College Admissions Advice

Applying to College
1

Hey all.
So right now I’m a senior in high school, and I need some advice on admissions. So my issue is that my rank and GPA suffered throughout high school, a feat that is very much my fault. I am leaving high school with a fairly low unweighted GPA of 2.9 and a weighted GPA of 3.6 (citing 10+ AP courses taken over my 4 years in HS). So yeah, I didn’t do so hot in terms of my grades. Here’s my current academic layout

GPA: 2.9 Unweighted, 3.6 Weighted
Class Rank: 370/900~
SAT I: 2250 (790 CR, 730 WR, 730 M)
SAT II: 750 (ENG LIT), 730 (Math II), 690 (US-H), 630 (W-H)
AP Exams: APHG (5), APUSH (5), AP ENG III (5), AP PSY (4), WHAP (3)
Senior Course Load: AP CALC AB/BC, AP US GOV, AP ENG IV, AP PHYSICS C, MACRO-ECON, VARSITY DEBATE (2016 only)
Extracurriculars/Other Activities:
Student Language Instructor at a local Saturday school (2 years)
Assistant Coach for a middle-school debate team (1 year)
Worked as an intern over the summer for two different financial consulting firms (1 summer)
Volunteer maintenance at a local YMCA for a summer (1 summer)
Amateur composer who wrote a moderately long classical solo violin piece (studied at a musical institute for 7 months)
Member of the varsity competition orchestra that went to a national orchestral competition in early 2015
My school’s robotics team (1 year)
Technology Student Association (2 years)
Junior Classical League (1 year)
District and Region Orchestra for 1 year
3rd at a State Circuit Varsity debate tournament (joined debate 12th grade)
Currently in the process of filing 2 US patents for two products I’ve invented with a friend

Talents:
Classical Musician (Violin and Piano) w/ ability to compose, transcribe and arrange (hobby of mine since my sophomore year)
Multilingual (Other than my native English, I know Korean fluently, and Japanese and Chinese rudimentarily, I also studied Latin, but you don’t speak Latin)
Reasonable experience in C/C++ and HTML/CSS
Solid background in most A/V and graphic design software (Entirety of Adobe Creative Cloud, Video Editing, Animation, Sound Editing/Mixing applications)

So there’s my sort of tangential academic record. As you can see, I did ok in testing but not really in school, which is something I’m disappointed in myself about, but there’s no use crying about my own failures now. Here’s the part where I’m really just kind of confused and scared. I’m the son of two Korean immigrants who came over here to finish their schooling and never really left. Therefore they’ve always been real stringent about my GPA and rank, which, as you can see, has been a thorn in their side for a while. I am not a stellar student, and though I’ve made attempts at it, high school in general has been a bumpy path of struggle in my AP courses, courses that I still voluntarily chose contrary to my parent’s concerns because I wanted to still participate in an AP curriculum.

I’ve had a couple life situations and health issues during the last seven or so years, starting in 6th grade when I went abroad for school in Asia, which was problematic because I didn’t fit in (barely spoke the language, didn’t fit in with the culture or the people and had to get re-adjust when I returned after 2 years back to the US) and my freshman year was actually pretty good until my dad lost his job and stayed unemployed for a year afterwards. He moved five states away for his new job, and my mom came from overseas to take care of me in my sophomore year, where after that my health issues began.

Due to a couple factors, such as stress, physical exertion and God knows what else, I began to suffer from crippling headaches that would basically just incapacitate me for some time, leading to streaks of my hair turning white (that could just be my genes) and my vision deteriorating to a point where during my headaches I was nearly blind. My mother panicked and thought I had a brain tumor and we went to the doctor where I got an MRI that disproved her fear, but I was put on medication for inflammation and some other neurological issues. About 5 months later I suffered an accident where I did severe damage to my shoulder and ankle, tearing muscles and tendons in my ankle and shoulder, leaving me with a limp (that turns into a nonfunctional leg if I even jog for an extended period) and a damaged shoulder (I can no longer lift heavy weights nor move my shoulder freely without impediment)(these injuries ended my chances of ever being on a decent soccer team which is why I didn’t bother putting it in my extra-curriculars). I am attempting to remedy this stress (my headaches, though now less frequent, still occur and affect my vision, which has still been steadily deteriorating, probably in combination with my genetics and my headaches) and my injuries through doing physical therapy and yoga. But enough with the sob story.

