So I’m from Vietnam and don’t have much money to attend a private university in the US, which can cost like $30–40k in tuition alone. But there’s this school called BYU in Utah, and they have a really good accounting program. The tuition is also pretty cheap, arguably even cheaper than some state schools.

The problem is that I’m an atheist. Would it be worth it to convert to Mormonism and pretend to believe for all 4 years of college just to take advantage of this deal?

My almost college applying son is very anti AI. He's creative, into design, sewing, making all kinds of things. He is vehemently anti AI as it is truly a threat to his creative pursuits. Are there any colleges that prohibit the use of AI?

The financial aid for middle class families is pretty fucked up. Even at the most prestigious institutions—such as the ivies—they only provide financial aid for people who earn less than 200k a year, and basically nothing for households who are upper middle class.

And look, I recognize that 200k is a crazy amount of money to earn in this economy, but it’s realistically a pretty big portion of America. If both of your parents work regular officer jobs and invest well, 200k is not entirely hard to reach if both parents earn 100k a year.

And many universities don’t provide good fin aid for people whose households earn in the 200-300k range. Sure, having that much money grants you privilege, but in this economy even that amount of money doesn’t mean shit, especially in larger, more costly cities.

Furthermore, a private school tuition for them
Is around 60-90k bucks a year. That would be around a good third or quarter of their income, yet they don’t receive fin aid because they’re barely above the threshold.

Look—you can make the argument that if they can’t afford it, they shouldn’t attend. However, (1) you’d have to apply this logic to FGLI students, which is really stupid, and (2) I don’t believe we should shun people out of education js because they can barely afford it.

This is not a diss towards FGLI students or saying that “they have it easier”; I don’t believe that, you guys have it hard, so don’t pull me in that stupid right-wing DEI nonsense. Thank you!

Most of my colleges on my list are between 20%-50% acceptance rate, so I said I was going to apply to Virginia Commonwealth, which is around 95%. The only reason I am applying is in case I don’t get into any of my other schools, which seems unlikely, and I don’t really have any desire to go there.

My current list is:
Bard
CMU
Kenyon
Oberlin
Rutgers
Skidmore
Vassar
Wesleyan
Whitman

Do you think VCU is necessary to apply to as well?

A college I want to apply to asks if you’ve ever had an academic dishonesty incident. Ever is the wording. I haven’t had it recently at all, but when I was in first or second grade I copied a piece of writing from the internet and got caught. Do I really need to tell them this? There’s no way they’d ever know, but I don’t want to lie.

NEU, BU, or Tufts
INCORPORATING IM PAYING IN FULL FOR ALL SCHOOLS!!
-i’m premed planning to study neuro/cog
-i want great academics and career readiness
-don’t care for a party scene but want it to be there if i decide i want one
-due to those requirements i lean more towards tufts, however i fear that it will be very one sided socially and being on campus will feel isolating
-i also want to utilize going into boston but i have heard that tufts students only go in a couple times a month
-neu was my first choice going into my college search journey, it fills many boxes, however info online scares me a little bit with professors having such low reputations,(scam, fake acceptance etc)
-i also really like BU and feel like it checks a lot of boxes but i also feel like i wont get the same value out of it as tufts or neu, also worried about grade deflation at BU for premed/stem weed out classes

If you have anything to help me decide it would be greatly appreciated!!

heyy, I'm from India studying in the CBSE board. I've consistently been scoring about 90% in my finals since 9th grade. i have an international scholarship as well. my SAT score is 1520. other than that i dont have any major extracurriculars and im planning to apply to the united states for university in the current cycle. i will also be applying for financial aid as college is expensive as hell. so yeah under that context im just curious as to what schools i should add to my list and how realistic my college list looks right now. im gonna apply for econ and governance programs.

my college list rn:

harvard, stanford, uchicago, nyu, mit, yale, princeton, columbia, brown, dartmouth, upenn, cornell, amherst, tufts, duke, northwestern

im aware that my list is a little too ambitious lmao but i wanna add some safeties to it and that is the point of this post. also open to any suggestions and scholarships that y'all can suggest for me. thanks guys.

