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Okay, so I'll be the first to admit I should have taken high school more seriously, but I didn't and now that it's time to apply to college; I'm in trouble.

Stats:

GPA 2.9-3.1
SATI: 800 Verbal 770Math (Jan 24: 1570)
SATII: 800 U.S History 780 Molecular Biology 740 Writing

ECs:
I was in the hackey sack club....
I draw/sketch/paint (could possibly put together a portfolio)
I tutor kids at the boarding school I'm at now
I plan on taking an interm trip to China this summer and follow a journalist around. Maybe when I get back, I'll get a job or something. I'm real tempted to just hang out with my friends all year, but I guess we can all see where that got me.

So here's the dilema: I wasn't all "there" freshman year, did a lot of things that I shouldn't have done and as a result got either Ds or Fs all year. I think my GPA that year was like a 1.8 or something. My English teacher only passed me cause she felt "sorry" for me. She thought I was 'educationally challenged'.

Sophmore year was a little better, I got Cs in some really easy classes but aced all my honors classes. I did a lot of drugs this year and I regret that a lot.

When junior year started, things got really bad. I signed up for a bunch of AP classes with every intention to do well, but I ended up in a rehab two weeks after the beginning of school. When I got out, nothing worked for me and I got sent away to a boarding school in Idaho for kids who've gotten into trouble at home. (CEDU, emo grow, etc...)

Now I'm at my boarding school; I have cleaned up my act a lot. I'm completely sober and my grades have been all A's and A+'s since when I got here; that's not cause school was all that much easier, but without a lot of the distractions, I can actually get stuff done. I repeated junior year here and ended it with a perfect 4.0. I'm in the middle of my senior year now and my grades are still A's. My school does not offer any AP or honors classes and I can have my counselor write a note confirming that.

I know I'm a slacker, •••• up, whatever you want to call it, but I really want a chance to do something now. I'm aware that drugs is probably not something that I should bring up in my essay so I wrote it about my parents and the effect that a lot of their expectations have had on me. I can post that if you guys want to see it. I've been diagnosed with depression and ADD; I've been treated for both of them, but I've recently stopped the ADD meds because of my history of substance abuse.

I'm going to be applying to small LACs next year, and I guess my ambitions at this moment are a bit lofty, but I'm still willing to give it a shot. My list would be:

Kenyon
Wooster
K-Zoo
Clark U
CWRU
Oberlin
Macalester (I know it's a reach)
Guilford
Evergreen state
Earlham
Lawrence
Drew University
Tulane
UMass Amherst
Colby (Another long shot)
Ginnell (long shot)
Reed


For background:
My mom is affiliated with Harvard University and my dad was affiliated with MIT. My parents have been divorced since I was in 7th grade and my dad was abusive. I'm originally from Boston MA and moved into the 'burbs when I was in 3rd grade. I'm an Asian male. I've never been in trouble with the law (I've been on unofficial probation, but none of that's on my record. I don't have a history of violence.) I'm pretty sure interviews would help because I'm a down to earth, outgoing and colorful person and I tend to make pretty good impressions on people. I can get good recommedations from the faculty at this school.

So I guess what I'm asking is whether or not I have a shot at any of these places and what I should write about in my application essays to explain my "underacheiving". Any help would be real nice. Thanks!

By Kinshasa (Kinshasa) on Sunday, February 08, 2004 - 06:11 pm: Edit

Zima--

Where are you in Idaho? My daughter went to Ascent twice, had a short stint at BCA and one at Cedu High in southern Cal, then graduated an EG school in Arizona. Anyway her transcript was a mess: five high schools. She's not in your academic league (1050 SAT) but had the same GPA.

Will you have your HS degree when you graduate your program? There are schools with rolling admissions or those whose deadlines haven't yet passed. Read "Colleges that Change Lives" by Loren Pope. Pope recommends several of the schools on your list.

You're wise to be looking at small colleges. Coming from your EG program environment, you could be overwhelmed by the freedom and temptations of a large school.

My daughter is a freshman at Evergreen State. Several other EG program graduates have been accepted there. Although Evergreen has a reputation as a druggie, hippie school, my daughter hasn't had any problems. When she applied to Evergreen, she let her transcript speak for itself, didn't even write the optional essay, and her positive admissions decision came a few weeks later.

This is kind of off the wall, but have you thought about Brandeis-- I've been checking its web site for my junior son and the application deadline has been extended.

Definitely you need to explain your academic journey and what's been happening over the last few years, either in an essay or counselor recommendation or the like.

Good luck!

By Zima (Zima) on Sunday, February 08, 2004 - 06:27 pm: Edit

Your Daughter went to BCA? I'm at Northwest Academy, which is the 17 year old program! That's really cool. No I haven't looked at Brandeis because my sister goes there and I don't really feel like going to school with her ;-). But I agree, I'd probably be too tempted by all the freedoms of one of the larger schools. There's a girl here right now who just got a positive admissions letter from Evergreen. Tell you the truth, the hippie thing is kind of what attracted me to Evergreen in the first place because I'm a bit of a "hippie" myself. I guess it would behoove me to "get out of my image" though. :-)

By Kinshasa (Kinshasa) on Sunday, February 08, 2004 - 08:59 pm: Edit

When are you planning to enter college, this fall, or fall 2005? It makes a big difference as most deadlines for the small LACs you're interested in have probably passed. If you're waiting til fall 2005 you absolutely have to have a good structured plan of action and support. Personally, I think it would be better to enter college this fall.

Here's what I know about Evergreen: you need to be a self-starter. There are kids there with high SAT scores and GPAs. I think it's difficult to fall through the cracks because your program has about 75 kids, and seminar is only 25 kids. For my daughter, Evergreen is a great match. There is drug and alcohol free housing floors and tons of housing options even for freshmen. Your SAT scores show you could handle a more rigorous academic college. Have you read material on all the schools?
In what field are you planning to major?

By Calif (Calif) on Sunday, February 08, 2004 - 09:11 pm: Edit

Given that you're looking at liberal arts colleges in Ohio, you may want to add Denison to your list of schools.

By Zima (Zima) on Monday, February 09, 2004 - 05:14 pm: Edit

I'm planning on majoring in Biology or Zoology, I really like animals and I'm pretty good at it. I've tried to read up on what I can about those schools while I've been here, but knowing CEDU, sometimes access to information is limited. How's your daughter doing at Evergreen State? Has she had trouble since leaving the whole EG thang? I'm planning on entering college in the fall of 2005 because I've missed all the deadlines for many of the LACs already, but since Evergreen is on a rolling basis, I might enter this fall if I'm not handling myself well having all that free time and what not. I graduate in May of this year, I'm already the top peer group at this school so I'm in the process of formulating a post NWA plan.

By Kinshasa (Kinshasa) on Monday, February 09, 2004 - 07:29 pm: Edit

Zima--

Check your e-mail. I e-mailed you directly.

By Astrobobocop (Astrobobocop) on Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 07:22 pm: Edit

Zima, just so you know, CWRU is a nerd school. My dad works there, and I have been daytripping in with him since I was little. However, when I say nerd, I do not simply mean computer nerds. I'm talking engineering and science and just about every kind of nerd you can find. Just wanted to make sure you knew. Also, you might want to look at oberlins history before you write an essay for it. It was one of the first schools to allow women and african americans in it, so they always will fight for the underdog. I have a kinda crappy GPA, 3.5, but I hope to do well on SATs. I'm also looking at a few schools that you're looking at, so I am in a similarly sized boat as you. I have not had the most ejoyable high school career, which is emitted from the home and reflected by the GPA

GOOD LUCK!!!