Chance a HS junior for t75s with weird GPA situation [3.4 -> 2.8 -> 3.7, overall 3.36]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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LAC-wise, Lawrence seems like it could be an especially good fit. It’s known for its strong physics department, and also for music. Unlike most schools with conservatory BM programs, it’s a great place for non-major musicians as well. Lawrence’s Freshman Studies program was developed by their past president Nathan Pusey, who then left Lawrence to become the president at Harvard.

OP - if you’re interested in West Point and a military career, do you want the other schools you apply to to have ROTC programs?

If you want more time to redeem your GPA, you could consider a “super-senior” year abroad through AFS or a similar exchange organization - perhaps in a French-speaking country, since you’re advanced in the language. You’d likely be able to take more advanced sciences while there, and you’d be able to apply with both this year’s and next year’s grades completed, which would fully solidify the upward trend (assuming you keep up the good momentum). You’d be a stronger applicant because you’d have had time both to raise your cumulative GPA and show consistency; plus, the study-abroad experience itself would mean you’d bring life experience to the college community that most other applicants don’t have. Plus, you’d be free of of the pressure of having your application process and results scrutinized by your ultra-competitive-HS peers. And it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience - much more becoming part of a community than most college study-abroad experiences. Just a possibility to think about. But you do mention that you’ve moved around a lot, so maybe yet another relocation wouldn’t be as novel and positive a thing as for some others.

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The only thing I would add is that many students crashed and burned during covid, and colleges are likely to be a bit more sympathetic to such students than the posters here. That’s exactly what holistic admissions is about!

That said, the advice to focus on targets/safeties is excellent, and I would urge the OP to take it.

Finally, the whole “A students can do B work, but B students can’t do A work” is garbage, and makes you seem arrogant. Not a good look, and I would drop that line of thinking, and certainly not expound on it in your application.

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West Point will see the potential based on your SAT scores. And it is free,
so that certainly helps with costs. RPI and RIT are also reasonable reaches.

Highlight your resiliency and drive in your applications.

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Yup

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No, no rotc. State of residency is CT. And really west point showed interest in me, and so I thought that if it were between them and UConn, I might as well

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@ChoatieMom perhaps you can comment on acceptances to service academies.

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As I always post, due to the intricacies of the nomination process and the rubric the service academies use to determine appointments, it is impossible to chance anyone. No one knows what the competition in the OP’s district will look like in the year they apply, and they are only competing against those in their own district for a nomination. Without one, USMA cannot offer an appointment.

I see two red flags in the OP’s resume. First, the desire to serve. Second, the lack of a team sport.

The service academies are looking to produce capable officers for each branch of our armed services. It takes a certain kind of kid to go this route, and those kids don’t always look like the applicants to the usual civilian suspects. The OP will need to dig deep to be able to explain clearly and genuinely to the nomination panels why they want to serve as an officer in our armed forces and also be prepared to answer their understanding of the consequences of that decision. Candidates for service academies have a specific drive and goals that differ from typical civilian college applicants. The OP’s application and interviews will need to demonstrate that difference. The OP may have a burning desire to become an Army officer that isn’t captured by the list provided, but be aware, the nomination panels are expert at ferreting out motives and goals because they know that getting through a service academy and the years of service that follow take a gut commitment to something other than academics. Though the OP certainly can major in physics at USMA, they need to understand that, with the exceptions of medicine and cyber, major is unrelated to where that officer will branch for their service. The academies are federally mandated to branch at least 69% of each class into combat arms. USMA branched 81% of our son’s class of 2019 into combat arms. If the OP’s primary goal isn’t military service, USMA is not a good fit and not going to happen.

The second red flag is the absence of team sports. Though the OP is mostly concerned about GPA, USMA selects only about 1/3rd of any incoming class for academic chops; the other 2/3rds are chosen for other equally shiny traits. The service academies value a combination of brains, brawn, and leadership somewhat equally–as they must. But even candidates selected as scholars are also athletes. Of a recent class of 1302 appointees, for instance, 99% were varsity athletes:

This emphasis holds in these percentages across academies year after year. Taekwondo will help the OP pass the fitness test, but it does not check the heavily-weighted team participation and team leadership boxes.

This may be too much detail for this thread, but I include it for all the applicants who toss a service academy into their college lists without also adding the reason why it is there because one of these definitely is not like the others. Though each service academy is a degree-conferring institution, none is a college in the traditional sense. If the applicant is not also considering ROTC in their civilian options, this disconnect is obvious.

Oh, and about this:

Tell that to our son who is serving out his nine-year committment with two deployments so far. :rofl:

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Agree, with all on your comments about admission to the service academies. It is a process and a commitment to serve. I do not think the opportunities are talked about enough on CC and appreciate your level of detail.

Thank you to your child for their service.

Depending on the geographic area, there can be less interest than other areas. I think being tuned in by the end of 10th grade is important to meet all of the goals/criteria.

And absolutely, not also pursuing ROTC options and considering national guard options is always a question, if looking at the academies.

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Cornell, UMich, Georgia Tech, Urbana Champaign, UVA
=> those are likely out of reach. Throw an app to your favorite but do it just so you know you did it.

RPI, RIT, UConn, West Point, Brandeis
UConn: a match thanks to your AP course choices&scores wrt a Physics major, SAT scores help. RIT is another match. You need to find 3-4 more matches and you need 2 safeties.
Brandeis is a reach as is RPI.
Run the NPC as none of these meets need.
For West Point I’ll refer you to @ChoatieMom’s post.
Why West Point and not ROTC though?

Check out Lawrence (WI), St Olaf (MN), and ASU. ASU is likely a safety (you could even roll the dice, apply to Barrett, and see what happens); Lawrence and St Olaf are matches.

Run the NPC on all of these.

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