I just want to save money lol.
My son has a similar profile, so I feel for you. I think the executive function
coaching is a great idea and itâs wonderful that your parents are in support of that.
I think that if community colleges is not for you, you have 2 choicesâa PG year or going to another 4 year college and transferring to someplace you would be happier with. Both involve doing as well as possible in school next year. However, doing really well in pG year will only get you so far in terms of your gpa, whereas doing really well at a 4 year college might be more likely to help you transfer to someplace you would maybe be happier with.
Everyone has given you some good advice, and I think it comes down to you knowing yourself and where you will thrive. Do you need more time to marinate, develop study and organizational skills, etc.? Then maybe that PG year is a good idea. Whatever you decide, lots of luck.
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Is he applying to PG programs?
I understand you are trying to process all of this while seeking help in coming up with the best way to spend the 22-23 school year (PG, college, gap year, or other). Please try to meet with a college counselor who can help you identify the best possible options for you and your family.
In your quest to gain admission to what you consider a prestigious college you stated
âCost and location are also not constraints.â early on in this thread.
So you can understand our surprise when financial aid for your proposed PG was brought up. PG is usually an option for wealthy families or those families who have been told this will get their kid into an athletic scholarship and they finance it somehow. Or they are recruited athletes who need to raise their scores. I am not sure you fit into any of those categories at this point. A college counselor will be able to help guide to to the best investment of the funds your family has.
When cost effective alternatives to PG were suggested you responded with:
âGoing to community college or a school like Radford would be a massive shot to my self esteem that I donât think I could recover from. Sorry if that sounded egotistical or anything but that is how I feel.â
With a 1490 there are plenty of colleges who will be interested in you in the current application cycle with potential for merit. If a PG year is going to financially impact your familyâs financial plans for your 4 college years then definitely reconsider this PG idea and get some college applications in.
Please run the NPCs for the prestigious colleges you shooting for with your parents. There is no point in going through all of this if $80,000 a year and 320,000 total is not in their plans. Many prestigious colleges do not offer merit, but only need based aid which you may not trigger. You may be better off finding colleges where you can thrive and where your strengths will shine.
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Like I said before, Iâm just trying to conserve my parentsâ money. Obviously, financial security is not gained by throwing money around.
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I think that is very smart. The best way to conserve your parents funds is to consider other options in addition to the PG year and then weigh the pros and cons with them. Apply to some PG programs and apply to some colleges.
On your current HS transcript what was your weighted GPA at the end of your junior year? I could not find that in the strand. What are your grades for this semester right now?
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I canât remember exact number on transcript but this year I have a 3.7 UW/4.4 W.
That is great for this year. Nice work. That will build on the unweighted numbers you had shared.
You really should consider applying to colleges this year while pursuing the PG plans. You can then make some informed decisions with your family.
Finish this semester strong.
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He is not planning a pg year. Heâs applying to a range of safety, match, and reach schools. He used the additional info section of the common app to explain his ADD diagnosis and itâs impact on his high school performance. He also changed schools sophomore year and then returned to his original school. He was required to explain this in the schools section of the common app. So far heâs received 2 acceptances.
If you (and your parents) are open to a range of possible schools, there are lots of options, including schools with support available for kids with learning challenges and less than perfect profiles. If you are set on certain schools that are currently reaches, a pg year could help, but itâs not a guarantee. In the end, you will still need to explain the change in schools on the common app (and it will need to match what is on your transcript from the school that you left), and you will need to be realistic about what a pg year can ultimately do for your gpa mathematically. Even if you have a perfect year (which is a lot of pressure to put on yourself), will it significantly change the range of schools you have a real shot at getting into? Even if it could, are you in a place with your challenges in terms of treatment and supports that you will be ready to handle the rigor you could be faced with? These would be the questions I would explore with your parents for sure.
Whether you do a pg year or start one place and transfer elsewhere, you will take yourself with you wherever you go. Exploring what your learning needs actually are and choosing a path that fits with what you really need and will thrive with is a different process than the one you seem to be going through. I think the reality check you are getting from some of the other posters is meant to be a little bit of tough love. From what you have shared, it seems as if you are looking for a loophole in the process that will somehow make the reality of your diagnosis and record less impactful, and Iâm not sure thatâs realistic or wise. What you are hearing is that there are for sure schools out there for you, but they may not fit you or your familyâs original plan or idea of prestige.
For the sake of argument, could you share a little more info about the type of school you could be interested in in terms of size, location, programs, etc.? With that info and the stats youâve shared, your desire to continue playing LAX, I think you could get some really helpful advice if youâre open to it.
Edited to add that @Pathnottaken has given you some nice advice here. It canât hurt to seek the advice of a college counselor, and applying to PG programs and colleges gives you options come spring.
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Unless you are a recruited athlete, which you say youâre not, the answer for these schools most likely is no. There are fewer slots for PG year than for any other incoming year (9-11), and the competition is fierce. Without that sport piece, you arenât bringing much to the table. None of these schools is in the business of remediating lackluster HS transcripts.
But, letâs say you were able to attend one of them. You need to understand the strength of the senior student pools in that cohort. They were all high achievers cherry-picked from a rarefied, global pool at the incoming end. By the time they are seniors, the survivors are even more polished and formidable contenders for those prestigious colleges you covet. They will be your competition. Without outstanding sports prowess, and even with decent PG grades (do not underestimate the academic strength of these schools), you will not do better and could do worse applying to college from any of them. If you can keep on an upward trajectory, you are much better off where you are.
If you still want a PG year to add to maturity and improve your study and time management skills, you need to consider programs in a different tier where you might at least have a reasonable shot of improving your GPA. Posters above have made some excellent suggestions.
