Where should I apply, given my application?

College Search & Selection
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I’m a junior.

Rigor: 14 AP classes, the rest honors (when possible except French.

Test Scores: based on my PSAT (which was 99th percentile) I expect to get at least a 2200, hopefully a 2300 (I will take it a few times).

GPA: This is probably the weakest part of my application. I believe it’s about 3.3
It should rise a little by the time I apply though.

Extracurriculars:

Freshman year: Lacrosse

Sophomore year: none

Junior year: Newspaper, Poli Sci club, Key club. I go to PRISM occasionally, so I’m not sure if I should put it on my app or not.

Senior Year: I hope to start a debate team at my school. How helpful will this be? It would be a lot of work so I’d like to know that it would be worth it.
I’ll also continue my current clubs

Essay: This will only help. I’m a pretty decent writer.

Oh, and I’m a white male with about 130k in college savings. The privilege is actually a little disgusting.

I should add that a big reason reason for my poor extracurriculars and GPA is I had a fairly rough first 2 years of high school. I was at a school I hated, was depressed much of the time, had ADHD (that I’ve gotten much better at coping with) and had Lyme disease for about 6 months. My old school was also pretty small, so it didn’t have any clubs that really interested me.

Anyway, I transfered schools Junior year, have gotten infinitely better at dealing with my depression (I feel great most of the time) and made lots of friends. This has made it easier to join clubs, work harder, etc… Also my new school just has much better clubs so that helps.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to talk about the ways I’ve changed in my application letter, so they understand some of the lack of balance.A lot of it has had to do with moving away from religion–would it be a bad idea to mention this, considering that it might offend religious AOs?

Anyway, what schools should I be aiming for? I’m having a hard time gaging what schools specifically I might be accepted at.

I will probably major in Economics, would prefer to go to college in the West, or at least somewhere with nice weather–I currently live in Chicago, and it’s awful. The only college in this region I would be interested in is Universiry of Chicago, because their Econ program is truly great, but I don’t think I could get accepted.

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I’ve also taken piano lessons my freshman year and part of my sophomore year

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You need to understand the upcoming change to the SAT – you don’t have a few more tries on the 2400 scale. Agree that your GPA is too low for UChucago. Is that your unweighted GPA? UW is what matters.

There are many pitfalls in your proposed essay topics – essays are not for therapy, nor to reveal your issues or flaws. Sometimes a GC can address health or family issues in their recommendation – but it often just comes off as excuses from the applicant, and doesn’t help your application.

So your parents have about $32K per year saved for you. Will they pay more from their current earnings in top of that? Are you willing to take out federal loans? Do you have a preference for school size (LAC vs large university)? You don’t have real test scores yet, and your GPA is low if you are looking for merit. I don’t see the debate team as probably making much difference at the types of colleges where you will be competitive – focusing on better grades this semester and next, along with test prep, is your best bet.

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I do know about the change to the SAT, I just wrote it in that format so people would understand it easier.

Yes that’s my UW. My weighted GPA is much higher, since most of my classes were weighted.

I doubt they would pay much more on top of that, but I’m willing to take out some loans, and work during summers.

Right now I’m leaning toward an LAC, although I’m open to both. I would really like to go to Colorado College, but again, I’m not sure how much of a chance I have at acceptance.

What type of test prep would be a good idea? Should I be taking a class or just studying on my own time?

Thanks for the response

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Also, I’m not really looking for a merit scholarship (If it would cause me to chose a school below my potential).

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Not looking for merit if “it would cause me to chose (sic) a school below my potential”.

Really? So you have a 3.3 GPA in HS, but are worried that college will not be enough of a challenge? FYI, there are many wonderful schools, particularly in the Midwest and South, that do offer Merit scholarships and would certainly intellectually challenge you. I am afraid that with a 3.3 GPA, you wont have to “settle” for anything.

Embrace the opportunity, and hit the books hard to improve your grades.

Good luck!

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Right now your GPA will hold you back from the top schools. Try using the Supermatch function to the left under Find a College.

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Well as I said before those grades are largely due to personal circumstances. I don’t really have a hard time understanding the material or anything (source: my SAT and good AP scores)

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But anyway that’s not super relevant. What were the schools you had in mind?

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@happy1 I have used that feature before but it’s a little difficult because it doesn’t take into account class rigor or extracurriculars.

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One way to get the most bang out of your college savings is to get your degree in fewer than 4 years. Given the number of AP classes you’re taking, it should be quite possible to finish in 3 years, maybe even 2 1/2. But be aware that the amount of credits that are awarded for various scores varies GREATLY from college to college. Also, the better colleges are often pretty stingy with the AP credits, and sometimes the maximum they will let you apply to a degree is 30 or fewer.

