taught myself C++ (starting at the age of 11) and my ACT is 32 (30, 34, 32, 30; E, M, CR, S) I also know of programmers who are also on the same boat as me. One had a 2.9 GPA in HS, but was a fantastic programmer, he didn’t even bother taking tests. I also am interested in politics of the world… I never got into hacking or networking, but I like low level programming (think assembly, only done inline assembly) I never got into Warcraft or anything like that cause I never had teh money to get those stuff, that is why I programmed a lot on my free time. Once you have a computer, programming requires no extra money.</p>

<p>Also, ceramics, love that class.</p>

12

<p>I would suggest you stay away from trying to explain all of that other than in a personal essay to explain how some of that affected you. You don’t want to dump all of it into your essay, but pick the family life OR the ADHD (it should be formally documented with the school if you are going to bring it up as a challenge) and explain how you were able to sneak in completing homework or projects or studying for exams despite the chaos. Perhaps college will finally give you a chance to truly focus. Let your guidance counselor know these details and he/she can write an explanation from their perspective. You are bright, but everyone has major challenges in their life at one time or another, so you can’t fall back on all of those challenges you had as an excuse for all of your grade, but you can show how you overcame that chaos in the last year to change the ultimate direction of your life.</p>

13

<p>I have ADHD and had a very low GPA in high school. I never failed a class, but I didn’t do homework. They aren’t going to look past your GPA. You have to prove that you can do the work before they will. Your best route to a top school would be to go to a community college or something less prestigious, get excellent grades, and then apply as a transfer. Show them you can work hard and are motivated to do well in school. You aren’t showing that right now.</p>

14

<p>The fact that you seem to have been a lazy slacker who wants to blame your family for the fact that you do not work up to your potential is very telling. Why should you take a spot over someone who has worked hard for 4 years and overcome possibly lower natural ability?JUst saying you will work harder in an essay is pretty meaningless.</p>

15

<p>^he’s not a lazy slacker. </p>

<p>You will want to start looking at some Liberal arts collegs. Find some schools that interest you, then begin looking at their Common data sets for last year. You can scroll through them and find the sections about percentage of accepted students w/ GPA’s btw. 2.5-3.0. If that number is within at least the double digits (10% and up), it may be worth a try. Where are you located? I can suggest some that are within your range. There are colleges that would love a student as bright as you and will be more willing to give you a second chance. Guilford and Hiram come to mind. There are others and you may want to search through the Colleges That Change Lives site (based on the book CTCL by Lauren Pope). Some of them are out of range for you, but there are several that come to mind. Let me know your state and I can suggest more.</p>

<p>That brings me to your State Schools. I have a nephew that was a National Merit Finalist, and barely had a 3.0 in HS. He is on a full ride at Ohio U. He’s now a 3rd year and has had straight A’s all through college. You can change! I think you are similar to him in a lot of ways. He’s brilliant and has some ADHD/sensory issues. I can only imagine the effects of the negative aspects of your childhood in addition. You really will have options for college with the test scores, but you are going to have to target the right schools. You have to be realistic. State schools are often more likely to offer you admission bc they are often using formulas and cannot read through each and every application in a holistic way (this of course is not the case with the public ivy’s -they definitely read through each and every app., so they are a whole other animal). But IN GENERAL, you will have an easier time with admissions at your state schools. They are getting thousands and thousands of applications and your test scores will put you in the “keep pile”. They won’t be blown away with the GPA, but they’ve seen lower GPA’s. This is why Ohio U was happy to take my nephew and even told him he can come for free :). So don’t think you won’t have options.</p>

<p>Buy the book, On Writing The College Application Essay, by Harry Bauld (oxymoron name, but he’s a former Brown adcom and it’s excellent). It’s a very quick and entertaining read. You will get an idea of what NOT to write your essays about which is crucial. You definitely do not want to come across as giving excuses, even if valid. There are ways to convey your life experiences without sounding whiney, but it’s a craft. It’s very helpful to read well crafted essays in this book. You have to order this on amazon or B & N. I can’t stress how crucial your essays will be. </p>

<p>You are right, you will not want to apply EA or ED, because you really need to show the schools that you are turning this around. Apply regular admissions, or to schools that have EA as Jan./Feb., so that you can apply and then boom, send them a strong 1st semester grade climb. </p>

<p>Turn in every assignment! Don’t forget anything. Keep your planner with you at all times and write every single assignment down. Don’t worry, you really will have options, but you are going to have to keep up the momentum. Sometimes it’s good to have a certain college in mind just to keep a goal in your mind. Your EC’s and everything else is great and keep all of that up too. Good luck to you!</p>