Which of these factors will affect my admission?

Applying to College
1

<ol>
<li>Living with extremely low income (~$14,000/year) my whole life, in a family of four (single mother)</li>
<li>None of my parents or grandparents have college degrees</li>
<li>Having Type One Diabetes (I know it sounds stupid, but its changes your lifestyle significantly)</li>
<li>Being really good (but not exceptional) at cross country/track despite asthma, diabetes, and a number of other health problems</li>
<li>Struggling through freshman year with my mom’s abusive ex-boyfriend, which resulted in a 3.3 and 2.0 GPA for each respective semester (though I’ve taken a ridiculous amount of APs since)</li>
<li>Having the experience of living internationally and being a minority</li>
<li>Having five years of real work experience with web design/development by the time I graduate.</li>
</ol>

<p>Will they have a positive or negative affect (if any) on my admission into college?</p>

<p>Edit: I’m aiming for schools such as MIT, RPI, and Berkeley/</p>

2

<p>Berkeley can not consider race and is very formulaic, a 3.3 would make it very tough.</p>

<p>What race are you? Where do you rank? Are you American? What are your scores?</p>

3

<p>White male, American, Top 5% (with weighted GPA), No SATs yet, AP Tests: 11 fives, 2 fours.</p>

<p>I’m gonna finish off with about a 4.35 GPA (weighted) and 3.72 GPA (unweighted).</p>

<p>Sorry, I worded my first post wrong. I don’t have a 3.3 GPA now, it was just one semester in freshman year. The other semester was 2.0 :/</p>

4

<p>I’m confused, what is your overall GPA and where do you rank (officially or not) in your class as school will report it? PSAT scores?</p>

5

<p>4.35 GPA (weighted) 3.72 GPA (unweighted)
Top 5%, I’d say a rank of 10/450
I’ve taken 13 APs (I got all A’s in them, but I got low grades in regular classes freshman year, thus such a difference in weight/unweighted). I’m planning on taking another 5 APs this year.
PSAT is 2260 (740/800/720)</p>

6

<p>Your low income and first generation status will be definitely considered but don’t expect it to throw you into the minority pile. If what I have read from books like “The Gatekeepers” is true, schools are looking for very superficial diversity and will never consider you as something even close to a URM, sorry.</p>

<p>But, your life experiences could make for good EC’s (not sure on this but the conventional wisdom is that jobs are good, especially entrepreneurship) and great essays.</p>

7

<p>RPI no problem, but their aid is not the best. MIT is a possibility, but as is often said here, a reach for all.</p>

<p>You need to make sure you have financial safeties.</p>

8

<p>Being first generation is a “hook,” meaning it can help overcome stats on the lower end.</p>

9

<p>First gen is a tip and only at a few colleges, very different than a hook.</p>

10

<p>All these can have a positive effect. It’s all up to you and how you’ll play your cards.</p>