So I have depression and was hospitalized three times my 10th grade year .my grades were terrible I finished with a 2.4 GPA .i told my Carlow admissions counselor and I don’t know if I will still be accepted . My class rank is 83 out of 368 .my teacher told me to tell them why it was low since they are going to ask. I told them that I’m not like that anymore and I am doing better in school. Can you help me ? I don’t know what to do.
What is your cumulative GPA? Your GC is best equipped to tell you which programs you’re likely to be granted admission. Worse case is to put in a year at community college and transfer to a 4 year degree program. You’ll save money, at least.
@T26E4 Right now with freshmen and sophomore years it’s a 3.0
If your freshman and softmore year gpa is a 3.0 then you have time to recover.
Let’s say that with a 3.0 gpa, you pick it up and get a 4.0 your junior and senior year. This would give you
a 3.5 overall.
Not bad.
How about a 3.7 for junior and senior year. That gives you a 3.35, still decent.
From Carlow
Follow the college preparatory curriculum in high school (18 units of work),
Achieve at least a B average, and
Rank in the upper two-fifths of the class.
You are already in the upper two fifths. And you can bring up your gpa past the “B” average. Don’t worry that much about it.
Have a shot. Got accepted to like 5 colleges with like a 3.1 GPA. Just improve your grades from now and do good on SATs.
Most of the colleges in the United States are non- to minimally competitive for entry.
As long as you are adequately prepared for college-level work academically (and emotionally!)—and please make sure you are, and that you’ll be able to complete—you’ll be fine. You won’t get into any of the top-20 sorts of colleges posters on CC generally salivate over, but neither do most college graduates in this country.
Agree with T26E. And please be gentle with yourself. You are only a year+ away from some serious health issues: “I’m not like that any more” is not going to give any school (or thinking adult) a lot of confidence that you are maturely handling what could possibly be a lifelong issue (you have no way of knowing). The way to show that maturity is to anticipate the possibility of a relapse and thinking hard about how to avoid it. Since your on-going health and safety is your #1 priority (and it will be the priority of any school that accepts you) talk with your psychologist about how you can make sure you won’t relapse during college, especially if you are living away from home. Figure out the triggers and the warning signs so you get ahead of the situation. That could mean that you need to find a school that can be more flexible: A reduced schedule your first year(s) for example. There is no prize for graduating in 4 years instead of 5 or 6. Find a psychologist close to school with whom you can check in regularly, especially during that first stressful year. Even if you think you are completely fine, you want your safety net in place. You may need a medical release to apply for a single room. All this doesn’t necessarily mean you share your entire history with the schools to which you are applying, by the way - it may be sufficient to indicate serious medical issues in 10th grade which have now been addressed without going into detail. There are several good threads on this topic already on the forum, so I won’t repeat the pros and cons here.
Study hard and get the best grades possible from this point forward to improve your GPA. There are plenty of good colleges that will accept you. Use College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics to research admissions data for colleges you’re interested in. Also, the majority of colleges publish their ‘common data set’ on their websites. Search within each colleges website for it. Use the super college search feature available on CC. Don’t worry so much. Do your own research, become generally knowledgeable about the higher education system and your various options. That will take a few months of careful research. Be patient. Keep your chin up. Do not look at the chance me threads. They’re nonsense, in my opinion.
83 out of 368 is top 25% of your class. That’s pretty decent. Are you a junior or senior?
@OspreyCV22 junior
@N’s mom I’ve never had a psychologist just a therapist .I know my triggers already and know how to cope .Even my therapist says I’ve made tremendous improvement .im not the same person I was in 2014-2015 .ive been clean from cutting for almost 4 months and suicidal ideation for 10+ months .
That’s very good news wrt health. Congratulations, it must have been really tough.
And top 25%, 3.4 are all pretty good.
Now, prepare for the SAT or the ACT and take it at least once this Spring.
You may also want to take one or two subject tests in your stronges subjects.
As for colleges:
Look at the website: Colleges that Change Lives and go to these colleges’ websites,
fill out the “request info/join our mailing list” form.
@MYOS1634 I plan on taking the tests ( SAT & ACT) in April and May
A therapist is a psychologist. I’m sure you have made tremendous improvements if you are no longer cutting and not suicidal. That’s something to feel really good about. But it’s been less than a year. It will be several years (with all the assorted ups and downs that life sends your way) before you can assert confidently that you are healthy, resilient and able to cope with life’s stresses. At the risk of annoying you, I will say it again - please take the time to talk with your therapist about make the transition to college a successful one rather than kidding yourself that ‘I am not like that any more.’
There are many colleges across the country that would accept you with a 2.5 GPA. If you can get it up, there are that many more. Try the SuperSearch feature on this site, put in your GPA and a few things you’d like in a college and you’ll get dozens of results. Don’t worry, there is always a college that will accept you.
My child had similar difficulties in high school. There was a time when I seriously doubted that she would be able to graduate from HS at all. With treatment, she was able to recover and eventually began to improve things academically as well. She was accepted at every college she applied to, and this week had to choose between two full tuition scholarship offers. Your future is still wide open to you. Don’t be discouraged. Be mindful of your health, but don’t doubt that you can move on and have a wonderful college experience. I would not be quick to disclose mental health details on applications - you can simply state that your grades suffered due to a health condition that required hospital treatment.
I agree that you shouldn’t disclose what precisely caused you to be hospitalized. In “additional information”, you should simply state something like:
During freshman year I was diagnosed with a serious illness which resulted in hospitalization for most of sophomore year. The treatment was successful and I re-enrolled full-time junior year.