Need advice because my school can't help [FL resident, FGLI, URM, GPA 3.4uw, SAT 1480]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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You are not competitive for Columbia or Princeton. Your SAT and GPA are below the 25th percentile for them. You could apply TO but your unweighted GPA is still too low.

Although stats are not everything, they are a benchmark. If you like Emory, then that would be a better use of ED.

Computer Science is a tough admit everywhere, but you can have good career outcomes from colleges like UA-Birmingham, UTDallas, or Illinois Tech. Stevens Institute of Tech is strong in CS and across the river from NYC. SUNY Stony Brook is another one I like. It’s a little over an hour from NYC.

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Quite a few community colleges in Florida (all the ones affiliated with the big schools) have dorms, so it is the full college experience

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(Quick/will return)
Send your essay to the dedicated readers on this forum immediately.
With Emory, you could apply ED2 including Oxford.
The advantage of one of the most generous colleges is that if they admit you they’ll include money to cover transportation and winter clothes, so it may be financially worth it to try for one of them - will need to review wrt Columbia, Princeton, etc. Rea/Ed1 there would be high riski high reward (with emory ed2 as a backup)
Have your teachers read MIT’s recommendation on what is a "good recommendation"for a highly selective college.
You should prepare them a cheatsheet (called "brag sheet"but it’s a misnommer).
Apply to Berea.

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Please apply to a few more in-state schools and look at their Honors programs.

Have you looked at Davidson? I think they meet full need without loans.

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Computer science is a field where “prestige” does not matter at all (thus all the t-shirts and blue jeans). What you can do does matter. Medicine is an area where your undergraduate school does not matter much. Admissions to medical school is mostly based on your undergraduate GPA, your score on the MCAT test, your medical experience, and your references. I do not know as much about law school, but my understanding is that undergraduate GPA and LSAT score are what matters the most. I also know some lawyers who had a rather wide range of majors as undergraduates (including math, computer science, and electrical engineering).

Medical school is expensive, as is law school. I think that you might want to pay close attention to the cost of attendance at each university and try to find an affordable school to attend for your bachelor’s degree.

I have heard that Stanford does not consider freshman year grades. In general your freshman year will be much less important compared to sophomore and junior years, and I think that you have a very compelling legitimate reason regarding why your freshman year grades were not as good as your grades since then. Considering what you have overcome, I am impressed by how well you have done and expect that you will continue to do well.

Yes, the Ivy League schools do in general have very good need based financial aid. So does Stanford. If you get into any of these and if you are low income then they are likely to be affordable.

I think that you might want to run the NPC and see what it predicts. I also think that you might want to apply to a few more in-state public universities in Florida.

You can major in pretty much anything and then apply to medical schools. However, you will need to complete the premed requirements. These are a variety of courses quite a few of whom are in biology or chemistry. However, I am pretty sure that calculus and physics are both premed requirements (one daughter took physics as a prerequisite for a DVM program – she is on her way to be a doctor but her patients are all large animals). Quite a few premed students major in biology because many of the biology requirements are the same as some of the premed requirements. However, I once had robot assisted surgery, and in looking up robot assisted surgery on-line found a video of someone who had majored in art, completed the premed requirements, went to medical school, became a surgeon specializing in robot assisted surgery, and then at one point used his art training and his medical training to paint a very good but tiny, tiny picture of the hospital where he worked, using the robot assisted surgery system to do the painting.

Premed classes are tough. Both daughters had majors that overlapped a lot with premed requirements and knew a lot of premed students from their classes. However, given what you have already overcome, and how well you have done for the last two years, it looks to me as if you can handle these classes.

You can major in anything and then apply to law schools. They want to see students who can think logically and who can write. I did know someone who was a math major (along with me) as an undergrad and who then went on to Harvard Law School. I know a few people who have computer science or engineering degrees and who then went to law school. I know them specifically because they are working on legal issues related to high tech.

Regarding New York City, it is expensive. My suggestion is that you instead find a good and affordable university where you can do well. They after you graduate think about moving to NYC.

I expect that you are going to do well. Just try hard to keep the cost of your undergraduate education to as affordable of a level as you can reasonably manage.

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I just want to chime in to cheer you on! You are really impressive and I applaud you for going for your dreams! A lot of suggestions here to use each school’s net provide calculator, which is generally a good idea. But, most Ivy League schools are in fact “free” for students whose families earn less than $60-$65K annually. So, if that applies to you, you really don’t need to bother with the calculators. Good luck - you’re doing great and it’s all going to work out!

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I think that trying to find a college access organization to help is a fantastic idea. If your GPA really is perfect after freshman year (and the reason for the poor grades during 9th grade was housing insecurity and loss of a parent), I think that you have a shot with even the most selective colleges as long as they are reading your application holistically. It sounds as if you are ranked #1 in your class. Scoring a 1480 from a school system where the average SAT is an 830 is a huge accomplishment. Your ability to achieve as much as you have in 10th & 11th grade will be seen positively in the context of your school. I do not think you should go test optional. While those scores are on the low side for your reach schools, they are not out of the ballpark, and in your case, I think the scores will help prove that you can do the work (as opposed to leaving the admissions officers wondering whether your 9th grade transcript is indicative of a weak student).