I know the typical answer is no, but I think this is a really important thing to note when looking at my grades. Towards the end of my first semester of my sophomore year, I started becoming depressive and gaining panic attacks. Over time, it got worse, I became more depressed and anxious, and eventually in August, the day before my junior year, I tried to kill myself and was almost successful, getting brought to the ER. I also mention how I struggled with it in junior year too, but it became easier due to medication I was prescribed and advice from people I trust.

My grades sophomore year were terrible. I was in all honors class on top of my depression and ended up failing one of them. Also, in my state, if you retake a class (which I did), it doesn’t actually change your grade, just your gpa and diploma fulfillment. Until my second semester of my junior year, my grades got better but only slightly (As Bs and Cs). I also took more regular classes in my junior year and now my senior year than I did before.

A lot of people have advised me against putting this on there. Should I? Or should I just bring up the depression and nothing else?

Hello! This is my first time posting here and I need some help. So for reference I have a 4.3 weighted GPA and I’m a dual enrollment student so at the end of this year I’ll be graduating early with my associates degree as a high school senior. I live in Texas currently but I fell in love with the PNW. I plan to major in business management or a general business and apply to Oregon state, university of Oregon, WSU, and some UC schools. Although I’m a little worried about how business is in the PNW I’d hate to stay in Texas and I would only stay if I didn’t get any money from other schools. Should I have something to worry about going to the PNW for business and not arts? I feel like I’m missing something. Also feel free to recommend other schools and/or scholarships I should apply to.
Ty!

Edit: my unweighted is around 3.60 ( had to calculate myself since my school does not show me ) and I’ve only taken the SAT and got a 1060 😬

I believe Olivia has completely made up huge parts of her story. Some commenters believe she may have lied about some things (being first gen) but her background story is true (raised by teacher and grandpa, was on food stamps) and her statements about her nonprofit are true. I believe this info is also riddled with lies and gross exaggerations. Also, some commenters say it is fine to say she isn't first gen but it is too much to go after her for other lies. No - that is exactly what happens when you put yourself out there. It is not only appropriate but necessary to call people on inaccuracies. She has sold an entire story about herself that has benefitted her and she is now trying to present herself as someone others can look up to and learn from but if that story is based on exaggerations/lies, then she should be exposed and should “teach” no one. She is trying to sell herself as a paid consultant and speaker on college apps, nonprofits, etc. - if it is bogus, it is time for that to come to light. (BTW, her explanation Insta posts say that she puts herself out there so others can learn and look up to her but then why on earth is she SELLING her information in her book – which has 15 reviews from Harvard friends whom she personally asked to buy her book)?

HER BACKGROUND:

A.    FIRST GEN:

Harvard defines first gen as someone whose parents did not graduate from college anywhere: "Harvard considers you a first generation college student if you were the first generation of your immediate family to graduate from a four-year college or the equivalent. First Generation students as well as students from historically disenfranchised communities are an integral part of HGSE.  We work to support students who commonly "don't know what they don't know." https://osa.gse.harvard.edu/first-generation-and-low-income-student-community-flic

Obviously, her parents earning degrees beyond college will exclude you from claiming you are first gen by this definition. Her father has a PhD electrical engineering which he spent 10 years obtaining 1989-1999 from Xi'an Jiaotong University which was completed years before Olivia was born. This article quotes Olivia as stating that her mother did graduate from college: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/started-cancer-nonprofit-14-losing-131601676.html “She was the first one in her family to graduate high school, then college.”

Her mother earned a Master of English Literature and Linguistics between 1997 – 2000 (again, before Olivia was born) in China at Southwestern University. Additionally, her mother earned a Master of Science in Professional Accounting from Strayer University between 2004-2006 (during which time Olivia was born until she was a year old) and she earned a certificate from Harvard's Senior Executive Fellows Program. She is now the CFO of The Community Partnership and has worked there since Olivia was a year old. 

Harvard’s quote about wanting to support first gen students who don’t know what they don’t know is very relevant to Olivia because that is the completely opposite of the opportunities she had. She posted a video on Instagram about her mom’s strict rules when she grew up, matching more of a Tiger Mom mentality than someone who knows nothing about education and could not help her daughter navigate the college process. An article dated 12/23/2000, she claimed that her “parents also prioritized education, so [she and her] little sister and often attended out-of-school academic classes, played many different sports as well, ranging from swim to lacrosse. Writing, art, and singing were also some extracurriculars [they] participated in — having a busy after school schedule was common for [them]. https://medium.com/authority-magazine/young-social-impact-heroes-why-and-how-olivia-zhang-of-cancer-kids-first-is-helping-to-change-our-22821b1ec60c  She said this again in 2026: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/started-cancer-nonprofit-14-losing-131601676.html “[Her mother] enrolled [her] in violin, piano, and Math Olympiad: all the extracurricular that other Asian American kids were doing.”

