junior year disaster-unique situation!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I have a unique situation that has been causing me headaches for some time. Because Of illness and absences (I would get dizzy and faint) during junior year, I have no idea where I stand on college and how I should tell colleges about my situation I also tried to show colleges that I recovered by taking community college classes during the summer and getting A’s. I had good grades all through 9-10, and suddenly my grades fell during 11th. I’ve been lurking around CC for a while and would and really appreciate all the input. Would you guys mind helping a girl out? :-)
(And I’ll pre-apologize for the long post)</p>

<p>Due to my absences, I am banned from taking AP classes my senior year. There are no honors classes’ senior years. You need a teacher’s recommendation to take AP classes, and my teachers won’t recommend me. There’s no way around it and even if I were able to, those teachers would already have it out for me. Meanwhile, my dad is moving and so I have the choice of going to another school where I will be able to take AP classes b/c they have an open enrollment AP policy. The problem is, that school is ultra-competitive and many go to ivy leagues. If I went there, I would be able to get decent recommendations for college Apps, and take AP classes, but my class rank would fall all the way down.</p>

<p>Colleges consider your application in context to your high school, so if I transfer to this other top public school for senior year, would my application be judged harder? Since not many people from my school apply to UC’s, or even privates, I would have a better chance. I heard that if you come from a mediocre school, UC’s won’t be as hard on you. People from my school get 3.4’s and get into top UC's while people from this top public school get 3.7’s and are rejected. Colleges expect more from people attending this other school, so would I be at a disadvantage?</p>

<p>Should I transfer hs, what colleges do I have a chance at, and how should I explain my situation (junior year disaster) to colleges?</p>

<p>chances for UC and privates (USC, Amherst, Wesleyan, Carnegie Mellon, other recommendations?). </p>

<p>UCLA, UCSD, UCI and UCD? I hope to go to UCLA or UCSD.</p>

<p>Location: SoCal suburb
UC GPA: 3.74--grade drop junior year
Regular school GPA: 3.8ish
Rank: top 15%
Unweighted GPA: uh…3.0 or lower.
Ethnicity: my parents are from hawaii.
mixed asian, 1/8 english.
chinese last name
Essays: great/excellent-I’m a good writer</p>

<p>AP: three 3’s </p>

<p>Bad Note: I have a downward trend during junior year second semester due to illness/ absences, but during summer took a dozen units dual credit classes at local college w/ 4.0. (it actually helped bring my hs GPA up)</p>

<p>9th:
English 9, music literature, bio, PE, geometry, Spanish 2
-All A’s</p>

<p>Tested out of Spanish 3, algebra II</p>

<p>10th
AP Euro (A/A) Hon English (A/A) Spanish (A/A) Hon. Chemistry (A/B)
Pre-calulus and Trig (B/A) , Spanish 4 </p>

<p>11th semester one—I was in a mess b/c I really really sick and was absent a lot,…and my grades reflect that. :- (</p>

<p>AP bio (A), AP history (B), AP Spanish (B), Business and Advertising (A), hon. English (C) AP statistics (C)</p>

<p>11th Semester two—dropped AP history, AP bio
AP stats (c), AP Spanish (B), biz. & advertising (A), hon English (C), US history (C) </p>

<p>11-12 summer—much better- I took 4 UC-transferable classes (w/4.0 GPA) at the Community college and my HS took it and weighed it into my GPA</p>

<p>Standardized testing
Sat ii Spanish: 680
Sat ii writing 770, full 800 subscore on essay
Sat ii bio-don’t remember, 750-800 range
Plan on taking literature (predicted 750+),
math iic—700ish
SAT: 1850 first time, will retake. </p>

<p>Work Experience:
Employed for one semester as a sales associate/cashier at JCPenny’s (15 hours/wk). Will probably get another job in retail this fall.</p>

<p>EC’s
Music/Creative writing
-Governor’s school for arts –Csssa alumni
-California arts scholar medallion
-(Arts) published in minor mag’s.</p>

