I guess this would be asking for chances/ advice.

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
1

<p>Before I continue, I would like to point out that Harvard is not the only college that I’m interested in. There are many great schools out there that I have yet to find (new to searching up colleges and everything), but I just want to know if it is even possible that I may have a slight chance to shoot for one of the best (and oldest) universities in this country. Also, I have no idea if that is the right campus environment for me (given that I haven’t gotten much from research), so any personal advice would be nice. </p>

<p>I am a special education student. I have severe ADHD, acute dyslexia, PTSD. I had depression due to traumatic events that occurred in my childhood in the beginning of freshman year, but I overcame it because I did not want such things to take over my life. I was diagnosed with all of the above, and was initially believed to be autistic in grade school. However, I can safely say that I’ve trumped all of the above by working very hard. I do not even fidget anymore, and I’ve started to read visually much better. </p>

<p>My academic statistics are frankly, not very good. I am a year ahead in math and Spanish, despite math being my worst subject. And by worst, I flounder like a Goldeen out of water whenever it comes to learning a new theory. My first semester of freshman year was chaotic, due to my family environment. I was removed temporarily from my home due to suspicion of child abuse. I kicked off the year with a big, fat C in Algebra 2 Honors, which could have easily been a D. I managed to at least get a 3.5 unweighted GPA, taking all honors classes except for Spanish 2. </p>

<p>Sophomore year, after convincing social services that it would be a great stressor to be permanently taken away from my family (we have ups and downs, but family’s the most important thing to me), my great-grandmother’s Alzheimer’s was getting out of hand. We could not find a caretaker suitable for her standards, and I ended up taking care of her several times during the week. She had become somewhat angry and aggressive at times, but couldn’t sustain any physical damage on anyone, since at 94, you’re no strongman. My Pre-Calculus grade for the first semester was a solid C, and everything else was a B, excluding Science Research and English Honors. My GPA for that semester was a measly 3.2 GPA.</p>

<p>Around this time, I started mentally breaking down. It was a pitiful stage for me. It was so hard to study anything, because I couldn’t retain information, constantly confused words and numbers, forgot everything, and had no organizational skills. Next semester, I decided to turn everything around. I started a club at school to promote self-expression through the arts, and helping out kids with my same disabilities (only, probably worse.) It was a nice club, kind of like a small family in a sense. I just did it for one semester. I wish I could do it again, but I poured far too much time and money that I could spend.</p>

<p>Needless to say, second semester of sophomore year was a blast. I got a solid 4.0 unweighted GPA for the first time. And actually, I did again in junior year.</p>

<p>Now as a junior, my SAT score is a nice 2200. I’m shooting for it again, but I think I did the best I could do, quite frankly. My grades are all high A’s at the moment and I recently won a nice prize in the community science fair for my Microbiology work.
Here is my course load junior year:
English 3 Honors
Studio Art 2 AP
Music Theory AP
Chemistry AP
Regular Calculus
Scientific Research
Spanish 4
Varsity Tennis</p>

<p>My course load for senior year is as follows:
English 4 AP
Spanish 4 AP
Physics C AP
Calculus BC AP
Science Research
Varsity Tennis
Digital Animation 2 </p>

<p>Now for EC’s/awards/interests I do to get a bit more understanding: Independent Scientific Research, tennis (ranked in the top 200’s for state), student tutor (Biology Honors, Physics Regular, and Pre-Calculus), volunteer at the local city hospital, literary publication, medical practice extern, journalism (known for the person who writes the weird stuff in the school’s newspaper), several published poems (eh, they were about insect transformations, like Kafka-esque stuff) in literary magazines, piano for 13 years, musical composition, won small awards for original composition and a Impressionistic music competition, write comedy based stage plays for leisure, mixed martial arts, National Honors Society in Science and Art, and I attend a writing program in Iowa every summer. </p>

<p>All I can do now is see what happens. I’m just working hard for the sake of it, but I tend to have lots of lazy days. My relationship with my family has drastically improved, and nowadays, I’ve just overcome my academic disabilities with faith in my family and me, lots of focus, and getting some sleep for once, but any advice to any college I can check out/ my chances/ anything, I’ll be glad to listen to it. Lately, my family’s been more open to providing financially pay to the activities I want to invest time in. </p>

<p>Dunno if this helps, but three of my cousins went to Harvard, and they liked it. They talk about it lots, so that’s how I heard of Harvard. </p>

