During my junior I performed extremely poorly, in contrast to my freshman and sophomore year. In junior year, I got a 3.0 gpa including Cs in ap classes wheras freshman and sophomore year I got 4.0. Likewise, my sat score was a 1200 and my ap scores were 1-3s. My participation in clubs and extracurricular dropped drastically to near 0, where I was in debate club, environmental science club, robotics along with food bank volunteering before. However, they was mostly due to the relapse of my mother’s psychosis. My mother is talking and screaming to herself and made sleeping a major problem. In addition to me struggling with fatigue, my mother would never consistently put sufficient meals instead screaming away. Often I went to school with no breakfast or nothing for dinner which meant doing well in 6 APs was very difficult. The conclusion to the problems was a day where my mother broke the computer because it was watching her and trying to kill her. Where was my dad? He was the enemy of my mother’s delusions and was terrified of my mother. They would get into constant fights and he told me everything would be over quickly as her doctor appointment was coming up. He would never make food to eat or even come near me. I just begged for a new computer but he said everything would be over so soon and to just adjust by using the school computer. He was also focused on his family where there was there was flooding back home and he was sending massive amounts of money there along with his job where he would take week long job trips in other states. What was supposed to end quickly ended only in the early June 2018. When it ended, my junior year was destroyed. I worked hard to keep my grades up but I would always miss or submit late assignments in my classes and would drop my grade by a letter. ex. AP Microeconomics prj I was unable to print and hand to him within 2 days and received 0. Overall year grade dropped from 90 to 81.
Do I still have chances of top computer science colleges? Computer science will definitely be my major. In senior year, I expect to perform the same 4.0 and get sat to ~1490 and subject tests in math level 2 790 and chemistry 780+. Should I just save the money and go to University of Maine (My state School)?
I am Asian Male and these are my schools I would like to get into.
Dream School
Stanford- most job opportunities and cheap
Washington-Seattle- most job opportunities
Purdue- good job opportunities and cheaper than other public- 35k
Yale-cheap, average comp sci and no job
All 50k+ and excellent comp sci- no financial aid
Georgia Tech
University of Texas-Austin
UNC-Chapell Hill
UIUC
Univesity of Maine-Safety
Other safeties will be other public schools
Immediately go talk to your Guidance Counselor about all this. Let them know how it affected you last year and if you need further help this year. They can include information on your application in their recommendations about what was happening.
This year, set yourself for success. Don’t take 6 APs. Concentrate on the Math/CS/Science ones. It will be better to get As in 3 APs than to stress yourself out.
Most likely you won’t get into those top schools…BUT THAT IS OK. Go ahead and apply if you want. I would look for more safety/matches.
4)In the future, ,don’t try to do it alone. Use the resources of your school (either in HS or College).
So regardless of my issue during junior year and that was the reason I did so poorly, colleges will not let me in? Even if the rest of my years are stellar? Thank you for the reply.
Colleges will let you in, assuming you have some reach/safety schools which are affordable and which you want to attend. Colleges in the Yale/Stanford tier are a reach for everyone, but your story is not unique for them. Many Yale/Stanford applicants have had personal issues, but were able to overcome them with only a slight grade hiccup, if any at all. Good luck.
I’m very happy to see that your mother got treatment for her illness. That must have been traumatic to have to go through. Regarding your college applications…it’s certainly worth an application or two, but I wouldn’t expect anything magical to happen. Grades are what they are
Speaking as someone who has had some direct experience in what you and your father went through, I can say this. It’s a major illness. Treatment for these illnesses is very expensive, both in the short and long term, and it’s very likely that your parents took a large financial hit to get treatment for your mother. That being the case, it may be a lot more difficult for them to send you to an expensive private or OOS school.
As a computer professional myself, I can tell you that prestige makes almost zero difference with computers. It’s a highly employable degree with hundreds of specialties you can go into. All you need to get a good entry level tech job is a technical degree like CS or IT and some proficiency in one mainstream language, like Java, C#, SQL, etc. You could go to the University of Maine and be just fine. None of the computer professionals in my family ever went to a big name school, and we’re all making great salaries. After about 2 years, no one even asks about school anyway.
