Will I be at a disadvantage? (very few extracurriculars due to circumstances)

Applying to College
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OP,

I am a little confused about something. Most really low income students need to contribute their earning to help the family. Yet you can afford to attend CTY. Even if it is money that you made on your own it still will somewhat undermine the low income image you are trying to project. Does CTY charge a fee? Not saying do not include it but it seems a little inconsistent so this is something that you may need to cover in your application. A why you work or not.

Can you go back to track in the fall for a few times a week?

For more information on what I was talking about in my earlier post

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/05/20/your-money/college-essays-on-money.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/your-money/essays-about-work-and-class-that-caught-a-colleges-eye.html

My favorite one was from a prior year (they do them every year) about a girl who goes to affluent neighborhoods to get wifi so she can do her homework.

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I’m a sophomore in highschool with 500 hours and working this summer to be payed a sum of $1,800 and was wondering if ivy leagues and elite schools would find that impressive? I also have won lots of medals for stuff and I’m involved in the master chef club in my school and mentoring in medicine. I plan on attending University of Pennsylvania (my dream school >:D< ) but I’m worried that I need more EC’S. I also plan on being an intern my junior/senior year and getting an SAT tutor (for the new one of course, I’m class of 2018 :-w )

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@SeekingPam- low income students are usually eligible to receive financial aid for programs like CTY, which try to increase socioeconomic diversity.

@Mojiri- I work with low-income HS students who are looking to attend college.

While I appreciate the posts about working as an extracurricular a lot, my experience in working with low-income students looking at elite schools is that work alone is not enough. They’re absolutely right that you can (and should!) frame work as a EC. What skills have you learned about responsibility, time management, collaboration, etc? Have you learned anything about yourself and the kind of person you are?

Other thoughts-- play on your strengths. CTY is a really cool opportunity, and should be something you write about (both the experience, but perhaps also the differences in environment and what you learned about yourself, if anything). Online programming contests are great, as are the community college courses.

Since you’re looking at elite schools, though, is it possible to decrease the number of CC courses to free up some time? Most of the elite schools won’t take any of your CC credits, though most public and state schools will.

As you finish up this year and go into the next, are there opportunities to be involved with local hackathons or other programming groups? Are you involved in church or a community organization that could also be a EC? (The students I work with through a college access program often don’t realize the college-access program itself is a EC-- for them, it’s just what “they do”.) If you have a teacher, mentor, or friend who knows you well, talk to them (or your parents, maybe!). Oftentimes juniors have forgotten what they’ve done that might “count,” and a friend/teacher/adult can remind you of the cool things you’ve done throughout HS or what they’ve noticed about you.

With your scores, you might also consider QuestBridge, with more info located here (https://www.questbridge.org/high-school-students/national-college-match/how-to-apply).

PM me with more questions if you have any!

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@lessonwitch2 The OP is a rising senior and will be applying to colleges in the fall. Most places should accept the old SAT and that is a superb score. If for some reason that’s not the case, OP can retake the SAT and will probably get a similar result. There is no reason to take the ACT.

OP: if you are maxed out, keep doing what you’re doing, keep up your GPA, and be proud of that fact that you work to earn needed income. Be kind to others and to yourself and you will do fine! If you want to take up an EC, do something that makes sense - something you genuinely enjoy and can sustain, given the time restrictions you face.

@Mojori Look for schools that promise to meet full need - you have already identified some good reaches - but make sure you have some safeties like an in-state public school and at least one for sure financial safety. The schools that are on the yolasite that have already been recommended to you are a good place to start.

Best of luck - you sound like a smart, hardworking, responsible person!

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OP you need to check college sites for whether that score will still be accepted next year. Also, is your early graduation going to jeopardize your NMF eligibility? If you don’t get into some of the top schools which will meet need, your other guaranteed cheap option will be places like Alabama, so it would be nice to get that NMF which you are clearly capable of.

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@Lindagaf @mamaedefamilia
In the second post of the tread OP says she/he is a sophomore. And some colleges right now are not taking the old sat for next year’s students, so their is a good chance elite schools may do the same in roughly 2 years

Takin the new sat is fine too, however, just because he scored high on the last test does not mean you’ll score well on this one. They are extremely different now, different approaches, different kinds of questions, different score weights, so studying may be helpful if she has to retake it. Again no one can know in two years time.

