Alright so I’m new here and only made a thread once in the spring so please bear with me and be understanding.
I’m a senior in high school, well was. And here’s why I say was: I was wrongfully expelled from school over my attendance. How exactly? Well I attend(ed) online school through connections academy. I chose online school because it worked best with my hectic schedule and my attendance. I have family emergencies a lot and I run back and forth traveling to visit sick relatives or attending funerals or dealing with my own personal health because it’s all very stressful and what not. So this school year, I was placed on academic probation because of my attendance. This major issue I face with the online school is that the staff (teachers, counselors, principals, even attendance coordinators and the school director) are HORRIBLE at contacting me back. And I don’t mean take a week to respond and apologize for taking to long, but they never, ever respond to any emails and phone calls. It’s so frustrating and it’s caused me to fails classes and that’s why I was placed on academic probation. So I was on a contract that stayed for me to attend live lessons Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday’s, all for first semester and I have to complete at least one assignment between the hours of 9am-12pm. Well this is easy and I managed to do that. But again because I have a hectic schedule and I’m constantly turning around for family emergencies (like this past weekend my uncle unexpectedly passed away and now I have to not only attend the funeral but cope with the fact he’s gone and deal with all this school drama an de SATs and college stuff), it causes me to miss a week of live lessons but I am still able to catch up school and even passed all of my blocked courses with A’s. A major improvement from my past two years. I kept getting marked unexcused even though I had valid reasons for my absences and instead of contacting me they just wrote me up. I did contact them through email and phone calls and to this day, nothing at all in return. I am so stressed out and don’t know what to do. I did contact them explaining that I had excuses for my absences but they did not acknowledge it but instead sent me their guidelines for the program stating that I was supposed to attend live lessons from 9am-12, M, Tu, &Th.
Alright enough of the back story. My questions are: Where do I go from here? What do I tell colleges I am already applying to? Is there anything that I can legally do if they continue to not acknowledge me?
I do not know how to handle the issue and neither does my mother. She is already struggling with the loss of her brother, now we have to fight this and I know it angers her just as much as it angers me because this is my transcript. I really don’t want to just drop out and get my GED. I had a plan to get into my dream school (MIT yeah I know it’s a long shot) by acknowledging my schedule and my grades since I had emergencies and on top of that I worked a full time job to bring in income for myself because my mother could not afford to buy my basic needs. All of her income goes toward bills and groceries. I volunteered not because I had to but because I wanted to. It was for the children’s museum and I try to go once a week but once a month it I truly have no time. I played community sports with college and other high schoolers on weekends and like any teenager, tried to manage a social life. I quit my job before summer 17 started and have been devoted to my studies and focusing on SATs. I even had my grades up and was ahead of my schedule by completing work that was not due until December.
I also scheduled an interview for MIT and have yet to attend that meeting so do I go or do I cancel? I already had a slim chance at getting in and now I know I’m really not getting a shot because of this. And I do want to come off as whiny and I know this post isn’t helping but I really really need help. What should I do? If there is anyone that can give understanding and sound advice that would be helpful. And if there is still any chance at a school like MIT advice is very welcome.
Thanks for keeping up with my rant and for the possible advice soon to follow. Hope you all have a wonderful day.
You need to convince your mother to help you communicate with your school. Sometimes parents get listened to when kids aren’t.
Is your mom getting any help from social services? Is there a guidance counselor at your old public school who can help you connect with something like that? It might be worth it to you to try to re-enroll in a regular high school.
What state do you live in, and how old are you? In Maryland, you would need to be in school somewhere until you are 18. You would be ineligible for a GED program here until then. Someone in your public school district will know what the rules are where you live.
My mother is very involved with my school and contacts them just as much as I do and still nothing. They ignore her too. Actually yesterday when we received the phone call from my principal, the name said unknown and there was no number and neither did she leave the number at the end of her voicemail. I had to google her name to get the school email and just an hour ago I called the Connections Academy number so they could give me the number to my principal and assistant principal.
My mother’s salary is between $40-50K. I don’t believe we are eligible for assistance. We live in Atlanta and rent here is really high. She works non profit and I know it’s not stable because she comes home talking about how they lay people off every other month. They’re actually about to lay people off this month so I hope she doesn’t get cut.
I’m only 17 and I looked it up and you are correct, Georgia is a state where the minimum age is 18. My local high school is actually a high school I attended my freshman year and they cannot help anyone who is not enrolled in the school. I would enroll back into that school but because of my attendance and family emergencies an the fact I’m so far behind in credits I’d just be forced to be held back. With the online school I only had a couple of courses I needed to complete and I would have been on track. And as I mentioned earlier, I had classes where I was caught up all te way into December so going back I would be relearning the same thing instead of fast tracking and trying to catch up credits. But if I ultimately have to I will re enroll.
So… I’m going to say, I think you aren’t going to get into MIT. You can go to the interview, but I think it isn’t happening. But I think you know that.
