High school student NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Applying to College
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My downwards spiral began junior year.

Junior year was horrible for me…I had a 4.0 straight A’s before junior year. I took 6 AP classes, but then got 2 C+s first semester senior year in AP Calc BC ( I got an A in AP Calc AB and then transferred to AP Calc BC and the teacher did not let me redo missed hw :confused: ) and AP Spanish.

2nd semester I dropped AP Spanish and got A’s and B+s in all my other classes

However, My counselor told me that I was very academically behind so over the summer I registered to take 6 college classes. Before the summer started, I had my schedule approved and ready for the summer. I was doing well with my classes, and I took two classes during the A term. However, during late-June I got a call from my high school saying that I needed to drop 4 college classes in order to get under the credit hour limit. Because of this I had to drop 2 courses that I was taking, where it had passed the drop date with no record deadline, even though the reason for doing so was not due to my academic standing in the class. Before dropping the college courses, I called the college academic advising office as well an office just for high schoolers and they reassured me that because I was a high school student, I could drop the classes without any record.

Now my counselor emailed and said I am 4 credit hours over and I need to drop AP class AND I will get mark W for withdrawal for both summer classes “I dropped after the college drop date” .

My chances were already slim last year, I’m just screwed I have good ecs (3X ISEF, 80+ hour volunteering, internships ,etc.), but that doesn’t matter if a computer just filters me out and tosses my application away.

I’m just so frustrated. Idk…any advice on what to do

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First of all, relax. This is not all that bad.

A “W” just means that you withdrew from the class. You were taking too many classes. Withdrawing from a couple of them makes sense. 6 AP classes at the same time is too much.

The main issue here is that you took on too much work all at the same time. You should learn a lesson from this: In life there are challenges. Each of us has some rate at which we can take on these challenges. We do not want to take on too little and be bored. However, we also need to be careful not to take on too much. We each need to learn our own pace. There is a limit for every single one of us, and you exceeded your limit. You tried to jump ahead too quickly.

I was a math major and got a master’s degree in a subfield of mathematics. Trust me, there really are math classes that you are not yet ready for. That is okay. You will be ready in your own time.

There might also be an issue with not listening to your academic advisor. Us old people really do have some experience that you can learn from.

To me it sounds like you will still be fine for admissions to a good university. All of this just looks like you are a strong and ambitious student who took on too much. You probably will not get into Harvard or MIT, but you probably still would not have gotten into these schools even with nothing but A’s. There are hundreds of very good universities and you should be able to get into many that will offer you a good education.

Some universities will in some cases ask for senior year grades. Some will not. You should not be surprised if after you have applied to universities some will come back and ask for your first semester grades senior year. You should plan to do well just in case this happens.

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This post makes no sense. 6 APs Junior? year but way academically behind. Enrolled In 6 classes at a college in a summer term. I don’t think that either is possible.

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Whoa. Calm down.

First of all, a computer doesn’t filter you out.
Secondly, there are many great colleges that would love to have you, so you are in no way screwed.
Thirdly, ECs are great to have if you enjoy them. College admissions should be a secondary reason for doing ECs. If you think ECs are the reason why people get into top colleges, you are only partially correct. It’s a combination of many factors that gets kids into top colleges.

I’m very confused as to why you thought it was necessary to take six college courses in the summer. That seems excessive by any standard. If a top college is your goal, you are probably aware that they aren’t impressed by high schoolers taking excessive college courses.

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Slim for what?

Have you graduated from high school? That’s unclear. If so…did you apply to colleges as a HS senior.

And six college courses during a summer term when courses are very condensed? Who advised you to do that?

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TBH I’m pretty average / below average at my high school. I know someone who took 13 AP classes (taking 7 in school and self studying the rest). My weighted gpa is 4.8, yet I have 2 C’s which is confusing. It has kinda disvalued my work in :confused:

That’s why I ended up taking college course over the summer to recover my gpa and I ended up with As in all the classes I took.

Yet my gpa is still really low for my high school… im in multivariable Calculus (a local college professor comes to our school to teach) this year (about 70 people in the class) and there are already 30-40 people in Differential Equations/ Real Analysis/ Calc 4. That’s why my counselor told me that if I am aiming for top schools I am “behind” (at least a gpa of 5.0 or above, people in Calc 4 have an average of 5.5+).

Currently I am interested din apply for environmental engineering, biomed/Biophysics, or microbiology. I’ve calculated my UC weighted and capped gpa to be 3.91. Based on that, my current plan is to SCEA to Yale and then apply EA 6-7 of my safeties/targets like Uwash, UVA, Rutgers, The Ohio State University (in state), Georgia Tech, UMD, UMass Amherst, and Cal Poly SLO. I am also applying to 4-5 of the UCs.

My plan currently is the EA to as many safeties as possible, ED 2 to JHU, and the RD to an additional schools depending on where I get in.

Any ideas on where to go from here ??

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There are people at my HS who took 10-13 AP classes last year. They took 7 APs in school and then self studied for the remains ones, usually “easier” classes like AP research, seminar, Enviromental science, human geography, or psychology.

Then if they get a 3 higher on the exam, they get credit for the class.

My counselor just told me about this and explained people have been doing this since 7-8th grade. My currently weighted gpa is a 4.8 and a 3.91 UC weighted gpa. My counselor suggested that I take more classes over the summer to compensate for my poor performance last year (due to my parents divorce, relatives dying of COVID, getting an A in Calc AB and then my teacher suggested that I move to Calc BC and I failed :/, and my uncle passing away- the main person who inspired me to go into science)
Just a perfect storm of disaster.

For all those reasons I struggled and barely made it out last year.

