<p>I had promised myself I wouldn’t do this, but I have to ask…what do y’all think my chances are?</p>
<p>17 yr old Caucasian (Jewish) female.</p>
<p>3.2 GPA at really hard private school in Oregon.
2310 SAT: 800 Writing, 800 Reading, 710 Math
790 Lit SAT II
600 Math IIc Sat II</p>
<p>ECs:
Editor-in-Chief, school paper (junior & senior year), staff writer all 4 years
Director & assistant director, assorted school productions (including a musical)
Model United Nations, all 4 years
Intern for Congressman Earl Blumenauer
Lit mag, all 4 years
Worked for a publishing company every summer</p>
<p>My “hook”: I have juvenile diabetes and epilepsy, & have for the last 5+ years. I also have 2 books published (not self-published, but with an actual publisher) and a contract for a 3rd. Have been interviewed on nat’l TV and in newspapers, mags, & books about my writing.</p>
<p>Very, very good essay (linking diabetes & writing). Teacher recs should be strong - one from my English/Creative Writing prof (who I’ve taken classes from for the last 3 years), another from my French teacher, who has taught me all 4 years - I skipped from French 3 my junior year to French 5 (honors) my senior year. My school doesn’t offer AP or IB classes.</p>
<p>Downsides: I have only 3 years of math and 3 years of science. 4 years of history, 4.5 years of English, 4 years of French, 4 years of theater (including 1 year Honors Play Production).</p>
<p>I am what might be called unconventional. My weakest point is my grades. What do you think?</p>
<p>you are playing the pity card tooooo much . stay away from that. if i had a disease, i wouldnt even mention it except like once in the entire application. then when they see that you have epilepsy (lets say) and you still accomplished all this stuff, it will be even more impressive. you might have gone too far with the pity stuff imo</p>
<p>rob22588: The diabetes isn’t for pity (god forbid) but because I’ve had it since I was 12 and it pretty much shaped who I am and made me work harder to do the things like get books published. My essay is an overcoming-obstacles essay, not an oh-poor-me essay.</p>
<p>Also, I had a lot of trouble with my blood sugar and nearly went to the hospital a number of times during my sophomore year - thus causing me to miss assignments and not do as well in classes as I might have (rather than saying this, however, I let my college counselor say it in her recommendation).</p>
<p>The books do seem to help, though I’m not sure it’ll overcome my GPA.</p>
<p>ETA:</p>
<p>lambooo: The books are called “It’s Your Rite” (pub’d when I was 12), “Teen Dream Jobs” (pub’d when I was 14), and “The Diabetes Game” (will be pub’d this spring, not yet up on Amazon). All nonfiction.</p>
<p>nancy the british way - honestly. i know like 50 kids who have awful diabetes but they dont ask for pity through life and try to get into colleges because of it</p>
<p>good chance just do what you want to do
everything is in the eye of hte beholder, if you like what you have, then go with it, the more you listen to other ppl the more you’ll become nervous and anxious–one reason why I didn’t make a chances thread. Just remember this, ** you ** will end up in a good college, if you’re going all Ivy, you’ll definately end up in one of them :)</p>
<p>so good luck and just go on with your life, othrewise you’ll just always live in the past.</p>
<p>P.S. Diabetes is THE ****!!! one of my best friend has it and it sucks, insulin shots and all that plus he can’t do certain activities :(</p>
<p>rob22588 - not to nitpick, but you can’t have “awful” diabetes. All cases of Type I diabetes (which I have) are the same level of severity - unlike Type II, which can be curable and controllable sans needles. I also find it remarkable that you know 50 kids with diabetes yet don’t have it, while I have it and have yet to actually meet more than 15 (since only 1 in 400 kids gets Type I diabetes).</p>
<p>Back to being serious, though - there’s a difference between asking for pity and admitting that an illness has shaped your personality. My essay is about how getting diabetes can be interpreted as a good thing and how it taught me to deal with pretty much everything. I don’t mention the effect that diabetes had on my grades anywhere in my entire application; my counselor mentions it, and I have no control over what she talks about.</p>
<p>Asking for pity is whining, which I deplore.</p>
<p>Thanks to the rest of you for your input. I appreciate it - and DowJones, you’re right, I probably should’ve steered clear of starting a chances thread.</p>
<p>Your GPA is REALLY low. Your AP courseload better be really darn heavy, and you need to have scored 5’s on all or most of them. 3.2 is pretty low. But that being said, the rest of your app looks great. The books look amazing, and the illness can work in your favor (is that why you got bad grades?)…So good luck. You’re certainly not an auto-reject!!!</p>
<p>And oh yeah, you weren’t whining or asking for pity. Don’t listen to those people! They just view your illness as something they think would be good for putting on a college app. They clearly don’t know what it’s like to have those diseases.</p>
<p>No AP Classes? Well I supposed that could help you and hurt you. It helps you because it shows that your school is pretty uncompetitive, and so by applying it shows youre trying to break that mold. By the way, does your school rank? It could hurt you too, and I think you know the reason.</p>
<p>Necoon, I must say I’m very impressed by your achievements. I definitely think you have great chances to get admitted to ANY Ivy-league school you apply to, regardless of your GPA level (which is relative in your case). Wish you the best.</p>
