Yup, I’m in that underachiever rut in my life. I need help with college, beyond what my guidance counselor can offer me. I need help from people of college age.
I made a similar thread to this before but now I’m just looking for general life tips and recommendations overall. Beyond “get off your slacker ass”.
-If I put in a fair amount of effort towards finals, my weighted GPA is going to be a 2.55 after junior year. (Yes I know I’m a lazy piece of shit I don’t need to hear it again). This may be SLIGHTLY alleviated by the fact that I attend an exam school but I am absolutely not relying on that, at all. Senior year, I obviously have no idea how that will go, but the absolute best it could go with given course is up to a 2.83 midyear and a 3.1 end of year. That’s not gonna happen BTW, unless I sacrifice all social life which I know I lack the willpower to do.
-2160 first SAT (740 CR, 730 Math, 670 Writing), may or may not take it again, deciding on subject tests as well.
-Contemplating the benefits of taking extra AP tests next year. I’m taking 3 classes and 4 AP tests by default (Gov, Macro and Microecon, Stats) but I wanna take AB Calc and Psych tests.
-I still got pretty good extracurriculars tho, better than 99% of people in my situation. I work for the school district, help with State and City policies on environment, etc; plus music lol nobody cares.
I regret AP Biology so hard. I also resent Latin. But anyways, past the self-loathing, give me tips. Gap year? No early applications? State school? What do?
In the Parents Forum there are several threads discussing options for B students that might have useful information for you.
Your GPA is lousy. Your SAT is excellent. Clearly you are smart enough, but you lack the organizational skills to get things done. You need to meet with your guidance counselor and request screening for ADD and Executive Function Disorder. Then when you have a proper diagnosis in hand (and possibly medication to help you keep your focus when you need to stay focused), you can start working with the Resource Teacher at your school on developing the organizational skills that you will need to have in order to perform to your own best ability once you do get to college.
How much will your parents pay? That will be the deciding factor since the schools that give the best aid won’t accept you and your GPA won’t qualify you for merit.
ECs won’t matter in your situation because your GPA is too low.
Yes, you need to get tested for ADHD and Executive Function Disorder. Your grades vs test scores and active participation in lots of ECs suggest that you prefer doing what you like over what you “need” to do. So, you need to be evaluated and maybe treated.
First talk to your regular doctor who can recommend a professional who can evaluate you and diagnose/treat.
A safety must be affordable…that’s why we need to know how much your family will pay.
I wouldn’t bother creating a match/reach list just yet.
What state do you live in? My son didn’t have much better stats than yours, and he got into our well-respected state flagships. Outside of CA, TX, and a few others, you should have a shot at a public university - a directional, if not a flagship. If your parents can afford to pay full tuition almost anywhere, your prospects improve vastly. Many less prestigious public universities will take you on the basis of your SAT score alone, as will a lot of small liberal arts colleges. There are some good open-admission (or close to it) colleges out there, also, including Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. If you are interested in Arts or Media, look at Columbia College Chicago. You are not restricted to CCs, by any means, unless your budget is limited.
@Erin’s Dad - Easy: The kid is very good at staying organized and on task when it is interesting (hyperfocused).
@rayword45 - How recent was that testing? And, who did it? As schoolwork gets progressively more difficult, these issues can cause more trouble for a student because that student’s own home-grown compensation skills become less effective. The smarter the student is, the later the learning differences become problematic for them. I have a friend whose dyslexia diagnosis wasn’t made until she was half-way through her PhD program.
My father’s story is so similar to yours - - really didn’t do well in school, but tested very, very high. He did find out much later in life that he has ADD - - and he can hyperfocus when he is interested, but when not interested, well, let’s just say it didn’t go well.
The good news is he did very well in his career despite flunking out of college.
Personally, if you were my child, I’d suggest a gap year and then community college after that. If you don’t have ADD/ADHD, maybe you just aren’t that motivated by academics right now and would be better off working - - perhaps in the area where you are excelling extracurricularly. When you know more about what you might enjoy pursuing in life, you may feel more motivated to tackle college.
