I feel that examples of students who made a 4.00 while having a parent die are extravagant examples. There might be exactly one or two of those people in this cycle.
It wasn’t just “stress,” I knew this person all my life and was their partner all of high school, then they died from a drug addiction they were hiding from me. There’s multiple news articles about it and it was a big drama which had implications long after the fact. So I failed the course and that’s that, but if I’m honest I do think that given my counselor will be explaining this, at least a few AOs would give my application a chance.
feel that examples of students who made a 4.00 while having a parent die are extravagant examples. There might be exactly one or two of those people in this cycle.
It wasn’t just “stress,” I knew this person all my life and was their partner all of high school, then they died from a drug addiction they were hiding from me. There’s multiple news articles about it and it was a big drama which had implications long after the fact. So I failed the course and that’s that, but if I’m honest I do think that given my counselor will be explaining this, at least a few AOs would give my application a chance.
Given that the OP will still be a minor next year, I think this is a really sensible arrangement. I know several people who did a Rotary or AFS year (including my wife) and they all enjoyed it greatly (an additional idea might be to see if a United World College would accept a student for 1 year). China is an exciting country but, as a parent, it would worry me that a minor is there on their own (I am also not sure whether that is feasible).
For CMU, 4.7 is good. Known a few get in with that. Look at diversity for CMU, visit to see if you are a fit. Grade in dual enrollment may be a kicker for all of these schools, recommend seeing what you can do about that.