Because, for you, a PG year would just be a very expensive* fifth year of high school, I strongly suggest you drop the idea and head for college. You are ready for college-level work, so get going.
*Boarding schools use their FA to attract the best students. For the PG pool, that money is used to secure top athletes to improve their sports programs. None of them will expend those funds on a non-athlete who needs help improving their GPA. You would pay full freight which, at Choate this year, is $63,960.
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You mentioned your medication wearing off later in the day, as your doctor if you can be prescribed a mini that will give you another few hours, my son has been taking one for 10+ years and itâs a game changer (heâs now 23 and works long days).
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Thatâs important to know. With that in mind, maybe it would be smarter to take a normal gap year. I might do ed2, if I did it would be to Syracuse. My safeties will be Arizona, Towson, Salisbury, because I know Iâd get in. I still need some good matches. I donât see any point in applying to the more prestigious schools initially because getting good grades is the most important thing. My plan is to work my hardest for the first year, in courses that come easy to me like math and econ, and then apply to transfer to a school that is more in line with my ambition (Like UMich, UVA, Cornell, etc.) Alternatively, I could apply to college during my gap year. As Iâve heard, colleges will care more about senior year grades that way, which will be good for me. Iâm looking at internships for the summer, I certainly can get one in a local real estate brokerage but I have a good chance at networking my way into a PWM office of a Major Bank (Think UBS, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley) I could potentially do also an internship during a gap year which will definitely help me down the road.
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Have a discussion with your parents. Do they have enough to cover a PG year +4 years of college at full price? PG+ 4 years if you get $x in merit aid? Just 4 years of full pay college? Instate public only?
You need to know whether a PG year is affordable. I do think a mid tier PG year would be a good solution, especially if you want merit aid (transfers get lousy aid - doesnât matrer if youâre full pay or going to your instate public, but does matter if you will need FA or merit aid). Run the NPC with them on universities you see as possible targets and reaches post PG year, then do the same on targets and reaches based on your current gpa. Whatâs affordable? Till ypu kbow what is financially possible you wonât be able to make solid plans.
Another variable is your Lax ability, whether one more year might make a difference wrt D3 recruitment.
If your goal is to use Salisbury for a makeshift PG year then transfer to UMD (or equivalent) then itâs a good plan, but be aware that college wonât have the built-in structure a PG year will provide.
My kids who chased merit are still paying more at their IOS publicâs than they wouldâve paid at our flagship, with better stats than the OP. If the OP wants merit, itâs not going to be from a better school than UMD, and it seems like the plan is to transfer out any to a more selective school. I think applying to in state this year is smart, and then move onto plan b if there arenât acceptances.
I donât think I can afford to be picky about price. I probably couldnât get a scholarship to a school I would want to go to. Iâm just worried about getting into a college that I would be content with at this point. Iâm gonna apply to a few PG programs but I want to find the ones with good supports for ADHD and a teaching style that is in line with how I learn.
Also, Iâm considering taking a gap year either in a foreign country or getting internship experience. Iâve also had a lot of writerâs block with my college essays and Iâm curious if I would be better off applying next year. If I did so would my senior year grades matter more so than they do if I applied now?
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Senior grades would matter everywhere next year.
Right now, some universities only consider grades through 11th grade, some will consider 1st quarter or 1st semester grades. If you can finish strong.
A PG year may be better than a year abroad, because during a year abroad youâd need to learn entirely new methods and approaches alongside a foreign language.
An internship in a relativesâ company would not help academically but in a sense itâd cement your identity as potentially full-pay which can help at a need-aware university. Not sure thatâs the best for you. Perhaps mixing a minimum wage job (showing your resilience and expanding your experiences) alongside a more privileged position?
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In the country I would be going to, most people speak fluent English, but I can speak fairly well in the language. But my question is: how much would a gap year help? I have a 3.7 UW GPA this year and I have a good shot at a 4.0. How favorably would that look? Obviously, the top 20 schools are probably out of reach. But with a lot of volunteer experience from the gap year plus an excellent EC resume from high school, not to mention I could probably get my SAT to >1550 if I can improve on the English, where could I realistically be aiming for?
You need to show that your grades in 11th and especially in 12th grade will hold, so one more year of Aâs would help.
These grades can come from a PG year, a PG year abroad, or freshman year at a college.
However, getting Aâs in another country is far from easy since beside the language you have to actually learn in it and learn new approaches to the material, when youâve just started to grasp what youâre supposed to do for the US system.
Youâd definitely get a shot at UMD-CP v. Salisbury and Towson.
If you spend freshman year at Salisbury or Towson then transfer to UMD, I suppose itâd be cheaper for your parents than a PG year, but itâs harder to get a high GPA in college than in HS.
The KEY factor is how much money your parents can devote to this. If the choice is PG+4 years of college v. 5 years of college full pay, itâs one thing. If you need financial aid and a PG year will eat into your college funds, itâs a different thing.
Volunteering in the US matters more than volunteering abroad.
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What PG programs have a reputation for placing non-athletes in selective schools? The schools I researched and liked were Exeter, Deerfield, NMH, and Loomis Chaffee. Obviously, these arenât easy to get into. Exeter would be my top choice because their method of teaching, the Harkness method, aligns with my strengths. But as I stated before itâs definitely difficult to get into.
Also, I saw a lot of people complain about the competition at these schools. But personally, Iâm excited about the opportunity to learn and work with brilliant and passionate students. Also, I know it is difficult to get all As at a top boarding school.
On the other hand, if I get into one of my target schools, there isnât really much point in attending a PG year. After all, the purpose of me taking a PG year would be to prove that I can get good grades for more than just a year. Additionally, I could probably get all As in college with less effort required than to get As and Bs at Exeter or Deerfield.
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