College Advice (Help needed PLEASE READ ALL!)?

[Rashad]

Hi everyone, *Sorry for all the grammar mistakes*

I am a senior at Bronx Center For Science and Math and plan on going to college (Hope). I already met with my guidance counselor and she just blew me off really. It seems that if you are not Spanish you are on your own to her. My other counselor he just went on about college life and answer NONE of my questions. Now i am not saying i am the best student but i really did work hard during 9th and 10th grade to maintain my 70% overall average and in 11th grade i had a 75% overall average. This year for the first two mark periods my overall average was a 85% and a 86%, I am starting to do my work because i finally started to care.

Sports management and Japanese are the only majors i am looking at. Guidance counselor from my sister school gave me his opinion and said "Sports management is a new major really , you should try and build your own major in sports management. Maybe start off at a 2 year college with business and do something like law school."

Not going to lie but i have been a "mama's boy" for all my 17 years and even though i know i will have to move on one day i just don't think i can make it on my own if i move away for college so SUNY schools are out of the question.
My mom said she doesn't want me to go to CUNY school because she feels that i will be in an environment with kids who don't care about education. It doesn't matter if i do go to a CUNY school as long as i have choices i am fine.

For most of my high school i did nothing, to be honest i should have never put BCSM as my first choice but there is nothing i can do now. Japanese was the only reason i came and my school had no extra activities to do when i asked Mr.Tom(principle) freshmen year. We just got our library up and running but it is already too late since i am a senior. Our sports team are full of Spanish people who cuss in every sentence that comes out of their mouth and like our guidance counselor "your not Spanish, get out."Only one club i was in and that was Build-On where we volunteer such as cleaning parks up etc. So no extra activities really...

I should have try and improved my SAT grades but i didn't: (took only once)
Critical Reading:370
Writing:520
Math:480
1370

My classes so far and grades: Marking period 2 only
CONC PHYSICS 91
PRE-CALCULUS 81.2
CUNY MATH T1 92
GOVERNMENT 86
ENG 12 LOGIC 79
SOCIAL TOPICS IN THE MEDIA 85
JAPANESE 4 HONORS 87.2
Overall Grade (not including 12th grade 9th-11th only) 74.58%

I don't know if you want my regents grades as well just ask i be glad to provide them

I attempted to look for sports management colleges in NY but all the stuff i find on google are worthless sites trying to get you to buy books that talk about sports or just provide reviews about the major and give no colleges whats so ever. My sister is going to graduate Fordham University so i took a look at that college and saw they do offer business and Brooklyn College offers sports management. Overall, those are the only two schools i have actually did SOME research on.

My college essay is crap and when i submitted it into the college office at my school then picked it up the next week I had nothing to work on. She left "needs work, put in paragraph forms" and that is it -.- my second page had NOTHING on it. Rather than cussing her out i manage to just say "thank you" put a fake happy face on and walk out the door before i did some illegal stuff to her.
I want to change my topic, i wrote it on my experience of seeing my mother cry because in 7th grade i was getting kicked out of since all my grades were 55%. I was thinking of writing how it was a wake up call and that i am not a A+ student like my sister but that i will work hard to earn grades that are decent so that i will never be in that position again. Then since my grades have slowly improved reflect on what has happen in my life and why i started to do my work.

Sorry for all my mistakes in grammar and what not! I know it is a long response but believe me i really want to go to college and don't know what to do. I want to change my life and forget about my past.

Having no help from my high school is hard and it seems like my sister can't help me since she has her own work to deal with.

The only thing that is left is ask strangers for their opinion and what i should do and hope they are nice. So i leave you guys with this....if there is any advice, ANYTHING about college, majors, my essay, my grades, what i should do, etc. please let me know even if it is bad i am used to it. Again i am sorry about this being long but i have no choice. :,(

Let me know if there is anymore information you want. Thank you for your time.
We don't even have a yearbook so i am glad people won't remember me. Not to mention we don't know what our senior trip is and we just had a party that charged $10 to get in, and $2 to play games in our gym -.- (WHICH IS SMALL)

[Rick]

Nobody's going to read all of that crapola.
So when you figure out an actual question to ask, please do so.

[Rustic B]

Your SAT suggests you need to be in a community college. Also, you need to boil all of that down into a simple and straightforward question.