That said, you really need help telling your story and putting your application together so that the admissions committees are aware of how much you have overcome. That is the sort of work that an access org can do to make sure that your application is seen in the best possible light. The access org can even write a letter or otherwise contact the college on your behalf. They can also help you create a balanced list of affordable schools including safeties, targets, and reaches. I would definitely include some reaches because while your gpa and scores are lower than the typical applicant at the super selective schools, your background is also very different than the typical applicant.

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Carnegie Mellon is another school that doesn’t consider freshman grades. (I’m not entirely sure how much this matters, as I think any “holistic admissions” school will see a strong improving trend and discount a poor freshman year, but officially not including it in the GPA calculation is incrementally better.) There’s a tendency for posters here not to recommend CMU for high-need students, because they’ve had a reputation for stingy financial aid in the past, but that seems to have improved, so it would be worth running the net price calculator to see how it looks for you. The CS major is ridiculously competitive and would probably be a waste of an application, but the Cognitive Science major in the School of Humanities & Social Sciences includes a strong CS component and could also be good for premed/pre-law. And Pittsburgh is a pretty nice student city.

As others have said, the UC’s are not going to work affordability-wise; and the application is a whole ordeal unto itself that is frankly not worth your time when there’s no path to affordability. If you want California, consider the Claremont Colleges (all of which meet need) in addition to Stanford. You might also try Occidental College, which is in a nice urban neighborhood in LA, meets need, and does not admit by major but offers a CS major with cross-registration opportunities at Caltech.

There are some full-need-met LAC’s with strong CS that could be good academic fits for you, but many of the best ones are more rural. (For example, St. Olaf and Grinnell.) So, up to you if that’s worth considering. Even if rural is a bridge too far, I’d definitely agree with others that focusing on NYC at this stage would be a mistake. Focus on the schools themselves - find the best environment with the best financial aid, wherever that may be.

Definitely make a spreadsheet to keep track of NPC results and other info on all of the schools you’re considering.

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OP- I know we are hitting you with a lot of homework- but one more thing to consider- some colleges are actively promoting their support for FGLI students (not just no-loan financial aid, but support once you arrive on campus) and some may be “meets need” but aren’t doing a whole lot to be welcoming to kids who don’t have a lot of family support/institutional knowledge about how college works.

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More basics (hoping you sent your essay/s to the readers on the special forum/service here on cc).

  • make sure you apply to Honors colleges at UF, FSU, UCF.

However the most generous (meet need/no loan) colleges will be cheaper then instate publics for you and will cover more.

@kelsmom: OP was homeless&lost a parent, how does that affext their SAI status?

@Joey1218 : were you/are you a ward of the state? Was your homelessness known to your GC and were you included in measures related to that status?
Are you involved in TRIO/Upward Bound?

Do you know what a “bragsheet” is?

You don’t need to decide on a major because you’re not locked into one when you apply at most of these highly selective colleges, you can apply for something then change your mind throughout the 1st 2 years. So pick a major that matches your strengths.
An issue is that everyone and their brother wants to do CS or premed these days, clustering in just a few majors, so that applicants that don’t have a slight advantage.
My guess is that you’re thinking premed, prelaw or CS because these are secure paths to financial independence. Since you can switch at will at the top colleges on your list, you could check History or Politcal Science with Prelaw as a major because it’s rarer for applicants to request this than the other 2 so you would have less competition, as long as your HS record shows interest in history/social science.
(At UF major doesn’t matter, either.)

DO include your test scores. For a student from a Title I school they’re absolutely exceptional.

Make an appointment with your guidance counselor to make sure they can include language along the lines of your being the most exceptional student in the past 10, 20, or 25 years; s/he should mention evidence of your academic excellence but also in terms of leadership, creativity, resilience, respect by faculty
with examples whenever possible (That’s where your “bragsheet” or “cheat sheet for recommender” comes in = you can provide so many examples).

The difficulty, if you’re one of the greatest students they’ve seen in 20 years, is that your teachers don’t realize that at many schools your profile is pretty common. So their recommendation MUST make SURE the college admission officer understands how you are really different academically though not socially from their usual students.

The GC should be able to write explicitely that your freshman year is not in any way representative of your work ethics or potential but rather of your harrowing circumstances : covid, homelessness, death of a parent.
Perhaps adding (if true for your district) that unlike many schools your district didn’t have an option for simply Pass/Fail or Credit/No Credit even during Covid.
They should explicitely state that your potential, work ethics, and incredible personal strength are better explained by Grade 10, 11, and 12, which indicate straight As and a 4.0 - I would add, something no one could expect after what you had to survive as a 14-15 year old - and that s/he hopes the colleges can overlook that 1st year as the faculty as your HS (unanimously) consider that your true GPA is a 4.0.