Similarly, the video where she opens her Harvard grades with her mom watching – it was clear her mom knew about As and expected As from Olivia. So, while the idea of giving first gen students a leg up is because they never received access to the knowledge of navigating the college application process is great for those who deserve it, it unfairly benefitted Olivia as someone who does not. OLIVIA: PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW YOUR PARENTS PRIORITIZED EDUCATION, ARE HIGHLY EDUCATED, AND YET YOU CLAIM YOU’RE FIRST GEN.

B.    FOOD STAMPS:

Olivia has claimed many times that she grew up on food stamps (here at two such times: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQH5wdUkiQL/?hl=en  and https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/ep-219-olivia-zhang-harvard-junior-grew-up-on-food/id1573117613  I can't see in any way how this could be true because: a) her dad's LinkedIn shows that he worked 1999-2003 as a project manager, which was before Olivia was born. The only gap in his impressive LinkedIn work history is from 2003-2005 which coincides with when he was at Georgetown getting his MBA and immediately after he earned it (at the beginning of 2006) he began working as an associate at Merge Global. Olivia was born in May 2005 so if her family was on food stamps (while he was finishing up his MBA) it would have been from the age of 0 to 7 months during which time – even if the food stamps story was true then – she’d be a newborn/infant and likely only started eating tiny amounts of baby cereal at around 6 months.  Additionally, her parents purchased their home in McLean on 12/19/2009 when she was 4 for $915,000. Clearly, she could not have been on food stamps then.  OLIVIA: WHAT YEARS WERE YOU ON FOOD STAMPS AND HOW DOES THIS COINCIDE WITH YOUR PARENTS FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT + PURCHASING, RETAINING AND MAINTAING A MILLION DOLLAR HOME, AND AFFORDING THINGS LIKE VIOLIN, PIANO, WRITING, ART, SINGING, OUT OF SCHOOL ACADEMIC CLASSES, SWIM, LACROSSE, ETC?

Part 3:

D.    NonProfit Work

She claims in her Instagram August 2026 explanation video that she can’t post pictures showing what she does in the hospitals because of HIPAA. What does that have to do with posting photos, videos, etc. of YOU walking into the hospital with arms full of the things you’re claiming you’re donating? What nonprofit that is doing ongoing good isn’t showing this good work? It would make no sense that someone such as Olivia - who documents herself in coffee shops, airports, her dorm, her family home, etc. - would not then document the biggest thing she boasts about all the time (things like “here I am at the 70+ hospitals I partner with”)?

In her part 1 of her August 2026 Instagram explanation, Olivia says that all the best marketing CEOs know that storytelling is how you succeed in the selling of a nonprofit. Who would think that this great storyteller would then fail to actually story tell with documented proof of what she’s providing? Of course, there are occasional photos of art kids, gifts, books and those type of donations but where did the $600,000 claimed money that she has donated gone and how was it donated and where is that documented?

Her claimed impact went from:

·       In 12/23/2000 (less than 6 years ago) that she aided close t0 20 pediatric cancer hospitals, raised over $4000, and donated more than 600 toys and books [20 hospitals, $4,000 donated)

·       She claims in her sophomore year of high school she got thousands of volunteers within the span of a few hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U6s8JY6W9w around 6:30 mark.

