My best friend went through depression for her first two years of high school and at the beginning of her junior year she was sadly shaken by having to take care of her dying grandmother. Now both her and her family are in a good condition and she is afraid we won’t get into college. She has around a 3.3 unweighted gpa and KILLER Extra Curriculars (Over 900 Service Hours) and is doing well during this 2nd semester of junior year. She took one practice test for the act and scored a 29, but she is still scared she won’t get into college. Is there a way you think that colleges will see that she went through depression and would be lenient or no? I honestly have no idea, but I just want to help her. Her dream college is Columbia, but I’m afraid she can’t get in and she will be upset. Please help!!
These are the colleges she loves:
Barnard College
Columbia University
Chapman University
University of Georgia
Vanderbilt University
University of Washington
UCLA
USC
John Hopkins University
George Washington University
Clemson University
Indiana University Bloomington
Northeastern University
High Point University
University of Arizona
George Mason University
University of Virginia
Baylor University
SMU
TCU
University of Texas Dallas
University of Texas Austin
University of South Carolina
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Elon University
University of Tennessee Knoxville
Georgetown University
Villanova University
Fordham University
Wake Forest University
She’ll get into college somewhere – plenty of colleges would love to have her. But aiming too high isn’t going to do her any favors. Look up the Common Data Sets or other statistics for each school and compare. It should become clear which schools are not worth the application fee (ex. http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/classprofile/2019 – important points being 6.1% acceptance rate, 25th percentile ACT = 32, 75th percentile ACT = 35, over 90% of students were in the top 10% of their HS class)
Many public schools don’t subsidize the education of out-of-state students, so if you don’t live in California then UCLA is going to be $55k or whatever it is now, per year, no discounts. Check out any other OOS publics on the list, depending on where you live.
Make a separate account so you’re not sharing. It’s confusing for people who answer your questions and also I think it might be against the official rules of this site.
There are too many reaches on this list. Yes, it is fine to apply to some reaches. But she needs academic AND financial matches and safeties. Columbia is highly unlikely. There are great schools that will accept a 3.3/29 student, but she has to make sensible choices, and then visit the campuses.
My suggestions:
Take away: Columbia, Vandy, UCLA, Barnard, USC, Gtown, UNC, and JHU. She has far too many reaches on her list, and it would be a shame to spend several hundred dollars for the 99.999% chance for a rejection letter.
Good news: with a 3.3 and a ~30 ACT score, she can get into college. There’s no need for her to worry there. I understand what she has gone through, as I also struggled with depression and family problems during one year of HS (I would have ~3.9 if it weren’t for that, but I had a 3.75 going into college app season), but I’m already committed to an excellent school and had other acceptances waiting for me (including one from UT Austin!). Right now, your friend should sit down with her parents and talk about college (especially FINANCING, just so you don’t get caught with surprises). Tell her to sit with her counselor and build a reasonable list of 10-15 schools (including a reasonable amount of matches, reaches, and safeties), of which 3-5 she can get in for sure. Tell her to do her own research via stat matching and Common Data Sets.
Depression is a hard thing to have dealt with, and I commend your friend for powering through it. For someone who has been through so much, she needs to know that she can succeed, even if it’s not at her dream school. I really hope that the application cycle goes well for her, and that she ends up somewhere she loves.
Thank you for your suggestions! What would you say would be good choices for her? Currently she has been telling me that she loves Belmont University a lot and I think it would be a good option!
I think she wants to do something in health care or biology. Also she has been talking about Penn State and Belmont a lot, and she likes both of them! Would those be good matches?
Does she live in PA? Penn State could be a high match if she applied for summer and undecided, but it’s $47k out of state and stingy with scholarships. In state it could be a good option. Could do the 2+2 plan, even.
I got into Wake with a 1.96 GPA for my first two years of high school and a good story to explain why. I’d keep that one on the list and be sure to interview. They care a lot about the subjective components of an application that most schools seem less concerned with.