reverse chance me? i have one dream, one match, but i'd like some suggestions

College Search & Selection
1

Demographics: Poverty level income, white male, single parent, dad does not pay child support, but I’ll probably get great financial aid anywhere so that’s not a problem. College prep school + IB school in NoVA. Rising senior. Jewish.

Academics: well, here we go

GPA: UW- ~3.6 W- 3.85 (strong upward trend, was 3.3 UW, 3.6 W freshman year)

Rank: ~55/576

SAT: 1460 780 M / 680 EBRW (retaking for a 1550)

AP: Sophomore year: Comp Gov (5) | Junior year: Calc BC, Physics 1, Comp Sci A (pending, probably all 5’s except physics) | Senior year: Physics C

IB: HL History, HL English, HL Computer Science

Courseload: Took all pre-IB classes before junior year, most advanced classes available, taking multi and linear algebra next year

ECs: welp

Scholastic Bowl (10th - 12th, President 11th + 12th)

Robotics (SeaPerch + Vex, 11th - 12th, Captain 12th)

Research on developing software that can deter mental illness through machine learning

Debate (11th - 12th, President 11th + 12th)

Working summer jobs to provide money to pay for college apps

Essay: I have been told I am an excellent writer. Basically, it will probably be about the time I was in the hospital for depression+anxiety and I went outside in the middle of the night to look at the stars. It’s supposed to be symbolic of my growth has a human being and climbing out of a hole my mental illness put me in.

LoRs: Hopefully great. I’m getting one from my history teacher that I LOVE. She has helped me be more vocal in class as well as participate in school activities. I’d say she knows me pretty well. I’m also getting one from my computer science teacher, he was an admissions officer at West Point so it should be good. My counselor one should be good as she is the one that sent me to the hospital and we have a good relationship.

Hooks: Basically that my family life is awful. Drug abuse, no father, low income, mental illness from me, etc. I want to change my family’s history. I am also applying to Questbridge.

Notes: I want to apply to Brown ED, as it is my dream school. I am visiting there this summer. I also really like William and Mary, my aunt went there. I should note that my extended family is fine, it’s just my direct family that sucks.

Thank you for reading this!!! I am not trying to make you feel sorry for me. I would just like some ideas for reaches, matches, and safeties. :slight_smile:

2

Pomona would be a reach, but no more so than Brown. They’ve been very supportive of this young man’s efforts, and might see you as a student to whom that mental health innovation baton could be passed: https://www.pomona.edu/news/2016/03/03-stephen-michael-smith-17-crafts-app-help-fight-ocd You could also consider Claremont McKenna and Pitzer, in the Claremont Consortium. (The other two are Scripps, which is women-only, and Harvey Mudd which is more intensely STEM-focused than W&M and Brown so probably not what you’re looking for.)

Outside of the excellent in-state options in VA, the farther from home you apply, the more “geographic diversity” will help you… and you don’t as if sound home is that pleasant anyway… so maybe consider breaking out of the East Coast admissions crunch a bit and considering schools like Rice in TX, and Carleton and Macalester in MN, in addition to the Claremonts and perhaps USC in CA.

Many of the full-need-met schools that should be your targets (including Pomona and CMC) are on the Questbridge list, so that’s a good place to start. Are there particular academic interests that you want your college to be strong in? Mental health wise, do you think S.A.D. is an operative factor - i.e., would you be at your best in a sunnier climate, or is that not really a concern?

Be watchful/proactive about the issue of non-support from your father vis-a-vis financial aid. Make sure you have done whatever waivers need to be done for colleges not to require income info from him and so on. Others on CC know more about the intricacies of this than I do, but it’s important to make sure there won’t be any unpleasant surprises in this regard.

3

Grinnell?

4

Academic priorities/preferences? Size of school? Distance from home?

In state public schools are usually the first step for most people’s safety/match school – what does your guidance counselor say about chances at William & Mary or other instate options?

Grinnell is a fantastic school with strong sciences, diverse, with emphasis on economic diversity – a reach for everyone. Haverford, if the Honor Code and Quaker values resonated with you, would be another high reach, but a wonderful school and community, and easy Amtrak access.

