Hi, all.
This thread is mainly regarding my choice of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado as a top school and whether or not I would appeal to them as a good candidate.
To begin on a personal level, I’ve been an introvert for much of my life, but school is where I seem to flourish. Ever since I was younger, I have always loved the idea of projects, essays, reports, and whatnot, as they allow me to express my creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Coinciding with that, I’ve been predominantly independent, mostly by choice, as I try to go above and beyond when it comes to the expectations for said assignment. Unfortunately, I’ve had a severe anxiety and panic attack disorder all of my life, and it sometimes manages to conflict with school. Towards the end of my freshman year is when things became difficult for me — I lost weight, became several depressed, and was falling weeks behind on my school assignments because of my perpetual absences. Thankfully in the beginning of my sophomore year, I was able to overcome that. Although I still dealt with missing much of school because of my disorder, it is hardly reflected in my grades — by that, I mean I’m an A/B student.
Junior year has been the toughest of all. I told myself I’d step up my game, and undoubtedly I have. Especially in the face of 36 absences and maintaining consistent A/B grades (These are all medically excused). Every class I’ve taken since freshman year has been at an honors level (they only offer AP junior and senior year), and this year I’m also taking AP English, with a current standpoint of a B+/A- (he’s rather disorganized, that’s a rough estimation).
My GPA stands at a 3.7 weighted. I’m not too sure of the unweighted, unfortunately.
I’ll delve more into an academic level now using bullet points to (hopefully) make this brief.
- 3.7 weighted GPA
- Honors courses all four years (already planned out my senior year, but it’s not going to matter too much because of my chances for taking the route of EA/ED)
- AP English both junior and senior year (as mentioned above, already planned senior year)
- Served as a photojournalist for about two years for my town’s Girlscouts. I would attend the festivities, taking photos and writing news articles of what had taken place
- I’ve consistently achieved advanced on my required state tests
- No sports
- No extracurriculars that I can think of off the top of my head, aside from the occasional community service events I do. I have around 60 hours or so, thus far. I plan on participating in more next year.
Leaving it at that for now, I’d say my qualities as a student are mainly reflected in my work (both in and out of school), which I am currently building a portfolio for. I mainly engage in things art related — film, photography, drawing, writing, building, working with my hands, etc. so I’d say I have a wide variety of teachers that would help me build a strong resume with even stronger recommendations.
Of course, there’s much more to my background than what I explained above, but I’m trying to spare the redundant details that I’ll be one day constructing to all fit in a well-written college essay.
The biggest worry for me is the cost.
At approximately $63,000 per year for an out-of-state student, this is rather terrifying. My father’s average income is about $80,000 (more or less, not quite sure) to provide for him, my mother, sister, and I. My mother cannot work due to several medical conditions, many of which vary in severity. Unfortunately, my dad’s job provides no benefits to him whatsoever, such as retirement, worker’s compensation, and health insurance. To put it blatantly, his boss is a jerk. Some weeks we’ve got a surplus of money, others, we have to delay payments; he works six days a week and about 10 hours a day. Much of our money goes straight to the bank for things of priority greater than that of college.
I am planning to juggle at least one job my entire senior year along with some self-employed side jobs to help pay for the cost. As of right now, I have no scholarships, or any other grants to help me pay for school, so that’s another factor currently not in my favor.
I’m somewhat aware of how the financial aid at CC works, but my mother is convinced that I will be drowning in debt after college, regardless of aid I get in the meantime. She’s also discouraged by the fact that I’m hoping to apply ED/EA (most likely ED), but since I have my heart set on it as of right now, I know it’s the right path for me take, disregarding the financial aspects.
There are innumerable things I am in love with about that school — I could go on and on.
If I could get a few opinions on my entire situation, particularly about how financial aid would work taking my qualities and background into consideration, it would be greatly appreciated.
I’ll throw out a few guiding questions, since this seems like more of a rant than context for a question.
- What are my chances of getting accepted?
- Is ED/EA right for me? Will increase my chances of acceptance?
- How would financial aid work in my case? Will any of things I mentioned be taken into consideration for my eligibility for financial aid?
- Post-graduation, will I be drowning in loans? What can I do to better my financial situation and/or prepare me better for post-graduation?
- Is it worth the cost? Should this be a factor that greatly sways my decision?
That’s all for now, folks. I wasn’t intending for this to be as long as it was, but thanks in advance to those who take the time to read and reply to it. My apologies if there are any typos (I’ve been writing and rewriting for a couple of hours, so I figured it’s time to forget it and post). 