Urgent help on college advice

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi!
I'm in need of some college advice from some of the experienced posters here on CC. My parents both went to college but they were first generation and they still don't know a lot about the college process. Mostly anything that has to do with going to college has been from my own research and prompting. My GC is pretty much clueless and not up to date on things so he's not a huge help either. I just have a few questions that I need some help with.</p>

<p>As the username (somewhat) implies, I am a Navy brat. Because of this I have to move schools a lot which means different grading systems and ranking systems blah blah blah.</p>

<p>In the middle of 8th grade a couple years back my mom was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. At the end of eighth grade my family moved to Washington State. My mom was getting better but with my dad taking on a heavy work load I had to step up to the plate and help with her care as the eldest for the almost 2 years that we were there. My little brother was also going through a tough time and was dealing with what was then undiagnosed Aspergers, so I helped take care of him too. I was able to do 2 outside activities but other than that I stuck to school and my familial obligations. The school that I went to was a rigorous private IB school. 9th grade year and the 1st semester of tenth grade year I did very well. Second semester of 10th grade was a lot worse. There was a lot going on at home and school with my family and my one health. At the same time my dad's orders had gotten pushed way up so we had to move a lot earlier than expected which made things super hectic. However, I do take responsibility fpr my grades as I feel I could have time managed a lot better than I did. All this definetly affected my second semester marks.</p>

<p>At that school there were no AP classes and all my classes save for one elective per semester were chosen for you. Out of a class size of 20 I was in the top 5 students (about #4). My GPA for both years is a 3.44. At that school a 3.44 is considered very good when the would be val (they don't rank) had only a 3.5 (and it wasn't from lack of hard work either!).</p>

<p>Now at my new school ( a large average performing public) I've done very well. My family responsibilities have been greatly reduced with my mom and brother getting much better (and me time-managing better too) and I have a huge upward grade trend. I have a 3.8 UW for semester one and I will have a 4.0 UW for the second semester which means a 3.9 for the whole year :) (I even got an A in calculus when I'm normally a B math student :D). I'm expected 5's on my AP exams and a 700+ SAT II score. However, because the grading and pretty much everything else and done so differently the GPA on my current's school transcript makes it look like I took easy classes (they re-named everything to fit their course catalog) and makes my GPA and ranking look superficially low. And by low I mean super low like 3.2 and 86/236 low. This really worries me because I don't know how people reading my app will see this. I don't want them thinking I'm a delinquent student when the exact opposite is true lol.</p>

<p>One more thing, since my two schools were so different I have to take a number of super easy required classes that make my schedule look less rigorous. For example this year I took/am taking: APUSH (all year), AP Lang (all year), Chemistry (last semester), Calculus (this semester), Econ/Personal Finance (last semester), Pre-Calc (last semester, French IV and Ceramic (this semester). I'm trying to make my senior year schedule more challenging but it all depends on how many other required classes I have to take.</p>

<p>My questions are as follows:
1. Should I include my family situation for the first two years of high school in my applications? (I'm not going to write my essays about that though).
2. If so, where would I put that? Or would my guidance counselor write it in his rec letter?
3. Will my GPA at my old school be an immediate red flag?
4. Should I be concerned about my transcript and ranking situation? If so what should I do?
5. Will my family situation and the hectic nature of military life hurt or help me?
6. I'm reluctant to mention my chronic pain illness since it's only affected my attendance but not my grades since I do all my work from the hospital. Is it relevant?
7. Should I be worried about the issues with my class schedule?</p>

<p>Thank you and many apologies for the long post. :)</p>

<p>P.S. If anyone is wondering my college list is quite balanced with schools with up to and 86% acceptance rate. </p>