<p>Other colleges of interest: UPENN, Oregon State, Boston University, Cambridge, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Bryn Mawr, Amherst, Williams College, and Dartmouth.</p>

<p>Gee, I hope nobody got too bored reading this. Advice is great, and thank you for getting to the end of this. I type too much, quite frankly.</p>

2

<p>You are an extremely impressive person, and at least some good colleges will be over the moon excited to have you. I’m not sure you’re an impressive enough student for Harvard, although your extracurricular achievements do help make that case. (That is not a “no you are not,” it’s that I actually don’t know. Advice on how to increase those odds follow later.) The degree to which you turned things around certainly suggests that it is at least worth your while to apply. </p>

<p>A few thoughts on your college list. I’m glad to see a women’s college on it, because, as far as I can tell, the quality of instruction, opportunities provided, and of your fellow students is very high compared to how difficult it is to be admitted. (For example, it’s quite a bit easier to get into Barnard than Columbia, its sibling school, but I would be dubious if you told me that the education etc. are much less good at Barnard.) Despite being at Harvard, I do have a soft spot for women’s colleges. Had I made a couple life decisions differently, I would probably have liked to end up at one. Where do you live? Is Oregon State your in-state school? If so, yay, not neglecting one’s own state college. (Having gone to workshops at Iowa, is there a reason you’re excluding Iowa?) Cambridge is probably not a good idea for somebody with as diverse interests as you have: you are admitted To A Course of Study, so I think it would be difficult or impossible for you to pursue both science and writing curricularly. Also the deadline is in late September, which is a big hurdle for Americans. I do notice a big split between the colleges on your list: half of them are large and urban, some of them are in the middle of absolutely nowhere, small, and communal. You have no preference between the two types?</p>

<p>If I were you, I would also see what accommodations are available for those with disabilities; intro science classes at universities are usually very large, which can be a problem if you don’t learn well from lectures. There are ways around that, but some schools (and I don’t know which) will be able to help you more effectively than others.</p>

<p>You should do your best to get more recognition for your science research: Intel and Siemens are coming up next fall (and also the Google science fair?). Or going further in community/state science fairs. If you have eligible research, a national award would probably make it quite difficult for most places to turn you down. I think you’re borderline right now; you currently have the stats and grades to be competitive, and an impressively diverse range of interests: writing, music, tennis, science. It’s good stuff. If
I just saw your upperclassman years, though, nothing would pop as a reason you should be admitted. (I mean, I wouldn’t jump in disbelief if I heard that you were, but I certainly wouldn’t be predicting it.) The challenges that you have overcome help provide that reason, but they’re also associated with a pretty big (although completely understandable) weakening of your student record. Making that last push of achievement would, I think, raise your current status to impressive enough to counteract your earlier poor grades, leaving your struggles only as a compelling reason to admit you, not a double-edged sword. Not guaranteeing acceptance to Harvard in particular, but making you a top candidate for top schools.</p>

<p>Also make friends with your counselor and teachers. If they can really go to bat for you, confirming your story and praising your inner strength in ways you can’t praise yourself, that will help a lot. If their recommendations are vague and weak, that will hurt you a lot.</p>

<p>One last thing, which–gak, don’t want to say this–but why is Yale not on your list?</p>

<p>Sorry this has been so disorganized. All the best.</p>

3

<p>Thank you very much for the advice! Now, I apologize for my disorganization in my response. </p>

<p>How exactly is the environment at Harvard? I’m definitely considering applying since I have heard so many wonderful things about it, and they have some of the top professors in the country. I can’t help but feel as if my low grades in the beginning may end up being the reason I can’t go to a nice school. I’ve been restricted to what I can tell my counselor and teachers. A lot of my teachers do know a bit about the things I’ve gone through, and always offer assistance (though they’ve stated they can only do so much.) Also, my counselor, who is probably like a father to me told me that if I wanted to stay at my home, I ought to watch what I confide in him and others, due to occupational obligations to report anything that occurs at home that may be abuse.</p>

<p>I generally don’t have a preference for any surrounding at the moment, but I do know that Harvard has among one of the nicest campuses around. I find myself inspired at any location, whether it be a close community (which tempted me to apply for Simon’s Rock sophomore year, but my parents refused to pay for that) or an urban sort of place. Also, I don’t mind how many people there are. As long as there are a good many of interesting people I can watch out for, I think I’m content with where I am. I go to a rather large public high school, and there’s a mixture of people within it, but I find that there are many very interesting and intellectual people there. </p>