On the essay, the advice we heard was the essay should tell a story about the applicant that makes the college want to say “yes.” Hospitalization for depression and anxiety – even with the positive outcome – is considered a risky story to tell. One admissions director said to avoid the “Ds” – divorce, death, depression, disease" plus the athletic injury and the mission trip story, not because they aren’t meaningful and important to the student’s experience, but because it is difficult to tell in a way which makes the school want to say “yes.” So I would encourage you to re-envision the essay to focus on your strengths rather than the place where those strengths came from.

I also agree that it is essential to nail down the Non Custodial Parent waiver issue quickly, because that can really throw a wrench into the financial side of the application.

5

“College prep school + IB school in NoVA”

What does your school’s college placement team tell you? Do they know how grim your financial situation is, and have they made any suggestions for financially safe options beyond Questbridge?

Each college/university that requires the CSS Profile or other financial aid application in addition to the FAFSA, will have its own policy about NCP waivers. You will need to ask each place separately, and submit their required paperwork separately. So, be sure to identify places that are FAFSA-only or that clearly state they don’t require NCP financial information.

Your grades and SAT scores qualify you for some of the automatic scholarships listed in the thread on automatic full-tuition and automatic full-ride scholarships that is at the top of the Financial Aid Forum. Go read through that and identify a couple of places where you think you could be happy to use as your rock-bottom safeties.

6

Midwestmomofboys makes a good point about the essay. This troubled me too but I wasn’t sure how to give nuanced feedback about it.

Obviously the point of all this is to be authentic and to paint a picture of who you are and what you care about. It pains me to even think about advising a young person to be “closeted” about struggles that have been formative and that have built strength and wisdom.

But the other side of the coin is that colleges are businesses, and businesses are risk-averse. If you go too far with the self-disclosure, they will see what a wonderful person you are and sincerely wish you well being a wonderful person on some other campus. Colleges are truly struggling to meet the mental health needs of students, and from their pragmatic point of view, a student with mental health struggles that have crossed the inpatient-admission line is a high-risk admit. Some students have no choice about disclosing an admission (for example, if their grades fell apart that semester and it has to be explained) but if you do have the choice… get in first. You can be an open book later, and do your part to change this unfortunate reality for those who come after you.

Obviously you have done some great things that came out of your own experiences with depression and anxiety, and it is not only okay but probably essential to make that connection. But if you can find a way to tell essentially the same story about yourself, without explicitly disclosing the inpatient admission, I would err on the side of not sending up that red flag. I don’t like living in a world where I feel the need to give that advice, but… the list of ways I can complete the “I don’t like living in a world where___” sentence is long and colorful, so… yeah.

7

With divorced parents, please read http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2083835-faq-divorced-parents-financial-aid-and-net-price-calculators.html .

Even without the divorced parents complication, many colleges do not give good financial aid generally, so investigate before assuming.

8

I strongly suggest staying aware from mental health issues in a college essay. I am sure it is a powerful story, but your personal narrative to admissions officers is not the correct platform. What type of school are you looking for? Based on your stats, I would suggest the following matches/safeties: Syracuse, Fordham, Connecticut College, DePaul, Bard

9

Be sure to get and use fee waivers if you possibly can!

10

I had same concern regarding essay when I first read OP. You’ve already received good feedback on why. Colleges can be risk adverse.

Congrats on your hard work and success!!!

11

For low income + high stats, some of the lowest available net prices may be among selective schools that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
(These colleges largely overlap with the QuestBridge member schools).

However, divorce can be a complicating factor especially if there is a non-cooperating parent whose income reduces your ability to qualify for n-b aid. In that situation, schools that offer big merit scholarships automatically for qualifying stats may be among your better match/safety options.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

The ultimate admission + financial safety may be an in-state public school within commuting distance from home.

12

I second Rice. It’s a full-need school with a very supportive environment.

I know of a young woman who transferred to Rice from a SoCal CC. Like you, she had been hospitalized for depression, and she discussed that experience in her admissions essay. She had a good experience at Rice, and she is now happily enrolled in medical school.

However, to have a realistic chance at admission, you would need to improve your SAT scores. (Of course, the same holds true for Brown.)

13

Rice enrolled 51 Questbridge match students last year. Definitely put it on your QB match list.