Wellesley, Georgetown, Ivy League?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey, so I have a bit of an unusual application due to having been to three high schools in three years (I’m a junior now and there’s a good explanation for every transfer). Freshman year I went to an underfunded rural public school, sophomore year I moved 500 miles and went to a better public school in a small city, now I commute 4 hours every day for a difficult prep school in a major city. I don’t have my SAT scores out yet, but I have a predicted score of 2100 with high reading and math and lower writing.

GPA (unweighted): 3.6
GPA (weighted): 4.6
*A note on this: only my GPA from junior year in IB which is an extremely difficult course load

Course Load (full IB diploma):
SL French (I have never taken a French class before but have brought my score from a 1 to a 4 in one year, shows hardworking nature, will be written about in letter of rec.)
SL Math
SL Film
HL English
HL Chemistry
HL History
Another note on this: I didn’t exactly go to school sophomore year because of violence in my second high school, so I have no prerequisites for any of these classes, which will be written about in a letter of recommendation. I had to work extremely hard to keep my head above water.

Extracurriculars/Awards:
Varsity tennis freshman year, varsity crew and varsity lacrosse junior year (not quitting, new school doesn’t offer tennis)
Captain of Model UN team, won Best Delegate at MIT conference
Captain of Mock Trial team
8th place nationally in National History Day with a documentary on housing segregation in Levittown
Organized within school large donations and groups of walkers for a walk improving education for Pakistani women
Founder of school’s Philosophy Club (taught by a Harvard professor of theology and Eastern philosophies)
One of 12 students selected state wide for a poetry workshop conducted by a Nobel Prize winner
Independent lab research on drinking-water safety when exposed to PET at high temperatures
QuestBridge Prep scholar (going to the Yale National College Conference soon!)

Future ECs:
I think I will make prefect for senior year, but it involves a difficult application process and I’m worried that only having been at the school one year will hurt my chances. Also, I plan on getting a summer job, all the funds of which will help my parents pay the bills etc.

I will have really good letters of recommendation that (I hope!) will go into detail about how I brought myself up from having missed a year of school. I also will write (I write pretty well I think?) a hard-luck essay about what I’ve come out of: serious poverty, my mom having cancer, victim of violent crime, etc.

2

bump?

3

I would re-post this once you have your SAT scores. How did your PSAT turn out?

You are low income, is that right? So a meet-full-need-school would work well.

4

Thank you, I will! I am low income, any school I go to will need to be needs-met as I’m unwilling to take out especially large student loans.

5

You can’t take out large loans yourself.
So you need to concentrate on meet-needs schools or schools where you qualify for a scholarship.
Do you have any plans for a major or a career?

6

Do not paint yourself as a victim in your essays. Colleges hate reading about sob stories. If you do it, I guarantee you will get shut out from every school. Put that in the additional info section or have a counselor put it in a rec. DO NOT PUT IT IN YOUR ESSAY.

7

Agreed with calicash: but nevertheless, there’s things you can talk about while on the topic of your multiple high school paths.

8

I plan on looking into public health policy and environmental civil rights and eventually going to law school. @\CaliCash thank you so much for the advice! I really appreciate this. I do think I’m going to stick by the recommendation of my guidance counselors and keep my essay topic.