Please, it would mean a lot if someone could listen and give constructive advice.
I’m 16 and a Sophomore (as of 3/25/17) in a Private High School that is part of the Special Education System. My school does not include class ranks or grade point averages, and only AP US History, Literature, and Calculus AB/BC are offered; I may also transfer to another non-public S.Ed approved school which is essentially the same thing. I have an IEP (Individualized Educational Planning) provided by CSE of NYSED/NYCDOE, with an emotional disturbance classification: BPD/PTSD. Does this hinder my possibility of going to colleges like Binghamton, Williams, or Holy Cross? Or is it a lost cause and I should give up? On the WISC-IV, my GAI (same scale as IQ+disability as a variable) is 128, Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) is 130, Perceptual Reasoning Index is 122, Working Memory is 106, and Processing Speed is 102. disclaimer: this could only be administered by a psychologist in schools, or in clinics.
From October 2014 (8th Grade) to November 2016, I had been to seven psychiatric hospitalizations 18 ERs, and two partials (PHP); in otherwise, I was chronically on medical leave and had to put education on the back burner. It was not until my last hospitalization when I had been tired of being a psychiatric patient in constant crisis, and started to stabilize with the help of critically acclaimed treatment program that I needed years ago. College is on my mind now when I was told by my waiver worker who had seen only two clients go to college during the 10 years working with at-risk youth. However, I cannot help but feel grossly incompetent because I am falling behind as I am just taking my first two regents in the sophomore year. The one thing going for me is that I still would graduate on time. Yes, graduation requirements are different for IEP students, but highly selective schools are, well, highly selective. Please help, college and academic success mean everything to me, I already invested in Prepscholars’ SAT Prep, and plan to build a website advocacy by June 2018 for Ex.Crlr to put in my college application.
You are not grossly incompetent, but you have been medically impaired and are now getting the help you need. Don’t focus on doing things “on time” versus staying healthy and doing things well. Seriously, as you get older no one will care how many years it took you to finish high school or college. My brother really struggled to finish college, but he’s now a successful business executive. Nobody cares how long it took him to graduate.
Graduation requirements versus college admissions requirements are two different things. You probably need to do more than the minimum to get an IEP diploma to be a good candidate for a four year school. You can take a fifth year senior year or start at a community college if needed to fill in any holes.
If you are at a school that has only sent two kids to college in the past 10 years(?), you are going to need to find outside sources of college admissions advice, and probably focus on schools that are easier to get into than Williams. Which is truly okay, there are a lot of schools out there and the kids who go there are not incompetent, either. A college list should always, for anyone, be built from the bottom up: safety schools first, then matches, then reaches.
A safety school needs to be an admissions likely and affordable to your family. In addition, you may want to consider the quality of medical care available close to each school, just in case. If your parents or family have been supportive during your illness, it may make sense to do a year or two close to home then transfer, again just in case.
Signing up for testing is a great start to all this. Test scores can be a decent first pass to figuring out where you match.
Oh no, waiver service is a home based intervention service,l. 70% of students here move on into college. I can get an advanced regents diploma if I want to, but students with disabilities have different requirements for any diploma, including honors, etc. For example, I only needed to complete one history regents, but I can take an additional (I take AP US History now) http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/531C5296-BC35-43E0-BD29-2D7E29BAB2C7/0/AcpolicySWD.pdf.
I should ask, do colleges mainly care about Junior Year? My school doesn’t really do transcripts, or averages, or class ranks. They do Valedictorian, and give out honors though.
Are you sure your school doesn’t do transcripts? It would be very odd to have no educational record available to send to colleges.
The most recent grades may count a bit more, but all grades count.
I should have probably explained that I enrolled into the school February 22, 2016. I had not been in school for almost two years, had some homeschooling through my insurance, but I didn’t receive any credit from it at all. Would colleges be understanding due to my frequent hospitalizations, like if I had medical records, would they consider that?
Don’t offer your medical records unless you absolutely have to. Remember that adcoms are not doctors and may not interpret them correctly. If you need to explain, do it in your own words, in the “Is there any additional information?” section of the application. Or, your guidance counselor can explain it in the counselor letter, but again, discuss exactly what you do and do not want disclosed before they write the note.