Low GPA/High SAT due to family problem/illness. help?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello everyone, thank you for spending your time to read my thread.</p>

<p>To start with, I am a senior in an international school with a lot of dire worries regarding college, and here it goes.</p>

<p>Briefly, my dad, the culprit of my internal anguish, has been really unloyal to me and my family. When I was young, he borrowed around 2 million dollars and didn't pay it back, which forced us to lose our house. Then, he committed several adulteries with many women, which I do not know a lot about. So, he abandoned us, and I lived with my mother and my brother until I was in 10th grade. My father, claiming he has succeeded economically in a foreign country, asked me to join him and study abroad in an international school. As I've always loved studying English, I went to him and started as a sophomore. Frankly, my sophomore year was quite decent. Although it was my first time ever studying in English, my gpa went up, as I tried really hard. My GPA still went up during my first junior semester. But if everything ended like that, I would not be writing this.</p>

<p>Since my sophomore year, my dad, as the only guardian who should provide me food and basic commodities, neglected his duty. As no one cooked in my house, he had to pay me for my food, but he didn't. I somehow managed to buy food with my personal savings, and that was fine. But during my second semester in junior year, he barely paid me. Therefore, I always starved. It was my junior year and I was taking IB Diploma, so I really had everything on the edge. But being starved, I couldn't keep up with all my work and got really sick. I always suffered from irritable bowel syndrome and threw up whenever I had food. Naturally, my grades went down as I spent a lot of time home throwing up, not knowing what to do. From that, I gained some, if not serious, mental disorder: depression and social anxiety. Whenever I was feeling okay, I went to school and kept up with my work, but that wasn't enough. My GPA lingered around 3.5-3.6, and I was not satisfied with it. And during the end of my junior year, things started to go really bad. With everything stacked up, and being starved, I got really sick and skipped almost two weeks of school. I spent the whole two week in my bed throwing up and coughing. My grades, although I tried really hard to catch up, became a disaster; I ended up with 3.2; even though I got 97 for my IB French exam and low90s-high80s for all my final exams, I couldn't have the time to do all the late work, as the school closed. </p>

<p>Besides that, my dad, like how he was when I was young, always had fights with me. Sometimes, we physically fought, and whenever that happened he did not pay me, although he barely paid without any fights. He broke things, insulted me, and even beat me. With that, I just couldn't do well.</p>

<p>After that, I moved back to my home country and am attending an international school here. As I am really healthy and nourished, I am getting straight A's here, and even got 2250 on my SAT. I am doing really well here and genuinely enjoy studying, as I can test the limit of my capability. However, I know my GPA, which is horrible, will be my obstacle of entering competitive schools. </p>

<p>Here are my stats
School: The best international school in the country, which is in Southeast Asia- very competitive
Sophomore- 1st year studying English
GPA- 3.0(1st semester)/3.3
Junior- IB Diploma
GPA- 3.5/3.2
Senior (This school finishes one subject each in a semester, therefore I can only take four classes)
GPA- 4.0 (100 on English, 96 on Biology, 94 on US History)
Next Semester- AP Literature, AP Biology, AP History, AP Calculus/ Aiming for Self-taught AP Computer Science
SAT
1st attempt- 1780
2nd attempt- 2250
3rd attempt- ??? (this november)
TOEFL
1st attempt- 115</p>

<p>I am inclined to join good engineering schools in the U.S., but I am afraid I won't be able to do so due to my low GPA.
When I first joined the international school, my counselor suggested me schools like Purdue, UWashington, UW Madison, GA TECH, CMU and other good engineering schools, but I know they are all reaches for me now. What should I do, and what schools should I apply to?</p>

2

<p>These aren’t all reach schools for you. I’d say probably none are out of the question. Purdue’s college of engineering first year students’ ACTs were 28-32 or SAT 1880-2120 middle 50th percentile. Purdue is one of the country’s best engineering schools.</p>

<p>If you can afford them, apply to each. I’d also recommend: RPI, Rose Hulman, IIT, WPI, Rochester University</p>

3

<p>I agree with T26E4 that you have a shot at those schools, and would additionally suggest: write your essay on the situation you faced when living with your dad. The tricky thing to be is not turning it into a sob story. I’d say the way you approached it here was a bit “woe is me” and I would frame it differently for your essay. I would turn it into a story about how you struggled in school while living away from your family, with your father not providing adequately for you (were you living in a boarding school? I was a bit confused), and how you had to persevere through that stress. Frame yourself as someone that made the best of a bad situation and had to care for yourself independently, but how returning home to family and a nurturing environment put you back on the academic path you care a lot about, and how you have good outlook for the future. There are a couple of ways to frame it so it comes across as empowering and not a sob story; I would talk to your teachers/advisers and get their advice. (your dad stealing 2 million and having affairs, btw, are total non-sequitors and I would not include them. Not giving you any spending money so you couldn’t afford to eat is relevant, however.)</p>

4

<p>Thank you for the reply! I sincerely feel great for all the replies. Well, the school I had been is the country’s top-notch international school. It was not a boarding school; I lived downtown while the school was in the suburb, which forced me to take school bus for an hour to get there. He barely paid the tuitions, so there also was a moment I almost got kicked out, since the school didn’t want to keep a free-rider. Anyways, I will definitely take your advice and elaborate on the I-overcame-this-situation style. Hope I can do well. Thanks a lot!</p>

5

<p>Honestly, I didn’t read ANYTHING about your scenario. Most of the schools on the list won’t either. Your GPA and scores and ability to pay will be all they care about. What is your plan for paying for college?</p>

6

<p>My grandmother, who is really rich and was a president of a public high school, has saved up a lot of money for me and my brother’s college tuition. She said she will bestow upon me that money for college, so money would not be a problem for the tuition…</p>