HELP! CONFUSED AND NEED GUIDANCE

So I am currently a junior in high school. I feel like I would be a strong candidate for decent schools, but my GPA took a hit second semester freshmen year and all of sophomore year.
The reason for that was because of household issues. My dad was incarcerated during my freshmen year and was on house arrest up until the begging of my junior year. He’s now back in prison for another 2 years. While he was on house arrest, I was also taking care of my younger cousin most days after school + weekend. My cousin is 3 years old but hard of hearing and he cannot walk without a walker, so it’s a lot to take care of him. He also cannot talk, and doctors think he has some form of cerebral palsy. My parents (who are actually my grandparents, I was adopted by them in middle school because my mom was out of the picture up) are both manual laborers who work long hours, so it was hard to focus on studying. My (biological) dad wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around, so my household was very toxic, and he didn’t really take care of my younger cousin while at home. All these things PLUS the fact that was JUST diagnosed with dyscalculia has made things very difficult. My dyscalculia is the reasoning behind my Cs and Ds in math and quantitative science classes. My school isn’t the best for helping out with learning disabilities, but once you saw my Junior year transcript it was clear that I had something holding me back. I had all As (one of those being my non quantitative science class)and 2 Bs and my one D in math, that’s when I brought it up with my counselor about getting tested for dyscalculia. I ended up having it, but it feels too little too late at this point. I’m probably going to get a C or C+ in math this semester.

My trend is as follows:
Freshmen year-
Sem. 1: 3.6
Sem. 2: 3.2

Sophomore year-
Sem. 1: 2.7
Sem. 2: 2.2

Junior year-
Sem. 1: 3.3
Sem. 2 (expect): 3.5

HS Background:

  • competitiveJesuit high school in Illinois

    -Avg. ACT = 29
    -School doesn’t rank

STATS:

GPA: 3.00
ACT: 31

APs/Honors:

AP US History
AP Comparative Gov.
AP English Lang.
Honors Earth Science
Honors Environmental
Honors Latin 2
Ancient Greek 1 (difficult class, not honors, but because it’s another ancient language teachers and counselors say colleges would view it was an honors class)

Senior year I will be taking:
AP European History
AP Latin 4
Honors Marine Bio
Honors English Seminar
Honors Evil in Literature
Immersion Religion (outside campus service oriented)
Finite and Stats

ECs:

School:
Model UN- 3 years
ALAS (Alliance of Latin American Students)- 3 years
Spirit Store Club- 2 years, co-founding member
Voices of Women- 2 years
String Wizards-1 year- executive board
-I and a few other girls repair violins for inner-city orchestras
**Received special recognition for the Allstate Foundation Prize Competition w/ $250 to spend on program development

Formation and Ministry (FAM)
~I was able to attend the Ignatian Family Teach In for Justice in D.C. It is a way for Jesuit high schools and colleges to learn and advocate for social issues on Capitol Hill.

~Organized a call-in about certain policies concerning asylum seekers on the border

~Give input on Ignatian Value Days for my school. IVDs are ways for the school to go to mass, have speakers, and collaborate amongst classes about topics ranging from wars to mass incarceration to sexuality.

Community Service:
Community Tutoring Alliance- 2 years- tutor younger children at a bilingual school and a specialized hard of hearing school

Local Nursing Home-5+ years- help out almost every weekend, have around 850+ hours there

Service/Internship:
I help out at a legal aid law firm 3 days every week, it counts as both an internship and volunteer hours
I started to do this this year because I felt I had a duty to do something, even if it’s just a little, to give back to my community and children that are in the same position as me.

Extra:

~2x published poet

~Was a part of a 6-month program with UChicago that focused on south side Chicago teens and poetry. It would be workshopping, podcast radio interviews, and overall just being able to hone the craft of writing.

~I am part of a community outreach scholarship program that provides low income high school students with scholarships to attend private high schools in the area. I have monthly meetings there, college meetings with counselors, financial literacy days, community service days, and even college representative meetings from places like UMiami, Occidental, and Vanderbilt.

~I am also in the running for another local outreach program that starts high school senior year until 3 years post college graduation. It’s called Chicago Scholars, interviews are this week, but I have high hopes for myself as I usually do well during interviews. I’m a huge talker.

Summers:

I do work study at my school every summer for about two weeks. That money is applied to my tuition for the school year. It’s about $800, but it helps a lot.

Went to Mizzou Journalism Summer Camp, published in the town’s newspaper

Did National Youth Leadership Forum at Univ. of Maryland

Summer 2020:
This summer I was chosen as a Youth Ambassador Program that’s funded by the U.S. Dept. of State. I and 40 other students will do service and learn about social issues in South America for 3 weeks. We will then come back and implement our own service project in our own communities that coming Fall/Winter. I am most likely going to do a project aimed at immigration and/or children with incarcerated parents. The program is completely my free, fully funded, and Georgetown is actually a sponsor. It seems quite selective so I am pretty proud of this one.