I agree with happymom though. My father was so intelligent that I think he was really able to compensate for the issues and get through school with passing grades by managing to do well on tests. Until he hit college and never went to class. So maybe it would be worth consulting once more with a professional that diagnoses these issues just to make sure you aren’t struggling with something that is out of your control.
It has been several years so I will likely discuss a retesting and rediagnosis with family.
On a different note, however, I do feel that my so-called hyperfocus in the world of politics means I would excel a great deal moreso in Political or Business related classes. Topics in which I have struggled in High School are Biology, Spanish and especially Latin, topics which I have absolutely no passion for whatsoever.
Evergreen State might be a possibility: they are located in Olympia, Washington’s state capital, which means there are local internship opportunities there, and it is not terribly far from Seattle. With your test scores, it might be worth trying for Willamette, too. They are right across the street from Oregon’s statehouse, and internships are very easy for students to get there. Look into less selective state colleges and universities located in or near business centers or capitals. Figure out whether you have met all the basic high school prerequisites that many public colleges have. If so, you probably have a shot at a lot of southern (not UVA or UNC-Chapel Hill, obviously), mid-western (not Michigan, but Kansas or Iowa, possibly), and Western/Mountain universities.
Can you tell us what state you live in? Also, how much your family can afford? Your SAT score and ECs w/ focus on politics/govt are great. Do you have any AP scores yet? You should definitely consider SAT subject tests in areas you are strong in (not biology!) as 700+ scores could bolster your case. Some schools will recalculate your GPA, stripping out non-academic courses. Are your best grades in core classes or in electives? A little more info would help us make suggestions.
I’d also suggest a gap year. If you can pull up your grades senior year (ditch Latin, Bio is over), you can raise your overall GPA and show an upward trend. A solid year academically would also help you get the two letters of rec you need from teachers who know you and can speak to your potential.
The other strategy, as mentioned, is community college, either part- or full-time and then transfer, but frankly if you have a job you like and are good at, and other activities that you care deeply about (music, environmental policy), then focusing on those for a year, while you do a college search that matches your, hopefully improved GPA, might be a better strategy.
What are your parents saying at this point? And what is the financial picture in terms of paying for any higher education?
Thanks for the advice everyone. I’m definitely leaning towards State schools. Is a gap year truly necessary though? I already am showing a strong upward curve (especially taking 3 APs into account from 2 years of none) and will hopefully have a good essay to match my SAT.
On the note of parental payment, my parents are definitely willing to pay if necessary (they’re paying out the ass for my sister at Pace Uni). That doesn’t mean I want to screw them over, but if loans are necessary I’ll take them.
I hail from Massachusetts. On another note I have never taken any “non-academic” classes in my high school years as Gym doesn’t factor into GPA. The second closest thing to a non-academic class would either be Latin or next year Facing History.
I’m bumping this thread after nearly a year because, in spite of what people here have said, I wanna say DON’T GIVE UP if you have a low GPA. Community College is by no means bad and I’ll be going in the summer but it’s by no means a necessity unless financially. I can say I paid the price for being a slacker, but it’s not as if my life is over, rather the opposite.
With final stats of 2.66 and 2160 (there was literally no point of taking the SAT more than once) and extracurriculars more controversial than I had realized (political experience in the form of public speaking, rule writing, phone app development and lobbying local officials)
Accepted
University of Colorado Boulder (Where I’ll probably go in the fall for one semester)
UMaine Orono
Quinnipiac
Suffolk
Plymouth State
Salem State
Duquesne (applied because it was free)
Waitlisted
UMass Amherst (Where I’m DEFINITELY going in the Spring)
Drexel
Hampshire
Penn State (2+2)
Rejected
Bard (Strangely enough, everyone from my school with similar or worse stats got in)
Boston University (only applied because it was free)
Northeastern (see above)
Providence
Ohio State
UMinnesota (funny because I never actually applied here…)