Chance a low GPA girl with unrealistically big dreams [FL resident, 3.35 UW, 1500 SAT, English or American Studies, <$65k, single parent]

Chance Me / Match Me
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demographics: current junior, girl, mixed with white and west/central asian :slight_smile: idk if i’m hooked, i’m egg donor conceived and legally adopted as a result which is the topic of one of my essays & bisexual. from FL but transferred in junior year to NE boarding school that is competitive but not necessarily a feeder. middle class but from an area with a high cost of living so prob lower middle. Both schools were college prep and pretty high ranked (current one is like top 10 in state)

intended major is english or american studies

ok now the bad part

GPA: 3.35 uw, 3.65 W

GPA submitted will be a 3.7-3.8 from my current school (so just jr year), but they only submit W.

Coursework: 4 APs, 2 taken jr year and 2 senior. ap lang ap lit ap euro and ap us gov :slight_smile:

projected score for lang and euro are 5 and 4 respectively. i think i have 12? honors

school offers more APs but primarily STEM focused which i am not very good at </3

SAT: 1500 (790 EBRW 710 math)

Extracurriculars:

First and primary author of over 7 wikihow articles. 60,000 views cumulatively, on topics surrounding supporting and learning about the struggles of marginalized groups. Since being started, i have received peer editing from various professionals (clinical psychologists, PHDs, etc). 5 were written in recent years, but I’ve been at this since 7th grade.

I helped several people who were either adopted or egg donor conceive find biological family members using both public family trees and DNA testing data.

Independently authored a published collection of 12 poems about my experiences growing up as a young woman of color

Volunteered 20 hours/week during the 2 months leading up to the 2024 election— cold calls/canvassing.

Book club with young kids in my community that involved both fun storytelling and important topics. The books ranged from princess tales to a child-version of the importance of reporting sexual abuse (good touch/bad touch type of thing)

English/history and SAT tutoring. Tutored for the SAT on schoolhouse and independently tutored a few of my peers for free on writing structure and U.S. history. 5 hours/week for 6 months.

Personal ancestry research. Searching through historical documents, censuses, and newspapers, I have been able to compile over 15 family trees for both my biological and non-biological family members, along with friends and people in my community who were interested.

Passion project that aims to inform students through educating underresourced students with intersectionalities about politics and the social sciences. WikiHow writing ties into this.

Full-time caretaker for ailing grandmother freshman and sophomore years. During this time, I lived with her and attended doctor’s appointments, followed a strict diet, learned the ins and outs of chemotherapy, and did emotional support around-the-clock.

Clubs like Model UN, art club, history club, red cross club. Thespian honor society member freshman year but I had to quit because of my grandmother.

Volunteer welcomer on WikiHow. Focused on mentoring new volunteers to the community

Volunteer shoe cobbler. I fix people’s shoes for free, and I’ve helped a few dozen people fix shoes they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford getting fixed

Awards/Honors:

3x wikiHow rising star award, pretty hard to get— it being a top 100 most popular website and with the influx of articles written, only 2-3 receive one each month. I received 2 in May 2024 and 1 in June.

Honorable delegate at state Model UN conference (probably won’t include this in app)

Silver key in Scholastic writing competition

Thespian honor society

LORs:

AP lang teacher: honestly a crapshoot because he likes my personality and my work a lot, but i am often unfocused in class. I get my work done but still. We have a good relationship though so maybe 7/10?

HUSH teacher: 10/10 probably she loved me and we had great relationship

Counselor letter: maybe a 7/10? idk she doesn’t know me that well but i think we are building a better relationship

Extenuating circumstances involved the death of my grandmother 2nd semester of sophomore year and her diagnosis during my freshman year. I live with both of my grandparents so it was pretty tough on me. Junior year i moved across the country by myself to go to boarding school, found out i was adopted, and also had to deal with my grandpa & my mom both being diagnosed with serious illnesses.

Essay:

I have a few drafts written, and I think they’re all pretty good :slight_smile: Going to keep getting editing and getting feedback tho

Schools:

Safeties: Ithaca college and Drexel

Targets: Smith (maybe ED so that’s why im putting it here), American, GWU, Emerson, Bard, Brandeis, Marist, Sarah Lawrence, Stony brook, Rochester (Maybe???), URI, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Stony Brook

Reaches: Amherst, Williams, Barnard, Wellesley, UPenn (in my dreams…), Brown (also in my dreams…), Vassar, Swarthmore, W&M, Haverford, BC, F&M, UMiami

I am aware that most of these my chances are nonexistent for, but you lose 100% of the shots you don’t take! My circumstances killed my mental health pretty bad and got rid of my motivation to do anything, but I have an upward trend in my coursework and no c’s junior year which was a (sadly) reoccuring theme the past 2 years. I think I have about 3 c’s overall, all C+ if it matters. Also recommend me schools!!! I still dream to go t25 but some dreams will not happen i think

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You go to a private boarding school. I would strongly suggest that you speak with the college counselor at your boarding school. They will have a good idea where students like you from your school have been accepted to college in the past.

I also think you should have a discussion with your family about college costs, and how much they are able to help you pay them annually.

You have overcome a lot of things in your short life. Please make sure your essays are positive ones about your strengths.

I don’t see anything in what you wrote that is a “hook”, but the vast majority of college students don’t have a hook.

Are Ithaca and Drexel affordable? If not, they are not safety schools.

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If you’re at a NE boarding school, your college counselor there will be the best judge of how your transcript will be received at various colleges. It’s hard for anyone here to judge, especially without class rank to give any context to your grades.

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Yeah. My mom has savings for college for me though we will probably need a bit of need-based aid. My counselor is most concerned about costs, but my mom doesn’t want me to worry about paying + she seems very confident that it will not be a problem. She recommended for me to apply to some decently selective schools, like vassar, but yeah

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Is your mom a single parent? Will you qualify for need based aid? Neither Drexel nor Ithaca guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students.