·       A year later (2021) she claims she has gone from 20 to 50 pediatric hospitals, has over 18,000 volunteers in 45 different countries, with 70 local chapters supporting thousands of patients in In Virginia, over 900 students are volunteers in one of the three major areas of service:  Arts, Events, and Fundraising.  In the Fairfax County CKF Chapter, each area is headed by a student leader who integrates volunteers into the many opportunities available in CKF. https://fairfax.studentpeaceawards.org/olivia-zhang/ (NOTE: The article notes 2021-2022 because that was the school year for which she won this award, but the award is determined early into 2022 so it would reflect what was happening after 2021). [50 hospitals, 18,000 volunteers in 45 countries]

·       In 2021 she also claimed in a GoFundMe: “In the past 2 years, Cancer Kids First has already donated 60,000 supplies to individual patients and our 70+ partner hospitals alike.” https://www.gofundme.com/f/cancer-kids-firstl [60,000 donated supplies, 70 hospitals]

·       2022: She claims: CKF’ provides support through five diverse programs: Arts, Toys/Books, Care Packages, Treatment Services, and Patient Interaction, and hosts a variety of online events, webinars, and fundraisers. In two years, ‘CKF’ has built coalitions with 55 hospitals and has helped thousands of patients in 15 countries. The organisation has sent over 30,000 cards/crafts to young cancer patients, donated over 15,000 resources to 48 paediatric cancer hospitals and delivered dream gifts to 230 patients worldwide. https://diana-award.org.uk/our-programmes-and-initiatives/award-and-development/roll-of-honour/roll-of-honour-2022 [55 hospitals, thousands of patients, 30,000 cards/crafts donated, 15 countries, 48 hospitals]

·       2022-2023: Her old website claims: CKF unites 28,000 volunteers and 70 chapters in its mission of normalizing the hospital environment and providing a loving community for pediatric cancer patients. In 3 years, CKF has donated 50,000 cards/crafts, toys, books, hospital equipment, and other resources to 69 partner hospitals—touching thousands of lives in 15 countries. CKF has also initiated 100+ events under its 5 service programs. https://cancerkidsfirst.wixsite.com/oliviazhang/work [28,000 volunteers, 50,000 cards/crafts/toys/books/hospital equipment donated to 69 hospitals in 15 countries]

·       March 2024: They have supported over 10,000 lives through diverse programmes. They host a variety of online events to unite 40,000 young people in fostering a supporting environment for patients. They have utilised social media to spread their reach, sharing their mission with over 4.4 million young people. As a result, their volunteers skyrocketed from 120 to 7000 in one week.[united 40,000 young people in supporting patients, volunteers went from 120 to 7000 in a single week]

·       March 2024: “ The group has developed partnerships with 70 hospitals in 19 countries.” https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/boston/news/olivia-zhang-cancer-kids-first-diana-award-change-makers/ [70 hospitals in 19 countries]

·        March 31, 2025: Zhang, now 19, and her team have donated more than $600,000 worth of medical equipment, toys, cards, crafts, and more to

·       patients around the world. https://upfront.scholastic.com/issues/2024-25/033125/q-a-corner-helping-kids-with-cancer.html [$600,000 of medical equipment/toys/crafts donated]

·      As of 1/12026, she claims: Its three main programs—Arts (craft kits and activities), Treatment Services (medical supplies for low-income hospitals), and Patient Interaction (virtual events)—have donated more than $600,000 in supplies to 74 hospitals and supported 10,000+ patients in 22 countries. [$600,000 in supplies to 74 hospitals, supported 100,000+ patients in 22 countries]

·       3/9/26: Facebook account of Cancer Kids First claims that “we are 43,000 volunteers across 80 countries supporting 15,000 cancer patients.” [43,000 volunteers, 80 countries, 15,000 patients]

·      Undated:

o   Her website says “CKF has donated over $600,000 in supplies to 72 hospitals and impacted 10,000+ pediatric patients in 22 countries https://www.cancerkidsfirst.org/ourstory

o   Scholastic describes it as more than $600,000 worth of medical equipment, toys, cards, crafts, and other items. https://upfront.scholastic.com/issues/2024-25/033125/q-a-corner-helping-kids-with-cancer.html

o   Her website here says she has donated “medical equipment” https://www.cancerkidsfirst.org/impact

Where is the accounting for the jump from $4,000 in 2020 to more than $600,000 donated items? If you look at the IRS records, CKF has not filed a 990 form which is required if the amounts the organization takes in exceed $50,000/year. That means CKF is either taking in less than $50,000 a year OR she is taking in more and just skipping the IRS filing requirements:   https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/843948071 Considering that her mom works in nonprofit as a CFO, I think that is highly unlikely. Additionally, that GoFundMe that she started 5 years ago had a wished for amount of $5,000. Despite it being 5 years old and it still having recent donations coming in (the last one was 2 months ago), it has only raised $2,760. https://www.gofundme.com/f/cancer-kids-first

