I didn’t have the best grades in high school. I went to a very disadvantage school with zero assistance from staff members, teachers, principal or even the state. My grades are really bad… GPA: 70 SAT: 990. By the time I realized how bad those grades were, it was too late to do anything about them.
I have applied to the below college and am hoping to get some feedback from some of you:
HEOP: Hofstra
HEOP: Marist
HEOP: Manhattan College
HEOP: Siena College
EOP: SUNY Albany
EOP: SUNY New Paltz
EOP: SUNY Alfred State College
EOP: SUNY Binghamton
Iona College (Regular Admission)
I have also applied to a few CUNY Schools including, Lehman, City College, Hunter, and Baruch.
Do you live in NYC? Can you commute to a CUNY campus? You may have a shot at Hunter but add CSI and Lehman.
The only university where you really have a shot, even with HEOP, is Alfred State.
If you still have time, apply to SUNY Delhi, Plattsburgh, Morrisville, Canton as well as community colleges. Canton and Morrisville would expect a 79 average and respectively 840, 870 on the sat for eop. Cobleskill and Delhi 77.
A 70 average typically would result in community college, although the 990 shows you’ve got potential. So you need to aim for appropriate colleges.
A good idea would be to apply to TC3 - they have dorms so you’d have a residential experience but they admit students with low grades.
@MYOS1634 thanks. I have applied to CUNY Lehman, City College, Hunter and Baruch. My counselor suggested community college, but I’d much rather go to a 4-year. I will look into Delhi, Plattsburgh, Morrisville, and Canton. I do live in NYC and if get into CUNY, I would commute, but I would prefer living on campus.
I understand you’d like to go to a 4- year but your average is 70. And I assume zero AP/honors classes, all regular. So with the 990 colleges will think “smart kid but lazy” because your potential as they could expect is 80, 85. So, odds are against it. As I said above, the lowest GPA I could find for SUNY 4-years is 77.
Now, it all depends how this went.
For instance, was it 60 Freshman year, 65 sophomore year, 75 junior, 80 senior? Or 67-68-72-73?
Did you do CollegeNow last summer?
Have you passed Regents exam? Which ones? Which ones do you still need to take?
What’s your budget? Do you have a budget for room and board if you live on campus? Do you have a budget for tuition at a private school? Do you know your parents’ income and your EFC?
Do apply to a community college with residences (like TC3). It’s not a 4-year college but it’s a bit like one with a campus, residences, clubs.
OK I looked up GPA’s at several CUNYs.
All NYC’s CC’s have an average of about 76.
Lehman: SEEK GPA 83.5 SEEK SAT (“regular”: 87/ 1130 SAT)
Hunter : SEEK GPA 86 (“regular”: 89.5/ 1280 SAT)
City : SEEK GPA 85 (“regular”: 90/ 1240 SAT)
Baruch : SEEK GPA 86.5 (“regular”: 90/ 1340)
So, as you can see, you have no chane of getting into any of these colleges.
However you DO have a shot at a 4year college! I found a 4-year CUNY college where you’re near their stats for SEEK: College of Staten Island wants a 74 average from SEEK applicants along with a 900 SAT: a 990 SAT MAY compensate for the 70 average, especially if you have an upward trend (55, 65, 75, 80 for instance).
AND it has dorms so you could live on campus if you have enough money for housing.
However you have to realize that the regular average GPA for admitted students there is 87 and their average SAT is 1170. So you will have to hustle and be 100% during the summer bridge program, because getting in is only the first step: you also need to study autonomously, persevere, ask for help, manage your time (those things are hard even for straight A students so if you’re honest with yourself you have to adit it’ll be hard for you too and you’ll have to really up your game compared to high school. In fact, the best thing you can do is that you should start pretending you’re in college and “act like a college student”, study the way you think you’d have to do in college right now, build those “study muscles” :p)
@MYOS1634 Thank you so much. You’ve been much help. Yes, my grades increased every year in high school. My first two years was tough, I had to transfer out to another school because where I was, there was zero guidance. I then attended a slightly better school, but still not a lot of help. Just imagine NYC urban city schools. They don’t offer AP classes or honors classes. I’ll into College of Staten Island. I’m even willing to go out of state, if it makes sense (like NJ, CT, PA, MA) and am able to get it.
If you attend a low performing NYC school, I’m guessing you have a low EFC.
Can you calculate it (FAFSA EFC forecaster)?
But really your best bets are CSI and tc3- you should get free tuition, then you will need to figure out how to pay for room and board.
You’re allowed to take a maximum of 5.5k in loans for freshman year so everything else would have to come from your savings and your parents’ income or savings.
You might qualify for the Excelsior scholarship in nY, if your family income is below $110K this year. That would cover tuition so you might not have to take out loans if you commute or you could use them to dorm. If you can get Excelsior, it probably doesn’t pay to go out of state. I attended a CUNY college and went on to law school.
@briejax: Consider taking a few free online course from Khan Academy, then retake the SAT. Khan Academy was founded to offer free SAT prep, and it has since expanded.
