I have a Unique Case and Need Insight

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

over my three years in high school I’ve been very sick, Freshman year I had double pneumonia and sophomore year i had a massive, major surgery that took me out of school for a semester and a half. Because of this same surgery I ended up having to have 4 others due to the same complication and I am now just over the last of these procedures half way through Junior year on top of depression due to my poor health and other things. My current GPA is 3.4 unweighted and 4.6 or something weighted (without Junior year factored in). Please keep in mind i go to a college prep very academically demanding high school. I’m in the process of looking/visiting schools and my list so far is:
University of Rochester
Gordon College
Bucknell university
Colgate university
Liberty university
Boston university

I really feel all but Gordon and Liberty are out of the question but my guidance counselor says that it isn’t and I’m not sure i believe him. He says that if I include a letter about my health and how I caught up on all of my missed work in all my classes (which are all AP and honors, I’ll include a list below) on top of my high school’s merit I have a better chance than I think. I think I hurt myself more in the end though, I haven’t had a chance where my health has been good enough to really show what kind of student I really am. I’ve thought about repeating but no besides me thinks that’s a good idea for some reason. here are my more specific stats:

Unweighted GPA- 3.4/3.45 out of 4
weighted- 4.6/4.55 out of 5
ECs- Frisbee team frosh./soph. year, started school book club and club president for 3 years, students for life (pro-life club), robotics team soph./junior year, a Capella group all 3 years, state choir 3 years, worked/volunteered entire summer to work child care at summer camp, (i also plan, provided my health is okay, to go on a missions trip to Africa next year over spring break), national social studies honors society, national honors society
ethnicity- caucasian (middle class)
haven’t taken the SAT yet but based on the PSAT i’ll be getting a 1370
No info on ACT
APs- AP world history, AP US history, AP Lit. (we’re only allowed to start taking APs in soph. year which is only 1, AP world. Junior year we can take 3 APs, AP US history, AP lit and AP chem. - AP chem didn’t fit in my schedule.)
I have strong legacy/alumni connections at Liberty.

Freshman year-
Honors lit. and comp.
Honors algebra 1
Honors physical science
Honors civics
Honors Latin 1
Chorus (not honors available)
intro to Catholicism (not honors available)

Soph. year-
honors world lit.
honors geometry
honors chemistry
AP world history
honors Latin 2
chorus (not honors available)
Church history (not honors available)

Junior year-
AP lit.
honors algebra 2
honors biology
AP US history
Honors spanish 1 (never taken spanish before, couldn’t take Latin 3 due to schedule conflict)
Honors chorus (1st time made honors available)
Catholic morality

and projected senior year-
AP Brit lit.
honors pre-calc
AP biology (2X period with lab)
AP modern euro.
AP music theory
apologetics/world religions

The other thing too is i will only be presenting half of my senior year grades which may give me a slight boost and i’m likely to do better on the SAT without my health in the way also I can get good letters of recommendation since I spent a lot of individual time with my teachers and I’ve been told if I try hard enough I can write a killer essay.

anyway, please help i’m feeling kind of down at the moment and I’m not sure I can make it into any of these places, letter(s), essays, course rigor or letters from doctors regardless.

2

Hey! Cheer up! First off, your credentials aren’t bad at all especially factoring in your situation. I strongly recommend that you work hard your senior year, study for the SAT, write your essays and put together your application to the best of your ability. Use the ‘Additional Information’ section on the CommonApp to explain your situation. Also, ask your teachers and counsellor to include everything you’ve achieved despite your sickness in their LORs and comment on how commendable it is. Don’t repeat, you don’t need it. All the best :slight_smile:

3

I can only reply in regards to Bucknell.

First, take a deep breath and focus on your remaining years in high school.

Then, contact your regional admissions counselor!!! They are your best friend!! Seriously, the ones at Bucknell are so nice and make you feel so valid and welcome. Seriously, I :heart: mine.

Second, in the Common App, there’s a section that allows you to explain if you had missed any extended periods of school, just so the schools you are applying to know.

Bucknell’s average GPA for incoming freshman is 3.56, so you’re not that far off (granted, I don’t know how they calculate it, and it may be different from how your school calculates it)

Regarding your test scores, have you considered the ACT? Personally, I liked that one a lot more. It depends on what your strengths are. Second, if you really want to boost your application, take the SAT Subject tests! (Personally, I just think they’re another way for college admissions to drain money from us, and didn’t take them, but they might help, so there’s that).

But, contact you regional admissions counselors for each of these schools so they can help you with the process. None of these schools will reject you because of an illness because a. It’s illegal and b. They understand.

PS: From your class list it sounds like you go to a private school, which helps w/ logistics since your school doesn’t have 500+ kids to do college stuff with each year. More time for you!

