@albclemom I didn’t apply to any colleges that were not in NYC (except for Stony Brook and UConn) or in California. My goal was to either stay in NYC or attend college in California. Stating in my appeals to USC & UCLA that each was my top option was done on a comical note and not a serious one. CUNY did lose my application as it sent the day I completed it. When I went back to login to my account, it wouldn’t let me. I tried to make a new account and was again denied. I’ll be looking into CC or gap year.
IMHO your GC did you a disservice by leaving so many reach schools on your list and not enough match/safety. I don’t think the essays are as big a part of the issue as your GPA. Can you tell us your course load and SAT?
Congrats to you for your upcoming HS graduation under strained circumstances. Coming to grips with being a transperson and then taking positive action at such a young age, takes tremendous fortitude and self-awareness, which are qualities that will help you to succeed, regardless of your particular trajectory.
Unfortunately, I agree with the previous posters who said that your list was unrealistic and rather top heavy.
Public schools like the UC’s are committed to service their in-state tax payers before OOS students. If you had gained admission to a UC, it would likely be impossible for you to attend financially. You would not individually qualify for the loans required to attend. Did you run the Net Price Calculators?
You’ve gotten some good advice here. Two years at a CC would be a low cost way to complete any GE requirements, and if you are consistent with your upward trend, will show any desired schools that you’re a safe bet. Some schools will allow for sophomore-level transfers, but then your FinAid will probably not be as strong.
Your other option - a gap year - would allow you to continue to demonstrate emotional stability, while either working or volunteering (perhaps with other HS age trans students?) or both.
That would retain your best eligibility for merit and institutional aid.
With the gap year option, you can spend some time increasing your test scores and researching schools that will celebrate and reward your accomplishments.
They may not be the schools that you’ve targeted this year, but if you’re open to the schools
that represent the best fit - academically, socially and financially - then you’re bound to get some great offers.
Remember that pubic schools have tuition discounts (for their state residents) baked into the tuition.
That means that to tap into schools with the larger endowments, you may need to research additional private schools outside of your target states of NY and CA.
Be open.
You’re someone who knows where they want to go, but now it’s time to be just a bit realistic about the many different ways you might choose to get there. Good luck.
The drafts of the appeal letters typically posted on this site that contain discussions of mental health issues are typically heavily criticized by the commenters. The appeal needs to focus on new, positive information that can help your admissions chances or point out errors in your original application (such as having had the wrong scores sent.).
Your guidance counselor shouldn’t have approved this list… even from a top high school, an 85 is too low for most of those colleges. In addition, you shouldn’t have applied to UCs - they cost 55K and there’s no financial aid. I don’t know what your GC did… you’re not even allowed to apply to UCs unless you have an 86-87, in all likelihood they didn’t even read your application and threw it out, unless your UCGPA is higher than 85 (it’s possible if your HS is rigorous and you took 8 APs: is that the case? If so, what APs did you take and what scores did you get?)
Most universities on your list admit students with averages in the mid to high 90s or have lousy FA so you’d need to rewrite that list.
I believe you that CUNYs lost your application - they did that, or lost hundreds of students’ FA, or registered a student admitted to one college as being enrolled at another one, so that he couldn’t complete registration at his actual college and was almost shut out of his classes… You had bad advice AND bad luck. :s
You should take a gap year and use it by volunteering, either at a LGBT center or as an activist in a LGBT organization. And prep very very hard for the SAT or ACT, so that your score is very high ( 2100+ or 32+). DO NOT take any class (except community education class: driver’s ed, CPR, etc.)
Your new list should include schools such as SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Purchase, perhaps SUNY Geneseo, Pace, CCNY, Hunter; Elmhurst, Earlham, Guilford, Hendrix, Southern Oregon University, (these last 5 would love your being transgender), Ithaca, UMass Amherst, University of Oregon, perhaps Muhlenberg, Hiram, Goucher, and in CA, Sonoma, East Bay, Chico, Monterey Bay, SDSU, San Marcos.
Big reaches would be American, Occidental, Oberlin, Vassar, and Pitzer.
You need to finish the year with straight A’s and take the ACT in June (request TIR to study over the summer) before a September retake. Your ability to afford most of these schools, in addition to getting admitted, depends on those two factors.
Transfers get lousy aid. If you attend SJU (which, as far as I know, isn’t especially LGBTQ friendly and has a serious Catholic outlook and core curriculum) you’ll have to attend for 2 years before having a shot at ANY California public university. Don’t spend incredible amounts for SJU when you’d need to switch to another college anyway due to costs.
