What are my chances of getting into a *good* college if I improve extremely?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>So as some of you may have read in my previous and first post, I am that kid you see every now and then that comes to this site and posts for help cause reality has hit them harder than the hiroshima bombings..</p>

<p>What brings me here is that, as a young, and foolish, idiotic, teen, I had seeked after..the wrong things in life. Instead of looking to prosper and create a successful future, I had become caught up in what was, the present. Ignorance TRULY is bliss. School in my mind was still a joke, I had held on to the idea that for some reason, I was going to be some self made millionaire success story during my adolescent years. Thats the best way I can describe my ignorance. I always thought of myself, and have been told, that I was an intelligent individual, I just never applied myself.</p>

<p>I am worried that I have ruined my chances to become admitted into a GOOD college. I am worried that I will not live comfortably after my education is over, I am worried that I have failed my parents who immigrated from Colombia, I am worried that I have failed my to be family. That I wont have that 300k+ home, the American dream.</p>

<p>Fresh. Year-
Failed mathematics and English, made it up in summer school. If my memory serves me right, I barely passed several other courses.Told myself, NEVER AGAIN. Summer school was horrible. Once again, ignorance is a son of a *****.</p>

<p>Soph. Year-
I had put more effort into school, but my lack of organization hit me hard. I was failing and math and history, again, due to the fact that I was loosing all of my homework assignments. Half way through the year, my mother awares me that she is unable to look after a teenager, and put her older son through college, due to the instability of her income. So there I go, packing my things, leaving southern jersey suburbia, to a cramped, apartment that falls somewhere under the sub category of cruel and unusual punishment, in brooklyn. This is where reality hit me, I endured the to-be conditions that I was destined to live in if I had continued the way I was performing academically in school. For 5-6 months I slept on a couch, wore the same clothes for up to two weeks at a time,and ate peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. I became more interested in school, and it has stuck. Sadly, once again due to my lack of organization, I had messed up, but not as bad as before. I had passed my classes, but failed English, not sure if it was for the year, but Im missing one credit out of 6 on my last marking period/semester report. My grade average printed on the report was 74.16% (>_<).</p>

<p>Now I am beyond inspired to due well, whatever it takes to keep that 3.5+ gpa. I know I am more than capable. I can compete in college prep/honors classes.</p>

<p>So my question remains, Is it possible for me to get accepted into a good college, if i were to improve drastically academically and prove that I had changed and pushed myself to my limits my last two years of high school, and of course place well on the SAT. Im meeting with my guidance counselor July 20th to enroll back into the student population of my previous school. </p>

<p>How much does it help if the the college I apply to sees that I had made a drastic improvement, and proved to be a well rounded student? How big of a disadvantage have I placed myself at?</p>

<p>I am looking into joining sports (Track & Wrestling), get involved in my community, do plenty of extra cirriculars etc the whole nine yards. Forget about parties, forget about getting a girl, forget about being known by others, all of that is irrelevant to my goal, which is creating a successful future for myself. One of my fears is that 20 years from now, Im going to be living off of welfare,like my mother and father had been since they came to the U.S., looking down into my kids eyes and seeing only despair. Not being able to have that nice house that all of my kids friends want to come over to, not being able to provide for my family etc.</p>

<p>I am looking forward to pursue a career in the medical field, maybe something in business, I am still unaware of exactly what field I would want to further my education in.</p>

<p>Any help/advice is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks for reading</p>

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<p>what schools are you looking at? first or second (and maybe third) tier schools are out.</p>

3

<p>I’m glad you’ve turned yourself around. It’s never too late, as they say.</p>

<p>What exactly is “good” in your eyes? I dont’ completely agree with times.</p>

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<p>A “good” college lol? You need to start being realistic.</p>

<p>If I was in your position, I’d worry about even getting into college at all. Focus on those next two years (esp. junior year), do well on the ACT/SAT (hopefully your as intelligent as you “think” you are), and stop dreaming about what you might become. You’re still being ignorant. You need to preform. PROVE that you can get good grades. It would be another story if you were coming here after you had bounced back from a poor start. The question you are posing seems to be screaming: “Is it worth it to put any effort whatsoever into these next two years?” And that bothers me. </p>

<p>Fact is, whatever you seem to have in your head that is a “good” college is probably already out of reach. Furthermore, if you want to succeed in life, here are a list of steps:</p>

<p>1) Stop referencing WWII randomly (incorrectly at that)
2) Get realistic
3) Do well these next two years
4) Go to a college you can excel at (you have a blank slate in college, take advantage)
5) Study like your life depends on it while in college (which it does)
6) Pray you are accepted to med school (or whatever grad school you may wish to pursue)</p>

<p>I am a fan of parenthesis.</p>

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<p>thats terrible- i can’t even imagine - LIVInG IN AN APARTMENT by yourself?
Oh, I’m sorry.
Peanut buttter sandwiches??? I would like either lose ten pounds or get very sick.</p>

<p>Anyway, yeah- i’m sorry to say that the ivies are probably out of reach for you.
HOWEVER, DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE.</p>

<p>Here are your steps to sucess

  1. Study intensely for SAT/ ACT- achieve at least a 2100 or a 33
  2. Start drafting your essays for college. I think talking about your experience living on your own and the relization after it would help you immensely. I would weight that heavily if i was a college admissions officer
  3. Start an E.C. you will love- try to do well in it
  4. educate yourself on the college process and/or get your guidance counsellor to explain to you what to do. Make the best of the 1st gen college and other hooks
  5. Keep GPA up at a ongoing trend</p>

