Spanning the Gap (Year)

Parents Forum
1

<p>Before I begin, if you want to read the painfully earnest start to my saga please go here:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/845008-if-i-say-no-college.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/845008-if-i-say-no-college.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>So, I'm at a bit of a loss.</p>

<p>Last year I decided not to go off to college with the rest of my class. Instead I decided to take a gap year and join an Americorps affiliated program called City Year. I thought that this would give me some sort of discipline, and in general help me to become a better person. In a lot of ways I feel like this experience has already had a huge effect on me. Working 65-70 hours every week has simply forced me to change. The reality of my day to day life means that I have to get things done. There are bills that I need to pay, laundry that I need to do, and food that needs to be bought. Not to mention the obscene amount of work that I have to do at home as well.</p>

<p>But I'm still just a recovering screw up.</p>

<p>My transcript from high school is dismal, I probably clock in at a 2.9-3.0 UW (Don't worry, I wince when those numbers pop up too), and I'm really not quite sure what schools to apply to for next year.</p>

<p>SATwise, I have a 2160 and I'm retaking in December. My ECs are rather good, and have a general focus to them. Additionally, I think that my gap year experience and choice to join Americorps will help me in that respect.</p>

<p>The problem is that I simply don't know where I COULD get in. Let alone who might give me aid (Yep, that's an issue).</p>

<p>A high sat/low gpa discrepancy is already a challenge to deal with when applying. Adding a productive gap year to that equation makes it even harder for me to know where to apply. The only school that I'm 100% about applying to is Deep Springs. Unfortunately Deep Springs isn't really a sure bet for anyone, let alone me.</p>

<p>If you guys could help me with suggestions for schools that would be great!</p>

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<p>Recap:</p>

<ol>
<li>Screwed up in HS.</li>
<li>Decided to take a gap year to become a better person all around.</li>
<li>Joined an Americorps program called City Year in NYC.</li>
<li>Living on peanuts (and a distinct lack of Food Stamps) has really had an impact on me.</li>
<li>But where to apply?</li>
<li>Stats:
-GPA: 2.9-3.0 UW
-SAT: 2160 (800 CR, 690 M, 670 W)
-AP: Gov 5, US History 5, World History 4
-EC: Americorps/City Year, Captain of Debate Team, various others...
-Recommendations: Hopefully good.
-Hook: Hah.
-Essays: TBD (But hopefully excellent. TASP waitlisted me with my grades...so I take that as a good omen regarding the quality of my writing).</li>
</ol>

<p>If you have any further questions, please ask!</p>

2

<p>Are you eligible for need-based aid? (Approximately what is your EFC and is it realistic for your family? How much can you and they afford?)</p>

<p>What state are you in-state for?</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>-Probably
-Various calculators have put our EFC at approx. 2,500…so I’d say 3,500 or so.
-Rather realistic. Both my parents work full-time. Americorps gives me an education grant of $5,400 upon completion.
-I am in-state for Vermont.</p>

4

<p>I think your story is inspiring, frankly, and clearly you are intelligent. Do you feel more motivated when you think about tackling academics again?</p>

<p>Are you applying to UVM? Other schools in Vt? </p>

<p>I think there are any number of schools, some very selective, that would be interested in having you. Why not apply to schools where you would like to go, and see how it works out?</p>

<p>The main thing might be whether you really want to do school again, at this time.</p>

5

<p>If you are interested in Deep Springs, then I’d say you should take a look at the LACs (liberal arts colleges), which are more likely to do a holistic evaluation of your application. Colleges That Change Lives should have some good suggestions. Then test the water: Set up interviews with the admissions staff at a few schools and tell your story in person. Ask if they ever admit students with your kind of profile and what they would want to see in order to take the risk of admitting you. Make sure you are interviewing with someone on the admissions staff (not a student interviewer or alum), so you get a valid response. You can also ask if it would be better for you to apply as a transfer student after demonstrating your academic aptitude at a community college or elsewhere. Would they view you more favorably in that situation? By reading between the lines, you may get some sense of whether you would be seriously considered as a prospective student.</p>

6

<p>Yes, I do feel more motivated when I think about going back to school. I imagine the gulf between feeling ready and actually being ready is still there in a lot of ways, but I’m working on it.</p>

<p>I hadn’t planned on applying to UVM for a variety of reasons. One of which being that UVM is rather expensive for a state school. Another is the school’s rather close proximity to my house… However, I will probably end up applying despite my personal peeves.</p>

<p>I think that setting up interviews with admissions staff sounds like a great idea. But would I be able to substitute a phone call instead? The logistics and financial feasibility of interviewing with any school that’s not in my immediate vicinity become problematic quite quickly.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any specific suggestions? CTCL is a great one, but some of those schools have gotten quite selective (Reed, for example). I know which school’s I’d like to go to, but what I would ‘like’ isn’t really a great objective measure for creating a round list of schools to apply to. Are there any schools that might be more willing to accept a risky applicant like myself? A few years ago I would’ve immediately jumped at UChicago with their Uncommon App…but now they’re one of the most selective and competitive schools in the country (and rather ironically part of the Common Application).</p>

