I think it’s already too late to do anything now, I’ll just have to go to school that I don’t necessarily like and transfer to a better one later.
Can you list the schools you like?
We can help you find some that are similar and where your odds of getting in are good or possible.
Schools rarely “require” specific grades, they usually post a range (you can look at that range on college data - type collegedata and the college’s name). Also, good SAT/SATSubject/ACT scores can offset some lower grades.
Regarding the virtual school: The time difference doesn’t matter - it’s online. They post something, you read it/watch the video/do the exercises/send the exercises, the open your exercises whenever they want.
Go to your school library and borrow the book “Colleges that change lives”. Those are 40 colleges that are student-focused and range from selective to highly selective. Most would be accessible to students with your GPA, provided you do well on your SAT/ACT. Preparing for these tests is paramount.
They’re all very selective and expensive there’s no way I’d get in without staying in school for an extra year or two to take AP and college classes. But I want to study international business or marketing. Baruch college in NYC has those majors and it’s realistic for me to go there but most people who go there live in NYC so they probably leave right after their classes and it would be hard to make friends there. I’m taking a pre college class at FIT for international marketing and I like the class but I’m not sure if I want to go to school that’s specialized for fashion, although it’s one of my interests, I want to be in a school that’s more diverse and has many people who like different things. I’ll probably end up doing to one those schools because it’s realistic for me to get in, even though I don’t like settling for less than what I have enough potential for.
We have SAT prep class in my school but I don’t have any study halls this year and next year to take it, so I guess I’ll have to study by myself.
There will be a due date for those assignments, so 8 hours of time difference matters, they will take points off if it’s late in US time.
Earlier you wrote that you turn in your English assignments late (and so lose points) because you don’t want to turn in unfinished work. Have you discussed this issue with your teachers? Perhaps you the teachers would be happy if you turn the work in before the time cut-off, and then perfect the work in a later revision. Your other grades are very good. This makes me wonder if you are a perfectionist, and need to learn to accept when your work is done “well enough”. That might be hard for you to do because your mom is a translator and probably has very high standards for written and spoken accuracy, but it is a skill you need to learn. You won’t always have the time that you need to get things done.
Even though your school did not believe that you needed ESL services when you arrived, and so you aren’t eligible for them now, you still can speak directly with your teachers and let them know when you are feeling particularly challenged by the language-learning process. If you don’t speak up about this, they won’t know. If you do speak up, they may be able to help you figure out better ways for you to get everything done.
I mean it’s pretty obvious that it takes me more time to do homework, shouldn’t be hard for teachers to understand that. Just because my grades are good doesn’t mean that’s it’s easy for me to get work done. I respect my teachers enough to go a good job in their class, while they don’t even bother asking me if I need any help. In my English class my teacher always helps certain kids, but never talks to me and looks at me strangely when I turn in assignments late. I don’t get how am I worse than those kids. They speak perfect English.
Honestly this makes me want to start home schooling more and more every day.
Your teachers see the product, they don’t know the process. They can’t guess it took you so long because you’ve only recently arrived in the country. You have to TELL them. Nicely, explain that you’ve only been in this country for a couple years and you still struggle with the language even though you’re not in ESL. Continue by explaning it takes you a very very long time to go over every word to make sure it’s the right one, and to check that you used the correct expressions, etc., which is why your assignements are late. An adult suggested you turn in your paper on time rather than try to have the language perfect, then get it back and submit it again for correction for the ELL mistakes, what does the teacher think of this or should you continue to try and get papers that are late but in edited English?
They can’t “guess” but they can use their logic. They are all informed that live here only for 2 years, if they try and imagine themselves in my situation they’d understand. Its nice to ask if I need help just to be polite. I mean if they see my grades, wouldn’t they be curious why they are so low? Once my teacher told me not to use a translator during the class, but how else am I supposed to learn and do work on time?
Exactly. You need to do some self-advocacy.
That teacher is looking at you strangely when you turn your assignments in late because he/she can’t figure out what is wrong with you that you never turn anything in on time. Your teacher may well think that you are lazy, disorganized, or don’t care. If you have been doing this since you first arrived at that school, every English teacher probably knows your reputation as “the kid who never gets the work done on time”.
If writing is very difficult for you, but other classes aren’t, then you may want to speak with your guidance counselor about getting screened for learning differences. Sometimes these problems are just due to English learning, but sometimes there are other underlying issues (such as slow processing speed) that are revealed by the challenges of working in a new language and/or at higher levels of difficulty.
Maybe it’s just my school, I get more help on this web site than I do there.