Sorry you’ve had such a rough experience. As others are saying, getting into CS at the most in-demand reach schools that you are targeting would have been a long shot even if your grades hadn’t taken a hit. Students who get into those schools and programs typically have standout EC’s and perfect test scores in addition to stellar GPA’s. Many students with no blemishes at all in their academic records are rejected. This extreme competition comes, in part, from the misconception that it is important to go to a school from this tiny handful of “top” programs. That just isn’t the case in CS. I have pointed out several times, the recent example of Harvey Mudd’s faculty hiring this year. HMC is a top CS program, and the two new professors they just hired did their undergrad at UC Riverside and UNevada Las Vegas. Excelling in CS is not about what undergrad school you go to; you can distinguish yourself at any reputable program.
It is hard to tell, so far, what your best plan should be. How much financial aid are you eligible for? You are saying that Stanford would be “cheap” so I assume you have a relatively low EFC. As a CS major, you don’t necessarily need a major engineering school. Run the Net Price Calculatorss on some high-qualify, full-need-met LAC’s where you could major in CS. Whitman, St. Olaf, Macalester, Dickinson… these schools have holistic admissions processes where your personal circumstances would get a sympathetic hearing, and there’s potential for you to get the aid you need there. A smaller, more supportive school might be nice for you after everything you’ve been through; and you could always go to Cutthroat Elite CS School Inc. for grad school.
If a larger research university with strong CS is your goal, your own flagship in Maine is certainly the most affordable and attainable option. You might also consider U of Utah, which has a terrific CS program and also provides a one-year path to residency, which could make it as affordable as staying in Maine for years 2-4. Another relatively affordable option would be U of Minnesota Morris, which is a public LAC with a good CS program and a very affordable price tag. You could graduate from there and do fine, or you could utilize the internal transfer process to move to the Twin Cities flagship campus after two years. UMinn Twin Cities is an excellent CS school and relatively affordable as OOS flagships go.
Beyond those options, it’s a little hard to say. You seem fairly sure that you can improve your test scores, but you’ll need to see how that goes. A strong SAT or ACT would be very helpful in getting colleges to look past the drop in grades.
In the meantime, definitely talk to your counselor ASAP, if he/she is not already aware of your situation. The counselor recommendation is the place where your difficult circumstances should be addressed in your college applications. Best of luck to you and your family.
As the others said, you should definitely talk to your guidance counselor. They can write about your experience in their LOR to the colleges, and that will help explain your bad year.
I think you should focus on your match or safety schools. Go ahead an apply to a dream school or two, but realize your chances aren’t looking good. The bright side is, you can probably do extremely well at the University of Maine. Don’t plan to live at home, though. You need to focus on your studies, not on your family troubles. Find peace. You won’t have to worry about “fitting in”, you’ll have confidence that you can handle the rigor of your classes, and you are not too far if your family needs you. UMaine is more likely than the private schools to give you AP credits. You might even be able to graduate early. If you focus on doing really well in undergrad, you can set a goal to attend one of your dream schools for a masters degree. Your future is very, very bright - even if it doesn’t start at Stanford or Yale.
Sorry about your situation, but try not to make excuses. You could have gone to your local library, Kinkos, or school to print out an assignment that was due.
Also a dysfunctional family life could have been reported to your state’s Child Protective Services and you could have been placed in foster care.
Somehow I don’t think that this situation will resolve itself soon. If your parent refuses to take medications while you’re in college, bad things will happen again. The extreme solution is to get an order for emancipation. Or go to a CC for 2 years, transfer, and cut all ties with your family.
I’m sure there are more complexities to this situation than were disclosed here. OP may well have been pressured not to disclose what was going on at home. And it sounds as if he was playing a pivotal role in holding things together, and may not have been able to see alternatives in the moment. It’s definitely true that the way this is presented to colleges should not be in a spirit of “making excuses,” but it’s also true that hindsight is 20:20, and a young person who feels that he must prop up and conceal a desperate situation cannot necessarily be expected to “rise above” the circumstance while in the midst of it.
