I just have one more question… Is it unlikely that I get accepted off the bat because of my lack of a high school record, (+the bad year), and lack of a GPA, or is it because of my ACT being 32? Or both?
Both. But honestly, you probably have to fix both for top colleges. You can go to college. What is your actual eventual goal for a career?
I want to study philosophy and theology for undergrad, for personal development and for learning to think analytically. I can only afford that “luxury” if I can also accomplish the other half of the plan, which is law school. Philosophy grads score really well on the LSAT, but if for some reason I couldn’t get into a decent law school, I also could not afford to be another starving philosophy major…
In short, I’d like to be a lawyer.
Intparent, do you know the saying about lawyers? “99% of lawyers make the 1% look bad?” I’d like to be that one percent. I think if I apply myself, I can be a force for good in this world. That’s really my motivation. I know I will be able to help someone, someday. I heard about a guy’s sister on a talk show, and she’s a lawyer out of California somewhere that does pro bono work for refugees. That’s the goal… To be able to help, rather than need to be helped. Sounds cheesy, whatever. Thanks for the advice Intparent, I’ve got to get some rest.
Sorry, I think you have the whole impression wrong and it’s distorted in your mind.
Colleges look for people who will make a difference and a name for themselves. That’s why they look for people with amazing, tough stories who rose up and accomplished great things. It shows a lot about a person who can’t walk but is a track coach. It shows a lot about someone who was neglected as a child but decided to pioneer a big brother program in their valley. They look for people who can do the most with their circumstances in hopes that they change the world and benefit the college.
You had this amazing story. Yet, instead of doing the absolute best with what is available, you sort of see your status as a cheat card into these elite colleges. This is amplified by the glorification of stories such as “Homeless to Harvard” which distort your view immensely.
Set your sights on something more realistic. You say you are “ambitious”, but I feel like you are just saying that so people don’t call out your sob story. If you really are ambitious, go to an affordable college. If you are actually ambitious, it will shine through. But right now, you seem like someone who merely cares about prestige and want to use your circumstances as a scapegoat for, yet again, another distorted view of what prestige really means.
What? I just used that hollywood movie title so people would be more interested, click more, and then I could get more advice.
Why have you assumed that I haven’t done my “absolute best with what is available”? Last year, I couldn’t have possibly gotten the scores that I did on the ACT and the subject tests. Instead of watching hollywood movies, and montages, I studied every day. I sat down to the idea of college without even being able to the basics, and I don’t have a support group, dude. Ok? I just self-taught all the way, but that’s not making the “absolute best with what is available”??
The colleges that I’d like to apply to have philosophy departments out of this world. For example, you may think, on an assumption, that I want to go to Notre Dame for “prestige”, but I’m more interested in studying under Alvin Platinga, who has written immensely important books like “God and Other Minds”, and refuted the problem of evil and suffering and written on free will.
Plus, who said I have to set my dreams to fit inside of other people’s boxes?
If I could somehow get into a great college with a powerful philosophy department, why shouldn’t I?
Oh, and I don’t have a “sob” story, or a cheat card. That’s just insulting. I am a human being with a past. I tried to write down my past, and you call it a sob story…
If you don’t like me, don’t look at me, so to say.
In case you didn’t know, any college would prefer a kid with a GPA over one who got dragged all over the country is a gamble.
Your idea that having my background is a cheat card is grounded in a misconception, probably from watching the very movie you criticized me for. The truth is that a GPA is much more valuable than a background like mine, unless your absorbed in Hollywood culture and you think the underdog always wins.
The underdog doesn’t always win. Usually, he just dies or gets thrown to the side.
I’ve reread your post, once more, and I can’t see where you got your ideas from. I’m just going to assume you read it fast, or something.
It feels like your just on here to tell me that
A: It can’t be done.
B: What naïveté that I even tried,
C: Get real, people like me don’t get to go to (really) good colleges.
and
D: Shame on me for even trying.
