my stats

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>i had mental health problems my junior year, which was last year, and now my stats are a little screwed. what do you think?</p>

<p>class rank: top 10% (but just barely holding it)</p>

<p>sat score: 2250 (but im gonna retake in december. i really want a 2300+)</p>

<p>sat subject tests: 790 math2, 560 physics (LOL yeah not gonna report), 750 literature, 800 for both biology tests</p>

<p>ap tests: 5 for stats, 3 for euro (not gonna report), 4 for biology, 5 for chemistry</p>

<p>EC's: cancer research (10, 11), habitat for humanity (all), environthon (10, 11), science olympiad (9,10,12), semi finalist for usabo (not that great but eh), intel isef 2nd place (10)</p>

<p>so clearly my EC's and gpa suck. the ruin of those things happened in junior year, when i had a severe long term illness. i got c's in physics and ap euro, so my class rank is hanging by a very delicate thread, and my uw gpa sucks. </p>

<p>i want to know if it's unreasonable to apply to colleges like: george washington, nyu, ithaca, university of rochester, washington university</p>

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<p>[What</a> Are My Chances? - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/]What”>Chance Me / Match Me! - College Confidential Forums)</p>

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<p>i didn’t just want chances. can someone explain how bad my situation is? should i take another subject test? idk what to do to improve my app.</p>

<p>and like just go away, repede. i’m obviously aware of the “chance me” forum, but i want more than that.</p>

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<p>Test scores are great. ECs are pretty good. What’s your UW GPA?</p>

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<p>anyone besides repede?</p>

6

<p>You’re better off than me. </p>

<p>Anyways
…
Your test scores look good. Take another subject test if you think you have the time, but otherwise, I think it’s fine. Your class rank is good, not excellent, so I think places like Ithaca, UofR, and George Washington are within reach, though I have no idea what goes on in the minds of admissions folk. </p>

<p>Though your ECs mostly were from 9/10 grade, you do have good awards. Like Intel ISEF? That’s pretty big. I know that in my area, it’s super hard to even make it to Intel. And USABO semifinalist? That’s still pretty good – top 10%. Even top science fairs, semifinalist means like top 30%. I don’t think you should sell yourself so short. </p>

<p>So for the other schools on your list – NYU and WashU, you can still try for them. It’s up to you, but a lot of people have at least one super reach on their list. </p>

<p>As for your app, I don’t know… The Cs quite honestly are going to raise a red flag unless explained somewhere. Of course, if you’re only applying to common app schools and safeties, you don’t need to write essays about your illness… You could ask your GC or doctor to write a note. </p>

<p>I hope this helped.</p>

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<p>that helped, quidditchcat!</p>

<p>since things really hit hard in junior year, my 9 and 10 years are the best. i have like the opposite of an upwards trend. yeah oops (:heavy_multiplication_x:╭╮:heavy_multiplication_x:)</p>

<p>aren’t nyu and geroge washington close in admissions rates? i feel like i won’t have a chance at either. </p>

<p>but there’s one other thing: my research mentor went to washington university, and she wrote me a great recommendation. so will that help, in terms of applying to washu? how much weight will that carry for other colleges? a significant component, or just like “oh, that’s nice. too bad her gpa sucks.”</p>

8

<p>I have no trend :confused: </p>

<p>I don’t actually look at the admissions rate, so I don’t know. I guess I thought NYU was more competitive since I hear so many horror stories of its premed program/suicide rates. Not a huge number of people at my school apply to GWU so I have no clue, honestly. </p>

<p>Hmm… So she went to WashU? If she were teaching there or something that would be an impact, but not sure about alumi… Well, I’m hoping rec letters at least count for something, since otherwise what’s the point of asking for them?</p>

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<p>no trend is better than one that shows you getting worse over time LOL</p>

<p>yeah, but teacher rec’s can’t be that important (unless they’re really bad). i assume other rec’s aren’t that important either, but maybe a rec from an alumnus counts for something, if the adcoms were on the fence about me.</p>

<p>for my application, i’m just gonna ask my gc to mention a “long term illness,” and not otherwise specify what the illness is, because i don’t want my c’s to make me look lazy, but i also don’t want the mental illness stigma to ruin my chances.</p>

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<p>Is it really getting worse for you? How are you doing in your classes? (Don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to)… </p>

<p>Yeah, I have no clue what they even do… At one point I felt that they just threw away all applications under a certain GPA threshold but apparently that’s untrue. </p>

<p>and yeah, that makes sense… in my case, though, most people thought it was better to mention my mental illness/family dynamic</p>

