Disastrous Senior Year

Applying to College
1

<p>I'll try to keep this as short as I can, but I'd like to be a bit detailed;</p>

<p>Barring one B and one B+, I have straight As throughout my first three years. Money has been very tight as of late, and over this past summer, I took on a job to help support myself and my family. We aren't on verge of homelessness or anything, but we hover just on the poverty line, and I needed the money (and still do).</p>

<p>This turned out to be a huge mistake. I was working around 20 hrs/week, and went from three APs my junior year (I got all 5s), to six APs my senior year (most you can take). Throw Track in the mix, and I was overwhelmed. I couldn't manage my time and I was failing to hand in work.</p>

<p>My school goes on block scheduling. Save for AP Chemistry, which is every day full year, all my other classes are graded every other marking period. My mid-year report is going out in about a week from now with three Chem grades (A+, A, A+), and one grade from my six other classes. Those are:</p>

<p>A+, B, C, C, C, D</p>

<p>Needless to say I'm extremely worried and have been trying to work with my teachers to bring these grades up. While they understand my situation, they say I am learning a lesson in not putting off my work ("What are you going to do when you get to college?"), which, valid as it may be, will get me rejected from every place I want to go anyway. The main teacher, who convinced the others not to change my grades (a few of them deliberated it together for a few days), said that one string of bad grades will not get me rejected. She said the worse case scenario would be for them to call me in and defend those grades, which I can (to some degree). But I don't buy that.</p>

<p>She said that she needs to see progress from me. And I'm back on top of things - I have everything under control now and won't let a grade slip like that happen again. I told her this and she said good; the final transcript will reflect this and help me out then. But the final transcript only goes to colleges which accepted you and is only a factor in rescission, no? I'm not going to get accepted anywhere in June after being rejected.</p>

<p>Another teacher, when I told him how by the time I proved to him I was back on top of things, it would be too late and the decision would already be made, said "It's never too late." But is this the reality?</p>

<p>That same teacher offered to write a letter on my behalf if I proved I could do well. He said I should also write a letter (I figured that).</p>

<p>The schools I want to get into are Duke, Cornell, and Dartmouth. This is mainly because they provide 100% need-based, and if I were to get in I would go for free. I have no college fund set up for me and my parents cannot pay for any of it. So if I were to end up at say, a state school, I would probably be in debt upon leaving. I told this to my teachers. And also, I mean, they are amazing schools, and I worked hard the past four years with them in mind.</p>

<p>So... am I screwed? The rest of my application is strong, but let's be honest, a school like Cornell or Duke probably isn't going to take anyone with a slip-up like that, right? And the only defense I really have is a 20hr/wk job and difficult course load. I was unprepared for this and it was (and still is) intense, but is that a good enough reason for them? Are they looking for excuses?</p>

<p>What can I do? What options do I have? I feel like all of my hard work the past 3 years is about to be wasted by one terrible marking period, and now I won't be able to get into my dream school(s).</p>

2

<p>I don’t know what to say bro, perhaps you should write a letter or something. Either way, only April will tell.</p>

3

<p>It’s likely to seriously impact your admissions, yes. Make sure you have schools that are still likely to accept you on your list.</p>

4

<p>You really won’t know until April, but I would say that your counselor should mention the job/hours and your families financial situation in his mid-year reports. I don’t think you can write a letter at this point (or rather, most colleges won’t accept it from you). You may not want to hear this yet, but we had a very similar experience in my family and my nephew kind of screwed up his GPA, however his SAT scores and National Merit Finalist standing did earn him a full ride to Ohio University. Ok, so that wasn’t his first pick either and he had to accept that his dreams of Princeton were over. But here’s the good part --he has made deans list every semester and he’s more driven then I’ve ever seen him (he’s finishing his sophamore year now). He has his mind made up --he’s going to a top law school. They moved him to honors housing and now he literally pays nothing for his undergrad! He is saving all kinds of money for his top law school dreams :). I don’t think it’s over for you yet, so that’s not my intention to make you lose hope, but I do want you to know that you are only talking about the next four years. Obama went to Occidental, THEN he went to Harvard. You know? The silver lining is that you now KNOW what you want. You can either let this knock you down for good, or you can become more motivated and driven then you’ve ever been before. What ever happens in April happens. Have a good safety net school picked out (be smart ;), and then just focus on going the new direction you choose for yourself.</p>