Run the NPC on each college, look at the net price&the package, and look for the most generous ones.

Remove Fordham, UCs, NYU.
(NYC is better appreciated with time on your hands and money in your pocket, so you’re better off at a college with excellent ties to the NYC job market where you could do an internship.)

At your school library find either Princeton Review’s Best Colleges or Fiske guide, any guide 2020 and on will be fine.
Look up: Williams, Amherst, Carleton, Grinnell, Haverford, Pomona, Pitzer, HarveyMudd, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Washington&Lee, Davidson.

I’d add checking out and running the NPC on Denison(&the Lugar program), Dickinson, Macalester, St Olaf (and the “Conversations”), Holy Cross(MA), Whitman. Those colleges meet 100% need so they may be affordable too and they’re easier to get into than those on the 1st list.

Definitely apply to Berea: ALL students are FGLI with excellent records.

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I will add to Myos’ exceptional post- you may need to get help from your HS Principal if your guidance counselor doesn’t have the time or energy to help with your recommendation. You need an actual, experienced educator (which might be the principal) who will sit down with you, hear your story, and then craft a letter which shows the challenges you have overcome and highlight your curiosity, intellectual capabilities, and potential. If your GC can’t help you with that- go up a level and take it to the top. If your principal isn’t able to help you- look up the name of the Superintendent of Schools in your district, leave a respectful message for him/her asking for help.

When I got to college, I learned a secret that “rich kids from prep schools” knew, which kids from huge public HS’s like mine did not know. I spent four years avoiding grownups in HS (like all my classmates). The prep school kids knew that the professors, deans, counselors, advisors-- they got paid to help you. And they knew how to access that help. And as my roommate told me freshman year, “You don’t ask, you don’t get”. I was always afraid of being a pain in the neck- so I figured “you don’t ask, you don’t get in trouble”.

So learn from the rich kids- take it to the top if you can’t get your guidance counselor or principal to write you the letter you need!!!

Good luck, you sound terrific and any college would be lucky to have you!

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With selective colleges receiving record breaking applications and using AI to cull the applicant pool, does holistic admissions really exist for all applicants? Is a kid like this one, who has a unique story but lower stats, likely to survive the first cut? I don’t think so, but others in this thread are more optimistic. Best of luck to you, OP.

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Can you please clarify your current family and living situation? You said that you lost a parent. Is the surviving parent remarried? How much did your parent (or parents if they are married) earn in 2022? You said that you were & still are homeless, but you also said that you have stable housing. Can you please explain your living situation? I’m asking these questions because the answers may well be important in determining your financial aid eligibility.

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I suspect the first cut preserves all applications that have the words “first generation” on them. And I read a few years ago that at least some schools were experimenting with sorting by zip code to make sure applicants from lower income zip codes were represented.

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In addition to the web sites above, you can try the coalition CBO registry and filter the list by FL. See if there is one that works with seniors near your community.

You can certainly apply without the help of a CBO, but if there is one working with your school district or a nearby community, it can be helpful, particularly if you are having trouble getting your guidance counselor to follow through. Hopefully the school principal or vice-principal will also help.

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Sorry, I should have put this in the original post.
My living situation is very weird but I’ll try my best to explain it. I currently live in a house with my father. We share one room and kitchen together. The rest of the house is where another person stays who my father pays to stay. I have talked to someone at my school who looked into my living situation more deeply and said I was considered homeless.
My dad has remarried after my mother’s death, but divorced a little before my freshman year. I have no contact with my ex step mother.
My dad made around 54.5k in 2022.

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I was not a ward of the state. My homelessness was not known to my GC.

Thank you so much for the advice. The recommendation letter my GC provided was very generic, so I will meet up with them asap to give them more information about my background and the advice you have given me.

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On the surface, it doesn’t sound like you are homeless, but I assume that the person from your school has more information than what has been shared here. This person will need to be able to help you complete any necessary paperwork required to support a claim of homelessness. If this is the case, you would be able to complete your financial aid applications by stating that you are homeless (lacking stable, fixed housing). Schools will ask for documentation of this claim, and the person at school who said that you qualify as homeless can provide documentation. I assume that you will have to provide your father’s information for Profile schools (although am not certain, since it’s been years since I’ve looked at a Profile form), but you would be able to check “homeless” on FAFSA - this would allow you to exclude your father’s information.

How much did you earn in 2022?

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Thanks for the information. I didn’t think I was considered homeless either, but my teacher, who worked with numerous other kids who had similar backgrounds, reaffirmed that I was.

I wasn’t working during 2022. I started my part time job this august of 2023.

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Actually, you don’t qualify 
 because you would have to be homeless AND unaccompanied. You live with your father, so you don’t qualify. You might qualify as homeless for purposes of school district reporting, but not for purposes of being independent for FAFSA.

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