Illness hurting my chances!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m really interested in these schools:
EMORY, Davidson College, Furman University, Wofford College, Cornell, Northwestern, Washington University in St Louis, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Hopkins. However, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness my freshman year and I don’t feel like I’ve been up to par since. Junior year was especially rough, and now I feel like I’m floundering last minute to get things where they need to be for apps in the fall. So what are my chances, and which ones are my best bets?

any response is REALLY appreciated!

I am a white, female student attending a mid to low-income public school in South Carolina. I’ve made straight As all through school, elementary to high school.

Intended major: double up with Bio and Anthropology, bio and sociology, or something similar depending on the school
Gpa: 4.0 UW, 5.3 W and going up
ACT: overall 32, 35 E, 34 R, 33 S and 26 M

Total of 6 AP classes by graduation- Euro, Bio, EngLit, EngLang, Gov, Macro (which is most of what my school offers)
Class rank: 4/425 my freshman year, 2/400 sophomore year, 3/370 junior year, with strong possibility of moving up this year
High school “majors” completed: (do these even matter??) advanced placement, science, foreign language (Latin), English, Diagnostic services

ECs: President of school HOSA chapter moving up from VP last year, prom committee member (maybe president), NHS treasurer, cofounder of Environment club, Junior Classical league member (placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in four events last year). There’s a small chance I’ll be taking over the debate team this year as well, as my proposal to start the team was beat out by a senior last year who has now left the team open. Also a member of Book Club and Writing Club.

Outside of school: 7 years of a district arts program for creative writing. 2 regional gold key Scholastic art and writing award for poetry, and I will be applying with two senior portfolios for more advanced awards this year. volunteered previously with local hospital for an extended period of time, accepted into summer shadow program with said hospital as a rising junior, won various awards through school for overall highest underclassman GPA, highest English GPA, and highest health science GPA

side note, I know my act math is screwing me over. I took that one fresh out of sophomore year, and I’m still awaiting new scores from march due to system errors. Fingers crossed I did better and won’t have to take it again!

2

@LittleLamb314 : First, make sure your guidance counselor knows about your illness and its impact on your life. If you fill out a “bragsheet”*, make sure to write an anecdote that clearly explains how your illness creates obstacles for you at school, at home, in daily life, in your studies, socially, (etc, whatever applies). It has to be clear and vivid.

That being said, your ACT is excellent and your GPA is nothing to worry about. I’m guessing you know a 4.0 UW is excellent, right? Can’t get any higher than that. :slight_smile:

Have you run the NPC on all these colleges and discussed the results with your parents? Have they placed any limits on you due to your illness (ie., you can only apply to a university near a major hospital, etc.)

Before making a list of dream colleges, make sure you have safeties. For you, these would be USC-Columbia (and its Honors College, one of the best in the nation but a very long application that’s due early in the Fall so get going on that), and College of Charleston (also Honors). You also need affordable matches (colleges with 35%+ acceptance rates that have acceptable net costs for your parents - run the NPC).
Right now, Wofford and Furman are your only matches.
Are you primarily interested in conservative colleges?
Add Wake Forest and Washington&Lee, although those are reaches.
Denison, Dickinson, Wellesley would be better matches.
Agnes Scott may be another safety and being in a consortium with Emory could be of interest.
Emory-Oxford is a match.

EMORY, Davidson College, Cornell, Northwestern, Washington University in St Louis, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Hopkins => they’re all reaches for everyone. In other words, the only estimation possible for universities as competitive as these is “reach”.

http://phs.princetonk12.org/guidance/documents/Brag%20Sheet%20Packet%20Updated.pdf
http://www.shmoop.com/college/brag-sheet-resume-template.html

3

I don’t see why your GC would have to say anything about your illness - your grades and rank are excellent. All of the schools you listed are reaches, but you’ve got a shot. Hopefully you have some true safeties - ones you can afford and that you’d be happy to attend. Good luck!

4

^it provides context and when separating between lots of excellent students, context is essential.

