I might not be able to get into college!!Please give some advice to a desperate girl!

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi,
I'm currently a sophomore in high school. I'm freaking out because I let a lot of things get to me that shouldn't have, and because of that my grades dropped. This year and freshmen year, I went through some tough familial issues, and made friends with all the wrong people. Now,looking back on my grades and behaviors, I've realized the stupidity of all my actions and I am slowly trying to change. However, I'm freaked out that I won't get into college.</p>

<pre><code>I go to a school with over 2400 students, 600 of them are graduating in my class, and it's hard to get more than five minutes with my counselor. I was wondering if there was any advice you guys could offer me that I can utilize to succeed in the rest of high school.

My grades freshmen and the beginning of sophomore year have been horrible. Here are my current statistics and the courses I have taken.
</code></pre>

<p>Weighted GPA: 3.6
Unweighted GPA: 3.3
Sophomore PSAT score: 192
Projected SAT score: I have been taking practice SAT exams and my scores range between the 1900's and the 2100's.</p>

<p>In my high school, each letter grade is on a seven-point scale. So, an A would be a 93-100. The classes I got B's or A's in - I did well, and if my school system didn't grade on a seven- point scale, most of my B's would be A's. Too bad colleges don't care about that. :(</p>

<p>Freshman Year Classes
English 1 Honors (B)
Algebra 1 Adv. (B)
Gym (B)
Speech (B)
Biology Honors (B)
World History Honors (A)
Journalism (A)
Algebra Two (D) *** I'm retaking this over the summer of 2011 on an online course. ***</p>

<p>Sophomore Year Classes
Holocaust & Genocide in World Studies Honors (A)
Chemistry Honors (D) *** I'm retaking this over the summer of 2011 on an online course. ***
Spanish 1 (C)
Spanish 2 (C)
Spanish 3 Honors (C)
Geometry Honors (B)
English 2 Honors (A)
Civics and Economics (B)
Marketing (A)</p>

<p>The classes I will be taking Junior year are:
US History Honors (Pre-Req. for APUSH)
AP US History
AP English 11
AP Earth Science
Advanced Functions and Modeling
Strategic Marketing Honors
Law and Justice Honors
Anatomy & Physiology Honors</p>

<p>The classes I will be taking Senior year are:
Spanish 4 Honors
AP English 12
AP Biology
AP Statistics
AP Gov. & Pol.
AP Psychology
E-Commerce 1 Honors
E-Commerce 2 Honors</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Writer for Make a Child Smile for four years
Habitat for Humanity
Founder and President of a service club at my school
Town teen council
Member of DECA and compete in competitions - made it to states, hoping to do well enough to go to nationals next year</p>

<p>My mother is a single mother who works a lot, so I'm not able to go to many events/clubs. Are there any unique things I could do to show colleges that I'm a bit more well-rounded than they think?</p>

<p>I am determined to do well Junior and Senior year, and I'm striving to get all the A's I can. I'm really trying to raise my GPA to at least a 3.6 or a 3.7 unweighted. Is this possible? Also, by retaking Honors Chem. and Alg. II, colleges will still see the D's on my transcript, but they'll also see that I took the initiative to spend my summer taking the courses over again to receive a higher grade. I really struggled with learning to take a foreign language, and my school won't let me retake those. :(</p>

<p>I plan to study super super hard in all my AP tests, and I'm hoping to make AP Scholar of Distinction, or National AP Scholar. How do colleges look at these awards?</p>

<p>The colleges I'm interested in are:
Boston University
Southern Methodist University
UNC Chapel Hill
Davidson University
Tulane University
UNC Wilmington
Emory University
NYU</p>

<p>Are there any colleges on here that would be a match? I know most of them, with my current stats, will probably reject me right away. Are there any colleges I would be a match for that I should add onto my list?</p>

<p>Also, I will be the first of my entire family to go to college in the United States. Does that make me considered the "first in my family to go to college" ?</p>

