Terrible GPA, Amazing ECs and Test Score (extenuating circumstances) [HS graduate in gap year, 3.1 GPA after repeating D/F grades, 1590 SAT, limited money]

Applying to College
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To which schools would you plan to apply?

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Thank you for the explanation. My question about cost still applies. If you are from very very rural New England, you are not instate for publics in Massachusetts. The private colleges in Boston are plentiful but very very costly. How do you plan to fund your college costs?

If you have retaken ALL the D and F courses with A grades, then yes, applying to a reasonable list of colleges that could be affordable makes sense. What Boston colleges were you thinking of? What other colleges?

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Some schools love “outliers,” Clark, for instance, and they have some merit scholarships.

Once you are 23 financial aid will be based on your finances, not your parents’. There is always that. Take classes you can afford until then and work. Look at UMass University without Walls, for another path.

There are very rural places in Massachusetts so I am not assuming that is not your state!

You have a lot of potential. I hope your health is better. It can all work out, promise.

ps look at community resources for music as well!

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It’s 24.

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Online:

  • You’re 24 or older by January 1 of the school year in which you’re applying for aid.
    • Be 24 years of age or older by December 31 of the award year;

So @MWfan1921 is right about the age but you can be 23 when you apply, if you turn 24 before the end of the year.

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As an aside here. Being independent for financial aid purposes does not mean a student will receive a full free ride to any college to which they apply. Most colleges don’t meet full financial need. Of those that do, they are very highly competitive for admissions with less than 20% acceptance rates…or much lower depending on the college.

Plus, does this student want to put their college pursuit on hold for four or five years?

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Also, I’m not sure why this student needs to be independent from their parents.
Do we know their EFC? Budget? Income?

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What college is the professor you were doing research with affiliated? Did you apply there last year? Have you spoken with that professor about possibilities at that institution?

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Taking community college courses after high school graduation will require you to take the transfer pathway to get a bachelor’s degree at many four year colleges. Please be sure that this is the pathway you want to take before taking any college courses after high school graduation.

If you do take the transfer pathway, transferring as a sophomore (i.e. with one year of college courses completed by the time of transfer) will mean that your high school record will still be significant in admissions. Transferring as a junior would make your high school record less relevant (or not relevant at some colleges) because you will have more of a college record.

But note that if you took college courses while in high school, those courses and grades will still matter for any transfer admission in the future.

Are the in-state public universities in your state affordable (after any applicable financial aid)?

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At this point, your high school transcript is what it is. With your helath issues and family medical issues, I suggest you look into community college for a year or two. This will give you the opportunity to manage your health, take core classes (so much cheaper to do it at CC versus universities) and get your GPA up. Transferring into a college can often be easier than submitting your application with the general admission pool. Hopefully, this will open up more opportunities for you. Good luck!

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Community colleges also have transfer advisors who can give you some direction on where you can go AFTER the community college.

What are you doing during this gap year? In my opinion, this needs to show that you are capable of doing well in college classes the first time you take them.

Also, what colleges did you apply to this year that you were not admitted to? If you weren’t admitted this year, it’s very highly unlikely you will be admitted next year.

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Your local 4 yr public college is your best option, and you are accepted there already. Honestly, if your health permits it, forget the gap year and just start college. Nothing you do on a gap year is gonna fix your poor grades from high school. On the other hand, A grades in college may allow transfer to a more selective college.

It is time to exit the competition for acceptance to a highly selective college. Do an end run around this process, by continuing with internships in Boston, since this will lead to your first job. After that, no one cares where your degree is from. All they care about is whether you can do the work.

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It sounds like that may not be an affordable option, as OP referenced receiving no aid from that school. We do need OP to clarify their budget.

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OP— some colleges will give additional need-based financial aid upon documentation of high medical expenses. If that is relevant to you , you can ask the financial aid office at the college that accepted you if they have an appeal process for this circumstance. Make sure to talk to an actual financial aid officer — not just the person who answers the phone, who may be a student worker.

You can also ask for a meeting with the financial aid officer to see if there are any options for aid that you may not be aware of, if that would make your acceptance affordable and thus possible.

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Many high quality colleges (including some highly selective ones) recently have said that they plan to increase Community College transfers. So if it were me, I would start in CC as soon as I felt confident (from a health perspective) that I was in a position to do very well.

Here, for example, is just one highly selective college (Vassar) that is working to accept more CC transfers: Exploring Transfer – Vassar College

(Of course, highly selective colleges are not the only colleges that can provide a rigorous education.)