Yes, some harm has been done to OP’s competitiveness as an applicant. But he will still have good options, and his potential for success in the long run is no less than it was. It sounds as if the family situation is better now. It is true that difficulties could arise again in the future. OP needs to think about what distance from home will be healthiest for him and his future. He may also want to work with his parents to put additional supports and backup plans in place, so that he will not be expected to come to the rescue if problems arise while he is in college. Now that things are not in “crisis mode” anymore, it is time to “debrief” what happened and talk about what level of responsibility for his parents’ well-being is reasonable to expect of him going forward. It would be ideal if a professional of some sort - counselor, social worker, clergy person, etc - could help to facilitate that discussion and assist OP in advocating for himself. The outcome of that process may shed further light on what an optimal level of proximity will be for him, while he is in college. (And there’s little point in emancipation when OP would likely turn 18 before that process could be completed, anyway.)
OP, I think the important thing for you is not to go to the other extreme trying to compensate for your bad year. Do well in school this year, improve your test scores, and all that, but don’t try to be Superman. You have a lot on your plate in terms of planning your transition to college, and navigating your parents’ transition to managing without you. This was not a healthy situation, and laying a foundation for healthier dynamics going forward is more important than proving you can ace six AP classes. (Which frankly is a lot under the best of circumstances.) Be kind to yourself and look for balance and boundaries, not for proof that you can push yourself to some compensatory extreme. Life is not a sprint; pace yourself and cultivate realistic options that will get you where you want to go.
Unfortunately many can come up with a story that explains poor performance but schools cant listen them all. It is what it is. I suggest you go to Maine do well for a year and then try to transfer if you feel compelled to do so.
Thank you for the replies. Since I am majoring in CS, my concern is about internships and job experience. In Maine, there is close to nothing for internships for software developers and undergraduates, wheras Seattle and California are abundant in it. I am well aware that college name is irrelevant when compared to actual degree and job experience. The paid internships I will likely get will alleviate the cost of University of Washington and other tech hub universities.
Likewise, I will be paying 40-60k for most schools such as Twin Cities and Utah along with Whitman and Dickinson.
Purdue is one of my top choices at just 35k with excellent job opportunities.
Portland, Maine was just listed as one of the fastest growing tech hubs in the US. Regardless, there are opportunities for CS interns everywhere, but the competition in Washington and California for internships is far more cutthroat.
@123jhkredgf so go to purdue…college name isnt irrelevant but CS is the one place where skill and talent can be easily proven without a degree from Stanford
You can do internships from Maine, just make sure you apply early. Kids my daughter went to school with in Florida did internships and co-ops all over the US and Europe. Many did internships for 6 month periods and took online courses if they couldn’t get back to campus for the next semester.
Yes, Minnesota-Twin Cities is around $45K/year. But Minnesota-Morris is $24K/year for OOS students, and it’s a very good public LAC with a computer science program. Transferring to Twin Cities from Morris would be an option, if grades and budget permit, but an excellent four-year education can be obtained at Morris for a very reasonable price.
Utah, I will reiterate, would allow you to convert to in-state after one year and pay the very affordable $24K/year in-state price.
You might look at some of the SUNY system schools. Stony Brook and Buffalo are both known for excellent CS, and Oswego, which is even more affordable, has a co-op program, which might alleviate some concerns about internship placements. And Geneseo is an excellent, affordable public LAC that also has CS.
Purdue is an excellent school at a relatively affordable price. Just understand that you will have to earn your place in the CS program once there. There will be “weeder” classes. If you’re prepared for that then it’s all good.
At UW-Seattle, in-state applicants are strongly advantaged for direct-admit to CS. Getting into CS for non-direct-admit students is highly, highly competitive. CS-adjacent majors such as Informatics are also highly competitive. Even if you could get into CS, your projection that internships would “relieve much of the cost” of UDub is very optimistic.
If you want opportunities in a major tech hub, consider UMass Lowell, which is an up-and-coming CS school with easy access to Boston, and a discounted New England States tuition rate.
I don’t think you have a chance at top colleges such as the ones you mentioned. I’ve seen a number of threads like this, and with all due respect, they tend to sound like excuses. I recommend you set your sights on mid-range options where you can go on to distinguish yourself. You can have a very successful life without attending a top 20 school.
If you can still afford to go out of state, Texas is the second largest tech market in the country. Your stats are a good match for Texas A&M, but you’ll need to bring the SAT score up. There’s UT-Dallas and UT-Arlington right in DFW. There’s also University of Houston. All of these are prime schools for tech jobs. Another underrated jewel is Texas State University. It’s a less competitive school that’s situated in a commutable distance exactly between Austin and San Antonio. This opens you up to two major cities for internships and job opportunities.
