Reapplying To Colleges. HELP!!

thatdariakid
Fri, 17 Aug 2018 14:25:12 +0000

Hello everyone! I’d want to apologize for this long post in advance, but I really need some help about the process to reapplying to colleges. Any help would be appreciated!

A bit about myself and my situation:
•International student
•Don’t seek financial help
•GPA: 3.82/4.0 (even though my school technically doesn’t use gpa scale, my counselor calculated it somehow)
•Top 2% of the class
• IB Diploma program candidate
•SAT: 1200 (this is were i went wrong obviously)
•Recommendations: read them, would say 10/10
•CommonApp essay: 7/10. wrote how the suicide of one of the kid in my school changed me as a person. i’ve created non-profit suicide prevention organization and etc
•Other essays: some essays both me and my counselor really liked, however others were boring and monotone.
•ECs: A lot of important ones: school’s president, yearbook, founder of 2 clubs, lots of volunteering hours. Was very involved in school activity (planned almost every single event and etc). Worked as a photographer, social media manager for this one company last summer and etc. Also won lot of awards, both regional and international

Now here are a few questions that i have:

(1) GRADES
During the summer before applying, I’ve asked my counselor to calculate my GPA. Then in September she just told me the number “3.82”. I didn’t give it too much thought, because at the time I didn’t have an official grade reports (I don’t know how it works in other schools, but in mine they don’t give out the official reports for each year. they just tell you your final grade that they calculate by themselves. to get an official report you need to go to the office and ask for it. i never really needed it, seeing as i always knew my grades). So, then they gave me the official papers and to some universities I mailed them, while for the other colleges my counselor send them via CommonApp.
However, when she send them, there has been a mistake made. While they were doing the final report, they accidentally put the wrong grades into my report, this my GPA dropped (not by a lot, but it was 3.68 instead of 3.82). I discovered this only way after I was rejected.

Long story: I’ve self reported my GPA as 3.82 in that grade section on CommonApp, while if calculated from my grade reports that were send out, you’d get 3.68.

QUESTION: If i’m reapplying to colleges, would it make sense for my counselor to e-mail the universities about this mistake? Or should I just leave it be? Thus this leads to another question, do universities really keep the old applications? If so, what would the do if they see mismatch between my “correct” grade and the ones that were send out?

(2) TEACHER & COUNSELOR RECOMMENDATIONS
Should my teacher and counselor recommendations be different from the ones that were send out? If yes, then how exactly?

(3) OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
A big improvement on my application will be a summer volunteering program that I did in Japan. Thus, I’d have 2 recommendation out of it. However, how important would they be?
Last year my counselor told me that these other recommendations don’t matter. Now I think she was wrong, but i’m still doubting what’s the “truth”.

(4) UNIVERSITY
I’ll be attending a 4-year university this fall in Canada. (note: a university with a big name) However, I do not want to apply as a transfer. Thus, here’s a conflict. Can I apply as a first-year student to USC, NYU, UChicago, UPENN, for example, if by the time my decision comes out, I would already complete 2 semesters in another university?
And what would happen if I don’t report studying in another university? How exactly would they know which university i’ve attended, if it’s not located in the States?
But if I do report going (which i’ll probably do), would they consider me as a transfer student or ask for my GPA/recommendations?

I have my reasons for not taking a gap year, going to another university and not wanting to transfer. So I’m asking just for answers to my questions and not the judgmental questions about my decisions. Seems like people on CC love to do that.

Final note: I realize that my application was a bit over the place. My ECs might have been average. Test scores were definitely my biggest disadvantage. And boring essays didn’t do me justice. However, I do know what my application lacked and have a few new things to add. So i’m pretty sure it won’t be the same as my old one.

Again, sorry for a long post. But i’d like to say thanks in advance to anyone who’d respond to this post. Any help is appreciated.