2

<ol>
<li>Yes, it probably would be a good idea for it to be addressed somewhere.</li>
<li>Check, but the Common Application used to have a section at the end where you can add “anything else you wish to tell us”. It’s also possible for a GC to address it.</li>
<li>Probably not a red flab, but obviously it’s not helping you if it’s not put in context. If you can contact your old school ask if they can add something to your file that will explain their grading system, so that it will be clear what your approximate rank was at that school. (Top 10% or whatever, not the exact rank unless they have it.) </li>
<li>There’s not a whole lot you can do about the ranking schools are generally reluctant to bend rules, but if you can get your current GC in touch with your former school, or have your former school write a helpful letter, she can include a note in her material that your rank is artificially reduced by the way the system forces her to interpret your former high school’s transcript.</li>
<li>On the whole I think military life is a plus not a minus. You’ve presumably experienced different parts of the country and have learned to be adaptable. </li>
<li>Have your GC mention this.</li>
<li>Your class schedule doesn’t sound that terrible. Colleges understand that moving a lot can screw up requirements. Again this is something you can bring up with your GC.</li>
</ol>

<p>I suggest you have a meeting with your GC and bring up your worries and see what she proposes. You need to be non-accusatory, tell her you understand perfectly well that her hands are tied by the rules as far as what your rank and GPA is, but you wonder whether there is some way to address the fact that the two school systems operated under different assumptions. Also tell her you are afraid you will come off as a whiner if you talk too much about your illness and your mother’s illness, but you’d really appreciate it if she could mention how you had coped with them. Most GC’s really want their students to do well in college admissions, and won’t have a problem with putting a positive spin on this sort of thing.</p>

<p>Good luck, it sounds like you’ve had a lot on your plate.</p>

3

<p>Can you have a transcript sent from your first school also? </p>

4

<ol>
<li>Should I include my family situation for the first two years of high school in my applications? (I’m not going to write my essays about that though).</li>
<li>If so, where would I put that?
This would go under “Additional Information” in the CommonApp. HOWEVER, non holistic universities wouldn’t have such a “comments box” so you’d have to make sure it is adress by your GC.</li>
</ol>

<ul>
<li>Or would my guidance counselor write it in his rec letter?
In September, give your GC a bullet point list with elements s/he can use in your rec letter. Include the information you mentioned here (sibling’s Asperger’s, mother’s illness, time devoted each day to family responsibilities, former school’s grading scale, your illness, the fact you do most of your work from the hospital…) Indicate you’d really appreciate it if it were mentioned in your letter of recommendation.
BTW, this is the type of information colleges WANT and NEED to know in order to make a balanced decision.</li>
</ul>

<ol>
<li><p>Will my GPA at my old school be an immediate red flag?
This need to be contextualized. Have a parent call the old school and say they need to send your guidance counselor a letter indicating what percentage students had which GPA, what your rank was at the time you left, what GPA the valedictorian had/has, and that the classes were Pre-IB or IB for all students.</p></li>
<li><p>Should I be concerned about my transcript and ranking situation? If so what should I do?
Acknowledge the situation with your GC – that s/he may not be able to do anything about it yet that your mother realized the discrepancy between the two grading scales, so an affidavit from your former school should be coming (this, ONLY after the matter has been discussed with the other school, of course!) and you wondered whether your rank and GPA could be based only on your grades since your transfer since the two systems were so different. This, by the way, is what colleges do - they include your former transcript but do not count grades (good or bad) received in the previous institution.</p></li>
<li><p>Will my family situation and the hectic nature of military life hurt or help me?
It is likely to help you if you can be analytical about it.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m reluctant to mention my chronic pain illness since it’s only affected my attendance but not my grades since I do all my work from the hospital. Is it relevant?
YES IT IS relevant “since I do all my work from the hospital” is ABSOLUTELY relevant and actually MUST be included.</p></li>
<li><p>Should I be worried about the issues with my class schedule?
No. You’ve a 3.9 Junior GPA with Calculus (2 years ahead of schedule => plan to take Calc BC or a more advanced class if you can, including through Dual-Enrollment), APUSH, AP Lang, and French through level 4. If next year you can take APFrench, Calc BC (or Calc 3 through DE, depending on the calc class you took), and 2 more AP’s, you should be fine for most institutions.</p></li>
</ol>