<p>Alright.
So I'm on a throwaway account.
I'm seriously terrified for my future; as a child I was an honors student and lauded over by my peers and the adults around me. I was born to Asian and African parents who held that up so high and I nonstop worked toward doing-- well.</p>
<p>Maybe around the middle school years is when things started to get rocky. I was diagnosed with depression in seventh grade and started a lot of heavy medication and at the same time I guess I lost a good amount of effort or something, because my grades started to lower. Now, I'm in my sophomore year of high school. This habit has carried on here--</p>
<p>So.</p>
<p>My GPA freshman year was abysmal (2.25?) where I knew I could do better. In fact, because of my middle school grades, I'd been placed in "regular classes"-- and after medication withdrawal (I've been slowly trying to phase myself off it) my first semester of sophomore year seems to be sitting at a solid 2. Yep. A two. So I'm freaking out over that.
I got a 167 on my PSAT: at the highest, I got a "98% higher than sophomores in the nation" for reading. 55% math; 88% writing. My ECs are mainly fine arts and theatre. I'm taking one AP class this year. I'm spurring for more next year. I might even consider CalArts.</p>
<p>All my life I've been itching to get my butt out of this dead-end state of Arizona (literally. It's out of state, hell, out of country, maybe, or bust for me) and the way things are looking, I'm more interested in that light at the end of the tunnel. Not to be a Debbie Downer, I mean.</p>
<p>In general, I'm just wondering if I have any chances outta here with how badly I've done at first. I'm aiming to do better next semester; can't undo what happened before, though.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>basically, get straight A’s and study immensely for the SAT and continue with your EC’s/build awesome EC’s. i’m sure if your gpa is 3.3+ and you have a good SAT score, you can go to college out of state. probably not a top 50, but you can find a good college that suits your personality. </p>
<p>btw i totally understand how annoying medication can be, and i’m going through not taking it anymore, so i understand how you feel. i know how doctors do their best, but medication for mental health is ridiculous. you have to try so many to find the right one, and there’s a minimum of taking it for four weeks before any results show. and then they gradually up your dose, and it’s like next year before you’re at a therapeutic level. plus there’s the side effects. at that point, you’ve lost all faith in medication. i mostly have anxiety issues, but i’m definitely still depressed. on the up-side: they might have found a gene that could possibly be screened for in a blood test to test whether an SSRI would work on someone.</p>
<p>You / does anyone reading think I can get up at least a 3.0? I’m looking at some out-of-country universities (Australia and France) that ask for either a certain IB score or a certain SAT + GPA combination-- SAT I can reach, I gotta check up on my GPA but it’s not looking too hot. Probably around a 2.0-2.5 right now… </p>
<p>Also, yeah. SSRI withdrawal is apparently way worse than heroin withdrawal according to way more people than id expected. Terrifying, but that’s why I’m trying to taper off slowly.</p>
<p>It’s a little off-topic but you really shouldn’t wean yourself of medication yourself. That’s something for doctors and nurses and people who know a lot more about anatomy and pharmaceuticals than you or I should handle. Doing that by yourself can be gravely dangerous.</p>
<p>While you may not get into some super school out of state, there’s decent out of state colleges at good out of state prices (WUE scholars) that accept more than they admit. Specifically state colleges in the rocky mountain/great plains like wyoming, kansas, nebraska, north/south dakota, montana, or idaho</p>
<p>@thekeyofgb Yeah… about that. I don’t have any doctors actually willing to help me with that-- it’s all my parents. They’re convinced it’s the only thing keeping me together.</p>
<p>@GeologyRocks
Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping. I’m just sitting here dwelling on my out-of-country options, too-- some schools only seem to look at SAT / ACT, it seems? But just in case I’m looking over my GPA, as stated before… turns out for this semester I’ve absolutely killed mine with a 1.5. Freshman year GPA was again… probably a 2.4. I just want to get it up to a 3.
So I don’t know.</p>
<p>Alot of those OOS schools I mentioned earlier accept anyone that graduates from high school. Wyoming has like a 98% acceptance rate or something.</p>
<p>Even if you have pretty mediocre to bad grades, they will still most likely accept you if you show a pretty decent interest in your college essays or visiting.</p>
<p>Why do you want to go out of state/out of country so badly? You do realize that different states have different cultures, and so do different countries, and that you might actually be worse off in some foreign countries than in the US? Furthermore, why do you seem to believe that changing your geographic location will do you so much good?</p>
<p>I just don’t think you’re really thinking everything through here.</p>
<p>Anyway - you won’t be screwed with a 2.0 GPA, but pulling it up certainly wouldn’t hurt. Also, you say you’re aiming to do better next semester, but how? Are you sure you’re going about this the right way? Sometimes the real problem is a mental one - a personal one - and not so much about your work ethic or your intelligence or anything. Why are you depressed? Why do you feel you don’t need medication? Why are you suicidal? Do you have close friends or other people you can talk to this about?</p>
<p>Anyway, if you did well in middle school and only started tanking when depression settled in, I’m sure you’re capable of pulling up your grades. I’m just worried that you might be leaving other, extremely important problems unsolved.</p>