High School was a bad period for me. Without going into… well any detail, I dropped out at the start of Junior year and have been cruising on autopilot for about 2 years. That’s over now. For a long time, I was content with not trying because it meant I couldn’t fail; but we’ve all watched enough TV and read enough self-help books to know how flawed that ideology is. Right now, all I want is to prove I can beat the odds and triumph over both the things I couldn’t control as well as the mistakes I made. So, help me figure out what I’m going to do to achieve this.
- Bio stuff: I'm 19, Mixed (B+W), and come from a lower middle-class family. Two siblings, one with autism. Parents divorced twice. I wasn't a classically bullied kid, but I was teased for being acting "too white" by my black/Hispanic peers and relegated to a lot of typical stereotypes by my white peers. Not bad, but it caused a lot of Identity Issues early on. How soon is too soon for an existential crisis?
- I dropped out Junior year: with what I assume were horrible grades, but I'm not entirely sure. School, academically, has never been an issue for me. My grades tanked for two reasons: poor health (mental and physical) and poor attendance. To be honest, poor attendance is an understatement -- I hardly showed up. When I did, I was never really there -- my mind wandered and my eyes drifted to any place but the blackboard.
- Extra-curriculars: They were non-existent. I played no sports due to the issues above (although I would have played Basketball and Baseball, not that it matters), I joined no clubs, and I participated very little in my community outside the occasional adolescent anarchy. I was mostly sheltered, but when I did hang with my friends, we were usually up to no good. It's been a couple years since I've talked to them in person.
- SAT and GED (for me it's the TASC exam//NY): I have not taken either, so this is an obvious first step.
- My graduating class has already been in college for a year, so that can't help my situation. Another mistake, go me!
Some questions:
How high will my SAT and HSED scores have to be in order to instill confidence in my academic ability? I know Tisch is a performing arts school, but they still have a very high median GPA.
Is it at all possible to hop straight into Tisch with an HSED without going the 2 years of community college route?
While we’re on it, what are they looking for in a writing portfolio?
Don’t know how morally righteous this is, but is my sob story a useful ploy for getting in? I’ll be the first to say I don’t consider myself a victim, but my story is a bit unique.
My father makes a decent amount of money, enough to disqualify me for a lot of benefits at face value. Our financials are a lot more complicated than the salary he makes, so we wouldn’t be able to afford full tuition. Can anyone point me to resources to help sort this side out?
All guidance/advice welcome! I’m not sure if there are private messages on this website, but if you’d like to have a more personal discussion I’d love to talk! I definitely missed stuff, so if there’s any more information that I need to touch upon just let me know.