I’ve never really put much effort into school, I’ve spent most of the past 3 years learning on my own and creating things, my GPA would be much higher but I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 sophomore year. I am currently a Junior. Here are my stats:
My UW GPA is around 3.0-3.1
SAT: 1550
EC’s:
Started nonprofit
President and founder of my school’s Debate Club
President of my school’s DECA/FBLA club
Vice President of my school’s Model UN club
Cofounded successful stock trading firm
Multiple patents
Successfully published paper in Quanum Computing
Created multiple apps
USAMO qualifier
Regeneron STS (will be doing research my senior yr,
Internship at google
I’ve always wanted to go to a prestegious school to meet like-minded peers, but do you think that is even an option for me with my low GPA? I feel like I’ve significantly reduced my chances of admission for certain schools, but I’m not regretful for the way I’ve used my time.
What universities should I aim to apply next year? What kind of story should my admission tell? Will my Bipolar mean anything to the admissions committee?
Your only real option with that GPA is to go to a Community College for a couple of years and then apply to a prestigious school. The score/GPA combo signals a smart but lazy student. You might get some relief with the Bi-Polar diagnosis but I doubt it.
@SoQuantum You’ve already achieved so much, more than many college grads, with your patents, papers and more. Congrats! There will certainly be schools that will recognize your achievements and potential. Firstly, I would not recommend disclosing your medical condition. What do your parents say? Do they want you within a somewhat short drive from home so they can check in on you? What state do you live in? Will cost be an issue?
I hate to throw out names of schools without knowing more. What about your network? Do you have a college counselor who is behind you? What about your colleagues from Google — can you talk to them? Do you live in upstate NY or closer to the City and the tri-state area?
@1stTimeThruMom My college counselor doesn’t know much about my out-of school endeavors, but I have a good amount of contacts within academia and the professional field. I can probably talk to the manager of my team during the internship, however I’m unsure how to approach. I actually live in NYC.
Get a Fiske Guide to Colleges. Find those that routinely accept B students and are strong in your major. The tippy tops will have more 4.0/high score applicants to choose among, lowering your shot. The won’t generally want an excuse for why you ignored grades. They want to see proven successes.
Read everything you can on the reasonable targets, to see if you match- which is much more than stats and titles. Things like founding a firm (licensed?) or apps aren’t tips into a competitive college. Learn what might be.
Yes, reach out to your contacts in academia as well. Honestly, you sound like one of the kids who could just skip college and continue at Google! What are your career aspirations?
Another thought - what about Stevens? The advantage there is you could see your existing docs, and your SAT / accomplishments would make you competitive for entry. They have a great alumni body, terrific for entrepreneurialism.
You absolutely will have options for college. First of all all the top colleges (Top 20) each reject many applicants with near perfect GPA’s and perfect SAT’s/ACT’s. So that is not a guaranteed to get in. Second those same T20’s all accept some applicants with lower GPA’s - ie low 3’s It will depend if your overall profile is a good fit for them. Your EC’s, Essays, and Letters of Recommendations will help convey who you are and your potential and they will assess if it is a good fit for them. The challenge is that you will not know which ones until you apply and get accepted or nor not. Therefore you will want to pick a range of universities to apply to and several to increase your chances. But you will need to invest time in the application process especially in a few of them so that they can get a better sense of your commitment to them and how your profile will complement the school. I know a student that was just admitted to a T20 university with a scholarship and they have similar Test and GPA’s to yours. Again, you can’t count on that, but you should not rule out out. Pick a range of universities including a couple of T20’s and work hard in high school as well as on the college application so yo can convey who your are and your potential. Good Luck!
You’re in a better shape than you think, but you may have to explain your grades (especially if there’s a bunch of Cs and Ds), you can use the b/p to do that as long as you accept responsibility for the grades. You should discuss disclosing that with your guidance counselor and parents, as has been mentioned. Also if your grades improved after the diagnosis, that will help, is your jr year a lot better than freshman? Many selective colleges will focus on 10th and 11th, so that could help. Colleges are ok if you struggled because of b/p but not because you thought classes were boring and irrelevant.
What is your weighted GPA? If your weighted GPA is 3.8/9 there are many fine colleges you could attend. The only schools off the table would be the true elites. If you have Naviance, start looking at scattergrams and see where you have a chance.
The OP does not have options for prestigious schools, he does have options for state colleges. However if the OP were to apply themselves they could apply for prestigious schools after a year of college, and community college would be the best way to go if that was the goal.
It’s a fallacy to think only prestigious school have intellectual or like minded students. There are strong students at every college.
You are in NY. Definitely pick some SUNYs for your list. Which you apply to will somewhat depend on which major (s) you are interested in. Bing and Geneseo may be a bit out of reach with your GPA. Look on Naviance to see. Not saying they aren’t worth a shot though. UB, Fredonia, Oswego, Oneonta, Fredonia, Brockport, Albany, Cortland etc etc. There are many.
I’m aware of a completely unschooled kid from the US who got into Cambridge for math having never attended high school (he just did math for fun on his own, didn’t even bother with competitions). They don’t mind that at all if you are sufficiently talented, and AMO qualification is generally sufficient (I assume you’ve heard of Ramanujan?).
Unlike in the US, smart but lazy is fine if you are actually smart enough, i.e. well into the top 0.1% (indeed that carries the highest social status, see Boris Johnson…). Another math student in my year had schizophrenia, she was really encouraged to persist through all the difficulties and is now a professor.
But the process is rather different and you need to know what you are doing because the deadlines are very early (October 15).