My situation is a bit odd. I broke my neck sophomore year and was in the hospital for most of sophomore and junior year. Because of that, my overall high school GPA is a 2.5. My SAT/ACT are fine though, 1520/33.
I also don’t have any ECs that I continued all four years, due to not being physically at school for half of high school. Senior year I joined MUN, forensics, and student government. I’m now taking a gap year so that I can continue to focus on therapy before going to college because I’d like to be mostly independent.
How do I make all this look decent on an application? Is there any chance that I could still get into a good college? Should I focus my college essays on what I’ve learned from the disability, or should I not talk about it at all and leave that for extenuating circumstances? Honestly any guidance about how to make my chances more attractive would be incredibly appreciated.
I think “I broke my neck sophomore year and was hospitalized for 2 years” would explain why you have no EC’s.
However the grades - didn’t your HS give you time to recover? Have you graduated already? Are you able to take online classes?
I would assume most colleges will have accessible dorms/buildings but you may want to contact each college’s disability office.
I’d look into the Colleges that Change Lives group: they typically don’t admit C+ students but your case is clearly atypical. They’re student focused and really admit holistically, so that your application would be reviewed within context. You/your GC would have to provide that context (ie., why weren’t you given time off to recover without schooling until you were OK).
You’d be surrounded by excellent students.
Some even have openings right now due to miscalculating yield or due to Coronavirus (St Olaf, Rhodes, Lawrence are all topnotch and reopening applications).
Run the NPC and talk with your parents about college costs.
I was in the hospital and rehab for the better part of two years, I’m not sure what you mean by time to recover. They weren’t trying to give me schoolwork while I was in a coma, but once I was conscious it was fair game. If I waited until I was out of the hospital and rehab I’d have to switch schools and graduate late, and switching schools wasn’t possible for my family. I took my tests sophomore and junior year in the hospital, which greatly impacted by grades since I wasn’t the most cognizant during my hospital stays. I was assigned a tutor but she only came twice a week so I had to teach myself most of the content, which was difficult. Senior year my GPA increased to a 3.7 since I was out of the hospital (mostly). And yes I graduated this year.
I think you can get into a “good for you” college and that is most important.
Be honest and truthful about your physical and emotional needs. Do you need accommodations?
Do you know what you would like to study?
You are at a place where you should be looking less at college rankings and more at what is appropriate for you.
My parents only care about ranking and won’t pay unless it’s a school they approve of. What’s good for me is a school they’d pay for that I can get into.
What’s done is done but it’s still wrong of your school to have done such a thing since you must have been exhausted and under a lot of pain or painkillers.
Anyway…
Since you graduated you can’t take any class anymore, except Coursera or community education (not for credit). Therefore your GPA can’t work.
Secure your letters of recommendation right now.
Have your parents provided you with a list or criteria? (Can you share it? We can perhaps figure out which ones you have a shot at and perhaps suggest a few that are similar?)
Do they know your GPA and understand how this works?
Are they first generation (neither graduated from 4-year college) or international?
I’ve secured letters of recommendation from my guidance counselor and from my math and history teachers. All of them are aware of my circumstances and have seen how I’m not actually lazy or anything, just had a bad situation to get through. My dad went to college, but they’re also older (both in their 60s, I was adopted), so the college process was pretty different when they were young. They don’t have a specific list but said they won’t pay unless it’s a college with good ‘name recognition’. Sorry that I can’t be more specific, honestly my parents haven’t been very specific. They understand I won’t get anywhere that’s super prestigious (freshman year they wanted me to go to Ivy League and made me take the SAT/ACT, after I was injured that dream died), but they still are pressuring me to go to a ‘good’ college. I’m in Virginia and want to go to law school after college, probably majoring in international relations or a related field.
Virginia has lots of good colleges, you’re lucky.
However if you live in NoVa, you’re less lucky, because everyone and their brother applies to the same colleges and Virginia’s colleges must serve the whole state so they take applicants from all regions in the State.
As for “name recognition”, the problem is that the concept varies depending on who you talk to: sports fans wouldn’t have the same references as top graduate programs or local businesses. So your parents may mean anything… if they mean “solid and recognized” you’re on stronger footing than if they’re concerned about “prestigiosity”.
Just to make sure: your odds at UVA, W&M, and VTech are very low. I assume you know that but these are likely the most well-known colleges in Virginia. So if your parents expect you to get into these colleges, it’s going to be tough for you, and the solution may be Richard Bland->one of these three. (Richard Bland is a VA residential 2-year college that prepares students who for whatever reason didn’t achieve their academic potential in high school but are clearly smart and determined. The goal is to help them transfer to one of the state’s 4-year universities.)