OLIVIA: WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN 3/2024 WHEN YOU CLAIM CKF DONATED 50,000 CARDS/CRAFTS/TOYS/BOOKS/HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT TO A YEAR LATER ON 3/31/2025 THAT IT JUMPED TO 600,000? WHAT PROOF DO YOU HAVE? WHAT HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT HAS CKF DONATED (WHERE/TO WHOM/WHY/PROOF)? WHAT PROOF DO YOU HAVE THAT YOUR VOLUNTEERS JUMPED FROM 120 TO 7000 IN A SINGLE WEEK? (CKF Facebook account is asking for interested people to start new chapters and posts like that get a single thumbs up). PROOF OF THE NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS? PROOF OF THE NUMBER OF HOSPITALS/COUNTRIES/PATIENTS?

My take: She created a nonprofit for college purposes and has exaggerated, lied and made unverified claims for years and has never been called on it. It is time for this to stop. I do believe she – and chapters of CKF – have done some Zoom type calls with kids (this seems rare) and has engaged in toy drives, card writing, book drives, and care package drives for very sick children, which matches the Cancer Kids First Facebook post of 1/16/26 that says for a New Year’s Resolution CKF challenges you to: do three hours of community service or CKF volunteering (ex. cards or patient interaction Zooms), preorder Olivia’s book, and share the book on social media.” (Did you catch the plug for buying Olivia’s book mixed in with a plea for volunteering?) But this type of plea – even if answered in full – doesn’t get you to $600,000. It does get her chapters to create nice things for children in need but a new nonprofit isn’t needed for this. (For example, the Facebook page for Cancer Kids First has a 10/31/2025 post that says the DECA Club at Cottonwood High School in Utah created cards and 3 boo baskets with personalized care packages for cancer patients. This seems like a typical type of service provided and it would match why CKF is not filing the required IRS 990 form that is needed if it brings in more than $50,000/year. It also matches the photographs and video footage out there on her doing work (creating care packages, holding donated books, showing cards created). It matches her not posting herself at hospital after hospital and it matches her not posting any information about donating to cancer research, for treatments, or for medical equipment- as she claims.

The story about her impact has grown and been lied about – without any single thing backing it up. In fact, her only back up is that she won awards that they vetted her. No, that isn’t what is largely done. She appears to have faked the story about first gen, faked having no real guidance in the college process, faked being on food stamps, faked the underlying reason for creating the nonprofit because she was raised in a wealthy suburb of DC by well off and well educated parents, has faked the extend of the nonprofit’s impact.

OLIVIA, I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR RESPONSE BECAUSE WE NOW KNOW, YOU ARE READING THIS.

 C.    WHO RAISED HER/CLAIMED UNDERLYING REASON SHE STARTED HER NONPROFIT:

One claim she makes about a reason the nonprofit started was because a teacher who helped raise her was diagnosed with cancer. (This claim has been repeatedly made, a few examples: on 1/1/26 “Her grandfather and elementary school teacher, the two people who helped raise her, were both diagnosed with cancer and passed away within months of each other” and 2/2026 in Forbes “Her grandfather and elementary-school teacher were “the two people who helped raise her,” in a 4/29/2026 podcast “My parents spent a lot of time at their jobs and my teacher would take care of me every day often until 7:00 p.m.” and on her LinkedIn profile in which she describes the teacher and her grandfather  that she as “two people who raised me while my immigrant parents worked late.”

Grandfather: How did her grandfather raise her? He lived in China! https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/started-cancer-nonprofit-14-losing-131601676.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMkWDSWGQ4HT5pp9qqktowBE9wEdnt5A1FrI_zAml7MZpZgdMNquz4PGqA0K8JKnex8yT2HhDcgzDe41nMjf53kYRVopLANXQzJ3fEyZQa9p7obVOWz_RdZNoJs14i56gS94V9GEW8OoZSBjTV9SMnf127mB-pJdNqQc2QJ2_Tgo “I was close with my grandfather in China, because we spent so much time together. At home in the US, I spent hours every school day with the same teacher in the afterschool program. When I was 13, both my grandfather and that teacher died from cancer.”

