I'm not a bad student. I have a 4.91/5.0 GPA and 1510 SAT. I will have taken 10 APs and I've already gotten all four 4s and one 5. My extracurriculars aren't great but I've rowed for 4 years (fall, winter, spring) and have some small leadership positions in other things.

Despite my okay stats, I am 100% done for. I mean, no one I know hasn't started their application process besides me. I don't know what to do. I haven't even put in my extracurriculars in common app yet, haven't started my essay, haven't done any supplementals.

I really wanted to apply early action to schools because I know it helps your chances but at this point I don't know if it's possible.

Every time I try to start my college essay, I delete everything. I don't see why any schools should accept me because I genuinely see no value in myself. I have no direction in life.

I was going to apply for engineering because I used to think I was good at math and science but honestly I don't think I'm good at anything anymore. So the whole "why this major" thing is also going to be hard to write.

I guess my question is how do I write a college essay that convinces admission officers that I'm worthy if I hate myself and will probably end up useless in society?

Obviously these are both amazing schools but they've fluctuated in terms of ranking on us news so I'm just wondering if people actually consider them T20s or like if they're borderline.

My daughter is struggling in HS. She is a senior. She is smart but not an organized kid and misses a lot of homework hence grades are not great.
I don’t think she is a good 4-year college candidate right now (she can’t even get up for school and always late).
If you were that kid or if you are parents of such kid, is there a degree that you/ your child pursued (maybe like a certificate) that worked out great for you?
I am looking for general advice and guidance on how to help my daughter. I do t want her end up with no direction post high school.

I know that there are a lot of really accomplished students at these schools, but how many students are just the above-average student with no crazy awards, Olympiads, or published research? Are T20s students all really super super accomplished or are there still a lot of them that differentiated themselves without having an insane profile?

seeing people at stanford and upenn talk about impostor syndrome makes me feel like shit
i was on reddit and saw people who got into stanford and upenn talking about how they feel like they don’t deserve to be there and how everyone else is smarter than them.
and idk it just made me feel so fucking pathetic.
i have a 3.3 gpa. no sat or act. nothing impressive about me at all. i couldn’t get into either of those schools if my life depended on it.
and these people who are literally some of the best students in the country think THEY aren’t good enough? then what the fuck am i?
i know impostor syndrome is real and i’m not trying to invalidate them. but god it hurts knowing that people who are so much smarter, more talented, and honestly just better than me still feel inadequate.
like they’re scared they don’t belong at stanford. i don’t even have to wonder. i know i don’t.
they deserve to be there. i don’t. it’s really that simple.
i guess it just sucks knowing that there are people my age who are genuinely worth something and i’m just… me.
idk. i wish i was good enough to feel like an impostor too.

I’ll just give you guys some background info. I am a Canadian IB student at a Catholic school.

I feel lost for college applications, they feel extremely daunting and I am really not sure what to do. I see videos and reels of people who are winning national awards and founding non-profits which are raising thousands of dollars for charities.

The truth is I don’t have any of these things. I am in grade 11 and I just switched schools so I don’t have any clubs. I was DECA exec in grade 10, and SAC(student activity council) finance exec. I also work a job as a tutor, I have 20 volunteer hours as an English tutor, and 60 at a long term care home. I don’t have any grade 11 marks, my grade 10 average was 95%.

I want to go through the med pathway so the target programs below are life or health science degrees.

My dream school is Bowdoin College (Planning to apply ED)
Reach: Duke university, Amherst University, John Hopkins University
Target: McMaster University
Safety: Waterloo university and University of Toronto

I understand that content creators get the most views when they do post the absolute best student profiles, so it might be unrealistic to actually get admitted. So part of the problem is I don’t understand what colleges are actually looking for, my parents are not from here so I can’t ask them either.

This is my little rant, I appreciate you taking the time to read this far. I would greatly appreciate if you had any sort of advice or information for me.