[JJ]

I would take a more positive approach to the college essay. Nobody really cares what your grades were in grade 7, since you won't be submitting them to college. All that really matters is junior and senior years, so focus on discussing how you improved your grades over that time because of your drive and your enthusiasm for learning.
They don't want to hear about your mother crying; they want to hear proof of why you are a mature and responsible individual who is capable of success in college.

[watsit2ya987]

Well it's good that you wanna turn your life around. My advice to you is to try looking into colleges in NY which is an area you seem to be most comfortable with, whether they be community college or universities. And even though you don't think you'll be interested try looking at colleges out of state as well. Sometimes those universities may be a little easier to get into and may offer more financial aid and scholarships. In some cases out of state college end up being cheaper than in state colleges. Instead of looking for a college with a certain major Try looking for a college as a whole. One of the biggest mistakes some peolple make is choosing a college for only one reason, whether it be just the location, a major it has, if their football team is good etc. Look at the location, the surrounding city, remember your not just going to school your going to living in this place as well. So you wanna make sure the surrounding area is safe easily navigatable and comfortable. Look at the credability of the school, what kiind of people go there, who are some notable alumni, how many people become successful after attending the college. Look at the staff, you wanna know that well qualified people are leading the classes that you take. Look at the on campus housing, if you are going to live on campus you wanna make sure they a clean and safe and comfortable for you. Look at the activities the school offers, what kind of fun things does the university offer that provide a good alternative to partying and drinking all the time. Example, my school play host to many comedians, we've had jimmy falon, Kathy Griffin, Loni Love, this one guy from the show workaholics. They put on concerts they had T.I. comeoout this year. they set up a carnival ride in the union for no reason one day. So look for things like that. Once you find your school or Schools that your interested in tour them if you can't then look at their website and call and talk to an academic adivisor they are the ones that look over your application. Don't be afraid to ask them where you stand as far as getting in they'll usually have no problem telling you what they like about you and what you need to improve on. Just continue to show growth in your academics. For some schools its not all about how high your GPA or test scores are they like to see growth and improvement the most so if you went from being an F student to a B student and are continously growing they love to see that. As far as college essays go some colleges give you a topic to right about, and others just ask you to write about yourself in general. Write about what you think will get them to notice you. And as far as majors go you might wanna think about what you like to do in general and look a school that offer majors that cater to that. Sometimes people change majors and if you go to a school for one specific major and you decide you wanna be a dancer and they don't have a dance major well then your kinda screwed so you wanna a something that you can fall back on just in case! I think that if you sell yourself well on the application and its not to late to try to get involved in your community just to put something on college apps. If you call and keep intouch with the same person everytime that will also help. I think you'll do okay with getting into schools. Goodluck to you! I hope everything works out ok

[Linda]

Hello,

I am an Admissions Counselor and want to first tell you that you should absolutely apply - even to colleges you think you cannot get into. Here is the reality: Grades and test scores are not everything - in fact they are about 30 % or the decision admissions couselors make. So, if you have not submitted your essays yet, then focus on them. THEY ARE THE CORE DECISION MAKER FOR ALL ADMISSIONS DEPARTMENTS - representing on average 60% of the admission decision!!

Make sure the grammar is correct with a spell and grammar check and write from the heart - since your support system seems to be "lacking" try to write about what is important to you. If the question asks your to write about how you could bring diversity to the campus - then emphasize what makes your different than your peers. Or if the essay is about a person that had an impact on you, write why that is the case. My advice, be DIFFERENT! Write something that you feel will make an impact on the counselor in the first sentence - such as "I remember the first time I met Mr. Jones, my high school chemistry teacher. I realized, I was in for an exciting year!" or something like that. You don't want your essay to be like everyone elses. You can also write about why your grades started to improve and include in the essay, how you had no help with school work. Remember, those of us who read these essays are human. We know not every kid is a robot with perfect 4.5 GPA, a million clubs, captain of the football team etc. Also, we pride ourselves on admitting a wide range of applicants - sure we have the 4.5 GPA students, but we also have the 2.5's.

So please do yourself a favor apply to many schools and scholarships. And if you decide to do the community college transfer route, then look for programs with transfer admission guarantees.

Best of luck to you and get moving, because many application deadlines have passed and some are coming up beginning next week.