Chance My Weird Application at Some Top Schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

hi! I’ll try to be straightforward here, as I know everyone here is contributing time simply to help!

Canadian Online Junior, looking at some top American schools.

ECs- Pretty trash. I’ve essentially lived at a really remote location (I’m talking a cottage with no people other than summers and some holiday weekends) throughout the past few years. Still not an excuse, but might help slightly. I have taken some extra courses through stuff like Udacity, but nothing too major. I’ve also looked into some patents and product manufacturing but still didn’t get far.

Story- I honestly think my admission chances will rely on my story, so please consider reading this: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/2141887-how-does-my-story-compare-to-ecs.html#latest

tl;dr: Fully online student. I had a terrible first few years to high school, fell really behind, stuck with it and switched online schools. Did everything by myself with very little teacher help (they’re graders at online school, not really teachers). I’ve reached the stats below and continue to challenge myself as hard as I can with self-motivation and discipline. I think these traits are extremely pertinent to my major, and I want to rely on that in my essay.

Stats: 34 ACT with writing; 4.0 (maybe high 3.9, not too sure tbh), near 5.0 weighted (not sure how to calculate this but I have only As/A+s in my AP courses. 8 APs, 2 (maybe 3) honors, all in the last two years including summer.

Major: Varies a ton, but most are in the arts or engineering (ironic, I know), with a chance of business. I’ll include the major for each school.

Recommendations: Really good considering that most of my teachers last for a year, if that. I normally reach out a ton to discuss topics, most of which aren’t related to the course but rather the field.

Tuition: No aid required. Around 75-90% is paid for, the rest I will pay with a student loan.

Notes: I’ve only taken two years of foreign language, and dropped two FL courses. I didn’t really understand that it would cause problems, and I dropped French because ASL was added to my school’s program of study and I have a deaf aunt, so I wanted to learn that-- French for one year wouldn’t have been worth it in my eyes. As for the other course, Spanish, the interface was unbearable and I thought that Spanish would in no way benefit my life (oops), and that French was more pertinent for me. Hopefully, some leeway is given to me because surely someone with no help would make a mistake or two in courses, right? Well, I made two. I also took no Calc prerequisites in my first two school years, so I needed to accelerate my math program over the summer. Both of these mistakes were attempted to be corrected during online summer school, if that is worth something.

List: (I’ve included my notes from my doc, maybe they’re helpful, who knows!)

Dream / Wait, I actually got in?:

Dartmouth (Customized Major)
Princeton (Operations Research and Financial Engineering) (looks crazy awesome)
Northwestern (Manufacturing and Design Engineering) (need three subject tests: Math 2, Lit, Language? Maybe I just won’t go lol)

Hopefully get in:

Babson (Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Design; Quantitative Methods; or Entrepreneurship) (27%)
Northeastern x3 (see major list in other doc: Maybe entrepreneurship and innovation, CS and design, or CS and media arts. This school has so many incredible majors)

Waterloo (Global Business and Digital Arts)
U Washington (Industrial Design)

Why the heck didn’t I get in?:

Colorado University: Colorado Springs (Bachelor of Innovation in ??)
Simon Fraser (Interactive Arts and Technology and Business – Joint) (Business and Psych)
The University of San Francisco (Business Admin, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation)
Columbia College Chicago (Design Management or Interaction Design or Game?) (great dorms)
Western Washington University (Industrial Design) (great location)

Others:

UBC? I don’t know where to put this because the admission stats released by Candian Universities are far weaker.
UCLA and/or UCB if I can satisfy their online science lab requirements through ‘exception’

Please help me with my near-completely random expectations of myself. I don’t really know what to expect from myself, and I’m not sure if anyone here can really know either? What I am thinking right now is my story will somewhat counter my ECs; traits demonstrated by ECs are also demonstrated decently by my story, but not to the same extent. The problem is they will realize that I had an extreme amount of time on my hands, which can’t be said about most applicants.