Here are your choices:
Get the online school to relent. But it sounds like a school with a lot of problems, and you have used up your chances on your side – you may or may not ever finish there.
Go back to regular HS, and do what you have to in order to finish. That seems unattractive, too.
Study for and complete your GED. Then enroll in a community college for 2 years. Prove yourself in the classroom (you need to attend and perform), then transfer to either an in-state 4 year school, or a higher ranked school that meets need IF you can knock your performance out of the park at CC.
I think you need to consider your priorities. I suspect that SOME of the things you’ve considered emergencies haven’t been. So when real emergencies came, your school was pretty unforgiving. One of the best things you can do for your mom and your family is to finish your degree and get a decent job so you can help them out more as needed. Keep your eye on the prize.
It’s October and almost November and I must be enrolled in school. Going back to regular school will be really complicated and harmful because I would be very confused by the different curriculum being taught and it’s a great deal of stress on it’s own.
The emergencies were very real and not mandatory. They were either funeral or surgeries. The problem wasn’t that I was traveling, the problem was my live lesson schedule. They expected me to complete lessons in that 3 hour time frame and did not care if I had a funeral to attend or a doctors appointment. These were to be counted as excused absences but they were not. How can one possibly be unexcused but still maintain good up to date grades?
I know it’s a long shot going to MIT but I am a very bright student and do well with exams. I’ve been studying since the summer and am expected to score really high on the tests. I have no doubt my scores will come back extremely well so I was going to let that along with my reasoning for attendance issues to be my excuse for my GPA. I was not going to focus on the negative but rather shine light on the positive and write about what I’ve learned and how the stressful experience has shaped me and how I got over the obstacles. It sounds like a very good plan to me but then again it may just be me. I couldn’t live with myself if I just quit without trying. I’m thinking maybe talk to an advisor who works there for solutions to my problems but idk if that’s a good idea. But I do have back up schools and wouldn’t be despised if I got a rejection letter because at least I tried.
It doesn’t matter how high your scores are. You haven’t proven yourself in the classroom is the bottom line. You are reaching for one of the top 10 colleges in the country out of thousands, with no evidence other than “maybe high test scores” – which wouldn’t be enough even if they are perfect scores. Quite a few students with perfect scores and very good transcripts & EC accomplishments get turned away from those schools every year. Your expectations are just unrealistic. You can shine all the light you want on the positive, but these schools have an overabundance of highly qualified candidates to choose from.
You have to be reliable and perform consistently well in the classroom to get through a degree at any school. Past performance usually projects future performance fairly well, and colleges know that. I assume your back up schools also won’t accept you without at least the GED in hand, either.
We often see student out here trying to vault from a really unfortunate high school experience and record to top echelon schools. The name of the game to succeed in life is more consistent effort and progress. You have to take small steps to reach your goals. You can’t get derailed by every family emergency. If it is your parent or your sib, then there is an excuse to an extent. But you are not the person responsible for aunts, uncles, cousins, or even grandparents – you need count on others for a while so you can secure your future. Maybe you have set an expectation that you are the one who will drop everything and rush to people’s sides when there is an problem. But you are shortchanging yourself in life if you keep doing that. Your goal should be to get through a four year degree period.
It seems you made choices, along the way. It’s hard for us to follow that every emergency was during the times you were expected at live lessons. Or that you couldn’t take your laptop.
I don’t think you quite understand that MIT and its sister tippy tops don’t make adjustments just because you faced “emergencies.” They want kids who triumph despite challenges, who problem solved and exceeded expectations.
And how would you even explain what interrupted what your school expected…and not leave them doubting your commitment to showing up at college classes?
On top of that, you need GC and teacher support for your applications.
You need a plan B. If the school takes you back, you’d have to commit to no more absences. None. Maybe extending this another year before applying is a possibility, time to carefully overcome this, have a new plan you stick to.
These are grandparents and if my mothers goes I must go. I do take my laptop with me but I think the part that is confusing to you here is that the very few times (I believe 3) where I missed a lesson was due to that emergency. There were also times where I was taking a test and wasn’t finished until 12:01 and still considered absent. Although it happened once, it just shows how strict and unrealistic their standards are.
Again I know it’s a long shot but I’m tired of being penalized for things that are not my fault. Technically speaking, I am allowed to have excused absences but my HR forces me to attend live lessons or else I’ll be marked absent. And that’s the major problem. I’m not saying I’m constantly running back and forth every other week but at least every other month. I can’t control it and my parents have to be there. The emergencies aren’t the issue, the issue is I’m being penalized because my teacher keeps marking me absent for small thing. I can’t sit here and tell you every little thing Ive been absent for but I feel like my emergencies should not be unexcused. If they were taken off I would not be in the situation.
From what I’ve done my research on the school, the look for motivation and determination. I’ve heard testimonies of students who haven’t given two craps about school and had low grade but high scores get in. As long as I know it is possible.
