Reapplying To Colleges. HELP!!

Applying to College
1

Hello everyone! I’d want to apologize for this long post in advance, but I really need some help about the process to reapplying to colleges. Any help would be appreciated!

A bit about myself and my situation:
•International student
•Don’t seek financial help
•GPA: 3.82/4.0 (even though my school technically doesn’t use gpa scale, my counselor calculated it somehow)
•Top 2% of the class
• IB Diploma program candidate
•SAT: 1200 (this is were i went wrong obviously)
•Recommendations: read them, would say 10/10
•CommonApp essay: 7/10. wrote how the suicide of one of the kid in my school changed me as a person. i’ve created non-profit suicide prevention organization and etc
•Other essays: some essays both me and my counselor really liked, however others were boring and monotone.
•ECs: A lot of important ones: school’s president, yearbook, founder of 2 clubs, lots of volunteering hours. Was very involved in school activity (planned almost every single event and etc). Worked as a photographer, social media manager for this one company last summer and etc. Also won lot of awards, both regional and international

Now here are a few questions that i have:

(1) GRADES
During the summer before applying, I’ve asked my counselor to calculate my GPA. Then in September she just told me the number “3.82”. I didn’t give it too much thought, because at the time I didn’t have an official grade reports (I don’t know how it works in other schools, but in mine they don’t give out the official reports for each year. they just tell you your final grade that they calculate by themselves. to get an official report you need to go to the office and ask for it. i never really needed it, seeing as i always knew my grades). So, then they gave me the official papers and to some universities I mailed them, while for the other colleges my counselor send them via CommonApp.
However, when she send them, there has been a mistake made. While they were doing the final report, they accidentally put the wrong grades into my report, this my GPA dropped (not by a lot, but it was 3.68 instead of 3.82). I discovered this only way after I was rejected.

Long story: I’ve self reported my GPA as 3.82 in that grade section on CommonApp, while if calculated from my grade reports that were send out, you’d get 3.68.

QUESTION: If i’m reapplying to colleges, would it make sense for my counselor to e-mail the universities about this mistake? Or should I just leave it be? Thus this leads to another question, do universities really keep the old applications? If so, what would the do if they see mismatch between my “correct” grade and the ones that were send out?

(2) TEACHER & COUNSELOR RECOMMENDATIONS
Should my teacher and counselor recommendations be different from the ones that were send out? If yes, then how exactly?

(3) OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
A big improvement on my application will be a summer volunteering program that I did in Japan. Thus, I’d have 2 recommendation out of it. However, how important would they be?
Last year my counselor told me that these other recommendations don’t matter. Now I think she was wrong, but i’m still doubting what’s the “truth”.

(4) UNIVERSITY
I’ll be attending a 4-year university this fall in Canada. (note: a university with a big name) However, I do not want to apply as a transfer. Thus, here’s a conflict. Can I apply as a first-year student to USC, NYU, UChicago, UPENN, for example, if by the time my decision comes out, I would already complete 2 semesters in another university?
And what would happen if I don’t report studying in another university? How exactly would they know which university i’ve attended, if it’s not located in the States?
But if I do report going (which i’ll probably do), would they consider me as a transfer student or ask for my GPA/recommendations?

I have my reasons for not taking a gap year, going to another university and not wanting to transfer. So I’m asking just for answers to my questions and not the judgmental questions about my decisions. Seems like people on CC love to do that.

Final note: I realize that my application was a bit over the place. My ECs might have been average. Test scores were definitely my biggest disadvantage. And boring essays didn’t do me justice. However, I do know what my application lacked and have a few new things to add. So i’m pretty sure it won’t be the same as my old one.

Again, sorry for a long post. But i’d like to say thanks in advance to anyone who’d respond to this post. Any help is appreciated. :slight_smile:

2

You cannot lie about being a first year university student. The places you have listed will all consider you a transfer applicant. You will need new letters of recommendation from your university professors. You will most likely need to resend your high school transcript, and you definitely will need to send your university records. Transfer applications often are filed in February or March, so you will surely have final gades for that first semester, and you do have time to create relationships with the professors so you can get the letters of recommendation.

The only recommendations that matter are the academic ones from your professors. What you did with your summer isn’t important.

If you fail to apply as a transfer, and do not send your records from this first university, the consequences are dire. Depending on when the places you apply to, are accepted by, or choose to attend, find out about this dishonesty, your application will be rejected, your admission will be rescinded, you will be expelled permanently with a black mark on your record, and a completed degree could be nullified. Yes, academic institutions take this kind of thing very seriously. People do lose their degrees for lies like this. So just don’t do that.

If you dislike your Canadian university so much that you can’t bear to admit you are attending there, don’t go. Take a gap year or two and do something else with your life for a while.

