Sick with Stress

Applying to College
1

<p>Well since I entered high school, I've been an A/B student. I've been on honor roll for as long as I could remember, and have won the affection of many of my teachers. Sadly I have a horrible weakness in math. I want to major in Game Design and Animation and I found some pretty good schools in my state of Florida as well as New York that I want to go to. Sadly I feel like I will not get into them. </p>

<p>I'm a Senior now and looking at my transcript from since Freshman year I have mainly gotten C's and B's in math, and now I'm faced with an F in my AICE Math class . . . I did receive two other C's in Chem honors and AP English Comp, and now possibly my AP Government class. I had taken mainstream classes for my Freshman and Sophomore years, and now I've had AP, DC, and honors classes in my Junior and Senior year. I know colleges like it when students challenge themselves, especially when they have taken regular classes before higher-level classes. But I always feel discouraged by my friends who have taken honors and AP classes upon their freshman year and are in the top 20 of my school. </p>

<p>I'm starting to apply to UCF, USF, RIT, FSU, and Marist College. I already got into Stetson University but I feel they will revoke my admissions due to my F in AICE. But my dream college is UCF and I feel like I'll get rejected by them. I already sent in my application for the school but their waiting for my ACT scores that I'm retaking (I had a 19 on it). But I'm in high doubts of the other colleges. And I really don't want to do the community college for two years because I really want to get out my town after 17 years. I'm feeling way too stressed out. And I'm not sure what exactly to do. I'll work my butt off to get an A in AICE for my final transcript but I'm not sure if the colleges would care if I made such a huge turnaround. </p>

<p>Other than my academics, I have good letters of recommendation and lots of community service. I don't participate in sports because I have to pay $100 to even play one, and I'm a part of Book Club and Key Club. I was also a S4TL delegate. My current gpa is 3.48 weighted and possibly after this semester I'll have a 3.5, if my AICE grade doesn't bring it down drastically. My stress is starting to make me sick, and I worry about my future. What should I do? Am I worrying too much?</p>

2

<p>Don’t fret. You are doing your best.</p>

<p>Yes, you are doing your best.</p>

3

<p>You are worrying about things you can’t change (if the semester is over and you have no way to get a passing grade in the AICE math class or getting that AP Government grade up to somewhere in the B range). You should discuss your math grade with your guidance counselor (see what they think about Stetson and what will happen there). I am not too familiar with the schools on your list, but you might want to add a couple more safeties where your stats are on the high end for the school if you don’t already have them. If you have any explanation for the F and other low grades this semester other than overloading or a tough teacher (eg, health problems, family problems, etc), let your guidance counselor know so they can pass that info on.</p>

<p>It sounds like you overextended this year on the AP classes. Not sure if you can or should drop back in any way for second semester. Again, you might ask your guidance counselor their opinion. There is only so much stress you can take… then for the sake of your health (physical and mental), sometimes you have to back down from something that is too challenging even if you don’t want to.</p>

<p>It is really hard to tell someone to relax and stress less when they are having a tough senior year. All I can say is that if you really don’t get to go where you want to, you do have some other options. They are things like community college and transferring, going to a four year college that isn’t a top choice and doing GREAT your freshman year and then transferring, or taking a gap year and re-applying next year (maybe taking math at a CC during that time to prove you can get better grades in it, and also beefing up your standardized test scores).</p>

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<p>Note, some schools will consider you a transfer applicant if you take 1 post-HS college course (eg. GWU), so check college websites if you decide to go this route.</p>