Yes they are my legal guardians and did not adopt me.
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Thanks for the clarification!
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Just asking, do you think i have a shot stanford rea? Or would i be wise using my ed1 somewhere else.
IMO it’s difficult to predict how schools evaluate students who have had extenuating circumstances. Some schools talk a good game about that, including the one where I work. Is your HS counselor going to talk about the circumstances in your LoR? Make sure to talk with them about that.
You need an affordable school that is highly likely for admission, and right now you don’t have that. PSU is unlikely to be affordable unless your parents and/or grandparents are contributing money for college…if so, what is your budget? Once you have at least one affordable/highly likely school, take your shot at the reaches. Identifying that school is your priority right now. Not your highly rejective essays, nor adding more reaches.
Calling @MYOS1634 for PSU insights
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I prob wont end up applying to psu after finding out they dont give oos aid.
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I will probably apply to utk morehouse and howard. Most of my family are alums but my family wants me to go to a “prestigious” school.
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Is UTK affordable as an in-state student? Run the NPCs at UTK, Morehouse and Howard, I am not sure any are highly likely for admission. Best case they are targets. I defer to your HS counselor wrt admission chances at UTK.
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Yes UTK is very affordable also my grandpa played football there and is a donor.
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I don’t want to define prestige but Howard & Morehouse are prestigious well-known HBCU’s here in the U.S. Consider these options, especially ones with a legacy connection, if you are interested in attending.
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With a 75% admit rate for in-state applicants, University of Tennessee-Knoxville is the safety option. I would recommend that you apply.
I think that your uptrend will help you a lot. However, I also do not see a safety on your list.
With an intention to study International Relations, a wild thought would be to consider universities in Canada. They will not care about your freshman year. Also, since admissions in Canada is stats oriented, your chances for admissions would be very good pretty much anywhere. Whether you can afford it and whether you want to deal with “real winters” plus a bit of travel might be other issues. Let me know if you want some suggested schools.
I am not a big fan of ED. If you do apply ED anywhere (whether ED1 or ED2) you should first make sure that it really is your top choice and make sure that it is likely to be affordable. If you are okay with being full pay then “affordable” applies. Otherwise run the NPC or have your parents or grandparents run it before applying ED.
And add a safety or two to your list. I do not think that Penn State is a safety, although I do think that it is quite likely.
By the way one daughter knew a couple of people in high school who had a similar sort of academic record on the “bad years, followed by very good years” side of things. They on the most part did quite well in university admissions. One student was so uncertain about their chances that they applied to 25 schools, and then got into about 20 of them. I think that the uptrend will help you a lot, but I do think that this can make predictions tougher to make. Your uptrend will also make you better prepared to do well once you get to university, which is of course very important.
Best wishes.
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OP, you are a great applicant who has overcome some very challenging circumstances and landed on your feet. Kudos! That all being said, a 3.3 GPA, even factoring in the challenges that led to those lower grades in your freshman year, makes your admissions prospects at your reach schools very unpredictable. And, right now, your list (with the removal of PSU) is all reaches, and you’ve been encouraged to add several more even higher reaches, which seems like the wrong strategy for your circumstances. I would instead recommend trying to find several more likely and target schools, just to mitigate the risk that you will be shut out of all of your schools.
Yes, I think they are both reaches, whether you apply ED or RD. Villanova is a slightly less “reachy” reach, but it’s just not clear how admissions offices at any school will view your record and best not to assume that admissions offices will simply discount your freshman year grades. Perhaps they will, or perhaps other schools will as well, which is why you should definitely keep some reach schools that are excited about on your list. But, just make the list more balanced with several targets and safeties.
It’s also not clear that you should apply ED anywhere, as your post doesn’t seem to indicate a strong preference for any one school, and you look to be trying to use ED to gain an admissions advantage. First, it’s not clear that there is an admissions advantage at these schools to applying ED, and also, you may actually benefit by applying RD to all schools so they have a chance to see your first semester grades in your senior year. This could give them even more confidence that your freshman year grades were solely the result of the difficulties you faced that year.
Best of luck!
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Are you a recruited athlete (track)?
I agree with Penn State and I’d say Fordham is likely too. I might put Lehigh and Richmond into the lower probability.
I think 9th grade will hurt at most places, regardless of the extenuating circumstance. A school like Emory that doesn’t look at 9th grade might be one to consider as a low probability.
Any budget issues - Penn State is near $60K.
You can’t say I have no budget except if you can pay $100K a year.
Did you run net price calculators at these schools? Much of your list is need aware - if you need too much, they can say no simply for that reason.
When you build a list, it starts with budget - so I haven’t read all 50 messages - but if you don’t have the budget figured out (looking at NPCs), you need to step back and start again.
Who will be contributing financially for your schooling?
Nova does not assure to meet need and is forthright about it on their website - where they write - “Villanova University does not meet 100% of demonstrated financial need.”
Penn State doesn’t make any sense. You need a UTK / MTSU / UTC type school to take advantage of the largesse the state gives to low income as a safety.
Nova wouldn’t either. But it’s too reachy - as your list is. What is the affordable school you can 100% get into - likely not UTK but an MTSU/ETSU/UTC. That’s the school you need to figure out - and get added to your list. I know you think your ECs make up for your grades, etc. or people will look at your extenuating circumstances and they might - but they might not and you need to consider that and plan accordingly.
But there’s a difference at meets need but need aware (Lafayettte/F&M) and need blind (Harvard/Stanford) - if you need too much $$.
Folks, OP has already said that PSU won’t be affordable so it’s off the list.
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Looking at Stanford’s numbers:
Number of students per undergraduate class: 1850-1900
Number of students graduating with an IR degree: 60-70
Percentage of Full-Pay students: ≈33%
Percentage of Pell Grant recipients: ≈25%
Overall acceptance rate is under 4%
IMO, somewhere else.
Back to ED - have you checked the NPC. Can you afford? Given your grandparents are involved, does that change things - I saw @Mwfan1921 posted info.
You have no language other than English - that might impact your entire list.
I missed that prior.
Why do you have no language beyond English?
But if true, that’s likely a hard no everywhere on your list and what might be safe (a UTC type) may not be - because their website lists as required:
- 2 units of the same foreign language (Sign Language courses included)
Would you be interested in purely undergraduate-focused colleges with superb international studies programs, such as, for example, Middlebury, as a reach?
Asked and answered above.
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If OP is independent for FAFSA purposes and has limited income and assets, they will qualify for full Pell. OP does have to confirm all of this.
I see - Latin. OK. Not sure why not listed initially.
I still say - they are so overly reachy. Everyone assumes extenuating circumstances will matter. They may and it’s certainly understandable what happened in 9th grade.
But at the same time, they may not.
The finances are then the next worry unless the grandparents are willing to pay.
I’m honestly not sure that UTK is safe.
I wish OP well - could go either way. Reach or not close.