College Admissions Predicament Please Help!

<p>Hi, I am new to College Confidential and I am looking for advice. Here’s my story: Last year as a junior I had a cumulative 4.08 GPA (weighted) at the end of first semester (my high school waits till junior year to calculate GPA and give class rank). Unfortunately, by the end of the year it had dropped to a 4.01 GPA (weighted) because I struggled with foreign language classes (Spanish and Latin taking @ years of both) and trigonometry (my high school does not have precalculus only calculus after trig). I had D’s for both my second semester grades and Final grades. However, it gets much worse. With my GPA being lower I decided to take a summer school class in order to raise it. I ended up taking 12th grade English in summer school and the opposite happened. The class further lowered my GPA. I had an F for the second semester and got a C for a final grade only because I got an A on the final exam. However, what only show up on the transcript are semester grades and final grades. Also, there is another problem. I waited till now December to take the SAT a 2nd time. The last time I took it in March of this year a got a 1640 (the combined score of all three sections). The only ACT (with writing) I too I got a 23 composite score. I am screwed thought because most college’s regular admission deadlines are in January. How am I going to send my December SAT scores over the winter break? Currently as a senior my GPA is 3.9021 (weighted); 3.4674 (unweighted). I take a full schedule of classes including Physics and Statistics. I am not taking nor have taken any AP classes throughout high school as I feel that struggling in an AP trying to maintain a C is not worth it. I am trying to go out of state for college; I currently live in Virginia. I came to College Confidential for help because my guidance counselor doesn’t seem to care and my parents are not helping either. I am not trying to shift blame onto others and I take full responsibility for my actions. If there is anybody with any advice please feel free to speak your mind. Do not hold anything back and be honest ever little bit helps. Thanks.</p>

<p>What exactly is your question? There are certainly colleges, in-and-out of state, that would take a student like yourself.</p>

<p>Agree with glass, what is your question?</p>

<p>My question is what do you think is my best option? Should I go with ‘rolling admissions’ colleges or rather tough it out with regular decision and submit my December SAT score whatever it is</p>

<p>There are plenty of schools that will take a student with your stats. Of course you may want to look at SAT or ACT optional schools, but many schools will consider your GPA and SAT or ACT score to be fine. If it turns out your December SAT is higher, then submit it as soon as you get it.</p>

<p>If you are in Virginia, but want to go out of state, you will need to carefully consider the higher cost of going to school out of state.</p>

<p>Thank You John2698, I am just concerned that I will miss most schools regular admissions deadline because I have not applied to ANYWHERE yt. I am a terrible procrasinator. I am turnig in applications asap for schools with January 1 deadline most good VA schools list January 15 as their deadline except UVA. I may have to take SAT II’s for UVA in January. As for why I want to go out of state I have lived in Virginia all of my life. I’m not trying to go to an Ivy League School just a state nearby like North Carolina or Pennsylvania.</p>

<p>datgirldestani</p>

<p>Have you sat down with your parents and talked with them about how they plan for you to pay for your education? Be sure that you have at least one affordable place on your list. Chances are that it is in-state.</p>

<p>With that SAT score, you would probably be in the bottom 20% or so of UVA admittees. Let me hasten to say that there are plenty of schools that would love to have you, but even as a Virginia resident, I think getting into UVA would be difficult. You might want to focus on other schools, both inside and outside of Virginia. Fortunately, there are plenty of possible schools, both in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region. Procrastination can be tough, but if you get going with some applications this month, there are some schools that will let you know within a month. Good luck.</p>

<p>Yeah UVA is tough to get in to even more than Virginia Tech. Yes happymomof 1 I have sat down with my parents however one of them is unemployeed currently so I am looking for financial aid probably need based I do not know my parent’s exact income.</p>

<p>You mention that you are a procrastinator – I have two suggestions:</p>

<p>1) do a little reasearch on ADHD, and see if that applies to you
2) apply to smaller public schools, or smaller privates if you can afford them, where the professor will be inclined to help keep you on track. In Virginia, a smaller Public that comes to mind is Mary Washington. [University</a> of Mary Washington | Fast Facts](<a href=“http://www.umw.edu/about/facts/default.php]University”>http://www.umw.edu/about/facts/default.php)</p>

<p>Clearly you are motivated, and your GPA (which is great) is much better than your standardized test scores. Fortunately public schools tend to weight GPA more than standardized test scores, to your favor.</p>

<p>datgirldestani</p>

<p>If you don’t know your parents’ precise financial situation, you don’t know how much financial aid you will need. If they don’t want to give you all the details, that is OK, but they do need to run one of the FAFSA calculators. Personally, I’d recommend that they print out the official formula at <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf&lt;/a&gt; and work through it on paper.</p>

<p>When Happydad and I did that several years ago we learned to our surprise that our EFC was fully four times what we could afford to pay. That is why Happykid is spending her first two years at our local community college.</p>

<p>Thanks happymomof1</p>

<p>Check with the admissions of the schools you want to apply to, but many schools will accept SAT scores so long as you have the rest of your material in. So, hop to it. And good luck =)</p>

<p>One other question when I am filling out the FAFSA application don’t I need my parent’s 2010 IRS Tax Form (the one they turn in due April 15, 2011 ) and I turn FAFSA in after January 1, 2011?</p>

<p>You can estimate with the information from 2009. Unless there have been some major changes that should be close.</p>

<p>*The last time I took it in March of this year a got a 1640 (the combined score of all three sections). The only ACT (with writing) I too I got a 23 composite score. I am screwed thought because most college’s regular admission deadlines are in January. How am I going to send my December SAT scores over the winter break? Currently as a senior my GPA is 3.9021 (weighted); 3.4674 (unweighted). *</p>

<p>I have sat down with my parents however one of them is unemployeed currently so I am looking for financial aid probably need based I do not know my parent’s exact income</p>

<p>Out of state publics are not likely going to work because they don’t give the financial aid you would need to cover their high OOS costs.</p>

<p>right now, it’s more important to find out how much your parents can contribute each year. If one parent is unemployed, then they may not be able to pay as much as they would like to. However, you need to know this info, so that you can proceed with sensible selections.</p>

<p>Unless your test scores increase significantly, I don’t see how you will be able to go out of state to a school that will meet financial need. Right now, your scores aren’t high enough for a private school to be motivated to give you good aid. And, as I mentioned earlier, the OOS publics aren’t going to help you with their costs…they don’t even have enough money to help the students in their own states.</p>