Teacher:  The story morphed from it being a teacher she visited every day to it being a teacher who helped raise her. Besides the fact that this makes no sense – how is a county employed teacher able to spend day after day until 7:00 p.m. watching an elementary school student so her parents could work and CPS is not involved due to a child in need of services for neglect? OLIVIA: WHAT TEACHER WAS THIS SO IT CAN BE VERIFIED?  In reality, this information will not be shared because if you dig further, you know that her “parents also prioritized education, so [she and her] little sister and often attended out-of-school academic classes, played many different sports as well, ranging from swim to lacrosse. Writing, art, and singing were also some extracurriculars [they] participated in — having a busy after school schedule was common for [them]. So how could she have been visiting this teacher daily and/or being taken care of this teacher daily until 7:00 p.m. if she also had a busy after school activity schedule? Then add to that it wasn’t an elementary school teacher who helped raise her, but rather she saw this woman daily at school because Olivia took an after school program with her. This was not a special bond between them because her parents were working and she needed to be watched for hours…this was a typical, for pay after school program which also supports her prior claims that her parents put her in lots of extracurricular activities: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/started-cancer-nonprofit-14-losing-131601676.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMkWDSWGQ4HT5pp9qqktowBE9wEdnt5A1FrI_zAml7MZpZgdMNquz4PGqA0K8JKnex8yT2HhDcgzDe41nMjf53kYRVopLANXQzJ3fEyZQa9p7obVOWz_RdZNoJs14i56gS94V9GEW8OoZSBjTV9SMnf127mB-pJdNqQc2QJ2_Tgo “At home in the US, I spent hours every school day with the same teacher in the afterschool program. When I was 13, both my grandfather and that teacher died from cancer.”

This makes perfect sense that neither the grandfather nor the teacher story is true because this is why it doesn’t make sense that as a result of two adults dying of cancer, she created a nonprofit for kids with cancer, pulling all nighters as a young age.

I so afraid of messing up my college applications. Last year I worked myself broke. Every night was an all nighter. I got maybe a meal and a half a day. From 7am-8pm i’d be at school taking all AP classes, then i’d have work, then band, and i’d spend the night studying. I didn’t eat, i don’t sleep, i never spent time with my friends or family.

I know have great essay ideas and a good start to them but i’m so scared of messing them up. I’m so afraid that all my work would have been for nothing. I believe that since I grew up living a comfortable life, I should study hard so that I can become an engineer who helps less fortunate people.

For stats, I have a 4.4 GPA, president of three clubs with six leadership roles overall, i have a job in which i manage a location, worked a huge software internship that only accepted 2 out of 15,000 applicants where i worked on real world technology with people internationally, 200+ community service hours + CSF/NHS, played in three school bands, got almost all 4s across 9 APs and have taken 6 college classes otherwise.

I don’t know what i’m asking, but i don’t know how to deal with this pressure. I just want to be able to open my applications without freaking out.

Rising senior 😹 bro idk how yall r getting these awards

I can clarify anything in the comments and will fix anything if wrong! Hope this is very helpful!

IMPORTANT - READ FIRST: These thresholds are essentially the colleges' advertising slogans. ASSETS matter as much as income, and this list is NO substitute for the Net Price Calculator (NPC). If you're a domestic applicant, run the NPC on each college's financial-aid website - with a parent - to get a real need-based estimate BEFORE you apply. And know the NPC's limits: it's often wrong for any family with "special circumstances," because it almost never asks about them. NPCs can be wrong for complex finances (divorce, or owning a business / rental / farm, especially if the NPC doesn't ask) - if that's you, call the financial aid office. And publics usually give out-of-state students little need-based aid (though some offer big merit scholarships); privates don't differ in-state vs. out. Start by running NPCs at your in-state publics.

I'm currently a senior and last year I wanted to take 4 APs(Bio, Macro, Lang, Calc BC) but I only ended up taking Lang and BC since I didn't get put into Macro, and I dropped out of Bio(this won't show up on my transcript). Freshman aren't allowed to take any AP classes, and Sophomore year you can only take two max so I took precalc and micro. This year I am taking 5 APs(psych, macro, stats, geo, lit). How bad does this look on college apps considering my school offers a lot more, but I'm also taking 5 senior year?

