Chance Me? Nervous OOS Student, have a unique case.

jloomagoo
Mon, 09 Mar 2015 06:24:06 +0000

With decisions coming out in a week, I am becoming increasingly nervous (as I’m sure many of you are) about my chances at being accepted. Was wondering if anyone could look over my chances, I’m an OOS student from California (although I’ve attended two high schools, first 2 and a half years were spent in Virginia because of my single parent active-duty mom).

GPA UW: 3.65
SAT: 1890 (680 CR, 640 W, 570 M)
Class Rank: top 25%
Classes: AP Human, APUSH, AP Lang, AP Lit, AP Gov, AP Stat, Honors English 9th + 10th grade, Honors Biology, 6 years of math starting from 7th grade
ECs:
3 years student council (2 years as president, 1 year as VP),
3 years Model United Nations (1 year as Under Sec Gen, equivalent to VP; attended William & Mary conference),
2 years Link Crew Leader (mentoring program),
4 years Scholastic Bowl (Captain for both JV and Varsity),
3 years Key Club (1 year as Secretary for 500+ member chapter)

Special Circumstances: As previously stated, I moved in the middle of my Junior year due to my mom (who is an officer in the Navy, should mention that she’s a single parent/I’m an only child). In 2013, she was sexually assaulted and witnessed the event, and both of us experienced some minor depression/PTSD issues from the experience. I had a minor drop in grades, nothing too severe, just one C in gym and 2 B’s in elective classes (art and history elective). We moved a month later due to victim relocation rights, and settled in sunny San Diego. Transitioning grades to the school was hard, and they forced me to retake the first semester of my AP classes at the time online because I only had an exit grade, not an official grade on my transcript (went from a block schedule to a year round schedule, they did things a lot differently) but did receive A’s in both online AP classes (APUSH and AP Lang). Wrote about it in the special circumstances portion.

Personal Statement: Described what it’s like being a navy brat and moving schools every 3 years, previously lived overseas for 4 years so mentioned that, how I developed my identity amongst my changing surroundings and an absent parent, etc etc.

Will my special circumstances help me? I’m ranked relatively low at my school, but it’s also due to the different grading scale at my new school vs my old one. I have taken 4 honors classes (and received A’s in them) but they were not weighted, as compared to my new school who does weight honors classes (but did not weight mine, honoring my old school’s grading scale). Will having to retake my AP classes online for a semester effect me negatively?