Lots of good advice here, but I think your chances are much better than you think. Bring those grades up and play up the environmental angle - key interest a Oberlin. I love that school too. Good luck.
It sounds like you are in a crappy high school if all you are given is busy work as homework. I’m not a fan of homework, so when it is given, it should advance the student’s knowledge and interest.
That said, you really need to be careful how you address your not turning in an assignment all year, both in your essay and in your interview. Oberlin loves the quirky, bright, non-conforming kids, but they don’t love the arrogant ones, and there are plenty of kids as bright as you obviously are who sucked it up and did their boring homework. So tread carefully.
And seriously, do get better grades this semester. You’ll need to develop good study habits to succeed in any college, and self-discipline is a great character trait in any person.
So 3 weeks into senior year and I’ve pulled 3.5 all nighters. I’ve been turning in all of my assignments and my grades across my 9 classes are looking good. I’m busy with clubs and somehow managing everything, filling up every free second I get with college research and applications. There was a student at my school who graduated my freshman year. He was a debater, head of the robotics team, and honestly really smart. But he had similar issues. graduated with like a 2.5 GPA or something like that. He is at RPI if I remember correctly for robotics and engineering, and has a near perfect GPA 3 years into college. That gives me hope.
How do you pull .5 all-nighter? FWIW, if all-nighters are necessary senior year in high school in order to attain grades/GPA high enough to get into Oberlin, maybe it should be considered a reach for you.
You can’t really say that @NEPatsGirl without knowing the rigor of the high school in questions. My kids pulled all nighters occasionally in high school and I know they’d have no issue handling Oberlin.
Occasionally yes, but he’s only three weeks in. Intelligence wise Oberlin may be no problem, but time management might be, especially since he has made a habit of skipping assignments in the past. I don’t understand why three weeks in to senior year he has had to pull on average one all-nighter each week. That seems like an issue to me. Then again, I’ve never heard of anyone taking nine classes in one semester so maybe I’m way off base here.
@NEPatsGirl Yeah my high school is insane. I’m only taking 4 AP’s which is a touch under average for a senior in the magnet program at my high school, but most seniors are taking 7 classes this semester, not 9. .5 all nighter means i got less than 3 hours of sleep. So technically not a true all nighter but definitely noteworthy. It’s not just me, a lot of my friends have had to pull similar sleep schedules and late nights. We got slammed with Lit and Gov homework the first few weeks of school. Not to mention my other friends are taking Calculus 3 this year, so they have even more work. This past week hasn’t been that bad though, thankfully.
Oh plus I’m president of three clubs/organizations this year, 2 in school, 1 outside of school, and i’m vice president of a third club in school.
Keep up the great effort on your coursework, @idigit1st. It sounds like you’ve turned a corner but make sure you keep your health, too!
@idigit1st I am responding because I was like you in HS long time ago. I got 99.9% in SAT but got 2.9 gpa in HS because basically I just didn’t like to study; I just quickly picked up essential issues and got through with classes and skipped half of my classes. Oh, no, I am not genius, far from it; I was just lazy and didn’t like to sit at my desk for too long, and played a lot of sports. Also, I don’t have a good memory for specific facts, although I remember broader themes very well. I think my HS changed its rule after me so one cannot graduate unless he attended at least 80% of his classes or something like that. I only do well in activities which interest me and s*ck in areas which do not interest me. Therefore, I did not do well in classes in college or beyond. But I did well after I graduated from school – in REAL BUSINESS world. So my advice to you is just apply to any colleges (including Ivy schools) which give you good financial packages and find what interests you. And then reevaluate your priorities and interests as you are nearing graduation. That’s it. Don’t make life too complicated. There are other ways to skin a cat, so to speak.
By the way, I still applied to Harvard – and got rejected. But I did get admitted to another Ivy League school and went there for almost free because my family was relatively poor compared to other students’ families. I also got accepted to a top 10 (or maybe top 5) law school with 2.9 gpa in college. Hey, gpa is just gpa. I told them I did well in courses I liked and s*cked in courses I didn’t like; but I had courage to take a variety of courses to see if I liked or didn’t like them.
Our CC said Oberlin cares about grades. IF your essay can address what it is in you that made you treat school the way you did and convince them that you are more responsible now, it could help. Bard strikes me as a school that might overlook your GPA, but you may be too late to take advantage of the admissions methods that do this.