Thanks, but no thanks. If I wanted to settle, I’d have made a post called “Homeless to Community College, sixth grade dropout settles because of the stigmas and social classes associated with his background”
But I didn’t. So don’t give me a lesson on the real world, and how a movie has distorted my conception of it. I know the real world plenty well, though I am young and inexperienced, but I can tell you that it’s cold and it will bring you down and try to keep you from your goals, and the people in the world can at times be just as bad, trying to bring you down and keep you from your goals.
What people are saying is that you can TRY, but Harvard has a NINETY-FIVE PERCENT REJECTION RATE. Almost nobody gets in. NOBODY. So you need to be smart about this and apply to a wide range of schools that you can afford to attend. Otherwise you’ll be back here in a year wondering why you didn’t get in anywhere, just like several threads we’ve seen in the past month.
You may think people are being negative. Think whatever you want to think about that; many students who post here just want people to agree with them, so they cry meanness when the facts don’t line up with their worldview.
Here are the facts:
95 people of every 100 who apply do not get the opportunity to go to Harvard.
Your ACT of 32 is the 25th percentile at Harvard. This means 75% of freshmen have a higher ACT. (http://oir.harvard.edu/common-data-set)
Your subject tests aren’t all that high either–some people say the percentiles are useless but I think that’s crap, since numbers mean nothing without percentiles. Spanish 720 is 66th percentile. Lit 680: 66th. World History 680: 67th. Math I 700: 73rd. Perfectly fine and quite impressive for someone with little formal education!.. If you’re not banking on getting into one of the most selective schools in the country. (https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-subject-tests/scores/understanding-scores scroll down)
You seem to see realism as “crushing your dreams.” Nobody said, “You’re an idiot and don’t deserve to get into Harvard.” They said it’s almost impossible even for someone who’s excelled in everything.
“If you really are ambitious, you’ll go to an affordable college (which really means settle)”
What an oxymoron. If I’m NOT ambitious, I’ll settle. If I AM ambitious I’ll bump that 32 to a 35, or 36, and get into a really good college.
At least, due to criticism and naysaying and socio-economic shaming, I’m sure I’m on the right track. The more you or others tell me it can’t be done, the happier I’ll be when I’m looking back on it, and I did it. Call it delusions of grandeur, or whatever, but I can’t talk about it anymore. I’ve got to study some more.
[-(
Look, if you really want to go to Harvard, (or any ivy), it’s most likely not going to be for undergrad. If you take advantage of every opportunity given to you during your undergrad, and do some impressive work or even publish something, (you said you were ambitious, right?), maybe you can go to grad or law school at an ivy. Right now, you should explore some more realistic options in Texas. UT has a good philosophy department, but that is going to be a reach. TAMU has auto admit for people with an ACT over 31, but I think you have to be in the top 25% as well, but maybe the admissions officers will understand your situation. Those are both reaches, UT is a “public ivy”, and has a strong law school as well. If law school is your goal, then do well on the LSAT, and have a good GPA in college. This will get you admitted, not the prestige of your undergrad school. Also, when telling your life story, don’t seek sympathy, simply state it in a way to demonstrate why you are in the situation you are in.
“For the other schools, they basically say on their websites “don’t worry about the money”, in so many words.”
OP, wherever you end up applying, you need to understand the finances first. You do need to worry about the money. Each school’s website has a Net Price Calculator. Use it to figure out if a school might be affordable.
You said you had an injury while you were working. Are you getting Worker’s Comp for that? That will be counted. If your father remarries, his wife’s income will also be counted. Some schools may require you to also add in your mother’s income as well.
Good luck to you.
Bodangles, thanks for your advice. Your right, I know. My percentile scores are absolute crap. I need to fix them. I will. I’m working on it literally all day today, and tomorrow, then church on Sunday, and repeat…
And yes, I misread some things.
I have a question, if I get my scores to near perfect, on everything I test on, even hypothetically, and adding my volunteer work at the women’s shelter, will that make it possible to get into ND? Or other schools of similar selectivity? Thanks for your response.