This has been my life from around sixth grade onwards and I just wanted to know how I could put this into an essay, because I want to write two essays, one on my life and how it’s been, and one on my dream, which is becoming a lawyer and working for the UN to close the gap in Korean-Japanese relations. And of course the long-delayed question of how my chances at colleges are going to be, with these factors. I am fairly varied in terms of experiences and curricula, and am curious as to collegiate admissions. I’ve been doing my applications and essays alone, since I also have mostly lived a solitary life since the second semester of my junior year (my father lives four states away and doesn’t really visit, and my mother is on business trips a lot) so I would appreciate any assistance. I harbored dreams of attending a high ranked university, but right now, I’m not so sure.

(sorry for that giant wall of text, I’m not the most effective writer)

But anyways, enough of that, I appreciate any and all feedback! :smiley:

Cheers to everyone!

2

Paragraph breaks would make this much more readable. And the title doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the post. I just read through trying to figure out – what is your question? I didn’t see a list of colleges, your home state, or your financial situation.

3

Yeah I realized that my title was really bad after I posted it. My question was how much of an issue will I have applying with my less-than-average grades in school, my standardized test scores, and my other life factors in general. I’m kind of lost since I’ve been wading through this myself and just wanted some general advice.

4

It depends on the school. What is your list of target schools, home state, and financial situation? No one can give much advice without that info.

5

My home state is Texas, and as of right now, my target schools are:

(Regular Admissions)
Possible Extreme Reach
Dartmouth
Cornell
Brown
Columbia
Pomona College

Reach/Regular
UT Austin
UC Irvine/Davis/San Diego
U of Washington, Seattle
Purdue
Boston University
Boston College
Occidental College
Oxford College
Syracuse

Early Decision
UIUC
Babson College
Brandeis University
Baylor University
Northeastern
SMU

Early Action I/II:
Claremont McKenna
Emory

A lot of places, I know, but this is currently what I have.

My financial situation is, both my parents work now , and combined our family income bracket is around >120,000

6

Are your parents willing to pay $60K/year of schools such as UCI/UCD/UCSD which give no financial aid for OOS students? Also you need a minimum UC GPA of 3.4 to apply to the UC’s since you are OOS, that GPA may get you into UC Riverside/Merced or Santa Cruz.

Sorry to hear about your health and including in one of your chances could have a positive impact on your chances. You should ask your parents how much they are willing to pay before you spend alot of time and money on schools that may be unaffordable.

Best of luck

7

My parents, along with the rest of my extended family have emphasized that what I should be most concerned with is getting into a good university, and not the price itself. despite my arguments against willy-nilly unconcern for the price. As the first person to attend a full US education in my entire family (my parents came over on work-study for their doctorates), my parents are extremely for with me applying to these schools. I did protest to them about the costs of attending an OOS, especially these private ones, but as of right now, my family apparently has figured out a way to pay my way through college as long as I get in, though they really won’t tell me how.

I’m slightly confused of the minimum UC GPA meaning of 3.4. Does that mean I cannot apply to UCI/UCD/UCSD?

8

What are your parents willing to pay for college? You are in the donut hole - income high enough that you will get minimal aid from most schools. You need to run the net price calculator for the schools on your list to see what is affordable. You can find that on the website of each college. The out of state publics (like UCs, Purdue, UWashington) are going to be expensive and offer you little or no aid.

Going to be honest, with a 2.9 GPA, your odds are very, very low at your reaches and CMC. I also think UT is unlikely for the same reason. UIUC as well.

