Hi,
Before I ask my question ill provide a bit of insight. I am a senior in highschool and will begin applying to colleges in a few months. Ive been through a lot, which let’s be honest- so have thousands of other applicants. My mother was arrested and sentenced to five years of prison time when i was 12. My father is an alcoholic and immediately shut down and stopped coming home. I was 12 raising my two younger brothers- 5 and 2. I was battling depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, and self harm tendencies along with all of this. Long story short i was admitted to three different physciactric hospitals. My dad ended up dropping me off at a homeless shelter with nothing but the clothes i was wearing. From there i was picked up by mother’s father and moved to south florida to live there. Months later I was raped. I moved around a lot- three highschools. Later, i lost 5 of my friends in a school shooting. Im not telling you this as an excuse; I just want to provide insight. My head has never been in the greatest of places academically speaking. When i moved to my current school in 10th grade i had a 1.6 gpa. Now, my gpa is a 3.0w and hopefully will be at least a 3.2-3.3 when i begin applying. My current SAT is a 1350. But im scheduled to take it twice again before applications. Ive taken most honors and some ap classes ( Ap us hist+ ap lang). Next year Im taking Ap gov and econ, ap lit, ap psych.
I live in Florida.
I know my stats make me hard to want in the eyes of colleges. My dream school is USF but I know how competitive it gets and my chances are inexplicably low. What are the chance i can get into a good, four year school? I want to eventually go on to get a PhD. I would like to stay in state for finance reasons. As i said, USF is the dream but UCF, UNF, etc, are all options as well.
Well considering what you’ve been though, I think you are doing great!
My instinct is to tell you to do some research into a Posse scholarship. It’s not race or income based, but they might be sympathetic to your background and history.
What are you interested in studying?
Honestly you’ve been through so much you should use that as a strength and tell your story to college admins, and I’m sure that’d be an essay topic if you would want to talk about your life (which is personal and you may not want to).