Colleges Taking Into Account Life Circumstances

Applying to College
1

I thought that colleges would take life circumstances into greater consideration. I know my GPA is not great but considering my circumstances, I am fairly proud of myself. Yet, after explaining everything in my essays, I was rejected by UCLA and UCSD and waitlisted by UCI and UCSC, and still haven’t heard from Cal Poly SLO :frowning: .
(I have been accepted to UH Manoa, CSU Humboldt, CSUMB, and CSULB).

Stanford has really been my goal for a long time. I thought my essays were really unique and I explained my situation. Does anyone know if Stanford has a history of accepting students who don’t have stellar GPAs but have been through some sort of hardship or something to that effect?

Stats and stuff below for reference I guess/ if you’re interested:

I have a 3.5 UW GPA and a 3.9 W GPA , 31 ACT

I go to what is considered a ‘competitive school’, I’m in the top 30%

During my freshman year, I had a 4.6 (W) and was planning to continue taking a heavy course load. However, my mother who had been battling 4th stage metastatic breast cancer for the previous 10 years of my life died a week before the start of my sophomore year. Due to my birth father abandoning us when I was 9, I had to move across California to live with my two aunts. I started school less than a week later, continuing the course load I had planned (before my mom died) including Honors Precalculus, AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, and AP World History (a HARD courseload for a sophomore at this school). I ended up getting really bad depression, to the point where I wanted to take my own life. Because of this, my 4.6 decreased. I ended up getting a D in math and B’s in my other classes. I couldn’t do anything due to my depression and my GPA has really suffered. During that time I also didn’t really do extracurricular activities. Through therapy and antidepressants, my depression has gotten a lot better, and I have brought up my grades in school.

I did swim team during my Freshman and Junior years.
I had a job during my junior year.
During the summer before my senior year, I was a paid intern at the Joint Bioenergy Institute (The Offsite Lawrence Berkeley National Labs that focuses on Biofuels) where I conducted research on bacteria found in Water Hyacinth as a potential for biofuel production.
I am the president and founder of knitting club and am the treasurer of Model United Nations at my school. I have been in MUN for 3 years.
I took Oceanography 102 at my local CC and got an A

Thanks if you took the time to read all this, the rejections are bumming me out.
I’m don’t think I’m a bad student, depression just really kicks your ass.

2

Depression sucks and with all things considered you have been doing phenomenally. I’m really proud of you. I do believe that schools look at your situation and your resilience and take it into consideration. I don’t believe though that they will accept you because of your situation before What they may consider a more qualified applicant. Anyone who applies to a highly competitive school has to assume that a denial will come. I’m not sure what you shared in your essays but there is also a possibility that you may have shared too much which could lead the colleges to believe that they may possibly have to be concerned with your mental health even if that is not the case. You have some options, good luck in choosing the perfect one for you.

3

I am sorry to hear about the loss of your mother.

The UCs are very “rack and stack” - GPA and test scores matter much more than anything. What you needed was a holistic admissions review, one that considers all parts of your application and your life circumstances. So that’s probably what went wrong there.

Stanford is holistic, however it is extraordinarily competitive. A 3.5 GPA is very low. They’ll have applicants with adverse life experiences who still have near perfect GPAs. Hope for the best, but don’t let it drain your emotional energy either.

The good news is that you have several strong choices as of now. You should feel very proud of that, as well as your other accomplishments. You will do great.