Also, since I want to study international business, when I apply to college is it really that bad that I didn’t take AP classes, but took a lot of business classes + a pre college class for international business + competed at DECA states? We did a project in my pre college class, I can also attach it to my application.
Business classes in high school don’t really count much. For a good business school, what you need is 5 solid academic classes every year, with as strong a social science background as you can and as high in math as you can go.
If you have Honors classes but no AP class, it’s still good. Colleges such as Ithaca, Geneseo, Susquehanna (which are AACSB-accredited for business) . You should apply to SUNY Albany Honors.
If you indicate an International Management major with Russian, you may have a shot at Dickinson as a reach (and provided you have a high SAT score, so practice and review, practice and review).
You teachers aren’t there to use their imagination as to what travails every adolescent in their class, and if they guess they probably guess you have an undiagnosed LD or don’t care. If you don’t tell them, they won’t have any idea, won’t guess, and won’t know. Please go see your English teacher and use the sentences I provided for you. See if it helps. It may not, but it well may (not all teachers are nice and helpful, but many want to help a student who tries. Right now, they have no idea what you’re going through.)
Do ask your GC to get screend for any LD, executive functioning issues, or ADD. Ey, if you turn out to have even a little bit of one of those, you’ll get the accomodations (especially extra time) you should have had for being an ESL student, so it’d help you even if it wasn’t the “supposed” way :p.
Have you read the book A bag, a bear, and eight crates of vodka?
But they are all informed that I’m not from the U.S. and I told them that it’s hard for me to do some work on time multiple times. My school is very small, everyone knows I’m from Russia. They can’t and they shouldn’t except me to be like other students in my school. I do a very good job, it’s just a couple days late. And I see my teacher helping kids withkout them asking all the time. They also get extra time on exams but never use it. I had a friend who was one of those kids and she finished exams even earlier than me.
No, I don’t believe I have any of those “issues”, it’s normal for someone who is form another country to have difficulties in school.
Plus in Russia we all take classes that are the same level as AP classes, when I came to school I was shocked by how easy are science and math classes here. So it’s not like I’m not smart enough to take AP, I just don’t have enough time for it.
You’re not getting what we’re saying.
1°
If you tell your teachers “It’s hard for me to do some work on time”, it means to Americans “I am so lazy I can’t get myself to do the work by the deadline you wanted, and I’m so rude I actually tell you” or “I have some kind of issue managing my time”.
If you want them to understand that you’re a perfectionist who wants work to be exact even if it takes you a very long time because ENglish is not your native language, you have to spell it out (check out E.T Hall: American culture is a low-context culture, vs. Russia, which is a very high-context culture.)
2°
If they find you even a little LD, you get the extra time and the accomodations you need/want. Whether it’s normal or not for you to have those issues due to bilingualism or not (it is!), that’s not the point. The point is that if they find you have a processing issue, for instance, you get what you need. Who cares if it’s “normal” to have a processing issue when you’re processing a newly-learned language? What matters is that you bypass the obstacle they erected for you when they didn’t provide you with ESL classes and accomodations, and get those another way.
3°
“I do a very good job, it’s just a couple days late”: American high school teachers prefer work on time and not as good. That’s the truth, plain and simple. For the next 10 days, turn in your work on time, even if it’s not satisfactory. (Do that after talking to your teacher as explained in 1.)
If they actually think that I’m lazy I’d rather be homeschooled, I don’t want to be around those people…
Do you have actual opportunities for homeschooling? How easy is that in NYS? Would you be allowed to register at Ulster CC full time for free as a dual enrolled student, for instance?
But be aware that deadlines in college are final. There’s no “turning something late” becaus you want it to be great. You must turn in your paper in whatever shape it is at the time it’s needed.
I would either do that or go to a university in Russia, it would be hard for me to take Russian exams, since they are all the same level as AP here and I missed a lot of school work, while I was here, but it’s cheaper and more comfortable for me + the fact that I’ve studied and lived in the U.S. would almost guarantee me acceptance to most universities, if I do good on exams. And since I am still a Russian citizen (we are allowed to have a double citizenship) I would have no problems with paperwork. I wanted to continue studying here but I just lost all my motivation to do so.
You work very hard and you WILL get into good universities.
But you have to speak up and advocate for yourself. (Read E.T Hall in Russian if you need to, or a textbook on intercultural communication - this may be a good class to take at the community college, actually.
Go visit some universities. New Paltz may not be far from where you live. See Ithaca in the Finger Lake region.
As for virtual school: you complete everything at your own pace, as fast as you wish, as slowly as you wish, provided you turn in something every week. Most people need 4 months, some take 3, some take 6.