7

<p>You need to contact your high school and find out your GPA weighted and unweighted AND if both are reported on the transcript. Since you took many APs in high school, your weighted GPA may be high enough to find some merit at LACs. Then, it will just be a matter of finding LACs who look at the weighted GPA. Once you get the GPA report back.</p>

<p>Since you are currently living in NYC, I think it would be fairly easy to meet with college reps who are on the “fair” circuit.</p>

8

<p>You’d have to check this out but Vermont may participate with other New England states in a kind of consortium whereby residents of those states can apply to each other’s state schools as a in state student. I am not sure what its called. Perhaps some of the parents can help me out on this. This way you’d save some money and wouldn’t be so close to home.</p>

9

<p>Just taking a look at some of the CTCL with higher admit rates, I found this for Goucher:</p>

<p>“What are the GPA and SAT requirements for admission?
There is no minimum requirement for GPA or SAT score at Goucher, and we no longer require the SAT or ACT for admissions consideration. The average GPA for our most recent class was 3.2 (unweighted, looking at core academic courses only). The average SAT score was approximately 1180, looking at the critical reading and mathematics sections.”</p>

<p>I think a school like this is apt to take a chance on someone like you whose GPA is just a bit lower than the avg, but the SAT higher. So along with finding out your exact GPA, please tell us what you are interested in studying, size of school, etc.</p>

10

<p>If you don’t mind being in the woods I think Bard would take a look at you. It’s got serious academics. If you like the idea of working and contributing to the community like at Deep Springs, you might look at Warren Wilson College. You might also look at some of the former women’s colleges where being male may give you a bit of a leg up.</p>

<p>I’d like to know a little bit more about your interests and whether you have any preferences regarding size and location.</p>

11

<p>“CTCL is a great one, but some of those schools have gotten quite selective”</p>

<p>Yes, that’s the irony of a lesser known school getting national publicity. “Nobody goes there any more; it’s too hard to get it.” :(</p>

12

<p>Tragically, my school doesn’t weight grades in any sort of fashion. I vaguely remember weighting them myself using the criteria of another high school and I got a 3.4. I’ve only ever taken AP and Honors courses. As for my exact GPA, my transcript should be waiting for me when I get home from work at 7. I am very confident in saying that my final GPA is a 2.9, however.</p>

<p>As for any specific preferences for college…</p>

<p>I would like a school without fraternities, but even that’s not really a necessity. The problem is that I was born in an extraordinarily rural environment (I lived there for five years), then I lived in a very dense urban area (NYC), and then moved to typical suburbia (VT). So I am very comfortable in a wide variety of places. I adapt well to changing circumstances, which is probably why I had very little problem with signing for my first apartment in NYC far away from any of my family.</p>

<p>Really, my only requirements are in terms of academic and intellectual fit. To give you an idea, I was very seriously considering St Johns College for a while because the concept fascinated me. I want to go somewhere where I can be curious, where I can learn about a smattering of things until I decide what actually passionate about.</p>

<p>I know that’s vague, but that’s because my passion is vague. I love writing and the spoken word. Some of my best experiences in high school were the consequence of being on the debate team and Model UN. I’m also interested in the sciences because I love to know how things work. </p>

<p>And then there’s the financial side. I’m not going to take out $80k in loans to fund my personal foray into the liberal arts. Luckily my need will probably help with a lot of that, but this will still be a huge part of my final decision.</p>

<p>Further down the line is be interested in business or law. And depending on how I do in writing and science courses those are possibilities as well.</p>

<p>Thanks again for all the help, and I will definitely look into Bard. A friend of mine goes there, I’ll ask him about it.</p>

13

<p>“Nobody goes there any more; it’s too hard to get in.” Stupid typo. :(</p>

14

<p>I’m getting a sense of what you are like - you remind me a lot of my nephew who is happy at St. Johns after a rather spotty high school career with low grades and high SAT scores. I know he looked at a bunch of the CTCL list. Being adaptable is good - it’s just nice when you can cross off whole swathes of colleges. You might look at some of the midwestern LACs like Earlham. (It’s one of the CTCLs.)</p>

15

<p>I read this suggestion somewhere else, as an exercise a student did and succeeded to cross a GPA cut point for a scholarship at a school where he had been admitted. The suggestion was that if your GPA was borderline for a scholarship that would make the school affordable, to do what that student had done, something like this - If you have a good relationship with your guidance counselor and your h.s. does not weight, you could ask the GC to write a letter to your college that says “Our h.s. does not weight grades for calculation of GPA. Note that if we weighted grades by giving an additional .5 points for each honors class and an additional 1.0 point for each AP class, John Doe’s GPA would be x.x” Sorry I can’t remember where I saw it! It might have been here on cc somewhere.</p>

16

<p>I think you would get into Southwestern University, a small LAC that is one of the CTCL and has a very good endowment (good for financial aid!). I think they would appreciate you and make the school affordable for you.</p>

<p>I think you would like it there. We visited recently; it is just north of Austin, TX, in Georgetown. Gorgeous campus, friendly students. The professors give the students a lot of personal attention. Good opportunities for research and study abroad. Very residential; a close knit student community. Nice weather, too.</p>

17

<p>Thanks for all of the suggestions so far. I definitely have my fair share of research to do now.</p>

<p>If anyone has more suggestions, about colleges to apply to or how I should couch my application in general, please feel free to post.</p>