I will also be participating in the Kino Border Initiative. It is also a part of Formation and Ministry, another way I participate in the club. Only 10 students at my school are chosen to do it. It is a Jesuit imitative in Arizona/Mexico that helps asylum seekers with whatever they need from legal services to food and shelter. I am looking forward to this one as well!

I applied, but I haven’t heard back from the Boston College Ever to Excel Theology focused summer program. I hope I get it, but that’s still up in the air as of now.

I hope to major in:
1.)Theology
2.)Philosophy
On a pre-law track

Background:
Female
Hispanic
First generation high school and college student
Low-income (get free lunch)

What I want answered:

1.) Is it even worth applying to research univ. T50ish schools and selective LACs like Wellesley, Washington and Lee, Reed, or Scripps?

2.)How would state schools such as CU-Boulder, Penn State, Texas A&M, and Indiana U. view my application, especially being an out of state student?

3.) Where do you guys think I should apply? I want every level to be considered from safety’s, targets, and reaches.

My essay:
Ideas:

Write about living in a multigenerational household ranging from grandparents to my youngest cousin

Maybe my close relationship with my younger brother and what he’s taught me when it comes to being patient and thoughtful

I’m a pretty okay writer, and have already started drafting things, so I’m on top of it for this summer.

If you guys don’t think these are good, LET ME KNOW!

Recommendation Letters:
Latin teacher (Had him twice)
AP Comp. Gov teacher (Had him twice)
Ethics and Philosophy teacher
(Religion teachers aren’t allowed by school policy to give recommendations for college, but I might just make it an add on since I want to major in theology)

Thank you so much if you even glanced at this, I would really appreciate it if you can give me any tips and advice. Thank you again if you read through all of this!!! <3

I think others can give you better advice than I can but I wanted to say that usually writing essays about a life story of hardships isn’t a good idea but I think that in your case I would talk about these things. You write well and I think your life story certainly impacted your ability to focus in school in ways that many students don’t face. There are schools that will be happy to have a serious student like you. I think you should focus on fit and if a school has the major you want and is affordable more than ratings. You possibly might qualify for a scholarship at some schools based on your life experience. It is possible but I’m not sure and would have to know more about you. I am not sure if you would be a candidate to apply through Questbridge but you might read this link.
https://www.questbridge.org/high-school-students/national-college-match/who-should-apply

I wish I could apply to Questbridge, but my grades are not up to par. Thank you for replying so quickly, I really appreciate it!

You could be right but their site does say, ‘We take a holistic approach to reviewing applications, and we do not have absolute criteria or cut-offs for GPA, standardized test scores, income, or other factors.’ so it might be worth it to write them and tell them what you told us here and see if they want to encourage you to go through them or not. Might be worth a shot.

Congrats on your perseverance and positive outlook.

@suteiki77 is 100 percent correct imho. Your life story does not define you. I think your supplemental essays can touch on these subjects.

It will be important to get to know your guidance counselor very well. Ask for a meeting or even a Skype meeting. They can add your home life hardships and other issues to their gc statement.

However, your passion for service to others may be more impactful for your personal statement.

Schools - I would start with your state university system. Get a sense of these for your safety group. Safety includes financial safeties. Most all out of state public universities will be unaffordable. Perhaps ASU.

Matches. Google a list of meets full need schools. Ignore the school that would fit into the usnwr top 50 unis on the list and the top 25 or so liberal arts colleges. Get a sense of each school that pops up. Look at what is known as the middle 50 percent statistics for each. See how your grades and act fit.

Reaches. These are the others on the list. However realistically these are Hail Mary applications. I wouldn’t spend any money if they don’t waive the application fee. Don’t spend precious time poring over essays for this group. Pick one or two where your 31 fits into the range and the school really appeals to your personal values.

Once you’ve spent sometime curating a list of names. Come back and post here. Or feel free to dm me and I will give you advice on what I think would be a good list.

You have a great story to tell. That’s big. You have a chance to cultivate a relationship with your teachers and GC. Take the extra step to make yourself known to them. You are a Latina and from a lower socioeconomic situation. Both of those are helpful to you. Not a hindrance. You reflect diversity and hard work. Schools want those attributes as part of their campus family.

You’ll have options. But very important to finish strong. If you have a learning disability talk to your gc. You may have the opportunity to retake the act with extra time.

Keep up your grades! No excuses. It will help tell your story of overcoming adversity better than an essay. It will speak for itself.

@privatebanker Gave excellent advice! Good luck!!