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@lessonwitch2 In the first post, the OP says that he/she will be a senior next year. So he/she will be applying in a few months as a graduate of the class of 2017.

Your response suggested that you didn’t read the initial post as you asked for information that was already included and made assumptions about the OP’s transcript and test scores that were unfounded.

According to prepscholar, class of 2017 should be OK with submitting the old SAT. UC schools with The outlook for class of 2018 looks less clear.

http://blog.prepscholar.com/will-colleges-accept-the-old-sat-for-class-of-2017-or-2018-30-plus-schools-interviewed

Regardless, I find it hard to believe that any time-consuming study would be required for a student who got a 2360 on the old format. A practice test to get accustomed to the new format is probably all that would be necessary.

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Not at all, I worked at my family’s restaurant (with very few significant ECs and 0 volunteer experience) and I was accepted to rather selective colleges (Tufts, Vandy (transfer), Penn (transfer)) with far less impressive stats than you (2140 SAT/3.7 GPA).

I would base your essays on how helping support your family influenced you.

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@mamaedefamilia

… Where…

I… Don’t know how to repeat that any better. You may want to reread the thread.

My sister got a perfect score on the Sat but still has to retake the new one since colleges want to see it… Or the act. They are different… I don’t know how to say that better either.

@Janizary
Your right, and I don’t think you need great ecs. But maybe ANY one else will be very helpful.

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@lessonwitch2 im not implying you don’t need ECs or need them. The admissions to top schools, UCs excluded because they’re a lot more stat-based, is holistic. It also depends on what you want to study and why the academic mission and environment of that given school meets you as a student. To make up for my lack of ECs, I really made my essays meaningful and clearly articulated what I thought made me unique in my pursuits.

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Post #1: “I am also planning on graduating a year early, so next year I’ll be a senior.”

What I said in my last post was that it looked like you hadn’t read the OP’s initial post and your response above suggests that is the case and that you responded to the second post. The test taking requirements for 2017 graduates are different than those for 2018. Hence the correction. I do not mean to be rude here. I was mainly concerned that the OP might get stressed about standardized tests requirements that might not apply in his/her case.

It might be helpful to the OP if you could provide information about where your sister will be applying that requires the new SAT as opposed to the old one for the class of 2017. I checked the UC requirements because you had mentioned the state of California and this page suggests that current sophomores and juniors can still submit the old SAT (It actually says current freshmen, but the page looks like it requires updating).

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/examination-requirement/

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@mamaedefamilia
(I say 2 years becuase this year, and next year)

My sister wants to go to Oxford. (But she’s a sophomore and its an international school is a bad example) But that isn’t what I’m trying to get at. And i’m not gonna type it (I’ve said it 3 times so far). All I am saying is that since some schools aren’t taking it now, she should consider retesting. If she doesn’t get a score she likes, she can leave cancel it and use the old sat. But we don’t know how a school will react to the new sat. (For example, Texas State University is changing their autoadmit process to adjust for the new SAT and schools like Yale recommend 2017 graduates have new and old one) Because no one knows if another test will be required.

But I didn’t intend to cause stress from test requirements. She just asked if she had any disadvantages, and i think having no involvement in her school is a weakness and having only one (out-dated) test when most people apply to those elite schools with an Act and Sat. And the fact that she doesn’t have the free time for anything makes me wonder things like, where is the time to study, where is the time to volunteer, where is the time for applications, where is the time for local scholarships, where is the time to be the well rounded applicant that every elite school wants? I’m only pointing it out becuase their are other factors we don’t know about like her early graduation plan. We don’t know if her application will even be considered if she doesn’t have the 4 required years of English, math, science, etc. required for admission, or if her community credits and gpa will transfer. I just assumed she wanted to know about those handicaps.

Those were are the only disadvantages i see. But i’m only saying them becuase OP is so close to a great application. Why not tell her/ him how to make it flawless? Becuase at review schools haveing amostly blank application generally doesn’t look good even with a high test score. thats all. None of my advice needs to be taken, but I hope you can kinda see why I said it.

Sorry If I caused stress :((

Thank you for the link. But those seem like they are for public California schools. (IDK I’m not from California) Do you think thats the policy for schools like southern California?