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If you’re trying to stay in the Boston area (within 25 miles), these are my guesses as to your chances for admission. As we still don’t know what will be affordable, that’s not even part of the equation here. If the professor you’ve been working with is willing to go to bat for you with the admissions office, then that might bump you up one category in terms of your chances at that school only.

Also, I would strongly urge you to research faculty members who you might be interested in working with and build a relationship with them. If the relationship seems promising, see if any of them would be willing to reach out to their admissions office on your behalf. Essentially, you would need some people that the university trusts/admires to be really excited to have you join their department and then lobby the admissions office for you. That is a very high bar to set, but as you’ve already had some success with one professor, then perhaps you’ll have some luck with others.

Finances, however, are not to be ignored. If a school accepts you but is unaffordable, it might as well be a rejection. Your family should run the Net Price Calculators (NPCs) at all the schools (especially the private ones) to see if the school would be affordable. If they don’t offer merit aid and the NPC comes back as unaffordable, then eliminate the school from contention. Also, look to see if a university offers big merit scholarships for students who have overcome adversity (some do). Also, some schools offer big scholarships for people with research or STEM interests. Look into every nook and cranny on a school’s website, ask the admissions or relevant departmental offices, etc. Once you’ve done all of the above, do your very best work possible on all applications and supplementals (including optional ones). You are trying to get an organization to pay (or not receive) tens of thousands of dollars (and quite likely hundreds of thousands of dollars). You need to show them that you are worth it. Show them that your star is on the way up and they want to have their name attached to yours as you make advancements in the future. Your odds for doing this are likely greater at the schools that don’t have more kids with a 4.0 and a 1600 SAT applying than they can accept.

If you indicate which particular major(s) you’re interested in, that may also help narrow down this list.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Salem State

Likely (60-79%)

  • U. Mass-Boston
  • U. Mass-Lowell
  • Wentworth

Toss-Up (between 40-59%)

  • Stonehill-They say they’re test blind, which would really hurt as that’s arguably the strongest part of your application. If you could get it considered and/or really link your interests to them, then I think you’d have a pretty decent shot.
  • Merrimack: Also test blind, per College Navigator (feds’ website)

Lower Probability (between 20-39%)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Brandeis
  • Olin

Extremely Low Probability (less than 7% but higher odds than a miracle)

  • Boston College
  • Boston U.
  • Northeastern
  • Tufts

Miracle (a tiny fraction of 1%)

  • Harvard
  • MIT

If none of these work out, that’s totally okay. As @fiftyfifty1 indicated, there’s a greater emphasis on accepting transfers from community colleges. Here’s another link that offers information for getting students from community colleges to schools like Brown, MIT, Rice, etc: https://transferscholars.org/

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Looks like working and dealing with the health issues.

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  1. Yes, that was one of the reasons for the gap year - obviously not very focused on science fairs now, and more about large open-source projects as well as publishing.
  2. I am mostly looking into any sort of interdisciplinary between epistemology, neuroscience, computer science, and mathematics.
  3. I applied to mostly Boston colleges, including BC BU, Tufts, Northeastern, and Brandeis. I also applied to Colby College, UMich, and Oberlin for schools not in Boston. However, these applications were very much not my best work, so hopefully I can do some of these again with more intent.
  4. Yes, my science teacher was very close with me as she was the one who chaperoned me at all these competitions. The GC, however, was very uncooperative with my native Chinese parents who are very bad at English. There still remains some tension due to gross miscommunications between them about my health concerns.
  5. Officially, I’ve taken up to Calculus 1, with an A grade. The foreign language was French IV. I only took Geography and Civics my freshman year, APUSH (failed) sophomore year, and a credit recovery history class. For science, I got a C in AP Bio and failed AP Chem, as well as getting a C in AP Physics Mechanics. Before that, it was As for freshman-sophomore sciences.
  6. Not first gen, >65k, 17296 EFC, and I’m not sure what the Net Price Calculators are.
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Could you elaborate on what you mean by retaking all the D and F courses? There quite a few and I’m still confused as to if I would do that - where? BC BU, Tufts, Northeastern, and Brandeis. I also applied to Colby College, UMich, and Oberlin for schools not in Boston. As for money - besides scholarships, there isn’t much to do in that case. However, I believe that I’m perfectly capable that I’m able to get an entry level job with my background to pay for some of it.

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MIT, but it’s obvious from my grades that I’m most likely an auto-throwout. The professor and I have discussed it before, and both agreed that it was not worth the effort to push a miracle case.

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