My entire high school experience has been really really strange, sort of one disruptive thing after another, and I’m worried I won’t be able to convey the full (and complicated and long) story to colleges, even though every part of it is necessary context for my application (I think). Here’s the long story, because consolidation would take time I don’t have right now lol:
Freshman year was pretty normal, as well as the beginning of sophomore year, but I got a concussion during third quarter, and was out of school for a while, and wasn’t able to take any of my AP exams. First semester of junior year was not too bad, except for my family life, which was then getting to the point where I knew the police officers in my town by name. Completely separately, I got sick with a heart problem and had to leave school that spring (all better now, though). I was told I would have to repeat junior year, but the family issues were such that my mother and I were planning on moving anyway.
While my heart was still a’fixiin, during the summer after my first" junior year, my dad kinda cleared out our bank accounts and skedaddled, leaving us sans residence. We drove between friends’ houses and couch surfed for a w while, often out of state, and in September I enrolled myself in the cheapest online high school I could find, out of fear that I wouldn’t be in one place long enough to go to school again. Fortunately, we did manage to find a place to live by late fall, in the town I started in. It’s a weird situation where we’re remodeling someone else’s house and are allowed to live there until it is sold. Because there remains a lot of uncertainty in where I’ll be living (until I’m 18), I’m still doing school online and taking math classes at the nearby university (an easy program for high school students who have finished all the math at their high school), and will apply to colleges this fall/winter.
How do I get schools to understand my weird schooling history without giving them more information than they necessarily want, and without coming off as bitter or upset? I actually found a lot of humor in the situation and feel as though I grew a lot from it. I think my extracurricular stuff is really good, and shows my strong science/math interest (I was a Siemens competition regional finalist in the winter of my junior year, and I have been working in the same applied math lab since the summer after 8th grade, except for the times I was out of the state and living with friends)), but my high school transcript is straight up confusing.
tl;dr i come from a mildly trashy home and very unstable living circumstances and I kinda think its funny but colleges might not and how do i say hey college let me in pls??
What do the counselors/advisors at your online HS suggest?
You also might want to ask your questions in the Homeschooling Forum. Go to the main page where all of the forums are listed, and scroll down to find it. The parents there should have ideas for you.
It would be nice to have a bricks and mortar school to get a counselor who could write a letter on your behalf. Otherwise it would probably be best to include a paragraph of other information on your apps and explain that you have been technically homeless the majority of your HS years and suffered a significant health issue. I wouldn’t go into tons of detail on the various living situations or the specifics on your health. There are some schools that will be very interested in your unique story. If you will be a first generation college student that is a nice hook for some schools. I know VA Tech offers a full scholarship for 1st gen college students with low income and a number of schools have similar scholarships some funded by Coca Cola if you are googling.
I would say that maybe you could use some specific events from your experiences in your essay. I would also ask you guidance counselor to write a letter on your behalf, because this is important information that really should be told to colleges.
@junior2017 most of my ideas for essay topics come from that experience for sure, but it doesn’t necessarily explain the situation, you know? it’s a very short essay, and you can only fit (assuming decent writing) one small topic in there, not a full autobiography
@intparent I do actually, and I’ll definitely get her to write something now that you suggest it, but I wonder how much weight her word carries/ how good of a letter she can write considering I’ve never met her?
Also, @ everyone, none of my replies are meant to be contrarian—I really appreciate having my question answered at all and am just trying to think through all the logistical issues with my application.
The thing about the GC is that they are a neutral 3rd party. You are so close to it that you may have trouble discerning what will matter to a college vs. what becomes “noise” or a distraction. If you have one (even for your online school), you should start chatting with them.
We’re a homeschool family, but homeschooling isn’t right for all families or all situations. If you’re in the town where you started, the best option for you may be to enroll in the local public high school. It’s free, you have access to APs, sciences with labs, teachers who know you, and a guidance counselor who can sort out your transcripts and write the appropriate letters to colleges to explain your situation. Then you can focus on your studies and use your app to let colleges know who you are. Have you taken the SAT or ACT yet? If so, what were your scores?
I think paying for school is going to be a problem. If you’re low income, you may qualify for a federal Pell grant of up to ~$5k/year and you can take the ~$5500/year federal student loan. If you have high standardized test scores you may qualify for merit aid too. But until your mom finds secure housing, I’m not sure how college will work out for you. If she has to leave the state again to find a place to live, you could lose residency at your in state schools making them unaffordable. If you commute to school but have to move out of state mid-semester so you have a place to live, it’s going to screw up your aid and your academic record.
Is your mom working? What are her plans for when the house you’re remodeling in lieu of rent is sold? Is she saving up to rent someplace else?
Does anyone know if this person could qualify for Questbridge? I am not that familiar with it, and I think they help minorities, but maybe it’s a possibility?
I am sorry for all you have had to deal with OP. You seem like a smart, sensible kid. Best of luck to you.
The usual procedure when applying to colleges is to send transcripts from all high schools attended. So, you need to order these transcripts from everywhere you went and see what they look like and what you need to explain.
Since you are attending a program at a university, take these transcripts and your test scores to admissions at the university and ask them for an early read on how they are going to read them. Ask them what information is helpful to know. As a homeschooling parent, I definitely shopped my kids’ paperwork around at college fairs and asked admissions what they thought of my documents and what sort of additional information they need. You could do the same with your various records and see what they think. (A college fair would be even better, because you can get multiple points of view, but this will be a start for you.)
If you do not find a space in the form for explaining your situation, you can always write your own letter. If you are applying to a university that assigns admissions counselors to prospects, address the letter directly to that person. Otherwise, write it to the director of admissions. Many applications do have an “is there anything else we need to know” box you can use.
I believe the amount your mother actually has to fund your education is 0, but you need to figure out if you can get an automatic zero EFC from the official FAFSA forms.
Once you have identified places that you want to attend and may be achievable by your grades and test scores, I recommend the following website to get a quick read on how the college treats low income applicants.
Talk to your GC. There is a method in the college application process for GCs to include information such as what you describe. Also talk to them about paying for college…they may have resources for you to use.
Here on CC you can look or post in the financial aid subforum.
In addition to a GC, as stated above, I think saying that you have been essentially homeless and have a couple of major health issues (specify) through the last three years pretty much tells the big picture, I don’t think you need to go into gory detail about each twist and turn. Someone else with more knowledge on this may have a different take.