5

<p>I don’t think it’s too late to write a letter. You should definitely look into that. Call the schools to ask if they’d still accept one. It seems like an extenuating circumstance to me. I really can’t offer tons of insight into how much this would help you, but I think it’s worth a shot. And remember, a good student like you can probably get a decent scholarship to your state university or even a lower tier private, if it comes to that. And, not to get off into weird random stories, but my cousin worked her entire way through a state university as a waitress (no finaid, no loans, no help from parents) and it wasn’t easy, but not impossible either – she still got got good grades and a good job after college. So there are ways to afford it! Really! Especially given the experience balancing school, a job, and a sport you are gaining now! (This is what I always tell myself.)</p>

<p>I totally understand where you’re coming from – it’s been extremely frustrating that I’ve had a job since tenth grade working 10-20 hours a week (depending on time of year) during the school year, but have had to compete with kids who have all the time, resources, tutoring, etc in the world to achieve their high grades. I’m not complaining, because I think it has taught me some things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise. But I get it.
Hopefully come April we’ll both be happy. Best of luck!</p>

6

<p>Re: your teachers–can you explain that at a certain point it <em>is</em> too late? Maybe if you explained to them that a good final transcript won’t get you in, but a crappy mid-year one will likely keep you out, they’d be willing to change your grades?</p>

7

<p>@quomodo</p>

<p>I tried this; they don’t want to hear it, all they say is “It won’t keep you out”, “It’s never too late”, etc.</p>

<p>I’m really at a loss for what to do right now.</p>

8

<p>Don’t put this on the teachers. Don’t blame them if you received rejections. You earned your grades. Since when is it the duty of teachers to lie by changing your grades just because you didn’t earn the grade you had hoped?</p>

<p>If track was taking up too much time, you could have dropped it. It wouldn’t have mattered at all in your applications if you dropped the sport in your senior year. </p>

<p>Working 20 hours a week is very doable. Many kids in our area work part time during the school year. </p>

<p>The problem seems to be that you bit off more than you could chew and you didn’t address the issue right away. Choosing to take 6 AP’s your senior year is the main reason why you’re in this situation. </p>

<p>How the schools you applied to will view this drop in gpa is a mystery. Perhaps you can send them a short email before they receive the midterm grades and let them know that you haven’t performed to your usual academic standards. Do not make excuses. Do not blame the job (20 hours is not a lot of time throughout the week). Do not blame track.
Take responsibility for trying to attempt a schedule of 6 AP’s and finding out that your previous methods of finishing assignments and studying for exams were not suitable for this type of schedule. Explain how you have learned your lesson and have developed a new time management plan. blah, blah, blah. </p>

<p>In short: Take responsibility without making excuses. Admit your mistakes. Tell what lessons you have learned. Explain how you intend to correct this one lapse in your academic career. Make sure you have a backup plan.</p>

9

<p>You know, nysmile, I needed that proverbial smack in the face. I was blaming everyone but myself for those grades, even though it was my lack of foresight that got me to where I am now. I still think it was the job that killed me, working 4/5 school nights sucks, but I still should have been able to handle it. I’m largely on top of things now, though, since I’ve gotten used to it.</p>

<p>I guess I’ll just send a letter with my midyear reports telling everyone that I made a mistake and mismanaged my time. That it is not indicative of my present or future performance, and that I have learned a tough lesson.</p>

<p>I am still very upset as I feel I’ve just wasted a great deal of hard work, but it’s only forward from here… :/</p>

10

<p>1) I feel you bro</p>

<p>2) One thing you have to know is that those three schools (particularly Cornell) don’t give as much weight into the mid-year report as they do the rest of your application. A friend of mine forgot to send it in, called them, and they said that as long as it didnt say he was failing all his classes or say he killed someone, then he’s good.</p>

<p>3) This might be wayyyy too late (i didn’t see this thread until now) but I think getting your guidance counselor to write you a rec would be the best way. These kind of things are usually corresponded to colleges by counselors</p>

<p>4) Good luck! I’m sure you’ll get in somewhere good man</p>

11

<p>Here are what I suggest…

  1. Write a letter to the schools like some people have suggested
  2. Work to raise those grades, even if you think it’s too late, because it’s important to try your best til the end.
  3. Ask teachers if they can write you a letter of rec saying how it was a lil slip up and you were trying your best to make up, etc etc etc etc.
  4. In the end despite everything you might still get rejected as those schools are pretty selective. Look into alternate options and remind yourself you learned a good lesson and that it’s not the end of the world</p>
12

<p>If you didn’t get pregnant/get anyone pregnant, you had a good senior year.</p>

13

<p>Not true at all. Be mature and don’t joke about these kinds of things.</p>

<p>Edit: (At above)</p>

14

<p>^ There’s a big difference between a joke and some perspective.</p>