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<p>well, for junior year it got worse. like i got all a’s, and then 11th grade comes and i get c’s…you can judge how bad that is for yourself, but i think that’s rather bad. for senior year, i’m getting a’s, except for in one class :frowning: i just wanna keep my top 10 ranking, and i don’t even care beyond that. </p>

<p>what matters more: rank or gpa (uw or weighted)? i get the feeling that my gpa is gonna look bad, but in the context on my school, it will look good, since my rank is still high. my school does use weighted for ranking, though. my uw basically counts for nothing at my school. they don’t even tell you what it is…</p>

<p>i’ve heard from two admissions officers that you should only use your essays as ways to promote yourself. they both agree the “long term illness” is the best way to go, because adcoms will otherwise spend most of their consideration worrying about how you’ll do freshman year in college (on your own).</p>

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<p>That’s not really a downward trend… It’s more like you had a bad year and you’re recovering. I mean for me, I have like 1/3 Bs, 1/21 Cs, 1/13 P/NP (since I was getting a D), and the rest As. I’m probably like bottom 40%. At this point I have Bs in two classes and the rest are As. </p>

<p>I feel like rank is more important, but that’s coming from the person who doesn’t even have ranking at my school. Or at least they don’t tell us no matter how much we bug them. </p>

<p>Yeah, I’m writing my essays in the most positive tone, but I can’t avoid writing about it since it really has caused me to change and my transcript looks quite bad.</p>

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<p>A lot of schools disregard weighted GPA because weighted GPAs are rarely standard across schools - I imagine most colleges will just take it upon themselves to recalculate your GPA. Many schools actually show the scale in which they’ll be recalculating your grade - I know for a fact that UC system provides this, if you wanted to try to see what your recalculated GPA would be.</p>

<p>In terms of whatever caused you to slip in your grades - its best that you remain vague. Getting into the nitty gritty will not exact pity from the admissions officers, it’ll only make them think that you aren’t fit as a competent student. You’re aiming to prove yourself resilient in the face of adversity. Be aware of certain stigmas associated with what you’re telling colleges as well - admissions officers are human. Many of them have biases and misconceptions. </p>

<p>You have a strong SAT score and your class rank is decent/good - I don’t think there is anything necessarily glaringly wrong with your application. The C’s won’t help you (obviously) but I doubt they’ll break your entire application. Really try to sell yourself on the essay.</p>

<p>Edit: I heard something on NPR about college essays in that you shouldn’t mention the “Ds” - Depression, Divorce, Death, etc. unless you are absolutely positive that you can render it so that it reflects positively on you. A lot of successful essays are about pretty meaningless things that have been connected to larger, abstract ideas. A boy who got into Harvard two years ago from our school wrote his essay on a bad haircut that his brother talked him into getting, for instance.</p>

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<p>Oh, and just to add on to my last post, I’m just saying that’s what I’m going to do, write about my experience in a positive tone, but not suggesting/recommending that you do the same! I think you CAN get away with just having it explained as a “long-term illness”. </p>

<p>I’m also only mentioning depression for a select few of my schools. My friend had a pretty similar situation with her GPA… She was pretty depressed to me, but never got diagnosed. She wrote about her feelings, got the special application for my state schools, and now attends the flagship (Berkeley). But not on the common app, since my teachers/GC will write about “being sick”.</p>

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<p>“so clearly my EC’s and gpa suck. the ruin of those things happened in junior year, when i had a severe long term illness. i got c’s in physics and ap euro, so my class rank is hanging by a very delicate thread, and my uw gpa sucks.”
ahh omg shut up… you researched CANCER… .-. you never said your actual unweighted gpa (that would help) or your weighted classes so as far as i know you seem amazing asides from the physics stuff maybe you can get into even better colleges?</p>

<p>ohh wait so you actually did worse in junior year?? aww that’s bad but maybe if you do really well in 12th grade it will look like a one exception… as long as you improved between 9th and 10th grade. i don’t think you should say that you are mental or anything but should say you were struggling with problems and picked yourself up and now have this new outlook on life (do you?) :)</p>

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<p>even though schools could disregard my weighted gpa, i think my rank will still be more important. because you can compare me to other people using uw, but that’s not really fair, since each school has a different environment and some schools are known for being more challenging than others.</p>

<p>that sounds like a good plan, quidditchcat. i’m just too hesitant to say anything about mental illness. i prefer to play things safe.</p>

<p>@bingington: about the new outlook, lol not really. but i’m not completely mental anymore so</p>