<p>So college admissions went well for me. I'm going to tufts next fall. For my friend, not so much.</p>
<p>He was rejected at all of the schools he applied to. I know that this includes Marist and Montclair State, maybe others, but I can't remember.</p>
<p>His stats</p>
<p>Freshman Sophmore Year: 1.3-1.6 GPA (Not sure exact number)</p>
<p>He was heavily involved in drugs and alcohol and didn't put any effort in school at all. At this time he was in some classes believe college prep level.</p>
<p>Junior and Senior Year: 3.5-3.8 GPA (Not sure, again)</p>
<p>He completely turned it around these two years. He stopped drinking and doing drugs. He became much more dedicated to his studies and is even in AP Government and Honors Western Civ this year. Amazing story for a kid who was in B level history freshman year. (one level below college prep)</p>
<p>I believe his cumulative GPA is somewhere around a 2.6. I don't think he's in the top 50% of the class, but probably close to it.</p>
<p>He's taken the SAT three times, and he hasn't done that well. His superscore is a 1570. Breakdown is 560M/490CR/520W</p>
<p>He doesn't have much extracurricular involvement. He has done baseball three years of high school (He was cut sophomore year) and he will be getting his Varsity letter this year. Freshman year he actually won the batting title for the freshman team, but fell out of shape sophomore year.</p>
<p>Senior year he made the JV bowling team, with a few varsity starts but I don't think he lettered.</p>
<p>Besides that, he isn't in any clubs, but he has worked at shoprite. Freshman year he did about 15hr/wk during school, and sophomore about 25hr/wk until baseball. During the summer before freshman year he worked, and I think he's worked between junior and senior year.</p>
<p>Now, I know the kid doesn't sound like much, but he's had a lot to go through. His mother died when he was very young, and his father is no longer in custody of him, I believe he is struggling with alcohol and drug related problems, and is near the poverty line. He lives with grandparents who are not very involved with his educational life. His grandfather is retired but his grandmother works, making somewhere around 50K. His grandparents also have 3 adopted siblings that they take care of, all of them younger than my friend.</p>
<p>He is a very shy kid who has taken great initiative to improve his grades but he still needs some help. He sent out applications to Rutgers and Stockton, and still hasn't heard back from Ramapo College, but he's not expecting to get in. He told me recently that his guidance councilor told him not to complete his application for rutgers, as he was past the deadline, but I believe Rutgers is still on a rolling basis, and at that point I was so fed up with the lack of help this kid is getting that I felt I needed to do something. </p>
<p>Tonight I went over a list of colleges still taking applications and came up with a few for him to consider.</p>
<p>Alfred
Duqesne
Niagra
U Mass - Boston
Kutztown</p>
<p>Kean (Instate)
William Paterson (Instate)</p>
<p>I feel that judging by the numbers, he has a shot at all of these places. Though I expect it to be much harder to get in at this point in college admissions. Perhaps for the out of state schools, they may be willing to take an out of stater to improve diversity.</p>
<p>I have a bigger concern at the moment - financial aid. Some of the out of state schools are quite expensive, but I feel that with his circumstances he would definitely qualify for financial aid. However, he has not completed the FAFSA or the CSS profile, and I don't think his grandparents know much about it. I've already been told his dad would have to file paperwork for that, though as I mentioned before his dad is very financially weak and does not have a great relationship with his son. </p>
<p>Tomorrow I plan on calling the financial aid offices of those schools to see if they would still offer need based aid. Otherwise, I assume his choices are going to be limited to instate schools. I really just don't want to see him going to community college, even though it seems like the best option, he worked very hard the past two years and turned his life around, and I know he has dreams of attending Syracuse or Holy Cross as a transfer student. I think starting off in a four year university would help those chances.</p>
<p>If you've read this far, thank you very much. He's a bright student who deserves a chance to learn and succeed. I know this is an exhaustingly long post, and any imput you have would be much appreciated.</p>