<p>As far as Harvard goes, my cousins enjoyed it, though we’re different in the sense they’re very academic based, and I’m a bit in the clouds. Suffice to say, my main strength is storytelling, and I use music and art as supplements to telling stories, but I haven’t really found a way I can channel that. The main reason why I want to go to what I’ve heard to be the best college is because I really want to broaden my horizons before I become one of the working class adults.</p>

<p>If this helps with anything, it’s been my dream to be a doctor since I was very little, because one I am not very good at doing loads of paper work, and I feel like giving back to society. </p>

<p>As far as microbiology goes, I am submitting my project to the Google Science Fair. I’m trying to actually get it done at the moment. I don’t know its strength as a project because this year, I did not have a mentor to help me out. However, I am meeting with somebody from the lab of the hospital I volunteer to get some questions answered tomorrow. I’ve always been intrigued by the resistance that certain bacteria build to antibiotics, so my projects for the past few years explored ways to counter the resistance. </p>

<p>Now, on the competitive factor of college admissions, of course, looking at the other applicants is daunting. I understand how my statistics stand against a valedictorian who has had a perfect (gradewise) run through high school and those who have strong depth in a certain activity, something that I feel a lack of. I think I spent too much time looking for my interests. My family initially did not want me to pursue a creative art unless if it was piano. Yet now, I’ve really discovered my passion for the arts. Are any of the schools I mentioned interest in have a solid arts program? </p>

<p>Yeah, I’ve actually started looking more at Yale. Before, I felt it was very law-oriented (it is) but it really is a very good college. I’ve considered it, but like Harvard and Stanford, it’s kind of the school I would shoot for and play my chances with my essays and everything and see how far it’ll take me. I do have an idea on what my essays for those schools would be, and put down as much as myself as I can down there. (Though that may be difficult and I may just end up accidentally turning my essay into some sort of story.)
Actually, I moved out of Oregon mid-freshman year, but it’s definitely a place I’d love to return to. Over here in California, I’m only semi-interested in the Cal States because I haven’t found one that I really feel strongly about, but I won’t rule any of them out. Plainly, I’m just looking for a place where I can pursue my interests in expression through creative art and my enjoyment for learning how bacteria work (which may/may not really help with my dream of being a physician), somewhere that can deliver the best education possible to broaden my intellectual horizons, and be surrounded by an inspiring campus and inspiring minds. </p>

<p>Again, thank you very much for the response. I actually did not know that about Cambridge. All I really knew was that I may be interested in studying out of the country, and that I’ve visited the place twice before. (Been to the U.K. with other relatives before.) Hopefully, my writing isn’t so out of place. My mind is somewhat jumbled from studying for finals.</p>

4

<p>Also, as far as medication goes, I have been off medication since freshman year. I used to be on some to help improve my attention span (which was pretty nonexistent the beginning of freshman year.) But I felt that the medication was posing a threat to my health after looking into what was <i>in</i> the medication, and I felt I would generate inaccurate test results, because I planned not to take medication before I went into college, for I imagined getting into a difficult school due to my grades thanks to medication, then getting off it, and not knowing what I was doing at all. And out of everything I would like to find a campus with a challenging curriculum (and personally, a bit of prestige is always nice), but somewhere I would feel that I fit.</p>

<p>Actually, I think one of the strongest bits of my application may just be my recommendation letters. I’ve become close to the faculty at my current school. They have gotten to know me very well and have really helped me out in the past. They’ve remarked that I have gone a long way since being a freshman who appeared mid-freshman year who could not use any kind of lock with numbers and rotations on it. My counselor believes I’ve overgrown my dyslexia by drilling myself to read all of the time, and I no longer feel the need to run a feel miles everytime somebody gives a lecture. </p>

<p>Eh, college admissions just make me nervous. The thought of being compared to other well-qualified candidates and bright-minded, productive intellectuals is a bit intimidating. It’s not a scare factor, but it really gets me thinking about the mess I made my freshman and beginning of sophomore year. Ah well. I guess that’s just life. I’ll try my luck at Intel/Google. I’ve never done Siemens before though. I did Google last year. This is my first year though, doing Intel. Again, thanks.</p>