As always, I would GREATLY appreciate any other comments, whether it’s about schools or programs I might like, something I could do to improve my odds, courses I should take, or anything of the sorts!!

Thank you, so much, everyone!!! Let me know if you need anything

2

I was recently told that all American colleges on my list are unlikely for me to be admitted. I’m trying to finalize my list, so I would really appreciate any evaluation of my chances!

I really encourage you to read my story (linked above) as well.

Also, ignore the student loan part. I will be full pay.

3

You have it about right except which school is Colorado University? University of Colorado - Colorado Springs or Colorado College? Huge difference.

4

@CU123 University of Colorado - Colorado Springs. My mistake, their website is “CU” and their logo is CU, I can never remember what it is!

I was thinking of adding UC (i still don’t know lol) Boulder to my list too, as I absolutely love Colorado! I’d imagine you are from there? How much snow do you guys get in the winter? I know the mountains get a lot but how about the actual towns/cities? I absolutely love the snow so I have to ask!

5

What do you actually do with your time? Given that a typical academically-oriented HS is awake for ~16-17 hours / day, where do your hours go?

Can you give some examples of things that you have followed through on over a period time? For example, you gave up French & Spanish to do ASL- did you stick with ASL? Do you have projects that you have seen through to completion?

You talk about living in near-isolation, but also about being “all but forced to do work in extremely distracting environments; rather than working in a class, I’ve worked by a pool, at my lake during summer with my friends, at multiple resorts during travels, during holidays, and even during a road trip.” Saying that you have been “forced” to do your schoolwork out by the pool (really? you parents made you go outside?) or at ‘multiple resorts’ does not come across as overcoming hardship. Home-schooled students don’t have classrooms either- and students in classrooms face distractions from other students and various school interruptions. Then there are the kids who are on the road with their parents do homework wherever they are- hotel rooms, buses, airports, backstage, etc.

Basically, your argument is that managing your HS experience and working independently shows your self-motivation and discipline- and it does. But, like top marks, this is what schools like Princeton expect. And motivation and discipline are pertinent to pretty much all majors…but given that you don’t actually have a field of interest, much less a major, I think claiming that they are particularly relevant is overstating it.

6

You might want to ask your online school what colleges their graduates attend in the last three years.

7

You would definitely get accepted to UCCS and CU Boulder, they love OOS full pay students. As far as snow goes, it varies on the front range due to being on the downslope of the Rockies. We have quite a variety of weather from blizzards to balmy weather in the 60’s mid winter.

8

Once again, I want to refer everyone here to my ‘chance me’ thread. It included so many important details that aren’t covered by this thread, which was originally made to find activities I might enjoy.

This has essentially turned into a chance me thread with critical information missing. I appreciate all the time everyone has already committed, but nobody is gaining much from this anymore.

@collegemom3717

I keep getting thrown off by how serious this forum is. My mistake. When I wrote this I was very fast and didn’t clarify many things. I didn’t expect for this to get sidetracked into a discussion on my chances at Princeton, but I’ll take what I can get when it comes to help with college.

I’ll walk through this one because there were a lot of points you raised.

“What do you actually do with your time? Given that a typical academically-oriented HS is awake for ~16-17 hours / day, where do your hours go?”

This thread is literally dedicated to what I can spend my time on, as I have had a lot of free time recently. I’d say my current schedule is like 9 hours sleep, 4 hours school, 3 hours of socialization/free time, and like 5 hours of other activities that vary, but are generally academically/EC based (studying, college stuff, working on an idea or something like that). I do have a lot of free time right now, that’s why I made this thread. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

"Can you give some examples of things that you have followed through on over a period time? For example, you gave up French & Spanish to do ASL- did you stick with ASL? "

I will be taking a summer class for ASL 1 and a senior class for ASL 2. Give up on French and Spanish? No. That has a connotation that it was too difficult, which wasn’t the case. I dropped those courses for reasons listed above.