That’s a great idea.
Strictly speaking, Khan Academy was founded because the founder’s niece needed review courses and he made a video, then ten, and they became popular, so he realized there was an untapped market for kids who want to learn and have terrible classes/teachers, or need to review, or want to advance on their own.
So,@briejax, register for the next SAT. I’m guessing you havent used your two “fee waivers” yet. So, register with your second fee waiver. And study very hard with Khan Academy. Use that website to offset the unsatisfactory classes at your school. Hang in there, what you’re learning now isn’t lost, it’s accumulating for next year.
Send all your scores to TC3, CSI, and two other colleges. If you tell me what your budget is I can try adn find two other residential colleges for your GPA/Score.
That’s the ONE thing you can still control - any boost will help since often the formula is GPA*sat score. You can register for the March test, study, be methodical, use books from the public library (study there) and Khan academy.
Also, there are always colleges that miscalculated yield and the list is published in early May, you’d need sat scores for those.
Of course if you failed any class try to retake them etc. But all in all the one thing you control now is that sat score.
If you were my child, I would advise you to start at CC and improve both your grades and your academic skills.
I’ve successfully coached students similar to you in the past. I am speaking from experience.
Your average is low not because you’re not avid, not because you don’t care. You are a hard worker, too. It’s because you have not had a chance yet to practice and hone your study skills.
Take. Your. Time.
Worth repeating: Take. Your. Time.
First: start at community college
DAY 1: locate the TUTORING OFFICE. Make friends immediately with the math and writing tutors. THEY WILL BE YOUR BEST FRIENDS. If you do this on DAY 1 you will have partners to help you build skills that you don’t even know that you don’t have. It’s normal to not know what skills you lack. The tutors can help you gain those skills.
Do that first: Find your tutoring program. Set up camp there. Live there throughout your first semester. That will ensure that your progress and grades are decent.
Community college is college and it’s harder than high school. Besides that, you have a lot to learn – managing time is a huge thing. It will take you at least one semester to get the basics down. Don’t take any hard classes during that time!!
Also – VASSAR has a special program for CC students. They are part of a program to help students like you attend FABULOUS COLLEGES. These are schools that expressly look for 1) smart; 2) ambitious; 3) hardworking students like yourself. They also provide GREAT FINANCIAL AID. They change lives.
@Dustyfeathers thank you for your advice. I’m think I’m mostly scared that if I go to CC, even if I get a good gpa and high grades, 4-year school will still look down on me because I’m at a CC.
CUNY and SUNY 4-year schools take a lot of transfers from CCs (almost half of our students, actually.) If that’s the route you take, keep your grades up in CC and you should be totally fine and may even save some money.
One bit of advice, keep an eye on academic requirements, which credits transfer where, and any prerequisites for your intended major once you narrow it down. That way, you will minimize taking unnecessary classes. So many transfers end up with way more than 120 credits because they didn’t take the right class.
@briejax : you may know Vassar, may not have heard the name before, because it’s not a place that advisers or kids in your high school hope for or know people who attended. But Vassar is a place that changes lived, where all the kids in Manhattan private school feel they’d be lucky to get into. That community college program is awesome. And a real goal for you. Graduate from Vassar and you’re college royalty. No one will know, or care, that you went to a CC.
Follow @Dustyfeathers ’ advice. They know what they’re talking about.
In your high school, students who go see tutors may do so because they’re forced to due to failing grade. In college, the most common reason for students to see a weekly tutor is to get an A.
Have you checked out Khan Academy yet?
There’s also a series of fun videos on YouTube called crashcourse. They’re fun because they’re tongue in cheek but the content is intense and serious. You just don’t realize it because of how it’s done. John Green just did one on Pride and Prejudice and it’s terrific. But they also have physics, sociology, psychology, anatomy and physiology, etc.
Hi all, I wanted to give you an update. I heard back from Manhattan College. They sent me a letter saying that they have selected my application for review under HEOP and in order to determine if I am eligible for this program they are requesting documentation. The letter also stated that once they have reviewed the information and I am financially eligible they will contact me to schedule an interview… Do you think that’s a good sign? I know that I qualify financially. I am just very nervous. I haven’t heard from any of the other schools. Oh, I did get accepted into CUNY York.
That’s excellent!
Both Manhattan and York are good. York must be affordable and if you get Manhattan HEOP would you be able to commute?
Prepare for your interview: why do you want to attend Manhattan? What makes you a great fit for the college? What are your favorite school subjects and what do you expect to study at Manhattan?
Prepare 4-5 questions for them (stuff that’s not easily found on the website, so scour the website for info you’d like to know and isn’t on the website, such as student experience, which classes are weedout, what are the best reasons to attend Manhattan v. a CUNY from the point of view of someone who works there. …)
@MYOS1634 thanks for sending these sample questions. Yes I should be able to commute to Manahttan College, it’s probably like about an hour from where I live, maybe even less than that.