5

<p>Don’t know if this helps at all, but I got into Columbia ED with quite a few issues on my plate as well. Suffered a major two year long depression as a result of PTSD from a too-long hospital stay. Those two years spanned across my sophomore to junior year. My grades were pretty terrible. I told Columbia in my common app that I suffered from depression and anxiety those two years but I got help and I am far better now. My senior year grades were phenomenal, in contrast with the past two years. You could obviously see a difference-- my grades all dipped at least fifteen points.</p>

<p>You know the extras section that everyone uses as an extension of their resume? Yeah, it’s not really for that. It’s for reasons like YOURS and MINE that need to be acknowledged.</p>

<p>What happened wasn’t your fault and Harvard isn’t going to be stupid enough to think it is. However, they need you to tell them that. Don’t just assume they know. Colleges understand we are people, too, and sometimes things happen. It’s what you do with it that counts. Looks like you’ve done a lot with it.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, despite what my parents say about how much I should put on my app, I’ll just go ahead and let them know. There isn’t such a thing as a psychic college admissions person, despite the somewhat falsified and crazy admissions myths around here.</p>

<p>Actually, that really helps a lot, because I’ve always been worried about what people even make of PTSD and depression. Thank you. Columbia in all aspects is a very good school. Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Columbia are the top choices for my school’s seniors. Well, at least their dream schools. </p>

<p>Truthfully, I dunno if any of these dream schools may be the best school for me, but I usually don’t have a problem with my surroundings. It’s great how you pulled through in the end. That’s what matters anyways. </p>

<p>And really, thanks for the advice. In the end, GPA really isn’t the important thing. Right now, it’s actually learning this stuff, getting over my ADHD, and getting my family back together again, etc. </p>

<p>Senior year might really force me into a completely different mindset, seeing the whole jump from Calc reg to BC (still really unsure about that, though, since the Calc BC teacher is notoriously difficult and becomes the banes of students’ lives), but again, all I can really do is give everything my best and see how it plays out.</p>

7

<p>Wow! For all that you’ve been through, you articulate yourself excellently. I imagine your essays will be amazing and have a true story–no one else will be able replicate it.</p>

<p>With all of the hard work you have put in and continue to put in, I think you have a chance where ever you decide to apply. </p>

<p>Best wishes for this year and during the college application process.</p>

8

<p>Going to organize this into headings of things you’ve said that you want to be addressed and then my answers, so that you can let me know if I miss something.</p>

<p>How exactly is the environment at Harvard?
Not sure what this means; do you have specific aspects you want to know about?</p>

<p>I can’t help but feel as if my low grades in the beginning may end up being the reason I can’t go to a nice school. Also, competitiveness of admissions.
I’m quite sure you’ll be able to go to a nice school; I can’t say whether it will be this one.</p>

<p>Counselors and teachers knowing circumstances
It sounds like you’re handling this perfectly, and that at least one of your recommendations (your counselor’s), will be able to really illuminate you from another perspective in a way that helps make applications successful.</p>

<p>random corollary to the above
When you’re writing your essays, make sure that at least one makes you seem like somebody with positive qualities to add to the freshman class. The distinction I’m drawing isn’t positive vs. negative, but positive vs. able to overcome negatives. The latter makes adcoms respect you and trust that you can succeed on campus. The former means the adcoms would be excited to have a chance to actually meet you/they can see you making friends and generally being interesting on campus. I don’t doubt that you can accomplish that, since I like you from your posts, but I’d just like to point it out on the off chance you’d make that mistake. As isabel said, that’s why there’s the extras section. (Although I did use the one on the CommonApp as an extension of my resume, since my extracurriculars had a format that didn’t really fit into the CommonApp’s boxes.) My own CommonApp essay had as its thesis, I think, “I like stories” or maybe “I like words” and hence a bunch of episodes in my earlier life and my current enjoyment of English and classical literature. (I share because it sounds like you’d sympathize. Love stories.) Then I discussed my health problems in the Harvard supplement’s “anything else?” section, and how overcoming them had affected me. (For clarification: never life-threatening, and I’m fine now, but it took some effort to get that way.) I don’t think that particular split is necessarily the best way, but some sort of acknowledgment of both what you’ve overcome and what you love/would love to get a chance to do in college is probably in order.</p>