Otherwise, I’m thinking your odds are best at smaller colleges where they read applications carefully and will thus have time to input your 10-11th grade hospitalization and its impact, your GC’s opinion about your being hard working and smart, etc. At large state universities they may well use GPA*test scores and everything else comes in as a secondary criterion, and your GPA will make your application less competitive than it could be so you may not make the cut. However the colleges may not be known to your parents, not because they’re no good, but because they may be smaller and far away. For instance, Susquehanna, St Michael’s, Luther, Lycoming…
In Virginia, that’d be Roanoke or Randolph-Macon …
I really don’t know how colleges like University of Richmond would consider your application, since 2 years are basically null. A way to show your mastery of subject content might be to take subject tests in all 5 core subjects: English, Math, Science, History, and Foreign Language. If you score 700+ or even 600+ it’d show your 10-11th grade results were directly due to your illness but didn’t impact your mastery once you were out of the hospital.
Do you think AP scores would help at all if I don’t have the chance to do SAT subject tests? I had a 5 in AP Calc BC, AP Physics C (both mechanics & E&M), AP Lang, APUSH and World. I only got a 4 in Latin and Chem though. I kinda hoped that those scores would show some sort of mastery but I’d be willing to take subject tests too if they’d help more.
Richard Bland and VA CC’s have guaranteed admission to all VA publics (including UVa and W&M) if you hit a certain GPA. I believe it’s 3.7 from VA CC’s to UVa and 3.2 from Richard Bland to W&M but you should check.
Do you have any needs or wants in a college that are specific to your post-injury issues? You say that you anticipate being independent after another year of therapy, but does that mean “typical” mobility, or will you be a wheelchair user and/or have other mobility limitations? Do you think you’ll need support/accommodations academically? Are you interested in schools that attract larger numbers of students with disabilities and thus have a certain critical mass in terms of disability community, disability-related political advocacy, adaptive sports, and so on? Or are you not wanting/expecting any of that to be part of your college experience?
By independent I mean capable of living on my own pretty much. I use a modified manual wheelchair and have limited hand movement, but I don’t need an aide or outside help anymore and as long as I have basic assistive devices it isn’t too much of a hindrance, and I can do pretty much anything academically. Senior year I had access to a computer for tests and I had an elevator pass and those were the only accommodations I needed, although I also can write normally with a special pencil grip it’s just a bit slower. I’m not too interested in having a significant disabled community. As long as the classes and dorms have basic accessibility (elevators etc.) then it’s fine with me accommodations wise.
Hi, I’m so glad you posted your situation here. I think I responded to you on A2C. You will get more useful help here. Some things to also consider: will you need continued therapy while you’re in college? If you need to see specialists you’ll need to make certain your insurance will cover the costs and how far from campus would you need to travel. If you’re in your home state the insurance is probably not a problem but oos can be an issue to establish as a new patient and how much out of pocket you’ll pay.
You mentioned that your parents won’t pay if it’s not well known, have you had the conversation about what they can pay? The last thing you need during your recovery is significant debt.
You will be a wonderful addition to any college lucky enough to enroll you.
I should be finishing up physical therapy this year (which is one of the reasons I’m taking a gap year) although the timeframe might change a bit due to corona. And my parents have said that they’ll make sure money isn’t an issue.
I’m thinking you could be using subject tests the way homeschooled students can be asked to do - and state clearly in “additional information” something like “While I was hospitalized, I was unable to take tests for a while and to perform well once I was out of my coma. However I took subject tests to demonstrate that the grades received in the 10th and 11th grade do not reflect my mastery of the subject. I also took AP classes and the corresponding exam”. I’m trying to think of things that would mitigate your grades or even make them “irrelevant” to a certain extent.
Because AP scores relate to AP classes, I suppose these extra subject tests could be just in subjects that 1) you took in 10/11th grade AND 2) which were not evaluated with AP tests.
You’re very courageous and I hope your college results will reflect your courage as well as your potential.
I’m mostly worried about your parents saying they want you to attend a “name” school.
Thank you for the advice, I’ll definitely look into SAT subject tests then. And yeah, if my parents didn’t care about what school I think I’d be happy pretty much anywhere, but as it is it’d probably go better for me if I could get into somewhere that they’ll help contribute financially for.
At least the Richard Bland-> W&M option exists, so if all else fails, you have that safety.
(Make sure to get the application in early, so that you do have that fallback no matter what.)
Once you’re good on that account, you can expand.
Could you get a “Princeton Review’s Best Colleges”? Would your parents accept any college in that book? They represent the top 10% colleges in the US.
I would suggest another sit-down with your parents.
If they won’t help with the college you choose- what exactly do they envision as your long term options? Work a minimum wage job? Move into a homeless shelter? if money is not the issue, and their only constraint is that they need to feel that the college is “prestigious” then they need to problem-solve WITH you on how to make that happen. You are clearly ambitious and hard-working and smart (impressive AP results!) so it’s not as though you didn’t “work to your potential” because you were watching Netflix 20 hours a day…
How exactly do they think you are going to pay for college without their help, and without college, what kind of future are you going to have???
You are a really brave, special person and I hope you guys can get some clarity on a path forward for you.
and Virginia’s colleges must serve the whole state so they take applicants from all regions in the State.