4

You are a fighter - congratulations on all you’ve accomplished and the hurdles you’ve had to overcome. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been. It sounds like you are now recovered and ready to take on the next battle - college admissions.

I’m “just” a mom going through the process with DC#2 so any advice I give is based on personal experience, not professional. First thoughts,

  • @lottytotty offered some great suggestions.
  • BU, Colgate and Bucknell are challenges for almost everyone, but given your background and progress they don’t seem out of reach.
    • would you consider doing a 5th year at a boarding or prep school to really get on solid ground?
  • make the most of the time you have this summer and fall. Can you take a summer class at a local university or do an internship?
  • unfortunately, test scores do matter. Take the SAT and the ACT asap so you’ll know which style of test is a better fit, then prep, prep and prep some more in that test so you’ll be ready for the fall.
  • expand college your list a bit. Seems like you have safeties and reaches. Look for some fits with your current stats.

Finally, look to the future and focus on moving forward and on staying positive. Maybe you feel down because the college process seems overwhelming, but work with your parents and GC to take on tasks step by step and it is completely doable. Look at all you’ve accomplished so far!! Best wishes!!

5

Your case isn’t as rare as you might think; a lot of students have health problems which wreak havoc on their grades. Colleges understand this, and will be willing to forgive some weaknesses in your application. They know it’s not your fault!

You seem to have taken very rigorous classes and you have good grades, especially considering your health issues. What you can do now is to study hard for your standardized tests. If you score high enough on these, colleges can see that your GPA doesn’t reflect your full potential and that you are in fact academically prepared for selective schools.

These schools are not “out of the question.” Your grades aren’t bad, and with good test scores and essays, as well as a letter from your doctor or counselor explaining that your health prevented you from performing your best, you will be just fine.

6

@lottytotty thank you for your feedback about Bucknell! I’m visiting next month and am really looking forward to it, everything i’ve heard from multiple people about it made me look into it! It always sort of freaks me out when I look at scattergrams and stuff for my range and see so many “denied.” So in the end it’s good to hear that i’m not crazy. Thank you for the idea about contacting regional admissions officers, I hadn’t thought about that!

7

@jmek15 mom advice is often better than professional, so I hold your advice in high esteem if it counts! Thank you for the response, I really thought no one was going to answer, currently I do go to a prep school and a dear family friend of ours is helping me out studying months in advance for both the SAT and ACT, I will definitely be looking for internships this summer now! One of the things throwing my counselor for a loop is that my GPA isn’t the highest yet I take really difficult classes (our guidance counselors have to chose two schools for us to look at that them deem “comfortable” fits, they were university of rochester and bucknell, his reasoning was they were close enough in stats that my course rigor should make up for the gpa. We ourselves are then told to pick one medium (Gordon), one safety (liberty) and two reaches (colgate and BU).) Yes this is all feeling VERY overwhelming haha, but best of luck to your daughter, hope she ends up at her top pick!

8

@koreanstudent Thank you for your insight! I’ve tried googling the subject and have searched multiple forums but nobody seems to really talk about it besides using depression in their essays nor has any admissions officer really commented on such occurrences (at least that I’ve found) and its weight over admissions. I’ve been preparing slowly but surely, wish me luck!

9

Since you attend a Catholic school, I’d replace Liberty with Catholic University of America in DC, as well as LaSalle in Philadelphia which would be a better financial safety than Gordon while insuring strong academics.
Holy Cross would be similar to Bucknell but your attending a Catholic school would also give you an edge.
Not Catholic but a school with lots of Catholics would be St Olaf, a low reach for you.
St Bonaventure, St Anselm, St Michael’s, Siena, St Joseph /St Benedict, UScranton, Saint Louis University, Providence, would all be good Catholic matches that would take your character and background into account.
For conservative protestant colleges, look at Hillsdale, Grove City, Hope.
As mentioned in #3, contact your regional representative and ask questions. Show interest.
And prepare their best you can for the sat oebthe act, those will matter a lot. Especially if you need scholarships.
Finally, congratulations. Kudos for your hard work and strength, not many teens can withstand what you went through. You could absolutely take a PG year, one because it’d give you one more year to get better and two because it’d give you a better shot at your top schools.

10

@MYOS1634 thank you for your comment! Actually I am not Catholic, I’m Protestant , I go to a Catholic school because it offers better academics, I’ve looked at several of the colleges you’ve suggested for conservative Protestants and they’re all a bit too far from home for me (i did seriously consider Hillsdale for a while) except apparently Grove City which I hadn’t heard of until now, I’ll have to look into it! I also hadn’t considered a PG year, i’ll also have to do more research on it, thank you