Fun thread. I was salutatorian of a class of 95 at a small public high school in rural PA in 1989. Had to look up my grade average, but it was 97.01. I was the baby of my family but the first to graduate from college. (My brother went back later on and finished his degree and then got an MPA from the Univ. of Miami.) Family had very little money to send me to college so I was chasing merit. Only applied to Penn State and a small LAC and ended up taking a 3/4 tuition scholarship at the LAC. Graduated from law school with a grand total of about 22K in loans, but really only used about 14K of it for schooling. The rest was used for a vehicle down payment and some was set aside as an emergency fund since my wife and I would have had nothing to cover unexpected costs. (We got married about a month before I started law school and just celebrated 30 years last summer.) Still practicing law today and wouldnât go back and change a thing.
I applied to 6 schools back in the day â 2 reaches, 2 matches, 2 safeties. Great grades & fine SAT for the time (donât remember the number but donât think it broke 1400) at a top BS but zero XCs other than required athletics.
Applied ED to an Ivy. Deferred then ultimately accepted. Ended up getting into all 6. Turned down the Ivy for the other reach.
Get this, though â my targets were Northwestern and JHU. My safeties were Emory and Tufts. None of these schools can be considered anything but reaches for all these days. And Iâd NEVER get into any of them today. Glory days!
Can you imagine these days getting into all of those plus an ivy and a reach? Crazy!
I know â such a different time!
Things are so unimaginably different. Applied to four schools. Accepted to all. Figured Tulane was my safety. No chance Iâd be admitted to Tulane today. Turned down Duke, Chicago, and Tulane for a small liberal arts college that felt like home (and was).
Finished 4th in my class of about 300 in a distinctly mediocre rural school where I was the only person who went to college out of state my year, had a bunch of Bâs. School only offered two APs (Bio and English), I got a 3 and a 4. (Was proud of both scores). Strong non-sports extracurriculars, good (but not perfect) SAT.
Just canât get over the insanity of college admissions now. I think I would still be admitted to my alma mater, but none of the other three now.
I went to the one U I applied to, our state flagship. I had 710/610 SAT back in 1975. I applied in 1976 for national student exchange to one U and was accepted by U of OR. Ended up transferring because I liked it so much. I am pretty sure I could still be admitted to both Us. I had a 3.9 gpa, I think.
Applied to several law schools and was admitted to two UCs and waitlisted at one. I think my law school application had similar credentials to my HS.
I have a numbers based learning disability. Couldnât make it past Algebra 1⊠with a C. And that was from a teacher who let me write a paper on the history of code breaking (why I donât know) in place of my failing grade on tests. I never took another math class. It wasnât a big deal though through school. I was just bad at math and no one cared that much. My SAT 720 Verbal 450 math was â flaggedâ I was told by my guidance counselor ( by who? I donât know ) but â allowedâ ( ditto) after the LD was addressed. Iâm not sure Iâd get into any college today. Certainly not my well regarded state flagship. At college I got straight Aâs. I avoid math at all costs and have had a successful career as an attorney doing intellectually rigorous appellate work. A friend has a kid with a similar LD, I feel sad for her that it was much more life defining for her. It just isnât acceptable anymore to say math isnât for me and plow ahead in other areas of academic rigor the way I was able to do.
You may have done ok in geometry, which is less numbers based and more logic based (presuming that you could do logic in law).
Also, there are likely some less selective colleges that may accept a GED instead of high school transcript, or open admission community colleges followed by transfer to four year colleges with lenient (in terms of math) transfer admission and graduation requirements.
Also it is moot now as you already have succeeded but I also struggled with algebra 1 in 8th grade. My teacher convinced me to take it a second time in 9th as he said sometimes it is a brain maturity thing. Sure enough took it the following year and aced it.
I still really didnât like math but it was enough so I could take the required math in college and not do that terribly. Also I was able to get in my college with only algebra 1,2 and geometry. I am pretty sure they want something higher these days.
Moderately selective colleges commonly have the above as the frosh entrance math requirement, with one class higher (e.g. introductory statistics on the same level as AP statistics) as a graduation requirement. Of course, some may want more and some may be satisfied with less.
That sort of limitation on my college experience would have been depressing for me who was a top student at a well regarded flagship university taking an intellectually rigorous course load. And for no good reason.
Um no. I have no ability to work with numbers at all. I reverse them, mix them up, I auto pay bills because even trying to write numbers or enter them on a computer usually ends in errors. My greatest pleasure was telling one teacher who insisted that I could not succeed in any professional career without basic math skills that they need could not have been more wrong.
Good for you!!
The succeeding part that is.
Thank you. It really makes me sad that kids with my combination of learning disabilities and abilities are in todays world more defined by their LD then I ever was. When honestly these LDâs donât need to have any effect on oneâs life. But now, these are treated as though they are all encompassing.
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