<p>Conservation
-Went on a (free-not one of those pay to volunteer type programs) intense three-week summer trail-work/conservation program in Nevada desert backcountry and Colorado, climbed to 12-13,000 feet in Rockies.
-Did a one-year conservation program with same group, they choose 25 kids from So Cal, go on monthly all weekend (three day) camping trips and do services like bridge building, wee pulling etc in S.F
-Brief magazine Internship with above program,
-Greyhound rescue shelter volunteer (9th and up)</p>

<p>City Volunteer
-Camp counselor for two summers at city day camp
-Appointed to forum for city issues</p>

<p>-FBLA Club
Member –9th/co-VP-10th/co-VP-11th –chosen for regional leader group but training conflicted with gov’s school. Donated 1K to various charities, etc, helped organize state sectionals itinerary.
-Participated in conferences/competitions for retail, went to state twice (top 8, 3rd), international once (did not place), regional twice (top 8), state sectionals once). Invited by advisor to help judge at regionals. </p>

<p>Building with books Club
Literacy tutor-member (9), secretary (10), president (11)</p>

<p>Greyhound rescue-volunteer, treasurer</p>

<p>Volunteer
- didn’t know I was supposed to document hours. Hours not required to graduate at my HS
estimate:
-300 for two summer’s as camp counselor at day camp.
-125 hours for 3-week summer conservation program.
-100-125 for yearlong program group
-50 for greyhound rescue shelter.</p>

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<p>Okay, let's get real here--okay?</p>

<p>If you have medical problems, then you should have been going to a doctor/hospital when these medical situations have arisen--and you should be able to document them to the colleges you apply to. So do this, and explain that it affected your one semester's situation.</p>

<p>However, some of what you write here is going to be scary to colleges. For example, if you discuss your medical problems, the colleges are going to want to know that you are over this problem before you go there--so be sure you can show this to be the case. Also, people are going to wonder how it is that you are spending summers climbing mountains at high altititude if you are subject to fainting spells. It's kind of odd. I guess I should presume this was done in a summer prior to your fainting spells. Still, I would hesitate to put this on your application.</p>

<p>Also, what you have posted here on your UC GPA being 3.74, but your overall GPA being sub-3.0 is impossible unless your 9th grade average is like 2.5 or lower or unless you computed your UC GPA using more than 8 honors/AP/IB classes--which you are not allowed to do.</p>

<p>Use this link, and re-calculate the UC GPA:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/scholarship_reqs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/scholarship_reqs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Next, why are you saying you did so poorly and therefore have to explain it by medical explanations--you say you have a UC GPA of 3.74--and your 5 SAT I and II tests are at the 650 average. Plus you say you have taken something like 5 college courses already. This is not bad in the least--though maybe not up to the level necessary for some of the schools you have chosen.</p>

<p>It is true that your AP scores, while okay, are not outstanding.</p>

<p>Also, why would you take the SAT II Writing--the SAT I includes the writing portion as part of the test? The UCs won't count both.</p>

<p>Anyway, here are your chances in my view: (this excludes the medical being taken into account. With that, the slight reaches, may be matches, and the reaches may be slight reaches.)
USC--reach
Amherst--reach
Wesleyan--slight reach to reach
Carnegie Mellon--slight reach
UCLA--reach
UCSD--slight reach
UCI--match
UCD--match</p>

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<p>procrastinator89:</p>

<p>UCLA: Reach
UCSD: Slight Reach
UCI/UCD: Match</p>

4

<p>BUMP (10 charac.)</p>

5

<p>First of all, talk to your guidance counselor about AP classes...do you think maybe they'll accept recs from the community college teachers? If so, you might be able to take some APs.</p>

<p>You definitely should write about the fainting somwhere in your essays...the UC's have 3. I'm sure you can talk about it somehow in there.</p>

<p>UCSD could become a match if all of this is explained well...but UCLA will still be a reach, regardless.</p>