My freshman year (weighted 100 in regulars 5.0 ap/Pre-Ap 6.0) was a 2.8. My rank was in the 800s. I explained under additional information that this was because my dad had gotten into an accident that he almost died from multiple times (long story, ended up in the hospital multiple times after, he’s completely fine now!) I explained that put my into shock, which is true, and I hung out with the wrong crowd cause of it. I explained how I started switching around sophmore year and excelled junior year. I hope the colleges take that into consideration. Should I apply spring semester or next year to have better chances that senior year gpa counts? Also can you chance me for the schools I’m Applying to (I think they’re mostly reaches but idk)
SAT score : 1390 (1440 superscore)
ACT: 31 (33 superscore)
GPA :
Weighted:4.25/5
Unweighted: 3.25/4
Class rank 310/940
ECs:
Freshman year: none
Soph/Junior year: Cross Country (literally took up all the time available)
Senior year: DECA, Speech and Debate, Model UN (I could put the achievement I’d get in these clubs if I apply later, already qualedfor state in deca but it was after apps)
Plus factors (I think):
NHS
Fully bilingual (Arabic, I’m also a dual citizen, dunno if that impacts)
3 rec letters, English teacher that is an amazing writer and really liked me, History teacher I had 2 years (AP Euro & WHAP), and counselor that really likes me
Really good essays, but some of the Short answers were eh
First generation college student
Negative factors:
Applying for financial aid
Major: Business
Schools:
UChicago (Poli Sci)
Cornell
Rice (Poli Sci)
Oxy (Economics)
Northeastern (Poli sci+Business degree)
USC
Boston College
Boston U
UT
A&M
(Already accepted at UTD for business, and most probably UH honors)
Thank you!
Bump
I think a gap year could potentially help you, but I don’t think it’s going to help you enough to get up into a super-selective school. Here are my thoughts…
Pro: you can submit ALL of your Senior year grades, which will continue to show your upward trend. This will add a few positive points to your application, but I’m not sure just how many points this will add. Maybe others can comment.
Pro or neutral: what will you be doing with your gap year? Are you doing something amazing, or are you doing a program that you’re buying your way into (that won’t earn you any extra points), or are you doing something that maybe isn’t so amazing but shows dedication and maturity, or are you sitting around not doing much? You can see that what you will be doing with your gap year can make a difference with your application.
Bottom line, I don’t think the gap year is going to change your results tremendously, but I think it can help a little if you use your gap year wisely and can write about it in your essays.
With a 3.25 unweighted, I would expect UChicago and Cornell to be somewhere on the borderline between high reaches and hopeless. I am not sure about the rest but am suspecting that a gap year is not likely to make a big difference. You are already in at one good school, which is a huge plus at this point in the process even though there is good reason to wait to hear back from other schools.
Being a dual citizen might help if there are universities in your other country that you would like to seriously consider. This for example mattered for my dual citizen daughters since the other country (Canada) was one with a very good university system. Otherwise, I don’t think that this is going to matter.
@melvin123 I was considering going to help with marketing at one of the biggest restaurant companies in Jordan which pretty much holds the roles of Starbucks and dunkin donuts combined here for a year. But another factor is that I want to pursue a law degree.
@DadTwoGirls I thought so about cornell and uchicago and even usc but thought it wouldn’t hurt too much to try. Not sure if you’d know the answer but would utd or uh honors be good enough to get into a t14 law school? That is the whole reason I’m worried, I’m not sure that schools like harvard/Boston college law would look at uh or utd as seriously as the other ones listed. (Even if I got a 3.9-4.0 and good enough lsat)
If applying for poli sci, foreign marketing experience won’t be a tip without some local balance, beyond school clubs. No volunteering in the political scene or community advocacy work?
Your gap plan would have to be challenging and relevant.
Also, both LoRs from humanities is unusual. Not unheard of, but competitive colleges can like (or ask for) one stem.
@lookingforward
I guess it wouldn’t help with Poli Sci, but it would help for the more realistic options which I am applying for business to such as UT and BU (if I don’t get in, I have no idea how my chances are at those universities where my test scores are at/above their 75%). However, since I would be there for a whole year I would most likely volunteer at the refugee camps that are in the country, I have no idea if this would at all impact college admissions. I haven’t considered it as something I would list on my application before since I wanted to do it just to help the people there. (I visited the camps this summer and helped for a few days and it was an eye opening experience)
When looking to see whether the gap year will help you, I think you should be thinking about the following: Why are you interested in marketing for that Jordanian restaurant group? What are you hoping to get out of that experience, either career-direction-wise or personal growth? How would that time translate to you bringing something of interest to a US college campus? If your experience next year will enable you to work some good answers to these questions into an essay, I think you can see how that could make you stand out from others. It could be as simple as you getting more in touch with your cultural identity and bringing that identity to a US campus, or it could be more involved.
Since you say that you’re interested in ultimately studying law at a US law school, is there a way you could get involved with Jordanian laws while you are there? Such as joining a restaurant lobbying group through work, or some kind of civil rights group, or some kind of economic council group that would maybe give you direct insight into the workings of any political or economic power blocks or treaties? If you do a gap year there, you can use some of your time there to lay the foundation for a future summer internship or two that would look good to a US law school - I think they’d find it interesting if you were able to work with the legal or political system over there and be able to share your experiences and understanding of Jordanian law.
In general I’m pretty positive on kids taking a gap year because, if used wisely, it can give you a lot of insight into yourself and give you direction. Some people are pretty negative on gap years because sometimes obstacles come up in life that can interfere with you finishing a degree so you should move forward to get your degree while there are no obstacles.
I don’t think a gap year is a cure-all, but I think it could help.
When I said local, I meant local to where you live in the US.
Jordan is family? Why not find a US internship?
@lookingforward well I just thought I wouldn’t be able to find a good US internship as just a high school graduate. That’s the reason I was considering Jordan.
Also the reason I got the ref letters from two humanities teachers was they both really like me. I could have gotten them from other teachers but I thought they were the ones who can tell the admissions office what the numbers can’t.
@melvin123 having lived there for 6 years previously, I’m pretty sad to say that getting involved in politics over there is hard for people without family running for parliament or something. I could probably find an ‘internship’ at a law firm but it would not be really educational.
I guess it would be better overall to just stick with UTD or A&M, and maybe transfer over to UT if I can while doing local internships? Of course also doing extra curriculars and try to get involved in the political scene if I can