You need to start with finding one or two safeties. I don’t see a single safety on your list – they are schools you KNOW you can get into and can afford. Often those are in-state public schools. I’d start with those, then expand your list to 8-10 schools. That 2.9 is going to be a challenge. If you have a huge upward trend, that helps with some of the schools on your list (but still probably not with the top ones).

You need to learn the difference between Early Action and Early Decision. It looks like you were thinking Early DECISION to CMC, and ED II to Emory if you are rejected from CMC. ED is binding – you must attend if you are accepted.

Then you have a list of Early ACTION schools. Those are not binding if you are accepted.

In summary, your list is too long and reach heavy. Remember that you have to pay application fees, to send test scores, and in some cases to send the CSS Profile.

Regarding essays, if there are legitimate health or family reasons for your low grades, you can ask if your guidance counselor will mention them in their recommendation. It is really hard to put it in your own essay without sounding like you are making excuses, and that doesn’t usually sway admissions. You should write to the topic(s) that the Common App and supplemental essays ask for. I wouldn’t focus fully on your career goals, either – they are really trying to get a measure of you as a person, and figure out if you are someone they want to have on campus. Keep that in mind as you write.

9

Thanks for the advice. Looks like I need to re-edit my list and keep your points in mind as I write my essays.

My parents are a kind of an unknown for what they’re willing to pay, as both of them have just been repeatedly telling me every time I’ve asked not to concern myself with money and just concentrate on getting into schools.

I am somewhat aware of the difference between the binding Early Decision and the non-binding Early Action, which is why I had put down ED first round to CMC and ED 2nd round to Emory, along with my other other EA schools (wherever they’re offered)

I did think and research some other safeties during this time, which I will replace with some of my reach schools. My current safeties, in accordance are,

Texas A & M at College Station
Texas Tech
UT Arlington
UT Dallas
U of Houston
UNT

10

You need to sit down with your parents and show them the net price calculators on each college website. They probably don’t know that you can get an idea of what aid you likely to get by using these calculators. They may also not know that you are applying to many schools that cost over $50,000 per year, that you are looking at spending well over $1,000 on fees to apply, and that you can only take out a loan yourself for $5,500 freshman year.

So set up your laptop on the kitchen table or bring them to your desktop, and ask them to sit with you to run some of the calculators. They will need recent tax returns and an idea of the balances in any bank or asset accounts. It likely will help you reduce your list to a more manageable size. With less than five minutes of work per school once you get going, you can save $50-$75 in application fees to schools that would be unaffordable. Not to mention your time completing their supplemental essays, etc.

Don’t forget that you have to do financial aid paperwork for all the schools, too. In addition to FAFSA and sometimes the CSS Profile, you have to send tax returns to all of them. And they aren’t consistent on due dates or how they want the tax returns sent to them (some use iDoc, some want paper in the mail, some will accept fax, some will accept a .pdf). So a long list of schools is a headache in terms of FA paperwork.

11

I will definitely do that the next time my parents come visit me, looks like I was kind of right in worrying about the pricing for each school. I’ve completed a lot of the supplemental essays ( I had my CMC alumn English teacher who also used to work at CMC admissions help me with this, which is another reason why I wanted to apply to CMC, on her encouragement and my own match with it), but if I can narrow down my choices, that would be awesome.

I really appreciate your advice. Thanks!

12

What do you mean, next time your parents come to visit? I know you mentioned your dad lives a few states away. Don’t you live with your mom? Also, to confirm, you are a US citizen and your parents are married, is that correct?

13

I live with my mother, but she is almost always away on business, she’s here maybe 1/3 of every month. I am a US permanent resident and yes my parents are married.

14

The UC’s have a specific calculation for their GPA: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

You need your grades from the UC a-g course requirements from 10-11th grade and plug them into the calculator.

http://www.ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/

You get extra honors points for AP/IB or DE courses taken in 10-11th grade but no honors classes since you are OOS. You need a capped weighted UC GPA of 3.4 to apply or your application will not be considered. You also need to meet the minimum a-g courses required.

