<p>I'm a senior in a large Competitive Texas school. School has a science academy that draws from surrounding schools. I have a weak unweighted GPA of 3.28 and weighed of 4.16 on a 5+ Scale I've taken challenging courses and had personal issues junior year that brought my GPA down
-class rank 24 percentile 155/640
-I Took 11 AP classes
- 2110 SAT(760 cr, 690 math, 660 writing) only took it once
Work
- over the last summer as an intern for a fuel company. 40 hours a week
- now starting a peer tutor job at my school that will be a couple hours after school on certain days. Set up though the district
Clubs and Volunteering
- member of HOSA for three years but little involvement until this year
- volunteer as life skills aid during my seventh period for around 50 minutes every school day.
- officer position in best buddies
- member of mu alpha theta senior year
- I've fostered dogs with my family and volunteered at adoptions all throughout high school. Nearly always have one or more foster we are finding a home for. Does this count as anything?
Anyway I have a strong interest in pursuing biology at the university of richmond. I excel in science and want to go in a pre med direction. I know my GPA and ECs are pretty lame. Also I'm low income and was under the impression I could get good need based aid. Do I have a chance here and is it okay to apply ED if you have strong interest but won't get a chance to visit first? To be honest I was considering applying ED to Rees College but they aren't need blind and I also just feel like Richmond would be my top choice after doing more research </p>
<p>I looked at your other post, but I am not really familiar with any of your schools other than Reed. Reed is a veryyyyy selective school, and it’s hard to know who they’ll accept. I think if you retake your SAT and try to get a better score, that would help your chances, as well as dictating why you had a drop in your GPA, which they will hopefully understand. Good luck, and thanks for chancing me!!</p>
<p>Your stats look good for richmond, but your GPA is very low, however it is offset by your class rank. I think you have a decent shot.</p>
<p>Schools like to see an upward trend with grades and since your stumble was junior year, you might want to apply RD or ED 2 as you’ll be able to show that you’ve bounced back. You might also consider writing about that situation if you feel it’s compelling. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my D had a difficult Sophomore year that pulled down an otherwise perfect transcript to an uw 3.6. She wrote about what she learned that year and had junior and 1st semester senior grades to show that she wasn’t on a downward spiral. </p>
<p>Reed is need aware. They didn’t use to be too difficult to get into (as not that many students applied.) However, they dropped the application fee last year and had a huge surge in applicants. My own D was wait-listed at Reed. Her class salutatorian was rejected out-right (and he graduated with two associates degrees… go figure.) However, she’s incredibly happy at Richmond and grateful for how things worked out.</p>
<p>Financial aid is good at Richmond but know that there is a “self-help” portion and that loans are included in the financial aid package. Our D did take out a federal loan to cover the self help portion that pushed the total a bit over our EFC. If you are hoping for loan-free or your family isn’t sure they can truly make their EFC, I would certainly NOT apply ED. </p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the feedback guys! I’ve been really doing research and I think I will do regular decision. I still think richmond is a top choice though. I’m in six AP classes now and doing well so it should help plus I’ll have more ECs. I feel like my EFC will likely be 0 or very close. I’m not sure yet but our situation is a single mother making 20 something thousand a year and we rent so have no assets. It’ll be good if I get into multiple colleges with good aid to be able to compare. One question though my situation last year was my dad having a drug problem. He was a really important part of my life and I essentially lost him from my life. Would this be an okay thing to write about for an essay or too negative? Because I did save my grades from totally crashing in the end and I feel I learned a lot from it. Thanks again for the help everyone! </p>
<p>I understand your fear about going too negative. I recommend you try the essay out. See what comes out of you. The first draft of a difficult situation is bound to be too negative but you have to get it out. Pull what you like and write again with more focus on your own journey through this and how you managed to turn things around for yourself. Then see how you like it. Share with others you respect and trust. If it doesn’t work, that’s OK. It’ll at least be therapeutic and it won’t be too late to try something else.</p>