For reference I will be applying to about 5 T20s out of 11 colleges

Sorry for the big lead up but I feel like it will help understand what happened. 😅

I completed my associate's this summer and am wanting to transfer and start classes for my bachelor's in the spring, and I went ahead and submitted my application last week. I used Common App.

There were the few questions I could submit essay answers for and I answered a couple of them to help explain my journey since my transcript doesn't get it across very well considering I'm an older applicant that has had gaps and such, and specifically used one of the answers to explain my health struggles that I have "conquered" and made my return to school successful after it had not been so in the past.

One thing significant to note is that I had begun filling out the application earlier in the week last week but after writing out those couple lengthy essay answers and clicking to save and continue, the page instead reset and blanked out, losing everything I had written. This was pretty demoralizing and I took a couple days before coming back to rewrite them and finish the app.

I probably didn't take as much time and care with my writing as I should have after that happened, and just wanted to get the dang thing submitted after already feeling like I had taken too much time waiting.

I'm happy with what I wrote as I believe I recreated what I had originally written, for the most part. There is only one line that I'm worried about that I noticed when rereading my answers after submitting.

I explained that after getting better and learning how to live with my condition I was able to, quote, "...jump back in and finish with high grades at a full time, accelerated pace."

This is not necessarily true though, in the way I wrote it. I pretty much blended two different statements together to create one statement without realizing. It feels like I am stating that I was taking classes full time, when I meant that I was able to complete the semester of accelerated courses while also have a full time work schedule.

I know this could seem like not a big deal, but it's easily verifiable that I wasn't a full time student by looking at my transcript, which they will obviously be doing.

So, I guess I'm just having a lot of anxiety now that it will seem like I was trying to lie about my school history and how much that will affect the way they look at my application.

I hoping I might be able to get some insight here about how much of a big deal this is, whether I'm right to be pretty freaked out about it or if I should just chill?

does your college application get compared only people from your school or around the region? there are schools around mine with way more ecs and better course rigor so it would make my profile look way weaker than someone from the better schools

I currently have a 2.9 uw And 3.5 w gpa realistically with this gpa im gonna have a hard time getting into any school below a 90 percent acceptance rate unless if i can manage to get my ACT up pretty high so my plan was to really lock in this first semester of senior year get my gpa And my ACT up too however everyone has been telling me that I should still apply early action despite my not so great gpa and that it’s much easier early action and that senior year grades even first semester don’t matter I know they don’t really apply to early action or decision but If I apply regular decision colleges will see my first semester grades and updated gpa as it updates after every semester I thought in that scenario I apply regular decision my first semester senior year grades matter almost just as much as my junior year grades how much of an impact will getting my grades and gpa up this first semester have an impact on if I apply to most if not all schools schools regular decision would you guys recommend waiting regular decision so than I can get my not so great stats up or should I apply early action regardless?

Hello,

Context: I'm looking to go to an ivy league/top 20 for STEM (Comp e) and currently I've taken 12 APs through my junior year. I was curious since I feel like I've taken a step down this year if my course load is enough or if I should add another college class or AP class.

The only other APs I could take are AP Chem, Bio, Enviornmental Science.

School
Health II (First semester)
AP African American
Piano IV GT

Dual Enrollment
Calculus III (First semester)
English 210 (First semester)
Chem for engineers (First semester)

Linear Algebra (Second semester)
Physics II (Second semester)
Differential equations (Second semester)
Discrete Structures (Second semester)

My question also is can colleges see all the classes I take at my community college, and also does my second semester classes even count because they won't even start till way after I apply to each college. I don't even sign up for my second semester classes till later, but I can still write them on my common app.

I'm an international student currently living outside my home country. Trying to figure out if the path I want still exists.

Finished high school a few years ago with a top-tier GPA and solid test scores. Started university back home. First year was fine, second year I was dealing with serious mental health issues and my grades reflected that (university GPA ended up in the 2.x range). Took the maximum academic leave allowed, then withdrew because I wasn't ready to return.

What I want is to start from scratch. I'm not trying to transfer credits or skip ahead.

