Allow me to explain my situation. My Freshman year I was struggling. I ended with a <1 GPA. This resulted in my parents pulling me out of school to do online home school, which didn’t work. When I came back to school my sophomore year my GPA was better but still bad, ~2.5. I managed to kick a** my Junior and Senior years with 4.0 and ~4.2 GPAs respectively. Overall, I have about a 2.8 GPA. The last time I took my act I scored a 31. I have several disabilities which have given me trouble in the past. Mainly ADHD and OCD, which made it very difficult to pay attention and caused me to hoard papers and lose important assignments. The OCD has especially given me trouble because intrusive thoughts often distract me from my work and cause me to lose my train of thought. I also have dysgraphia, which is the inability to write coherently due to some sort of brain issue. Sometimes teachers would flat out refuse to grade my assignments or mark answers wrong because they could not read them. Will colleges award me any scholarships at all when my GPA doesn’t meet any of their requirements? Is it worth my time trying to explain my situation? Any and all advice is welcome. I appreciate it.
To be completely honest, I had some motivation issues Freshman + sophomore years as well.
So you are a senior now and graduating from high school soon?
Most community colleges have open enrollment which means anyone can enrolling classes. The prices are usually less, if you can commute from home.
When you returned to the HS…did you have a special education IEP or a 504 Plan to address your disabilities? If so…what accommodations did you have. If not…why not?
Are you seeing a psychiatrist or someone to help you with the OCD? What are you doing to address this?
In terms of dysgraphia…where I am, most papers and assignments are done using word processing.
Did you speak to your HS guidance counselor about colleges where you would have a good chance of acceptance.
Now…the money part.
How much money do you need? How much will your parents contribute annually towards your college costs.
Does your family have financial need…or are you hoping for merit scholarships?
And my last comment…
You seem to have an upward trend in your grades, but still have the same disability issues. Any chance you could do a post graduate year at your HS or another HS…taking classes and showing youncan reallyndomthat work…consistently?
31 is not high enough to make up for a low GPA. Go to a CC and get your GPA up and when you apply to transfer into a 4 year, your ACT score will still be counted along with a good cc gpa.
Maybe you can get a scholarship from an organization that deals with your learning disabilities m.
I did have an IEP. They recommended that I use a laptop, but I refused because I was self conscious. They also offered to get me extra time on tests and such. I took advantage of that Junior year but stopped when people told me that my grades “didn’t count” because I had extra time and they didn’t. (Dumb, I know)
As for OCD, I find that simply communicating with teachers helps tremendously, as they can tell me which papers I need to keep and which ones I don’t. I still keep tests, quizzes, etc to study from, but i do not think that is an issue. This is why my grades spiked a lot in Junior year I think, I found it a lot easier to communicate with others.
I spoke to my guidance counselor and narrowed down 2 colleges, Shepherd University and West Virginia University. I’ve already been accepted to Shepherd. I plan to spend a year their and then transfer to WVU or perhaps somewhere else to major in Physics.
As far as I know, my parents don’t plan to pay for any of my college. My first year will cost about 8000 because i won’t be living on campus. For my next 3, assuming I attend WVU, i’m looking at about ~22000 annually. In a perfect world, I would be able to get another 10000 dollars to live on campus my first year, but I can’t really see that happening.
Family makes 6 digits, no financial need here. Was hoping for perhaps some sort of merit scholarship.
As for your last question, I never really considered that option. I didn’t even know you could do that. It is definitely an option I would be willing to explore. I also was considering maybe attending community college to get some courses out of the way that are required for my Physics major. The only issue is I want my first year courses to be as rigorous as possible so I don’t fall behind in my courseload, as I’ve heard that once you fall behind in Physics it’s very very hard to get back to the correct pace. I’d also like to maintain a good GPA and attend graduate school.
I graduated the day I made this post.
@KurisuMakise Do your parents support the idea of you going to college? If so, how do they expect you to pay for it? Do you have a summer job?
The correct pace for Physics is the one you are most successful and comfortable with. While classes can be sequential, there is no rush. The laws of physics are rather constant.
They do support me going to college. I suppose they think that college is one of those things you just do yourself. I’ve been applying to places recently.
Thank you for the advice.
College was very different in the 70s and 80s. You COULD figure it out yourself. Have you filled out your FASFA and taken your full Freshmen $5500. You will need a job to pay for Shepherd, which is a very reasonably priced school. Can you commute to WVU if you transfer later on?
I have filled out my FAFSA. And what do you mean by taken my full freshman 5000? Unfortunately commuting to WVU is not an option, as I live about 2 hours away.
Sorry, I meant your full $5500 Stafford loan. If you take community college classes and don’t need to full $5500 the first year, don’t decline any portion but take it all and save the difference for your junior and senior year. Can you commute to Shepherd?
It looks as though you will need to find a way to WVU since physics is not a major at Shepherd.
No, I have not taken out my loan yet. I can indeed commute to Shepherd. I realize that Shepherd does not offer a Physics major. At Shepherd, I plan to major in Biology. I believe Biology related courses will help when I take the MCAT to get into medical school.
At this point, your best chance at aid is through Shepherd College. They give both need based aid and merit aid. Honestly, both are a long shot as your gpa is not at the top of its scale, and you said your family doesn’t have a need (over $100k at a state school is not usually going to result in need based aid).
Go and talk to the people in financial aid. They might be willing to exclude your early grades and that might qualify you for merit. You’ll get nothing if you don’t try.
I plan on consulting the financial aid office within the week, as my guidance counselor recommended it. Thank you so much for your input and advice
@twoinanddone
@gearmom
@twoinanddone @KurisuMakise OP luckily has the reasonably priced college options in West Virginia (my son is going there for Boy Scout Jamboree this summer). So if OP commuted to Shepherd, it would cost about $7000 per year for tuition plus gas $ needed. Your maximum freshman year Stafford loan is $5500. Your sophomore Stafford loan is $6500. (Junior and Senior year loans, $7500). You probably need to earn 2 to 3 thousand for your Freshman year if you commute to Shepherd. Maybe stay one more year at that rate. Earn 2 - 3 thousand for the year and save what you can. Then maybe transfer to WVU. Keyser has the least expensive option, only 13 thousand for the year to live there but maybe you can find less expensive room and board off campus. If you do well Freshman and Sophomore year, could you talk to your parents about just helping out 3 thousand a year for Junior and Senior year? Would they give you money from their tax credit, American Opportunity Tax Credit. @twoinanddone Do you know how that would work for OP if self funding. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/aotc
@KurisuMakise It is possible that if you went to a community college for two years and that only cost you about 2 thousand per year, you could take the maximum Stafford loan for those two years $5500 (Freshman) and $6500 (Sophomore) and have $12000 from your Stafford loans but only need $4000 for community college expenses. You would then have $8000 in the bank. If you then take $4000 each year of that money in the bank and add it to your $7500 Junior and Senior Stafford loans, you would have $11,500 per year to spend which you could add to with summer jobs. Then you could be on track to being able to afford WVU with careful planning of room and board.
What is a “biology related course”?
Look up the required courses for acceptance into medical school. They are NOT all science related.
Sorry, was sort of out of it when I wrote that. I intend to take Biology in my Freshman year at shepherd as they do not offer some of the courses that I need to complete for my Physics degree, so I might as well take it there. As someone above me mentioned they don’t offer a Physics major. A lot of the courses I need for admission to medical school fall under what I need for my Physics major, including lab experience, mathematics courses, and Physics. It’s also recommended that i take Biochem and Molecular biology. I’ll have to look into whether or not Shepherd offers those courses.