I’m planning on appealing a decision. And one of my reasons is for financial/personal factors. They aren’t my ONLY factors but they are a part of it.
Grades: 2.57 UW in the 2nd semester of my junior year, but I brought it up to a 3.52 this semester. IB Diploma.
SAT: 1940
Financial/personal: $100K annually BUT my dad currently pays for my maternal grandmother’s property taxes and he is also paying for a new house so he can take care of his side of the family (grandmother, mentally ill uncle & grandfather). None of my grandparents have the means to support themselves so my dad has to help them physically/financially. My family itself is considering moving because we’re on the borderline of school district boundaries and the other school district has a terrible education system --> another house to buy.
Anyway, I was going to say that because of our financial situation, I really have no choice but to stay in-state to save money. I have two younger siblings who need to be given rides and taken care of while my parents go take care of their parents. And also the major I want is only available at two schools in the state, but the other school is too far away for me to be able to help my parents. I plan on working part-time, and the city the college I want to go to is located in has a lot of opportunities for that.
I’m wondering if the financial/personal reasons could factor in. I feel like it might be a bit of a reach but it is a legit reason (on my part) why I want to attend the school I’m appealing to. I’m in-state for the college I’m appealing to by the way.
And as for my grades…well I must say that the IB Diploma course load was way too difficult for me and a total shock (I was in National Junior Honor Society in middle school) since I was used to getting As and Bs easily. I don’t have any other reasons for my bad grades.
But for my senior year, I had all my classes in the A range except for my math class. And it’s not like I dropped extracurricular activities, either. I think I just got better at working efficiently and studying.
@menloparkmom already know that’s the reason I likely got rejected. But I’m asking if the financial/personal reasons for appealing would be considered legit reasons to a college admissions officer. Even if the chances are low, I’m still going to try. The college I’m appealing to has about a 50% ish acceptance rate for admissions.
No adcom is going to change their mind because you’ve decided their school is the only place you can afford the major you want. Kids change their minds about their major all the time, for starters. Second, you want to be admitted there, show you can do the work. Go to a community college for 2 years, show you can do college level work, then you can apply to this affordable college offering your major.
No, your reasoning is really off.
You are asking the school to accept you because your father is paying for your grandparents care? That is a moral choice and has nothing to do with you or your Junior level grades. Your father is making a choice in “buying” a new house so your siblings can go to a better school. These are choices. A lot of people don’t have that luxury, they rent. Welcome to the real world.
You really don’t have a clue about being financially needy and appealing on those grounds won’t change their decision.
There are kids, your age, who have unemployed parents and are living day to day. There are teens your age, who are homeless. They don’t have food, transportation, and live on the streets.
Your rejection was obviously based on your grades. Most college acceptances are based on the sophomore and junior grades. Don’t you have a guidance counselor?
Quit making excuses for your actions. Neither your grandparents, nor your father had anything to do with your performance in class. So “man or woman up”. Go to a community college to save your father some dollars, and get a part time job to understand how hard it is to really earn money. No college is going to accept you if you don’t show a commitment to excelling in bettering yourself.
@auntbea Thanks. I was simply asking this question because someone else who had a successful appeal included similar information in their appeal. I’m not asking the school to accept me BECAUSE of it, but it’s just a reason for why I feel the need to go to their particular school.
Like I said in my original post, I felt like the reasons are reaching. I’m not making excuses, but I was just wondering.
@menloparkmom This particular college does not take letter of recs (either counselors or teachers) except for appeals, so NO they don’t know this about me.
The only time I think appealing would be in order is if you thought that some big piece of information was somehow not received by the school.
What you need to do is:
Find a school that is still accepting applications
Do a gap year
Start at CC then transfer
Pick a different major
Have you decided that you need to give your siblings rides? did they request you to?
Can they find a different way to take care of their children? Can they move the parents closer?
Can they get outside help for either the parents or children?
@bopper My parents requested me to. They’re moving my grandmother/uncle closer so that they can take care of them but the best option for a house for them (thinking money-wise here) is about 1.5 hours away from ours. That means that they’ll be gone a lot of the time. Our relatives live too far away to be helping out and they want to save money by having me take care of my siblings.
A preliminary search of “colleges no recommendation letter” brought up two Q&A pages answering “How many letters of rec do I need,” one college name (which may or may not be it – University of Washington), a bunch of CC threads, and 2 million other random results. I suggest you not be snarky to the people who are trying to help you.
@bodangles I didn’t know before that posts couldn’t be deleted. I thought it would be better not to go about spreading my info throughout the Internet more than I already have.