<p>college surroundings
Great; I would strongly encourage you to visit before you commit anywhere (even if only to colleges that accept you), since places can have strongly different feels. I liked Williams, despite being a very please-give-me-a-city-and-large-student-body person, and loved loved LOVED Princeton on paper but walked away from a visit with it entirely crossed off my list. For now, though, nothing else to advise.</p>

<p>more head-in-clouds than cousins; art
There might be fewer head-in-the-clouds people here than at some more self-identifiedly artsy schools (Brown, perhaps? has cross-enrollment with RISD so larger artsy population), but the ones who are here can get along very nicely and I am glad that they are here. I am not sure if my friends would classify me in that category or not but I do not think I will ask them. Anyway. Different schools have different art-related strengths; I don’t think our music program is as strong as, say, Columbia’s, and it certainly tends more to theory, but our extracurricular student music groups are–if I may drop into Valley Girl–Ah-Ma-Zing. Our studio art program is not, I think, the best of the best, but I’m not sure. I think our film is rather better. Our creative writing department is, I think, very good, but sometimes criticized for being insular. I can’t help you much with the other ones…I think Brown is more artsy, and Yale is stereotyped as being more so than Harvard (although the actual difference between H and Y is probably slight).</p>

<p>Science fairs
Glad you’ve taken those steps. You’re heading in the right direction, and best of luck continuing. I can’t actually science, so my expertise probably dries up about here on this one.</p>

<p>In conclusion, good luck! Feel free to PM me if you have more specific questions at some point after this thread has died, although I’ll probably keep checking it until then.</p>

9

<p>Ah, all right, thank you for covering all of that and for all of the advice! I guess there really is nothing to lose when applying to Harvard. Whether it is among the better schools for me, I assume, lies in the hands of the adcom’s evaluation of me. </p>

<p>By environment, I’m just wondering if it’s a communal place where everyone knows one another, or the sort of school where one would only know a certain amount of people due to the vastness of the campus/ amount of students. Also, outside of school student music groups sound pretty enjoyable. (Unrelated story: during middle school, my friend and I attempted to start some sort of music group once, kind of like a performance with individual acts, and I tried to learn how to play songs on the piano blindfolded with my hands crossed, which was pretty silly because it was easier said than done. Eventually, I failed, and just played things off my free time repertoire with my eyes closed.) </p>

<p>And also, how exactly does the admissions process go? I understand it is very obscure and that the adcoms can admit whoever they want to, technically, but are grades (such as GPA) and SAT scores seen first before essays and etc, or are they seen at the same time? I’m not entirely sure which GPA would be put onto my application. Would that be the cumulative average thus far or current GPA junior year? (The latter would be preferable, but reality seems to side more with the former.) Also, I am not entirely sure if I can get my SAT score up from a 2200. I’m fairly content with it, for I feel I did well on the test, but at the same time, would taking it again to nudge it a little more up the scale help? Also, does Early Decision help at all when it comes to admissions in general? </p>

<p>Now, a few additional questions regarding summer time spent: I’ve been thinking whether to do EPGY for creative writing this summer (actually, I need to check on that, because I’m unsure if there are age limits and etc.), but is it worth it? I’m not entirely sure how EPGY works, but the college career center lady told me to check it out, along with any opportunity I have to get into creative writing more. </p>

<p>The reason I hadn’t explored anything in art despite my interests in it sooner was because my parents don’t really believe in creativity. The only thing they really supported was piano, and back then, a lot of the pieces for competitions weren’t even pieces I liked, but were impressive. However, they have begun to realize that I have a strong affinity for creative writing, so now, they’re encouraging me to really go into it. Are there any other programs (I all ready go to one in Iowa though), over the summer or easily accessible during the year that can help improve my writing in general? </p>

<p>Again, I really want to thank everyone who has given me advice of any sort, because I’ve always heard a bunch of admissions myths and etc., so for a long time, I felt as if certain aspects of my situation put me at a total disadvantage when it came to after high school. (My parents were pretty ashamed of our situation during sophomore year and pretty much thought I was a failure at that point.) Thankfully, they’ve become easier to get along with now, since they’ve really become open minded now, and help my organize things because it’s really hard to. Once more, a big thank you. Right now, I’m pretty nervous about Intel and the upcoming science fairs in general, but I hope it goes all right and my experiment ends up actually being effective (haven’t tested it yet, but it could really go either way.)</p>