<p>Thanks everyone so so so much for reading this and for any help you could provide. Please feel free to be harsh-fully honest in any replies.</p>

2

<p>You know full well that you will still be accepted into many good colleges, and that you have much time to fix it up… I think you just want to be comforted, which is totally cool, but just ask it in a more direct way =P</p>

3

<p>I’d double-check with your counselor about whether taking that many APs for JR & SR year are really a good idea. It looks like quite a heavy load and that may make it tough to handle the academic workload. At our kids’ HS, they recommend only one or two APs rather than the 3 you have in JR year and 6 in SR year. Burning yourself out will NOT make you more appealing to any college. Really think about this and pacing yourself so you can show your abilities and improvement.</p>

4

<p>Stop ■■■■■■■■, you just want attention…get out of here.</p>

<p>You can get into like half the schools in your list with your current stats…</p>

5

<p>You have plenty of time to make it up. Just write about the reasons for your bad grades in your essay.
If you do not get in to your schools you ca always go to community college. There you can start fresh, save money, and get more 1 on 1 time.</p>

6

<p>^^ Are you kidding me?</p>

7

<p>“My mother is a single mother who works a lot, so I’m not able to go to many events/clubs.”</p>

<p>What does your financial situation look like? Is your mom a very busy well-paid executive, or is she an over-worked waitress in a diner, or does she fall somewhere in between? Is your father in the picture at all, and if so how much will he be able to put toward your college education?</p>

<p>The most important factor for college admission, is your high school transcript. Clearly you are on the way. However, the most important factor for actual college attendance is money. Even if you have perfect grades and exam scores, you can only attend the colleges that admit you if you can afford them. Sit down with your mom, and talk with her about how she expects you to pay for your education. Ask her to run the financial aid calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and at [College</a> Admissions - SAT - University & College Search Tool](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.org%5DCollege”>http://www.collegeboard.org) Find out how much she is willing and able to pay. Ask her how much money she expects you to earn by working in the summers and/or school year. Talk with her about how she feels about student loans.</p>

<p>When you make your college list, be certain that it includes at least one Rock-Solid Academic and Financial Safety. This is a place that you can pay for without any financial aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid, that you are absolutely guaranteed admission to based on your GPA and test scores, that offers your major(s), ant that you will be happy to attend if everything else goes wrong in the admissions process. For most students, this is a home-state public university or community college. For some students with excellent test scores and GPA, it is a college or university that offers guaranteed admission and financial aid for those grades and scores. Here is one list: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If your mom is new to the whole college application and financial aid process, help her create her own login, and point her to the Financial Aid and Parents Forums. You don’t have to share your login with her.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>

8

<p>Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this and reply. It really means a lot.</p>

<p>@HImom My counselor actually recommended me to take the AP’s I signed up for. They do seem like a lot, but I was told that if I wanted to be a competitive applicant, I needed to take harder courses. </p>

<p>@Parhaitiy I’m sorry I cam across as a ■■■■■. I’m not one. I don’t “just want attention”,I really am worried and concerned about my future. </p>

<p>@azumzz Are colleges ok with students writing about their reasons for bad grades? I think I heard somewhere that it wasn’t fine to “make excuses for bad grades” in essays. I could be wrong. Thanks for letting me know. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>@happymomof1 Thank you so much for your advice and links. :slight_smile: My mom does not know much about the college admissions process and financial aid, and I was able to talk to her today and go through the links you posted. They were very helpful. And wow, I had no idea about automatic merit scholarships. After reading through that thread, I definitely feel more confident about my future and was able to add more colleges to my list.</p>