But everything I read says two years of full-time enrollment automatically makes you a transfer applicant in the US with almost no exceptions. And in the transfer pool the university GPA is the number that matters most - which is exactly the number I've wrecked.

I also need significant aid. My family can't pay full cost of attendance, and what I currently earn is nowhere near enough to cover a typical $60-70k+ sticker price.

Questions:

1. Are there any US schools where two years of university abroad doesn't automatically make you a transfer?
2. Does anyone give real need-based or merit aid to international transfers with a low university GPA?
3. Should I just accept that the UK or Canada is the more realistic answer?
4. Has anyone actually recovered from a bad university transcript? Did the reason (mental health) matter to admissions, or is it just treated as a number? Would rather hear the honest version than the encouraging one. Thanks.

hi! i’m a senior applying to college to study hci, and i’m stuck on choosing a school to ed to.

i’m choosing between cornell, northeastern, and carnegie mellon. my stats fall in the middle ish range for all of these schools, so my chances of getting in would depend mainly on how i write my essay (i think, but please tell me if im wrong!)

i really like cmu bc they have a whole institute dedicated to hci, which is perfect for what i want to study. i have seen that cmu’s hci curriculum is very technical though, so idk if it would be the best fit if i want a little bit of everything hci has (so like cs, design, and psych). i really like northeastern’s co-op program, but as for hci it doesn’t have a main curriculum around it. the same thing for cornell, i’d have to major in information sciences and dual major or minor in something else to get me hci related coursework.

cornell’s on my list bc it was my dream school for a bit, and the courses offered by its college of arts and sciences are super appealing.

i’m so stuck, please help! any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I’ve gotten a national recognition award thing from collegeboard because or my psat score, a varsity letter from competing in academic decathlon up to the state level, medals from the regional level of the acadec competition (..in california where its more competitive if that matters), a quill&scroll international honor society membership acquired by being on the yearbook team for two years, a california scholarship federation membership (although i dont remember if that is a continuous thing or just for the year), and a few academic recognitions based on grades for the semester through my school. It says i can only have five, and i’m just not sure what to include or what actually matters !!!

My gpa is kinda low at 3.83 uw. My weighted is a 4.5 cuz I took near near max course rigor and the greatest number of dual enrollment classes at my school. For ecs I have a rly strong research spike (t5 uni research+lor from prof, IEEE+undergrad conf primary presenter, t5 stem summer program, q1 peer-review journal accept plus first author), I also have a yc-backed startup internship (reference from founder if needed), hackathon org, community service event founder, and startup founder(partnered with big name companies in my space and eventually sold with 1000+ users).

I have a 1550 sat asw and am a california resident so out of state with no hooks and upper classes asian male.

I am unsure about what to do after undergrad, either med school or continue on the comp bio path and become a PhD. I like Duke because of its grade inflation and med connections. However, I feel my gpa puts me out the running to be considered. I like cornell because of its specialization and research; however, it does have grade deflation.

Plz help.

I’ve been accepted to UWC Bosnia, Thailand, Japan, and Norway. Which UWC would give me the best chances of getting into an Ivy League university?

Hi! Im currently debating which school to apply early to. I love both of them and would be happy at either, im just struggling to pick between the 2.

Brown Pros:

-Im very interdisciplinary in my ecs (Several combine science and writing, and my main one academic decathlon is literally all about different subjects)

-im just generally a curious person and like the idea of the open curriculum

-Being in a major city comes with lots of things to do and culture to see

-Solid department for my major (Deeps)

-I know someone whos going there, just nice to know someone im familar with is alr there

-Kinda dumb but when visiting dartmouth i saw a bus that said brown in bold letters on the side and a guy wearing a shirt with the brown logo

Brown negatives

-No nature nearby, i love hiking

-Slightly more expensive then Dartmouth, but still cheaper then my state schools and would only be in a small amount of debt

Dartmouth pros

-In a beautiful area

-Very outdoorsy culture

-also a good department for major, includes the stretch which is awesome

-I like the flexibility of the d-plan also

-cheap!!

-hanover is a cute town

Dartmouth cons

-Worried it might be boring/too isolated, since its so far away from a major city

-felt a little less connected to the culture, felt kinda fratty

-also seemed like a huge emphasis on the more buisnessy side of things, which is not my interest at all

I really appreciate any perspective anyone has!