I really think you need to find an affordable college, that you like, where you have a good chance of acceptance. I don’t see that on your list.

Please start there.

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Who’s paying fir the boarding schools? What is your home state?

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Again, we have savings :slight_smile: My mom is a single parent but my grandfather has money and is willing to contribute. My mom is very critical of schools that she doesn’t like, which includes in-state schools, so these are the best I have at the moment. Net price calculators for all of them have been within the realm of possibility for my parents so I am not too worried.

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My mom is paying. Home state is FL

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So, if your Mom can afford private boarding schools, she can then also afford college, which is a similar cost?

I suggest adding Hampshire. It will give you access to the rest of the 5-college consortium - Smith, Mt Holyoke, Amherst, & UMass.

It’s too bad that the governor has ruined New College in Florida. It would have been perfect.

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Ask your mother to run the net price calculator on each college of interest.

Also, if she is divorced, some colleges require both parents’ finances to calculate financial aid (in which case both of their finances must also be included in net price calculators).

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Dad is totally out of the picture, doesn’t contribute, noncustodial, etc. So i would have to have that be waived. My mom and i did NPC on them all with affordable results. I’m moreso worried about how my stats play into each other because i know the gpa is pretty scary

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Each college may make a waiver decision independently. Because it is not transparent how likely getting a waiver is, consider getting a waiver to be a reach for each school that requires it.

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I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to get a waiver. We have legitimately zero contact with him— don’t know his whereabouts, contact information, he could have croaked and I wouldn’t know.

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Hi - thanks for posting. I admire your hustle.

So a few things - normally I say go see your boarding school counselor and it’s good advice - but if you’ve done two years in public school and then went to a boarding school, most of your record is baked.

And I don’t know how your overall rigor is - but based on a comment you made, it seems that you shy away from STEM.

You do hustle - and you have a great attitude. You are correct - you lose 100% of the shots that you don’t take. As long as your psyche is right for rejection, you are good.

I do have some concerns with your list.

I’m not going to get into the financials - yes, affordability is #1 and it’s not good to say - mom says don’t worry. But if she has a handle on it then she has a handle.

My concern is your safeties - they are THE most important school on your lists. All your “dream” schools are small and a few mid size. So why Drexel?? And I don’t really think of it for humanities.

I’ll call it a likely because of your SAT but they don’t post GPAs so it’s hard to tell. But only 23% submitted so.

Drexel makes no sense. I’l get back to that.

Let’s go to your targets - AU and GW are always possible if you express interest but statistically they are reaches. If you’re full pay the odds go up. Same with Brandeis which is a reach - as are the others on that list - except URI which again, is safe, but why URI?

Your reaches are that.

So - given Smith is your ED and you have Bryn Mawr and Wellesley it seems that for the most part you like urban/ish areas - where is Agnes Scott (maybe too far south) - or Simmons by Boston and for your interests schools like Kalamazoo and Beloit (in the midwest but fit the mold and K has an open-ish curriculum)…or you have Marist so where is Wheaton by Boston/Providence. Or Goucher or even Drew.

The safety schools are the most important - and if you want NE-ish LACs, you’re missing some that fit your sort of urbanish sense. And Ithaca doesn’t fit your list geographically - so I’m not sure you put your best effort into what will end up being the most important schools…if that makese sense.

Go for Smith and the others - but these are your most important in my opinion. Oh, a “reasonable” reach might be Connecticut College.

Hope that helps.

Good luck.

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I really just want to not be in the south. URI and Drexel, though both large, are important to me for different reasons. I have family in both Philadelphia and Rhode Island (albeit, not where URI is), but they are both colleges I have ties to and know enough about to be okay with going there. I don’t care too much about urban/suburban/rural, though I wouldn’t want somewhere so incredibly rural like Kenyon, for example. I have a ton of interest at both AU and GW, so that base is also covered. I really truly am being optimistic because I know the explanations for my GPA, and the rest of my application is pretty good imo. I don’t want to apply to a bunch of schools I hate just because I’ll probably get in and call it a day. I did 2 years in a college prep day school as well, so my course rigor has been pretty high throughout. My college counselor is pretty confident that I’m okay in terms of most of my targets, but oddly wants me to ED to vassar. So, yeah :slight_smile: I’m just looking for outside perspectives tbh

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If you have interest in Philly, than - based on your list, in my opinion, Ursinus would be a better choice than Drexel and a bit further out - ok more than a bit but Susquehanna too - since you don’t care about rural. And Washington College in MD.

If Drexel is important because of Philly, then you have other choices. If it’s important because it’s Drexel, that’s different - but it doesn’t fit your major or overall list.

Wheaton - not far from Providence, might be a better fit - or at least it matches your list better than URI. And Conn College, a reach, isn’t far from RI.

Given your major, the pedigree likely isn’t going to matter much outcome wise - all these schools are solid.

Best of luck.

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Second the suggestions above about checking out Hampshire, Kalamazoo, Beloit.

Would add a STRONG suggestion for Bard College. Also check out Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and what do you think about west coast schools? Reed College?

For me, the common thread for all of these: excellent liberal arts, strong humanities focus possible, not as crazy rejective as the Vassar’s of the world, and would be real possibilities for a bright person with your record.

Good luck! I believe that you’ll have lots of options.

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Since you included Stony Brook, if SUNYs are affordable, but you prefer more LAC and similar type of colleges, perhaps consider SUNY’s LAC campus at Geneseo. Some other public LACs can be found at Member Institutions .

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I have bard. Mom doesn’t want me on west coast

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My mom doesn’t like the SUNYs aside from SBU which was a long way to get her to agree to unfortunately