Tanked Senior Year. What are my options?

Applying to College
#1

<p>So due to circumstances which I have posted about a couple months ago I took on too much, completely burnt out and my grades plummeted Senior year after almost straight As. I know that my senior year was my downfall because I sent a D and 3 Cs to Cornell on the Midyear and still got Waitlisted (not flat-out denied), as well as waitlisted at UVA and Wake Forest. I did, however, get denied everywhere else except Rutgers and TCNJ. And I don't believe either school has seen my senior grades yet. </p>

<p>I worked hard throughout high school so I wouldn't have to pay for college - my family income is below poverty level and there is no college fund set up for me. Not only that, but going to Yale, Duke, Cornell, or UVA was my dream. I've researched so much into those schools and I really love them all. I've been working five to six days a week to help support myself and my family, but that in turn made my course load that much more difficult and my grades suffered. </p>

<p>I got into the Honors Program at Rutgers with a full ride ($16,000 need-based grants, $10,000 merit scholarship.) How big of a risk is it that this will be taken away from me, be it the Honors or the 10k? It is really my only fall back.</p>

<p>What can I do from here? Would taking a gap year and reapplying be viable in any way? Is there a chance I can get off these wait lists? I'm just beating myself up here because I feel I took all of my hard work and wasted it all at the very last second, due to a lack of foresight and a poor decision on my part. But my stats, ECs, essays, they're all good/great - I feel a bit shafted that my options are quickly deteriorating around me, and sort of depressed that I wasted my chances of getting into the aforementioned schools, I would have given anything to spend the next four years of my life at any of them. </p>

<p>Does anyone have any advice?</p>

#2

<p>Public universities are not too hard to transfer into with excellent grades from another college, so I think you would have a reasonable chance at UVA after a year somewhere else with a high GPA. But finances may be a problem; it’s harder to get FA as a transfer, and I do think it likely that Rutgers will rescind your merit scholarship.</p>

#3

<p>We have block scheduling so I have three sets of grades. Rutgers gets my final transcript at the end of this year. If I have straight As first three years, then a drop first marking period, rise second (still mediocre), and then straight As again for the last grading sessions, might I still be able to hang onto it if I include a letter and a teacher letter explaining the situation to them? It’s the James Dickson Carr Scholarship for diversity, which I assume I received due to my socioeconomic background, being that I am a white male.</p>

#4

<p>Did I really screw up this bad? I feel like four months and a couple mistakes unraveled everything I’ve worked for…</p>

#5

<p>I feel that the only one who can tell you whether or not you’ll get rescinded is, well, Rutgers honors college itself. If you have a really good reason for tanking grades and take responsibility for it, though, I think that admissions officers would understand, though.</p>

#6