I was a terrible kid freshman year after my dad passed away in 2013 and I made a 1.7 GPA. After my freshman year i realized my dad wouldn’t want me to be like this so I started to take it seriously sophomore year and raised it up to a 2.6. In my junior year I decided to try out some ap classes and 1 duel credit english class and I thought it was decent and joined a few clubs which are Chinese Honor Society, Interactive club ( volunteering), Skills USA - Graphic design, Chinese club, and I was also in marching band freshman year. After my Junior year my GPA is now a 2.935 and I will apply to the university of Houston somewhere in January whenever their applications opened. I made a 18 on my act because I really was busy and just wanted to see what I would have made on it without studying ( which was a terrible mistake ) right now I am going into my senior year and taking a lot of ap classes and I am also studying for the ACT I have in September to raise it up ( In order to get into the University of Houston’s business accounting program I need a 28). If i also join a few clubs senior year, write a resume, and write a really deep essay about how my dad passing away devastated me tragically and how it held me back from my education. Is there any god given chance I can make it? thank you for taking your time to read this.
What’s your rank? UH is a little more competitive than it used to be. Their 25th-75th ACT range is 23-28, so you would be on the extreme low end of that with an 18. Also, ~90% of incoming students were in the top half of their class. If you’re at a competitive school in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, or Austin, then a 2.9 probably isn’t going to put you in a great spot in terms of class rank. Coupled with your 18 on the ACT, it’s going to be a reach right now.
I would recommend a year or two at a CC then trying to transfer (HCC is perfect if you live in Houston). Once you have college grades, none of the public universities in Texas will care about your High school record or your standardized test scores. With your current upward trajectory it seems you’re getting better at school as it progresses; so, if you can continue this trend into college and really put in the work for a year or so at a CC, you could end up at an even better school than UH (UT, A&M, etc.). I personally took this route after dropping out of high school my senior year and getting a GED after a few “gap years”. Went to HCC for 2 years and ended up getting in to UT as a transfer, which would have been utterly impossible with my high school grades. I had ~3.9 GPA from HCC and got into all three schools I applied to (UH, A&M, and UT). It wasn’t easy getting that high of a GPA, but if you work really hard and focus entirely on school then I would think you would be able to get into UH at the very least.
Edit: Additionally, that essay topic might not be the best one. You can definitely write about your fathers death, but you want to frame it in a way that shows you in a positive light. For instance, if you just write about how your father died, and that it tanked your grades, that might be a bit of a red flag for admissions. You might want to consider writing about how it effected you in a positive way. For instance, how it made you realize how important education is, etc. Colleges really want people who learn from life experiences. You don’t want your college essay to just seem like you’re making excuses for your grades; that’s really not what admissions essays are for.
I am in the second quarter and top 50% and I cant go to a CC because it will ruin my chances into getting into a big 4 accounting firm and I really need to stay at a 4 year college that has college fair which is the problem
UH would probably be a reach, due to your scores. I’m not sure what part of Houston you’re in (we know how huge the greater houston area is), but you could apply to UH-Clear Lake. They have a business accounting program. You could also try Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Prairie View A&M (this is a historically black college)
@Austin1998 Where did you hear that going to a CC will ruin your chances at an accounting firm? I don’t know a lot about the Big 4, but that sounds like utter nonsense. People who go to CC’s transfer to Ivy league schools, end up going to top 3 law schools, med schools, top rated PhD programs, etc. I doubt that if you got extremely good grades at CC, then transferred to UT (one of the top accounting programs in the country), that you would have major issues getting into an accounting firm as long as your grades were comparable to your classmates. I would guess the Big 4 would prefer CC —> top ranked accounting program with stellar grades > straight to a mid-tier 4 year college. High school students tend to have a skewed perspective on CC’s and whether going to one effects your job prospects. The vast majority of the time, it has no effect whatsoever. The only case I’ve ever seen where CC transfers were at a disadvantage is in competitive IB, but you’re pretty much going to be screwed there anyways if you didn’t go to a top 20ish school.