I made it clear that I wanted to go to the best college possibly, and my counselor told me about what people had been doing and I was shocked by what was going on. I middle school I took HS classes and thought I was ahead, apparently I was so behind I didn’t even know :confused:

Im just a little in shock right now and trying to piece together what I can before college apps.

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The UC’s also consider the UC Fully Weighted GPA in their application review so you should calculate that GPA.

Here is some 2021 admit rates based on the Capped Weighted UC GPA and being below a 4.0 will make the UC’s a difficult admit for STEM majors.

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 30% 11% 2% 1%
Davis 85% 55% 23% 10%
Irvine 60% 31% 14% 1%
Los Angeles 29% 6% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 98% 96% 89%
Riverside 97% 92% 62% 23%
San Diego 72% 25% 2% 0%
Santa Barbara 73% 28% 4% 1%
Santa Cruz 91% 81% 46% 9%

Cal Poly SLO should be consider a Reach school depending upon applied major. Did you calculate your SLO GPA (9-11th grade a-g courses with an 8 semester Honors cap)?

Best of luck

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I’m a bit confused by some of this post but trying to follow along! :wink:

I’ll add that you do seem to have some realistic targets in your list along with lots of reaches. I think tOSU will be a safety in state? Before deciding on any ED schools, have you run the NPC with your parents to confirm affordability? Sorry if I missed that, but that should be step 1.

I won’t dive into more budget conversations unless asked but did want to point out that is essential to an ED decision. Again, sorry if I missed that if already addressed.

Edit: I just saw your last post and hugs to you. That’s a lot for anyone to deal with much less a teen. You should be proud of what you’ve accomplished to date and give yourself some grace.

For what it’s worth, I believe there are diminishing returns once a student passes 6-8 APs. It’s unusual at a national level and AOs know when students are self studying for APs and don’t give it the same weight.

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Thanks for you encouraging words :slight_smile:

I just ran the net price calculator (never used one before…glad to be learning more about college admissions)

For tOSU, with the limited information I have, it came down to less than 10k a year

Although my parents are separated now, they have agreed to pay for my college.

I either have to go to a safety / state school or be lucky enough to get good aid from a private school.

Any recommendations for schools to look at??
I’m a environmental engineering / micro biology major, location does not matter, preferably on the west or east coasts or in the south.

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Good for you learning more about the affordability part of attending college! A lot of students find out much too late to adjust their application lists.

Next step is to run the NPCs for Yale and JHU and let us know if they’re affordable (show your parents the cost of attendance and make sure they are okay paying it). This will tell you if meet-need privates are affordable. Here are the links.

Once you answer that, we can help adjust your list. Some of the out of state publics (like Cali) will not offer any aid to OOS students. So your parents would have to agree to $67k per year. There are many options less than that if your family decides that’s out of budget.

https://admissions.yale.edu/estimate-your-cost

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Could you clarify your current status? When you say you got two C+ first semester senior year…are you currently a high school senior?

Assuming you are applying as a first year to colleges for fall 2023…you can have your guidance counselor write a note and/or you can write a note about extenuating circumstances in that you withdrew from classes not because you were doing poorly but because you were advised you were over the credit limit after the add/drop date.

I am not sure which credit limit you were over? I believe this used to be an issue but now anything taken before graduation should allow you to maintain freshman status for college applications.

Regardless, 6 actual college classes over the summer is INSANE. Those are compressed classes and usually people take 1-2. 6 college classes is already a super heavy load during a regular term (usually people take 4-5).

Speak with your guidance about the best way to explain your Ws.

I also recommend taking a step back and figuring out whether you are not seeking out guidance, or if you are misunderstanding the guidance you receive, or if you are rushing off without checking guidance…because any of these can get you into a similar situation in college or beyond.

You also need to stop comparing yourself to others at your super high-flying high school.

There are amazing colleges out there that aren’t T20 and accept most of their applicants. It looks like you have some good target/safeties but I would also try to identify 1-2 true safeties where you could be happy. I am not saying don’t aim for a few “reach” schools. But even with a 4.0 UW and a 1600 SAT and amazing ECs and top of your class, the odds are still against you at schools like Yale and JHU.

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Excellent post.

OP, I’m sensing a lot of panic. What’s a good college? It’s not necessarily Yale. A good college is one where you can thrive and be happy. I’m concerned that you don’t seem to know a lot about JHU when it is notorious for an intense, competitive culture. Does that seem like a place where you will succeed and be happy?

This is not a curse. There is nothing wrong with going to a safety school. A safety school for you is going to be another kid’s dream school.

This was obviously a tough time for you. But I will be honest. There are many other students who have faced a lot of personal challenges and kept all their grades up. Those kids are your “competition.”

Again, the best college possible for you does not have to be Yale or JHU.

There are a lot of red flags in your post. You can’t do much about the high school you attend, but you do not seem the type of person who does their best in a cutthroat and ubercompetitive environment. You seem to have panicked at the GC’s information and bitten off way more than you could chew by taking six college courses in a summer.

Wouldn’t you like to have a little time to enjoy being a teenager and have fun in your senior year? Make your life a little less stressful and find more colleges that are right for you, not colleges that you feel compelled to apply to because everyone else in your school applies to them.

Give yourself a break. Put a few reaches on, but put more matches and safeties on your list. There are many top schools that would love to have you.

Look at UC Boulder, Purdue, UIUC, U Wisconsin Madison, U Florida, UMN Twin Cities, UCSB, UCD, UCSD, UMD College Park. These are all EXCELLENT schools. There are many others. Engineering programs are often incredibly competitive and I am not an expert, but for any engineering, I think UIUC and Purdue are really tough admits.

You have a LOT of options. Please do yourself a favor. You will definitely go to college. It’s much healthier to get excited about realistic options and put a lot of effort into submitting good apps to the schools that don’t necessarily have single digit acceptance rates.

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