adh0316

Hi everyone,

I'm in my senior year of high school now and starting to look for colleges to apply to. I made a lot of bad decisions (academically, at least) early on, and now I'm feeling the pain for my actions. You'll see the irony of my situation below...

My cumulative high school GPA: 2.59
(up until this quarter)

My 1st quarter GPA this year: 4.25 (weighted w/ AP courses)

SAT: 1800 (M:720|CR:560|W:520) *Retook it today; I think score will be closer to 1950.
SAT II: N/A
ACT: N/A

Class rank: 245 / 394

Current schedule:
1. AP American Government & Politics
2. AP Psychology
3. Spanish II
4. AP World History
5. Physics
6. Trigonometry
7. Astronomy/Marine Science
8. English 12 (British Lit)

Extra curricular:
- Academic Team
- Future Business Leaders of America - Vice President
- Engineering Team/Club - Captain
- Varsity Volleyball
- Various church projects around the community

Work experience:
- Freelance computer programmer since 2004 (languages: C, C++, J#, VB, .NET, etc.)
- Freelance website developer + designer (languages: HTML, PHP, Javascript, Perl, etc.)
- Worked at Circuit City for 6 months
- Worked at Rite Aid for 4 months

-----------------------------------------------

Anyway, my first three years in high school I treated as a joke. In those first years, I received GPAs as low as 0.4 and no higher than 3.125.

This year, my senior year, I really started to get a grip on my life and do well in school. I have seven A's and one B (in Spanish II) on my report card for first quarter. My activity level shot up nearly 100x and now I'm very active around school.

I guess my question is...

Is it too late for me? Will any decent colleges even take a second glance at my application before denying it?

Obviously I understand that I won't be getting into an amazing school (even though MIT has been my dream school since the 3rd grade), but what are my chances of getting into a "less renowned" 4 year school? And just for future reference, what are the chances of me getting into my dream school?

Will any colleges look at the huge improvement in my senior year compared to earlier years and say, "well maybe this student has potential after all..."?

Let me know what you think!

Hope to hear from you soon,
Drew

jakezhang

Considering your 4.25 this year, I suggest applying to any decent 4 year college and writing them a letter indicating that you truly want to go there and explain that you disregarded school until recently. Admission counselors are human beings, not robots, and a note would help them understand why your GPA is so low. Your SATs tell me that you are capable of doing well.

billybobboy23

Assuming your score really is around 2000 with this latest SAT retake, and your counselor/teacher letters do a good job of explaining the GPA situation, I'd say you've got a good shot at a state university.

I'm sorry to say that MIT is out of the question. Valedictorians get rejected from that place, 'nuff said.