Demographics
- US citizen
- Relatively large city in West-Central Florida
- Small, moderately competitive collegiate high school
- Female/Black/AA
- First-generation, bilingual (Spanish), hospitalization due to MDD/personal issues
Intended Major(s): CSI / Criminology / Criminal Justice with a minor in Spanish
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
- Unweighted HS GPA: 3.23 UW
- Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 3.75 W / ? sorry !
- College GPA (for transfers): currently 2.32, predicted 3.5 by May / 3.14 with failing grades calculated in
- Class Rank: HS rank 68/80
- ACT/SAT Scores: April 2023 1230 SAT (680 R/W, 550 Math), took the Oct 28 ACT
Coursework
- 2 AP (Human Geo, AP Lang) As in courses but 3 and 2, respectively, on the exam
- Currently 32 DE credits, graduating early (HS) in December with 48, and 63 total + GEN-AA in May
- 2 IB, 7 Pre-IB, 2 Honors
Awards
- AA/minority excellence awards Sophomore + Junior year
Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience):
Not much due to hospitalization/personal issues.
- Part-time job (15 hours/wk)
- 105 community service hours at local nursing homes, shadowing APRN
- Year-long economic program, developing communication skills and financial literacy, hosting a Christmas drive for disadvantaged community members, encouraging voters to participate in the 2020 census, and working with Habitat for Humanity
- Rollerblading as a hobby
- Language learning (Spanish) as a hobby
Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.):
- Essay was a short narrative for my ENC 1101 class, the first and last 100 I received from one of the college’s most meticulous and difficult professors, so 10/10?
- LOR from a counselor who has been actively involved in getting me back on track, knows my situation well and can vouch for my dedication toward academics, 10/10
- Brief explanation of my situation in Common App and how it has affected my academic progress, plus steps I have taken toward improving myself and my academic standing, 9/10 (forgot to proofread … )
Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.):
- Mom has only agreed to pay for me to finish my AA at my college next semester.
- Dependent student of divorced, single mother (less than $24k/yr), FMS eligible, Pell Grant eligible, EFC 0
- Stetson sounds nice, but ideally, I can only afford somewhere public and in-state like UNF
- Top choice is FSU
Schools
I don’t know why, but my counselor encouraged me to apply for schools along with my classmates despite my situation. Not knowing any better, I applied as a FTIC student to all but FSU and USF before realizing that I didn’t qualify as such since I’m doing 15 credits next semester (post-high school).
FTIC applications
- UNF (accepted) - applied to Spanish (forgot to change my major)
- Stetson (accepted) - applied to Sociology
- FIU (conditional acceptance) - applied to Criminal Justice
- UCF (waiting) - applied to Forensic Science - Biochemistry track
- UTampa (waiting) - applied to Forensic Science
Transfer applications
- FSU (need to submit my fall grades) - applied to CSI program
- USF (same as FSU) - applied to Criminology program
Even though FSU and USF say you need a minimum 2.0 GPA to go into these programs, my GPA would still be 3.14, not honoring grade forgiveness, which is just barely above the 3.0 recommendation. Any advice/suggestions? Thank you!