<p>My family income is about 38,000. I have one older sister(attends smc..) and a 10 year old younger sister. Dad is self employed; makes engravings, trophies.
I attend a private all girl's school [7-12th grade]. have been attending since 7th grade, and have received 100% financial aid every year. (tuition is about 30k/year).
My gpa is really low. 9th grade, I was sexually harassed, but didn't tell anyone.. only my closest friend at the moment knows, even now. But because of this, I was depressed basically 9-10th grade, but didn't get any help.. so my grades dropped drastically.
cumulative gpa (uw/w): 3.2/3.6 <-- gah
sat: 2240, [800W, 690M, 760CR] I retook it in March, and am waiting for the scores.
EC:
girl scout since 7th grade, aiming for my gold award
drug abuse prevention program [leadership/comm.service]: 9-12th grade.
-was VP sophomore year, and P this year, most likely president next year.
church youth group president [10-12th grade]
student council [community service rep]
-- running to be on all school council for 12th grade
community service honor society at school
yearbook [10-12], could only start in 10th grade.
applying to be an editor next year, might be an editor in chief.</p>
<p>my top 3 choices as of now are USC, Scripps, and Stanford.
Do I stand a chance?</p>
<p>Hey, I think you’ve got a great chance of getting accepted/becoming a finalist through QB. Just keep up your solid performance and community involvement. It is hard to predict if you’ll be matched or not because colleges all have different criterias of what they are looking for and it also depends on the pool applying. Some colleges will also only match applicants with an EFC of zero. (USC is one of those, I think. Not sure about the others) </p>
<p>I was matched with USC. My stats were okay but I had some pretty unique and crazy ECs and I worked really hard on my essays. Even the little short answers <em>I believe</em> made a big difference in my application. </p>
<p>My best advice to you is to really contemplate how to take advantage of the Questbridge application. How can you present yourself in the best possible light? QB is really awesome because the app offers a lot of space to explain your situation. (the low GPA during your first two HS years…your financial situation…etc) Start early on your essays and ask your teachers at the beginning on the school year to do your recommendations so they will have enough time to really do a great job.</p>
<p>Also, another random piece of advice is look for diversity programs the fall of your senior year that offer to fly you out to visit colleges for free. I visited Williams and Amherst due to Questbridge for free and not only learned a ton about the application process but met a lot of really cool applicants.</p>