Chances of Any College and Realistic Expectations

First of all, know that you WILL get into a decent college, and you WILL go on to do whatever you want to, in life. That cheating incident from Calculus is not the end of your academic and professional career!

Did this happen in a dual-enrollment class? Are all your college classes dual-enrollment classes? I’m assuming that you are entering your 4th year of high school, and applying with only dual-enrollment college classes, as a freshman, and not as a transfer student.

You are only in-state for California if your parent is a resident of California. Just because they own real estate there, doesn’t mean you are in-state there.

I think that your high SAT scores will get you into some of these schools, despite the 3.0 in what I presume were college classes this year. Yes, you’re going to have to explain the academic dishonesty thing. It was a really tough year for everyone, with Covid and on-line schooling. The temptation to cheat was very strong for so many people, and they could easily get away with it. In fact, there was just an article in the Wall Street Journal about this, how easy it is to cheat at online school, and how it has become rampant. I’m not trying to make excuses for you. I’m just saying that you’re human, you were tempted, you succumbed, you got caught, you learned your lesson, you have moved forward trying to do better. Let he who has never cheated on anything cast the first stone.

I’m curious. What do you want to study? What do you love? What professional goals do you have? You need to consider what your goals are, to try to narrow the list. Presented properly, I don’t think that episode of cheating is going to keep you out of 2nd tier schools, or your state schools. Maybe not UT Austin, but probably yes for the other UTs. Maybe not Rice, but probably yes for many of the other places on your list.

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