There’s just so much you all don’t understand and I can’t explain it all by typing because I’d be here all day. But a student being penalized for a fault that isn’t theirs is unfair. It wasn’t like I failed classes because i didn’t know the material, I failed because of lack of communication. You really need communication with online school because how else will you learn. With the few teachers who have done an outstanding job of reaching out, I’ve excelled in those classes. It was very easy and I understood everything.
Sorry… 12:01 is your fault. You knew the rules, and you didn’t finish on time. How is that “not your fault”? You wouldn’t have the HR (which I assume is like a probation plan) if you had kept to your commitments with the school earlier, too. It is like saying a football team lost a game on the last play, when in fact if they had played better earlier in the game, they never would have been in the position where the last minute heroics were needed. You have to play a steady game to finish an education. I doubt a brick and mortar school would have given you any more breaks.
And if you are 17, you don’t have to go if your mom goes – you can stay home because you have to go to school. If you are absent, you are absent, and your teachers are going to mark you down . And go look at the acceptance threads for MIT last year – you will NOT find students who didn’t give a crap about school, but had high scores and got in. You gotta give a crap about school to get almost any college to let you enroll, and you have to PROVE you give a crap about school before they will.
Basically what I’m saying is that I’m fully capable of attending a college like that and excelling. But the way my transcript looks, it’s as if I don’t care about school or do any work. Which is not the case. And I can’t help that. Yet I’m taking the blame for everything and I don’t know how to change that. I probably can’t. I’ve been dealt a crap hand and I’m trying to overcome that. I just don’t know how to do that or where to go. Public school will make things worse. I know the odds are all stacked against me but I can’t just let their faults wrongfully label me.
This is just really stressful and hard to explain over the internet.
@chuparchups Going to MIT is like drinking from a fire hose. If you have too much going on in your life that you cannot attend a brick and mortar high school, you need to aim for places that you can be successful at. There is always grad school.
Again you’re twisting my words. Yes 12:01 was my fault but should it really be that strict? HR is my hoom room teacher. The rules are crap and unrealistic like I said before. If my parents are gone for two weeks, I can’t stay by myself for two weeks. Or even a month. Again I’m not saying the travels are so frequent, they’ve only happened a few times. Which is why the should be excused. I think you’re forgetting it’s online school and geared to fit the students personal schedule. But it’s so strict and hard for students who have a lot on their plate.
And I’m not saying I don’t care about school and using that guy as an example, I’m just saying that there are instances where students profiles looked bad because of GPA and they’ve gotten excepted. Small chance but it’s better than impossible. They’re all about overcoming obstacles and this is a major one and if I can get past this I can do anything. I’m not applying with confidence and hoping to be the best application they’ll see but I’m trying to display my strong suits and show them “hey, I’ve been dealt a crap hand and have been through some things. I come from a school that is not very understanding and very strict and have had problems with communatibg with staff but I made it out alive and here’s how. My gpa isn’t like the others due to the lack of responsiveness but I’ve learned how to overcome it and work around it and take things into my own hands. I’ve problem solved. I’ve managed to balance multiple tragedies and still excell in my school work and test scores. I’ve learned a lot from my high school experience and I now know how to overcome the obstacles in the future if I ever face them again.” And if the school can’t be understanding and at least try to gain a perspective of what took place and rather label me based on my gpa by generalizing me, well then that’s not a school I want to represent and achieve in.
Freshman year I was 14 and still couldn’t be home alone. At least with college I’m independent and don’t really have to go along with my parents every time someone needs care. I can attend my classes like planned and truly devoted my time to my studies.
I’m incredibly sorry for all of the issues you’ve dealt with. Others have given you their advice and opinions but it doesn’t seem to be what you want to hear. Have you considered calling or visiting the admission officers directly or looking up the common data sets for the schools you are interested in? Hearing it from the horse’s mouth might be helpful. I’ve seen high school students struggle with all kinds of bad stuff that was outside of their control. Some of these students had a hard time accepting that there were consequences for how they or their families handled their schooling. Some found themselves without a h.s. degree because of it. A few of these students chose to get out from under their families, got their GED, went off to community college and kicked butt. Their CC transcripts proved to AOs that they could handle college work…and they transferred to some big universities. You have to prove it ON PAPER. If your character is as strong as your words are in this thread, I have no doubt that you will be successful.
With my state, you must be enrolled at all times or my parent will face jail time. Unles I officially state I dropped out of school, I must go to school. I understand what everyone is say and I truly get it and appreciate it but I can’t just sit and do nothing. It’ll just make things worse. I’m definitely going to explore public school if all else fails but I’d have to figure out a way to work through that so the curriculum won’t be stressful and i won’t have more attendance issues.
I have the emails and contact of other teachers who have praised me for my work. I have to focus on where I’m going to school first before I think about letter of recommendation. I think that’s more important.