<p>actually im a junior and im just thinking about colleges. so im not sure what my final gpa is and i havent taken my sat/act test yet. i really want to go to george mason though.</p>
<p>Just recently subscribed to this online: (Free, good info & articles) </p>
<p>[The</a> Financial Aid Journal](<a href=“http://www.financialaidjournal.com/]The”>http://www.financialaidjournal.com/)</p>
<p>Vacutie - My son got into Mason - and is attending in the fall - with a 3.0 GPA. They say at the info session that they’re looking for a 3.5, but they look at the whole student. He had an amazing essay and was very involved in community service, athletics and school activities all four years of HS.</p>
<p>SLUMOM - that financial aid journal sounded interesting, so I went to take a look. I thought it was a little strange that there is no mention of who writes it. I saw a reference to “efinancialaid.com” at the bottom of the page, so I went there. It looks like they sell books. </p>
<p>Here’s their marketing write-up on one of them:
“‘Tuition-Free Colleges’ gives you an in-depth look at free tuition programs for
46 prestigious colleges and universities – including 5 Ivy League elites!
Discover how YOU can go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton absolutely FREE!
Want a FREE ride to Stanford, Amherst, Columbia, Bowdoin or Wellesley?
How about attending Boston College, Penn, Trinity or Williams for FREE?
Thousands Are Eligible! Thousands of students will benefit from these free tuition programs. Get the facts – determine your eligibility NOW!”</p>
<p>Sounds pretty dicey.</p>
<p>Well, I didn’t check out the rest of it, I was most interested in the “Financial Aid Leveraging” and how it works. That article explained it pretty thoroughly. What brought me to it was a “Google” on “Financial Aid Leveraging”. Guess I will go “unsubcribe.” LOL</p>
<p>I graduated last year, class of 2009.
I decided to take a year off.
My cumulative gpa is between 2.5-3.0 & my SAT scores were HORRIBLE, I got a 1380/2400.
I had a hard time last year and now i feel like i’m SOL when it comes to college.
I do have advanced state standardized test scores in reading and writing, I don’t know if that helps me or not.
I’m from the east coast & I wanted to go to a public, midwest, out of state college but now I don’t even think it’s possible.
I didn’t play sports but I was in a lot of clubs.
I’ve only take 2 honors courses and no AP’s.
Is there any hope for me to get into a good college/university?
I screwed up big time and I know it, but I’m hoping to do something…</p>
<p>I’m not making excuses but I dealt with depression all through high school up until my senior year, and I think that really took a toll on my grades.
I could do the work but I had no motivation and I felt so disconnected from my life.</p>
<p>Any advice would be great, I came to this thread because everyone else on this board seems to be all ivy league material.
I know I’m very smart, I know I’d do extremely well in college but I just don’t know how I’ll get accepted to a good school.</p>
<p>Retro–don’t give up!
Some options to consider:</p>
<ol>
<li>Retake the SAT and take the ACT (which some kids do much better on)–put in a lot of prep time.</li>
<li>In the Midwest, while some flagships are out of reach, some may not be (Kansas?) and the nonflagships may be reachable</li>
<li>Be honest in your essay and work hard on it to make your case.</li>
<li>Look at the non-flagships in your state–name your state and folks here will give you options–and other Eastern states (why just focus on the Midwest?). And why not some private schools?</li>
<li>If it is too late for this September, take some community college courses and do your best to ace them, then transfer.</li>
<li>Talk to your old guidance counselor.</li>
</ol>
<p>Stay positive, persevere and you will end up fine. Life is a marathon, not a sprint.</p>
<p>retro-ditto what yabeyabe said. There are options for you-many of them-but probably not tier 1 schools to begin with. Truth is you can get a good education anywhere-its what you do with that opportunity that makes the difference. There are thousands of colleges out there but fewer than 100 get all of the attention.</p>
<p>Take a look at some of the good books out there-such as Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives-to broaden the repertoire of schools you are considering. </p>
<p>Go ahead and retake the SAT asap. No reason to wait on that. </p>
<p>Consider enrolling in a community college to work on improving your grades record. Many more are going to community colleges these days, at least for the first two years, to save on four year tuition costs. Others know community colleges are a good way to strenthen a weak transcript. </p>
<p>Find a way to present positively the struggles you faced and how you have grown from them.</p>
<p>Check out US News/Newsweeks list of A College for B+ students.</p>
<p>It is worth applying wherever you would like to go, but you want to be realistic about your options. You are also way behind the regular admissions cycle window so that will impact your positioning for possible acceptance for 2010-11 school year.</p>
<p>You have options. You just need to get started. Good luck~</p>
<p>RetroChic - What have you done during the last year? Were you working or taking any classes? Some of the state schools take everyone. Once you are there you can put in the time and effort to get better grades and your high school grades will be in your past. You should never give up, don’t let your past define you.</p>