If you are interested in finishing in fewer than 4 years, you could also take a few college courses this summer and maybe even next summer. Again, be aware that the type and number of college classes you can transfer varies from college to college, with some schools limiting the number of credits, and/or not allowing classes that were taken online or from a community college.

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While I do sympathize with your mental illness as many of my friends/family also have depression or ADHD, that isn’t necessarily an excuse for a 3.3. Plenty of people with one or both conditions can still get a 4.0UW, so such an illness doesn’t exactly pardon you from a low GPA, which is confusing considering you “didn’t have a hard time understanding anything.” You also can’t say your SAT is a source for understanding material because you also don’t have official scores yet.
Keep in mind that many (probably a bunch from your school as well) in the applicant pool will be getting a SAT score of similar caliber to yours and will also have a great GPA. So don’t act like schools that give merit are beneath you or “your potential”. Frankly, that’s just insulting to everyone who has worked their butt off to get there. Im sure many people here will be willing to help you think of colleges, but not when you have that sort of holier than thou attitude.
You also mentioned that you will take out loans and work summers. FYI, the max loan you can take out on your own freshman year is $5500 and only goes up by about a thousand each year (someone correct me if I’m wrong.). So you will not be able to cover the difference at, say, an Ivy after what your parents will provide. They will have to consign loans with you. Just something to think about before applying to schools that will not be affordable.

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I would be wary of letting a college know about depression or ADHD. No college is keen to accept students with such histories since a previous history suggests the student is at risk. Somehow it seems that some parents and students view college as one large mental health center that should address their needs. That is not what the Disability Act had intended. So colleges are wary because once students are enrolled, they have to deal with whatever arises. Why students with such histories choose such competitive schools is beyond me. Just because they can get in does not mean they should enroll. But, as you seem to have those leanings, I recommend resisting them but also not cluing colleges into your mental health and ADHD issues.

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@fishgill Obviously there are people with mental illness that get 4.0s. Did I say I was at their level? I just find it incredibly hard to work and concentrate when I’m depressed, so I my grades dropped significantly freshman/sophomore year. Should we stop acknowledging cause and effect? Of course I could have done better. Nearly everyone who has poor grades could have. But there’s always a prime reason people are unsuccessful, and for me it was mental illness.

The reason I brought it up again to explain my grades was because ColdinMinny was citing my current GPA as a reason I won’t have any issue finding a challenging college. Since I’ve recovered to a significant extent in the past year, I don’t think my current GPA is a great indication of my future success, so I just pointed that out. I’m not acting “holier than thou”, Jesus Christ.

A reminder: Not everyone is going to Ivys, not everyone has a perfect transcript. Get over it. I just want to know what schools I should be applying to.

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding how merit works. Don’t you generally get it if you’re well above the scores of the applicant pool? Meaning the school would not be as good as one could have gotten into. Again, I don’t think I’m “better” than people at those schools. I just want to go to the best schools that will accept me.

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@moooop Thanks! I’d definitely be interested in that, I’ll look into it.

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Buddy, I’m not saying you ARE that way, but that’s the tone you conveyed in your posts. I apologize for offending you, as that was not my intent. What I thought you were saying is that your scores excuse your GPA and that you thought it didn’t matter in the light of illness, so I apologize for misunderstanding. That was my bad.

As to your “reminder,” that’s what I was trying to point out in my comment. Don’t tell me to “get over it” as again, that’s what I thought your original comment was conveying. The reason I thought this was simply because of the “merit scholarship” comment, so clearly I misunderstood. There are actually a lot good colleges that will think a 3.3 is fantastic too AND give money for it, which I meant to point out. That’s what I was saying, don’t be so quick to dismiss schools with merit because they are still good. Thats all I was trying to point out.

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I think you probably would get into Colorado College, especially if you show interest (visit, good essays). But merit is very hard to judge for you because your GPA is out of synch with your ACT, honestly, and $40k won’t cover a lot of LACs without merit.

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@fishgill

While I noted your apology in a later post, I think it is worth noting that your statement here still reflects a general ignorance of mental issues. They can vary quite a lot in terms of severity, exact manifestations (which is sometimes more of a descriptive issue than anything else. Sometimes the same term is used to describe a set of symptoms that have potentially very different causalities, like “headache” used to), proper treatment, personal/family circumstances that can affect the issue, etc. Your gross overgeneralization really doesn’t help much.

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@fallenchemist I apologized because I misunderstood and because I realized my overgeneralizations. I thought the OP was using his illness as an excuse. It was my fault entirely, not his, which I acknowledged.
Of course I realize my post does not help much because it was narrow minded and rude; that’s entirely why I apologized. If I could delete it, I would. I also messaged the OP privately. Sorry for the inconvenience and for my misunderstanding.

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How do you feel about public schools in your state?