<p>I’ve received a pretty devastating blow this weekend, and am now reconsidering many of the choices I have made concerning college admissions. I was rejected from the UNL Honors program, which was definitely the lowest safety I had on my list. So, if anyone could offer any counsel what I should do, in general, it would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Stats:
GPA: 3.3 (UW), 3.5 (W)
Class Rank: 51/363 (based on grades before senior year)
ACT: 32 (e: 35, r: 32, m: 30, s: 31, w: 34, es: 11)
SAT (haven’t sent): 1. m: 570 cr: 690 w: 690
2. m: 610 cr: 770 w: 650
SS. m: 610 cr: 770 w: 690 = 2070</p>
<p>ECs:
Debate (11, 12)
Lincoln Youth Symphony (10, 11, 12)
School Orchestra (9, 10, 11, 12)
Peer Docent at Local Art Gallery (10, 11, 12)
Darkroom Photography @ A&H (10, 11, 12)
Film Club (10, 11)
Student Council (9)
Theatre (9)
National Honor Society (12)</p>
<p>Breakdown of Grades by Semester (# of sem: UW, W):
1: 3.2, 3.2 2: 2.9, 2.9
3: 2.9, 2.9 4: 3.6, 3.7
5: 3.2, 3.5 6: 4.0, 4.4
7: 4.0, 4.5 8: 0, 0</p>
<p>The rationale behind my grades coming into high school is fairly simply: I hated my high school. It was (and still is) the antithesis of anything I’ve ever wanted to participate in; a disciplinarian, anti-educational institution. Even when taking honors courses, I had teachers that would only read aloud from over-simplistic and inaccurate texts. Most of my schoolwork at my school consisted of multiple-choice assignments and tests – the number of papers that I wrote while attending could probably be counted on one hand. I’m not attempting to justify what I did my freshman and sophomore years as the correct and most mature way to deal with the situation, I’m just explaining why I did what I did.</p>
<p>Luckily, my public school district offers “alternatives”, known as the focus programs, which I am participating in currently. The workload at these schools (Arts and Humanities and Zoo School, I do both) is definitely heavier, but also more interesting, and the teachers are all phenomenal in their own right. I arrived at these schools during my sophomore year, so obviously they didn’t enchant me into becoming a better student, but they’ve definitely helped improved my track record. However wonderful these programs are, though, they cannot overcome some of the shortfalls of the district as a whole: I’ve only ever been able to take three AP classes in my high school career, two my senior year and one my junior year. I wasn’t able to take the AP test my junior year, because my school forgot to sign me up before the deadline.</p>
<p>Debate also helped motivate me to become a better student, which is another story in and of itself to tell. I’ll diverge on this subject more if requested.</p>
<p>I wanted, originally, to apply to a number of small, liberal arts colleges, as well as a couple of smaller universities. Here was my original list for regular-decision applications:</p>
<p>Kenyon
Macalester
Carleton*
St. Olaf
Whitman
Reed
University of Chicago
Rice University
a fat-chance shot at Swarthmore/Williams/Bowdoin, maybe</p>
<p>*top choice</p>
<p>I’ve also considered applying to less-selective schools such as Baylor or Oklahoma for the purposes of getting a debate scholarship and debating at the collegiate level, in case I do not get accepted at any of the schools I primarily want to attend. Even this assumption, though, is looking dubious.</p>
<p>Is there any chance that I could still wedge my way into one of these schools ? What can I do to improve my application in this short amount of time?</p>