3

You can’t apply as a first year if you attend a college post high school graduation. Also, reading your recommendations is not considered a good thing by colleges (assumes the recommender may have hyped you up and/or softened criticism because you saw them). Your essay topic sounds like kind of a downer, too — maybe you seem earnest and hardworking in it, but “interested and interesting” aren’t shining through from your brief description.

4

I have to say, this is one craziest posts I’ve ever seen on CC. OP, you can’t go to university in Canada for a year and then pretend that it never happened. You have two options:

A. Take a true gap year and then reapply to US schools or
B. Attend school in Canada for a year and apply to US schools as a transfer student.

5

One other thought occurred to me OP. You could do a PG (post graduate) year at a prep/boarding school. Not sure what the rules are regarding taking the SAT post graduation, but assuming you can take the tests again, that would give you a chance of raising your SAT grades.

6

“Can I apply as a first-year student to USC, NYU, UChicago, UPENN,…”

As others have mentioned, no. Once you start university anywhere, you have to tell schools about it when you apply, and you have to apply as a transfer student. Also, your 1200 on the SAT is not going to help you to get into universities at this level.

However, I know quite a few people who graduated with a bachelor’s from universities in Canada, and then went to graduate school in the US. Some went to top schools including Princeton and Stanford. Graduate school admissions in the US know how strong universities are in other countries including Canada. I don’t see how these four schools that you mentioned have any significant advantage over the top universities in Canada (or the top schools in several other countries).

It sounds like you will be starting university in about two or three weeks. I would suggest that you work very hard, try to get good grades, and expect that you will probably stay where you are (or where you are about to be) for four years.

7

First, which is the correct GPA–3.68 or 3.82.

Second, a score of 1200 on the SAT is not sufficient for Penn, Chicago, USC & NYU.

Third, writing about suicide is a red flag. Starting a non-profit suicide prevention organization raises concerns about malpractice if not managed by a licensed professional.

Fourth, you probably don’t realize that you raise ethical concerns about discrepancies in reporting grades, running a suicide organization without proper credentials & relevant experience, and the intent to conceal a year of study at a Canadian university.

8

A few comments:

  1. First and foremost, I agree with the others. You plan is just bad (and rarely is there such uniformity of opinion on this site). It involves flat out lying on your application by omitting a college you have attended. Will you get caught? I don’t know. But if you do the ramifications will be overwhelming including (depending on when it is found out) revoking your acceptance, dismissing you from the college, and/or revoking your diploma for getting in under false pretenses. I would not want to live with that risk hanging over my head. Do you? Assuming you attend the Canadian university you will have to apply as a transfer student without question.

  2. I’m not sure why you are dissatisfied with a “big name” Canadian university. It sounds to me like you hit the jackpot. I think your attention would be much better spent finding a way to make that school work for you, immersing yourself in college life, developing friendships, meeting professors etc. Do you have any idea how many people would give almost anything to be in your position and be lined up to get an excellent 4 year college degree?

  3. And FWIW reapplying to the same set of schools that rejected you (if you do take a gap year) rarely works unless something extraordinary happened in the interim. Small tweaks to an application which still has a low SAT score are unlikely to yield a different result.

9

Also, it is much easier to get a work permit in Canada than in the US.

10

adding…
4) Also a summer volunteering program in Japan most likely won’t move the needle on a college admission decision (especially if it is a program you paid to take part in). Many HS students do similar things, often in disadvantaged countries. Additionally, no college that I know of wants more than one supplemental (non-teacher or guidance counselor) recommendation.

11

Given you plan to lie about not attending university in Canada I am inclined to believe that this is another falsehood.

12

Schools do keep applications on file, so if you re-applied it’s very likely that your prior application would be in the same file with your “new” one so the readers could see it.

13

You shouldn’t reapply to the universities that rejected you. Once they said no, that’s it - they don’t go “oh, why didn’t we give him a chance last year?”
So, you need an entire new list of schools.
Your first semester college grades will be taken into account so do as well as you possibly can and kept in mind there’s grade deflation in Canada.

14

It’s very simple. You should go to UBC U Toronto or McGill. They are great schools.

Do well there and apply as a transfer after year one or year two.

Probably stronger if you can post a high cum in your full first year and then start the process.

If you have those grades under your belt it will lessen the two things that hurt you this time around.

The 1200 SAT and the actual GPA of 3.62. As an international student it’s just not enough by a wide measure for the schools you targeted.

15

“I have my reasons for not taking a gap year, going to another university and not wanting to transfer. So I’m asking just for answers to my questions and not the judgmental questions about my decisions. Seems like people on CC love to do that”.

Per your request to the point, don’t do any of what you are proposing. Your instincts appear to be horrible. I will leave it at that to avoid as you put it being “judgmental” about the ethics behind your instinct to lie.

Pattern of behavior. Do they keep applications, inadvertent GPA inflation, will they check… top 2% of class with 3.68 GPA.