<p>Here are schools you can get into if you do that

  1. NYU #33
  2. Boston University
    3.George washington
  3. University of Illinois- Champaign ( very prestigious actually) #40
  4. University of Rochester #36</p>

<p>These are all top 50 schools- and good schools that many people here aspire to get into.
You will thrive ( with a good work ethic) at any of these universities.
I advise GW because they give out a lot of aid to make college affordable.
Finally, I will say this- I’m rooting for you. Please post on how everything goes.
I would absolutely prefer to see a person come from nowhere and go to a good university.
Another kid with a 2400 SAT and pefect extracurriculars living with parents on a $500,000 income who gets into Yale is nice but I’d rather follow the adventures of the underdog.
Anyway, all i can say is this- I went through all this work to give you good advice- you BETTER USE IT</p>

<p>good luck.</p>

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<p>thanks for all the replies. and yes I know that any ivy league school is far out of reach, I realized that after my first marking period of freshman year.</p>

<p>Colleges I would consider to be “good” would be:
Rutgers
Rowan
Penn state
and the like</p>

<p>in response to fresh27: so your saying college is basically a new leaf where I can start over, which is understandable because if I excel exponentially while attending college I could be accepted to med school as discussed above. So technically I dont have to be accepted to lets say some fathomed college to live comfortably, because ive seen people that have graduated from rutgers and rowan alike and both live comfortably and what not. Im just looking to become a better student, im looking to change my life. any more help is extremely appreciated.</p>

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<p>Hey, so i read ur story, and it sounds like to me that you have gone thru a lot and have learned an important life lesson… colleges will still see what you did sophomore year, so i would improve drastically and maybe explain the circumstances and emphasize on how much you learned from that… i wouldn’t give up hope, and i am sure you have a chance (most prob not at the top notch colleges) but at least at “good ones” </p>

<p>also, do you have a special talent or something that can improve your chances…
plus, you should be able to get financial aid…</p>

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<p>bumping for the morning</p>

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<p>Yes, you can still get into a good college. Focus on English, your original post suggests you may not have a strong foundation. Use the resource room and anything else your school has available to improve your use of the English language–this is very important to colleges.</p>

<p>Congratulations on seeing the light now, most doors are still wide open.</p>

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<p>I think you can get into good colleges. If you bring your grades up sharply of course. Improvement like that does look good to colleges.</p>

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<p>Well you definitely are doing the right thing, and you have a GREAT story to tell once you start college admissions junior/senior year. Just never give up.</p>

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<p>To keep it short and simple:</p>

<p>a) Focus.
b) Take school more serious - no more excuses
c) Challange yourself to the best of your ability, no matter how hard a class is. (AP,IB will help)
d) Like some of the exisiting posters said, knock out any “prestige” school (ex: Emory, BU, etc) or Ivy leage (Kind of a given)
e) Believe in yourself: if you don’t everything will remain the same</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

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<p>I was in the same situation as you. However, I had a really good freshman year then my grades when down slope since. Honestly, this is what I recommend to you.</p>

<ol>
<li>Get off CC. </li>
<li>Start studying and do some extracurriculars. </li>
<li>Try to find a major you might want to pursue in. </li>
<li>Raise your GPA and honestly be realistic and aim for a 3.0. </li>
<li>Try to do well on the SAT’s., over an 1800 will be quite good. </li>
<li>Stop listening to many people on CC, because they no offense everyone but have really no life. They have really good or ridiculously good grades and stuff and whine about their schools. </li>
<li>After you find a major you want to pursue, look through Collegeboard and stuff and look for maybe like ten colleges. </li>
<li>Break the list of colleges down and see which schools have the majors that you may want to pursue. </li>
<li>Maybe visit the school that is #1 on your list and if you love the school, it more or less would hopefully motivate you to get your butt to a table and study. </li>
</ol>

<p>Honestly, I myself thought I would be screwed also. I had a 620m/520cr/490w on my SATs with a 3.0 GPA and thought I would be going to a crappy school. I got into Michigan State and Purdue(attending currently) but thought I would get rejected from both schools. Anything can happen with college admissions, just don’t put your head down already. Just try to do well and do the stuff I listed above. Don’t get too cocky when your doing well cause you might go downhill from there. I can also tell your from the Jersey area from the colleges you listed. Rutgers and Penn State will honestly be hard, especially University Park at PSU. I got waitlisted from RU and rejected from PSU-UP.</p>

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<p>^ thanks and yeah im from south jersey. Im just upset over this situation that I placed myself into. I see other kids that have done well right off the bat since the first day of high school and just knowing I cant compete with them simply cause I was a lazy prick my first two years makes me rage inside. Especially knowing that i could, with some effort, perform well in Honors and possibly some AP classes. 3.0 GPA is quite below my standards, I understand being realistic but the thing is im not doubting myself one bit when it comes to achieving and maintaing at least 3.5 GPA. I just feel as if I have shut the doors to go to any good schools, EX: Rutgers, which right now, in my eyes, is as precious as any ivy league</p>

<p>edit: Is there anyway I could make up for the previous two years that I butchered? ideas?</p>

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<p>People change. I think they understand that. What you’ve gone through might even play to your favor. Good luck!</p>