@CheddarcheeseMN “Therefore, for an appeal to have merit it must bring to light new academic and personal information, as well as information pertaining to extenuating circumstances, that had not been present in the application—information that clearly shows the student to be stronger than had been earlier evidenced.” via UCLA appeal site. The appeals process for UCLA ends on the 15th, but for some reason I’m locked out from changing anything on my essay. I last edited the appeal essay on April 1st. A similar topic was also required from USC.
@hop thank you for the great advice and suggestions.
Agree with the above posters-This is a very top-heavy list, even for a URM from a top school. Especially if you needed financial safeties. What were your standardized test scores? I like the idea of a gap year and reapply as a freshman. If you do a cc and then transfer, you will get little $ as a transfer.
@iaphex: please understand that even if your appeal is successful, you CANNOT attend UCLA, because it costs 55K and there’s no financial aid for students who come from outside California. This is simply not possible.
@hop how do I find private schools with larger endowments? Is there a site I can find this on?
@MYOS1634 I understand that.
May I suggest Clark University in Worcester, MA? One of the Colleges That Change Lives. They would seem to get you on the right path. If I were you, I wouldn’t go to SJU (2.5 star school anyway) but I would reapply after a gap year. I’d definitely apply to Clark if I were you, they seem to be a perfect fit for you.
For the CUNYs I listed on my CUNY application: City College, John Jay, Hunter, and Lehman.
Psychiatry is a medical specialty only tangentially related to undergrad psych majors. If you divulge your SAT/ACTs, people will be better able to help you. Still unwilling?
Are you a superb science student? Do you know what it will take to get a GREAT college GPA (better than your HS GPA) and basically As in your med school pre-req classes? Have u been consistent at getting As in all your sci and math classes?
Things to consider as u ponder the med school track.
iaphex,
It doesn’t matter how big their endowments are if you don’t qualify for their merit aid. We can help you better if we had accurate numbers to work with.
Right. If you’re a middling student, that merit money won’t be targeted towards you.
The colleges I listed in #24 would be a good place to start. They’re accessible if you maintain straight A’s till the end of the year and get a good score on the SAT or the ACT (except for the 5 reaches I listed, 4 of which have large endowments and generous FA policies). Type in your browser “Net Price Calculator”, + (the plus sign), and the name of the college. Enter your info, write down the numbers. Move on to the next college, etc.
iaphex - there’s no real master list of seemingly generous schools, but there are a number that have ‘auto-admit’ and are typically generous to those students with need.
Look for schools that represent a good fit for you - academically and socially - then dig deeper to find out if they meet 100% of need, or if they are simply need aware. Your best financial path will probably come from your family’s ability to pay (EFC) and by how much the school is interested in gaining differing student perspectives by admitting you.
The National Assoc. of College Admission Counselors (NACAC) puts out a list on May 1 that shares all of the schools that still have openings for Fall 2015. The schools are sorted by state. Not all will fill the bill for you and in the meanwhile if you find a school that you’re interested in, be sure to send them an email to see if they’re still accepting applications. Many smaller schools just might be, or may make an exception for a compelling case. Remember that the private schools, unlike the state-goverened bureaucratic public schools, get to make their own rules and exceptions.
On your original list, you have primarily large public schools. Why is that?
Is that where most comfortable, or were you just unfamiliar with them?
Someone up thread mentioned Colleges That Change Lives. Their web site would be a really good place to start learning about some of the advantages of the smaller schools, including Clark and Goucher, which tend to have practical clinical psych degrees. In fact, Clark is very proud (there’s even a statue in their quad) of their Psych program and the fact that Freud delvered his only US lecture at Clark, and that the APA was founded at Clark. They also have an accelerated BA/Masters degree where the 5th year is free.
While if in the end a smaller LAC may not be what you’re looking for, it’s as good to know what you don’t like as what you DO like. Be sure that if you lean toward the large public’s, that you either remain in your own state, find a state with low cost OOS tuition, or statistically qualify for a combination of merit and need.
If you feel that you’d lose academic momentum, perhaps you should work with a counselor (see if you can find one pro bono, or another guidance counselor at your school, as yours seems to have been unrealistic) to assist you with Fall admission for either '15 or '16 and FinAid.
If you choose to do a gap year, then use your time wisely and make part of your job discovering the often complicated ins and outs of college admission.
Whatever you choose, I’m confident that you’ll do well.
Hendrix and Beloit are still accepting applications!
Guilford reviews applications on a case-by-case basis.
I think it’s worth trying these three.
Run the NPC for the University of Iowa (they are still accepting applications). You might be pleasantly surprised.