Also meant to say you need to address your health issues in one of your essays to explain your GPA.

15

Does your school have Naviance? Agree you need matches and safeties, and that may help you pin those down.

16

@kereljones You are in Texas, so you have a bunch of decent safeties, where you will get admitted to with in-state tuition.
I would consider most of the Universities except UT, and A&M, very good matches or safeties from a state school perspective.

Hopefully you have already applied to the Texas schools. My advice to you would be to go to one of these schools and then do very well in your first year and try for a transfer. Consider taking UT’s CAP offer if you don’t get in. That way you can get into UT for your second year. Your best bet at getting into a competitive school is to spend a year at a less competitive school, get your first year grades really high and then apply.

If you are ready to throw money at some schools from an application perspective and willing to face the rejections, then by all means go for your reaches. My guess is the probability of success is low, specially since you are Asian. There is very little love in competitive schools for Asians whose grades are not stellar.

17

Some of the nearby SEC schools may work for you too. LSU has some scholarships available with your higher test scores. Also look at Alabama.

18

I suggest you look at the schools in ‘colleges that change lives’. google it and search for it here on cc. some of these may be good matches for you.

As for schools already mentioned:

  • you should be an auto-admit at Texas Tech
  • you are ‘close’ to auto-admit at A&M, but you are outside the 1st quarter, but you’d probably get in
  • you are ‘close’ to auto-admit at LSU too, need a 3.0. again you’d likely get in.
    (look at those schools’ admissions info to see details, or just contact their admissions folks to ask directly)

you don’t need a gazillion safeties, just one or two that you would be willing to attend come next year.

Since you’re in Texas, I agree about the CAP suggestion above (would include all UT system schools). You could even consider the community college route and transfer after a few years (esp to A&M). Not sure if you need to apply to UT and get offered CAP or if you can just matriculate to another UT school and then declare CAP. You should look into it. If you need to apply to UT and get offered CAP, that might be more of a ‘reach’ since they value rank so much.

I also suggest you add a few Texas privates to your list.

  • Trinity University in San Antonio
  • Southwestern University outside of Austin
    You can apply EA (to both I think, for sure to Trinity) and you will likely get in both and get good scholarships to them both - thus making them comparable to state schools money-wise.

I think you’d probably get into SMU (you can do EA here too), and TCU if you include it on your list.

As for your reaches, if you have the money, why not apply. But don’t count on them.

19

I noticed you have a couple Liberal Arts Colleges on your list. If you’re interested in less-reachy LACs, many of the Colleges that Change Lives are known for accepting clearly bright kids, who, like you, didn’t necessarily get top grades.

20

So as of right now, I’m look at these schools as my Early Action/Early Decision I-II

ED I:
Claremont McKenna (interviewed)

ED II:
Emory

(spoke to my parents on the phone about this, they still want me to use ED I-II for CMC and Emory)

Early Action:
Northeastern (EA)
SMU (EA)
Baylor University (EA)
Babson (EA)

Safeties/Within Reach:
Texas Tech
UT Austin (CAP, RA)
Texas A&M College Station
UT Dallas
UT Arlington
UNT (?)
LSU (?)

Reaches/Extreme Reaches (narrowing them down more) (spoke with my parents again, they still want me to apply and I’ve already finished most of the essays for them so why not):
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown
Columbia
Pomona College
Occidental College
Oxford College
UIUC

Alternates:
Georgetown University
UBC
UCI/UCSB/UCSD
Boston College
Boston University

Looks like I did pretty bad in my GPA and rank. I had hoped my somewhat high standardized test scores, ECs and, my now 3 patents would have aided me, but darn. Do patents not really matter? I’m in the process of filing them (they’re taking a bit apparently) so I wrote em on my resume.

Also, ApplyTexas/UT applications have a category “S” essay that you can write about extenuating circumstances. Should I write my health issues/family issues there or just request my counselor to write it for me in her rec letter like @intparent said?