Mmmk, this is going to be a little lengthy but I’d really, really appreciate any help/advice anyone can give me.
I’m 20, 21 in April. I graduated from high school in 2009, in North Carolina. I made almost entirely straight A’s (one B, second semester of senior year, what can I say, like many, I slacked a little at that point), and got a 2220 on the SATs, and 4’s and 5’s on a number of AP exams. Oh, and high scores on some of the SAT subject tests, and I was a National Merit Semi-Finalist. I had decent extra-curricular activities. When I applied to college in my senior year of high school, I had great scholarship offers to some really good schools.
However, I did not go a traditional route from there. From 2009-2010, I was a university student in a foreign country. It was not a US-accredited school, so I don’t expect credit for it, and intend to apply now as a freshman in the US again, citing this experience when asked to explain a gap in my education. It is additionally complicated by the fact that I didn’t complete my first semester there, only the second, because halfway through the first semester, I was a victim of a crime and couldn’t cope with being abroad and dealing with that. However, I returned and completed my second semester with what I think would be about a 3.0GPA on an American scale. I also wrote for the school newspaper and was editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper put out during a weeklong Model United Nations conference.
After that semester, in the fall of 2010, a close relative of mine was very ill. This, as well as a couple of other, lesser, family and personal problems, meant I didn’t return to school. Instead, I came home and got a job. I worked at this job from August 2010 to September 2011, and still occasionally do work for the company, though I don’t work there full time anymore. As of now, I have not been able to find another job. I have traveled some, and looked for another job. However, I am ready to return to school at this point.
Money is an issue. I intend to apply as a freshman not only because I don’t think that my credits would transfer, but because many scholarships are available only to incoming freshman. Am I wrong in thinking that I would no longer be considered for these scholarships? I still have the same good track record from high school, only now with a bit of interesting life experience on top of that.
So basically, if you’ve managed to read all that, I’d really like to know:
a. Do you think I should apply as a freshman or a transfer student?
b. What should I say to explain my time since high school?
c. Compared to when I first graduated high school, how do you think my chances are for admission/scholarships? To give you a point of reference, the school I was most considering in the US was Fordham University, which offered me a full-tuition scholarship and a place in their honors program at that point.
d. Does anyone know if there is a way to simply re-activate my past application, with the additional information about what I’ve been doing, to a school I applied to 3 years ago, rather than doing the whole process of high school transcripts etc. again?
e. Anything else you think I should know??
Thank you for your help!