<p>Retro, I would echo what others have said: Don’t give up. You have your whole life ahead of you, and you have lots of choices. When it comes to colleges, there’s practically an embarrassment of riches, once you get over the idea that only a name-brand will do. Community college in particular can be a terrific opportunity to prove yourself and put high school firmly in the past. </p>
<p>We have an adult son (considerably older than you are) with really serious issues that would make you wince if I described them. We’ve had a running dialogue now for longer than I care to think about. It goes something like this:</p>
<p>Problem boy [man]: I’ve ***ked everything up, and it’s too late to change.</p>
<p>Dad of problem boy [man]: It’s never too late to make a fresh start. </p>
<p>Problem boy [man]: Yes it is. I’m [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]. All my friends and cousins have already [gone to college, gone to law school, gone to medical school, gone to graduate school, become lawyers, become doctors, become professors]. </p>
<p>Dad of problem boy [man]: If you don’t do something today, think about how you’ll feel when you are [22, 23, etc.] and they’re [graduating from college, etc]. </p>
<p>Problem boy [man]: But it’s too late, I’ve ***ked everything up. </p>
<p>And so on. </p>
<p>Don’t let yourself fall into this trap.</p>
<p>gweeta, a songwriter friend of mine once put this line into one of her songs: “You are as young as you’re ever going to be.” I find it useful to quote it to myself when I start having thoughts like “problem boy” in your dialogue.</p>
<p>RetroChic, let me reiterate yabeyabe2’s suggestion of non-flagship state U’s (disclaimer: I work for one–in marketing no less, though my work does not involve undergrad admissions). Just because those schools are less selective than the flagships or the better-known private U’s, that doesn’t mean you can’t get an excellent education there.</p>
<p>^^ I like that way of putting it.</p>
<p>Hi guys, we are finished. S was accepted into the state flagship, into the engineering program. S likes the school, and even though we will get no financial aid, this will run way less than the privates he liked. And he really likes the school.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all the advice and encouragement I received in this thread. S is on track to go to a school that he likes and is excited about. When we started the college search we were looking at expensive private schools where he would not qualify for merit. With all the advice here I was able to steer him in a more realistic direction, and this school will be a great fit for him. He was looking for a large, diverse school, and while it is not in a city, the place is so big it is a city unto itself. I am kind of surprised he got into the engineering program.</p>
<p>I’ll be back again in force when older D is looking. I am hopeful she will not be in this thread, and we’ll probably be looking at the LACs. Thanks to you I have gained so much knowledge that will put us in a much better position in a few years.</p>
<p>Thanks again, you guys are great!</p>
<p>XXOO,</p>
<p>Martina</p>
<p>martina congratulations and cheers! A place he will be happy that is also affordable. That’s what we are ALL after. How very nice for your whole family!</p>
<p>“LOL re the calculator. My first TI was $100, too. I remember being so impressed that it could take square roots.”</p>
<p>I applied to only 4 colleges (a high reach, a low reach, and match and a safety). Applications were done by hand with a Parker fountain pen. I remember my parents buying me a manual portable Royal typewriter with its own hard case at the end of my senior year of HS to take to college. Remember the horror of those 25 page term papers when you realized you omitted an entire sentence on page 18? Nobody, not even rich kids, had phones in their dorm rooms. I spent $300 (in 1973)–an astounding amount of money for me at the time-- on an HP-35 calculator that had log functions so I could get through my college physics class. I believe it was the first commercially available calculator that did log functions. The rich kids had small black and white televisions that got the three major networks. A ritual every weeknight would be to go to the room of one of those kids to watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. LPs cost $3. You either had a turntable or a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Tuition at my private LAC was about $3000. I felt guilty that my parents had to spend that much money on me. </p>
<p>The world has definitely turned upside down since then.</p>
<p>martina: congratulations to you and your family!! please come back here next year and visit us junior parents!!!</p>
<p>Thanks rodney, I’ll still be around. Plenty of topics to check out for parents who are past the first hurdle.</p>
<p>I just dont want to be here in the fall posting in one of the ‘my child is on academic probation threads’ or ‘My freshman is going to make me a grandmother’ O_o</p>
<p>Congrats Martina!</p>
<p>Next year, you could have a full time task of answering questions about the flagship</p>
<p>Martina - Another success story - Congrads to you and your son!</p>
<p>Congrats to your son Martina! Which state do you live in? Maybe our sons will be going to the same school!</p>