“Do you have projects that you have seen through to completion?”

Most notably, schooling. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it is a perfect example of what you are asking. Doing this entire process completely alone gave me constant opportunities to quit.

My first three years of high school were terrible. I only did a few pass or fail courses with my mom, I had bad grades, no job, no prospects, and I was faced with a decision: quit and survive off of my fairly wealthy family, or do three more years, falling behind two years past all my friends and family. Even though I could have my own apartment in BC without having to work a day in my life, I stuck with my education. I enrolled at a fully online school (no more homeschooling) and started working by myself without any real help. I met every single deadline, I worked in less-than-ideal locations, and I got great stats from improving consistently throughout high school. Why is this impressive? With all due respect to most applicants, they were in an environment that helped them through their process; I was in an environment that was against me in nearly every aspect of this process.

I’m NOT saying this makes me deserving of any school, just to be clear! I completely understand that there are thousands of kids out there that are way more academically/extracurricular-ly impressive than I am.

"You talk about living in near-isolation, but also about being "all but forced to do work in extremely distracting environments;

Yes, I did both. Over the past two years, I traveled from my home (isolation place) to multiple different places and stayed for up to three months at a time. Even so, my home can be distracting as well, as it is shared with some friends/family who often come up for 5 days at a time or something like that. It’s a small place.

“rather than working in a class, I’ve worked by a pool, at my lake during summer with my friends, at multiple resorts during travels, during holidays, and even during a road trip.” Saying that you have been “forced” to do your schoolwork out by the pool (really? you parents made you go outside?) "

No, lol. My parents didn’t tie me up and put my laptop in front of me, forcing school upon me-- that was an exaggeration. I meant “all but forced,” as all my friends and family were often at the pool or outside at summer. Sometimes I joined in, doing school while still there. Not because I was literally forced to, but because I was often tired of missing out on vacations, so I would do that to be included yet still finish my work.

“or at ‘multiple resorts’ does not come across as overcoming hardship. Home-schooled students don’t have classrooms either- and students in classrooms face distractions from other students and various school interruptions. Then there are the kids who are on the road with their parents do homework wherever they are- hotel rooms, buses, airports, backstage, etc.”

I respect your opinion and will consider it moving forward, but I completely disagree with everything you said/implied here. I understand where you are coming from, especially considering you know very few personal details about me, so I’ll try to explain it. Before I begin, please don’t compare me to the Ivy applicants that I’m sure you’re regularly dealing with-- I am not on the same level, I know! :wink: Also, I’m not sure if I said “hardship,” or if you’re just comparing me to other applicants who have gone through far worse (losing family members, bankruptcy, moving a ton, whatever it might be), but please don’t look at my situation through that lens.

There was no reason, no incentive (apart from personal growth), and relatively no support for me to go to school, all with the deterrents of time, previous/potential academic failure, lack of confidence, negative social status, cost, and more. When I was faced with this mountain, I climbed it with another 3 years of school and two years of summer classes. Why? The only reason why was because I wanted to make myself proud by fulfilling my potential. Doing all this work with no accountability and all the deterrents above, all while traveling-- yes, including living at hotels/airbnbs for months on end-- or staying at my cabin up north, surely counts for something.

Working without accountability as a high school student most often leads to falling behind (according to my teachers), but I stayed atop of my work throughout a schedule that requires more than double the average, summer classes (worked on at my lake with family and friends up), vacations, and extremely unfavorable locations/situations.

I am, by no means, saying this makes me deserving of a spot at a top school, I’m just trying to express my situation (which you didn’t fully understand because I didn’t give enough context). I do not think I am Ivy material. I’m really just looking for stuff to do so I can fill my free time and improve my application slightly.

I apologize for this wall of text. It should help provide some more context and I can use it for reference in the future! Formatting is difficult on this forum, so I’m sorry about the mess!