9

<p>Curious,</p>

<p>One thing I would add to some of the good advice you already got, would be to try to avoid on-line courses for your algebra and chem. From what I hear, colleges don’t respect on-line courses. Since your HS won’t let you re-take those in the summer, you may want to check with another HS in your district or outside of district. In my district, students have to pay for summer courses (about $400-500 per class), but even better, take them at a community college if you can. And where I live, community college is completely tuition free for HS students. I recommend you give a call to a couple of your perspective schools admission departments and ask them about this and other questions you may have. It would answer a lot of your anxieties. I think you’ll be fine if you do pretty well your junior year, and get that 1900 plus on SAT.</p>

10

<p>Yes, one of the few courses that D did NOT get credit for from the U she transferred to was an on-line course she took at CC. They accepted nearly all her other courses.</p>

<p>I personally think you’ll be MUCH better if you don’t overload yourself and are able to get As & Bs instead of taking such a heavy courseload that you’ll have a hard time keeping up. I don’t understand how you can take both the pre-requisite for AP USH and also AP USH in JR year. That makes no sense–are you taking the pre-req in the summer? For our kids’ HS, AP USH is considered a VERY TOUGH class; S was the only boy in his class, all the others dropped it as too hard.</p>

<p>Is it normal at your school to take two sciences in the same year–Earth Science as well as Anatomy? At our kids’ HS, you could NOT take that many courses, unless some are only for one semester.</p>

<p>I guess a lot depends on what you’re trying to be competitive FOR. Many of the kids who went to our kids’ HS took the counselor’s advice and only took one or two APs/year and had many good options. It depends on how rigorous the APs are at your school and whether you really CAN and WILL do the work it takes while keeping a balance & not burning yourself out.</p>

<p>Ramping up too hard and fast can really be a poor idea, especially after this rough year and actually put you in a WORSE situation instead of an improved one. Do you have an aptitude for the courses you plan to take next year? Can you handle that much work all at one time?</p>

11

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<p>This person, is so horribly wrong. If you go to community college with your current grades, I want to personally raise hell on the person that said this.</p>

12

<p>There is NOTHING wrong with going to CC, but it’s way too early to worry about not having other options at this point. You still have your junior and senior years ahead of you. I don’t see why there is any reason to take issue with another person’s opinion. </p>

<p>My D went to CC for 3 semesters, saved us a LOT of money & is now attending the college of her dreams that was FAR out of reach due to poor HS grades. The money she saved by going to CC is helping us pay for her dream college. She got a great education at CC, with LOTS of individual attention. She & we have no regrets.</p>

<p>We ALL felt it was FAR BETTER for D to go to CC, boost her grades, get GEs out of the way, save money & then apply to her dream college rather than “settle” for a school she didn’t want to attend and would not meet her needs well because it maybe had slightly more prestige than a CC. It has worked very well for D & many others we know. CCs are MUCH better than many believe, but there are certainly a lot of people prejudiced against them, especially folks with no first-hand knowledge.</p>

13

<p>Our DD had statistics similar to yours, and higher SATs. We do not qualify for any need based financial aid. However, we discovered through this board and friends that some excellent schools offer guaranteed merit based aide for students with certain admission profiles. For example, DD applied to DePaul U, where her stats earned her 12K a year merit aide on admission without even applying separately for a scholarship. Same for Seattle U. When we visited, we were told that many excellent candidates, including our friend who took us around campus, were admitted to Ivies but elected to attend Seattle U because there were no scholarships offered for kids with your (our) statistics, where at Seattle they received up to almost a full ride. If you go on College Board, you can put in your stats and your ideas of colleges and get an immediate idea of whether a school is a reach, target, or safety. Good luck to you!</p>

14

<p>@ConcernedDad I actually have to travel a lot this summer to visit sick family, so my only option is to take them online. :(</p>

<p>@HiMom Woops, I forgot to mention that my school runs on a block schedule. I take four classes a semester. Also, APUSH is yearlong at my school, but one semester it’s considered honors, and the next semester, it’s considered AP. </p>

<p>@shoot4moon Thanks for the advice. I definitely have a lot of studying to do! I’m so glad there’s merit aid available.</p>