5

to be honest, pretty much anything is gonna be really hard for me to afford without taking out huge loans or getting major scholarships, because due to some family circumstances I won’t qualify for nearly as much financial aid as I need. I’d like to stay away from very conservative schools, but staying in budget is more important. I’ve found that NPCs with high priced private schools have given me far better bet prices than local schools with high acceptance rates and low GPA or test scores- one of the most expensive net prices (including possible scholarships) I’ve gotten was from a local public school with a 21 average ACT and a laughable acceptance rate. Schools that seem to be an acamdeic reach have much better net prices, whereas matches and safeties have been coming up unaffordable.



The illness makes this sort of tricky- while out-of-states have shown me better net prices, my meds, doctors visits, hospital stays, etc are not covered out of state, and paying any amount of tuition plus paying more for the insurance plan to cover everything I need is more than my family can afford. So my parents would rather me stay in state, but NPCs show an in state education at any level school costing $10k-$25k more per year.



I have mixed feelings about USC cola, because I’ve lived next to campus nearly my entire life, and I’ve heard good and bad about them. I haven’t looked into the College of Charleston, primarily because my family shuts it down every time I bring it up (they think it’s a party school). Wake and W&L were on the list once upon a time, but I’ve had very bad experiences with both schools. Some schools I’ll be applying to with lower or slightly lower expectations are Presbyterian College, USC Upstate, maybe Lander, and Winthrop University, though I’m not super interested in any of them. Clemson is also on my list, and I’m pretty neutral about them. I’m a Furman Scholar and I liked Furman a lot, but I’m worried about the cost (I have a spreadsheet of calculated net prices, and they rank in at the most expensive). I’m also interviewing for Wofford Scholar and possibly Richardson Scholar as well, but I’m not crazy about Wofford.



Basically, the financial side of college is going to be a nightmare WHEREVER I go, but I’d prefer a school where my stats are on par or only slightly above other students. So honestly I’ve got no clue what to aim for here :-bd

6

Run the NPC on all the colleges cited here on your thread, list the ones that come in as affordable, along with their cost.



You’re allowed to borrow 5.5k. That’s it. anything else is on your parents. And it may not be a burden you impose upon them.



Sounds like your parents can’t afford their EFC or that you live in a state with terrible state aid.

7

It’s unfortunate that your parents think that College of Charleston is a party school. You’d be a great candidate for the Honors program, would probably get substantial merit, would have great research opportunities and great support from additional advising . You’d also be very close to a wonderful teaching hospital should the need for medical care arise. My son applied to and was accepted at Furman, Wofford , Winthrop, Clemson including Calhoun Honors and nothing compared to the opportunities he has at the Honors College at CofC . He was also a Wofford Scholar and was one of 48 students out of 1200 applicants to interview for Furman’s named scholarships . Good luck in your search. I hope that you find a good fit that is affordable for your family.

8

@MYOS1634 OP lives in SC and we have excellent state merit scholarships funded by local lottery funds. With her current stats , she’s eligible for the Palmetto Fellows Scholarship worth 7500. 00 renewable for 4 years. Additional STEM enhancement of 2500.00 Sophomore through Senior year. That’s in addition to state grants and any need aid that she qualifies for.

9

Even if you do not mention your chronic illness in your application (which I’m sure there is a place for you to do so), you have really good chances. Your UW and W GPA are outstanding and your ECs seem pretty unique and in fact show an interesting mix of health science and humanities (which is what colleges seem to want from prospective pre-meds these days). The only potential weakness I see in your application is your ACT score, which you may want to retake and get at least 34. Another weakness is the lack of subject tests you have taken. Based on your interests, you should take Literature (you seem interested in this), Biology, Chemistry, and Math (because usually everyone takes this). Try to get 750+ on all of these. Good luck! I would appreciate it if you could chance me back here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1995754-chance-me-low-gpa-rank-cornell-rice-wash-u-ucla-etc-p1.html Thanks!

10

I concur with @carolinamom2boys With your stats you could have the Palmetto Fellows award and excellent merit aid at USC and CofC. I would also look into the CofC Honors program. While CofC my have a “party school” reputation, you choose how you will act when you get there. College doesn’t change kids, it only reveals or amplifies what their character was already shaping up to be.

As for being so close to USC, college is what YOU make of it. You’ll hear good and bad about every college. In our college searches, I have heard from several students who grew up near a school and then attended there They have made it feel like an entirely new place by how they’ve gotten involved and what they’ve done. In addition, you could potentially save a lot of money by living at home your first year and attending USC. They give good merit aid to top students like you. All the best.