Please remember, I’ve also got safeties… This is a do-it-if-I-can thing, but definitely not an all-or-nothing type of thing… I’m going to some college, somewhere, for sure.
Thank you for the advice. I’ll look into the financial aspect of it more.
Thanks for the long response. I have thought about that, but I read that top law schools are selective about the applicant’s undergrad school, which is why I’ve been trying to get into a top undergrad school. This can throw the whole thing off… But I see what your saying, that if I have a good enough GPA and LSAT, maybe they will overlook it. And as far as publishing something, how did you know I’m writing a novel? Just kidding, but I am. It’s got potential. But it’s as unlikely to get published as I am to get into Harvard, lol.
It’ll be ok, though. Thanks again for the advice.
Please check out the admissions statistics for Brown this year:
https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/explore/admission-facts
See? 76% of kids with a perfect 36 ACT are rejected. 81% of Valedictorians (perfect 4.0 for sure) are rejected. Your other top 5 schools will be similar.
The news is tough to hear, but you have virtually no chance at your list of six. Having missed all of middle school, most of high school, no GPA, no LORs from teachers puts you at an unsurmountable disadvantage for those top top schools.
Others here have given you really good advice and you should take it to heart. There are very good paths forward where you can demonstrate your perseverance, rack up a solid transcript, then do great things in your life.
(oh and don’t make your/you’re mistakes…that’s a killer on an application.)
You have done an amazing job of educating yourself, given your situation. It is truly impressive. Congratulations.
When other posters are telling you that it is unlikely that you will get in, that has less to do with you and more to do with the fact that they know how difficult it is to get in, and how many amazing students do not get in. It is not minimizing your extraordinary achievement in any way. Poster here have repeatedly seen students overestimate the relative strength of their application, and end up being admitted to no colleges at all because they only applied to top schools. What you perceive as a putdown, is really them trying to make sure that does not happen to you.
While it is possible that a top 20 school will admit you, it is unlikely because they have 10 or 20 applicants for every seat in their class. Top schools are so competitive for the few seats that they have that they reject most valedictorians, and most students with perfect SAT and ACT scores.
Because your situation is somewhat unusual, there is an unusually wide range of potential outcomes in my opinion.
I develop a list of all of the in-state options because out-of-state publics usually do not offer financial aid. UT, TAMU, University of Houston, UT-Dallas etc. Do not assume that any school is beneath you or your range until you have been admitted to a school, then you can ignore the schools ranked lower than that one.
For each one, investigate the school website to see whether they have any major you want, whether they offer Early Action admissions, and whether they offer an alternative path to admissions. For example, UT has a community college program called PACE. If you are admitted, you take most freshman courses at a community college, and if you complete the program successfully you will be in UT as a sophomore. Here is the link: http://admissions.utexas.edu/enroll/pace
I would read the details about that page and then post on their sub-forum here on cc: or contact the schools to see whether you may be a good candidate, or what you could do to become a good candidate. None of this means that you can’t also apply to some top private schools. However, if you can get into a school like UT or another one of the excellent public schools in Texas, and are able to excel there, you will have a great shot and top law schools. You can end up in the same place, you just many have to make more interim steps than you planned.
Thanks so much for your advice.
Muchtolearn, thanks for the information and for the advice. I’m going to check out your link. I appreciate the thought out reply.
Just to add, you cant sign up for Pace. It’s only offered to students applying to UT for their freshman year who just barely miss out on admission
OP: give it a try. As long as you have a solid backup plan. You never know.
Curious how any school would look at the “no GPA” thing. It may be that you have to go to CC just to have a GPA/recommendations just to apply for a transfer. That is the biggest hurdle in my mind. Perhaps this summer while you are studying, start up correspondence with a few schools asking them how a student like you should proceed without those items. If it is a “no go”, they will tell you, and at least you will know.
My intuition is that you have very little chance bc you are missing 2 of the 4 main app elements. But you should find out from those schools directly. Good luck!