So I submitted most of my college applications the other day and I’m so stressed out. I feel like I’ve done everything wrong. Like I missed a button or my EC aren’t right. I have no idea how to fill out my STARS or what schools want a transcript from me, do they need my official one after I graduate or do they need my unofficial one as of right now? I made a parchment account but I don’t know when I’m supposed to send them, and quite frankly I’m so scared of not getting into a university at all. I’m not a bad student, (3.1 gpa rn, BUT I’m graduating high school with my associates degree through a community college) but I feel like I wont get in. I’ve put so much pressure on myself by thinking ahead and being confident (saying things like “oh this will be nice for my dorm next year” etc etc)and my brother didn’t get accepted anywhere last year. I’ve applied to 7 out of 9 universities and I’m scared I wont get into any of them.

Hello,

For context I am an international student applying to U.S. universities next year. I will be applying to UCs and maybe private competitive universities (ex. Duke, Caltech, maybe MIT). I got a 1470 in the October SAT, so should I retake?

Any help is appreciated.

So my essay is insanely generic. Its about me playing the piano and ik theres bunch of people who play the piano. Even what my essay is about is probably insanely generic, though im not gonna share that. Does building my essay around the reasons and experiences through which I reached the conclusions I did save it, or should I js make a new one?

680 math and 710 rw its my first sat as a junior (i can only take one more tho) and im planning on applying to nj instate civil engineering is this score bad pls be realistic specifically for merit aid (i have 4.0 gpa) i feel kinda disappointed abt it

I have to fill out the stupid STARS for two schools i applied to (NYU and UW) and I’m actually struggling with the interface so bad, like, it’s so not user friendly. Maybe I’m stupid but holy shit dude it’s driving me insane. I went to two different high schools and I have two different transcripts, and one of them scanned in just fine and the other I have to manually input which is fine but every time I change like the grade or something it’s not right? like it’ll be fine and then I’ll go back to the overview and its wrong? mostly with the credit amount or semester. Only actual question here is if I have one hs transcript should I only report that one, or should I report the classes I took at the hs I took them at?

Hey everyone. I have taken the test 4 times and managed to get a score of upper 1500s in my last sitting. However, my previous tests are not as good. My rw scores are 690,670,690,780 and math scores are 750,790,720,790. For the colleges which require all of my sat scores, would my previous attempts be a disadvantage for me?

I’m an international student applying to Columbia Engineering, and I’m unsure whether I should submit my SAT score or apply test-optional.

My SAT is 1490 (760 Reading & Writing, 730 Math).

My stats are strong: I have a 4.0 or 9.9/10 GPA on the Brazilian grading scale, rank #1 of ~900, and have won multiple national science & math olympiad medals (3x gold, 1x silver and 2x bronze) and other academic awards. I believe my academic record demonstrates strong quantitative abilities, but my extracurriculars aren’t particularly exceptional compared with those of other applicants to highly selective US colleges.

Also, I applying for substantial financial aid, which already lowers my chances significantly.

I’m particularly concerned about the 730 Math score since I’m applying to Engineering and it would maybe indicate not being ready. My R&W score is higher, but I’m unsure whether submitting the 1490 would help demonstrate academic readiness or hurt me compared with applying test-optional.

Would you submit this score or go test-optional? 

I’ve gain 5.2 million views across social media over this year and I’m not sure if it counts as an EC? I’m looking into supply chain management and I’m a Hollister and Lewkin ambassador. Does this mean anything in the eyes of an emission office?

i have a 1500 superscore over two tests. my schools average is 945. i know it’s taken in context but i just hate knowing i’m in the bottom 25% of my reach schools. i got my sat back today hoping i’d superscore my math to be higher but it was literally exactly the same.. :/

i just hope my application isn’t tossed into the bins after they see a 1500. i know this sounds crazy and people have gotten in with 1400s but i’m just so worried. if anyone has words of consolation i would really appreciate it.

Hey! I am an international student from Nepal and I am wanting a Presidential scholarship at Howard University. I got a 1520 SAT and 3.85 GPA. Some EC's here and there.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I applied last year to Howard as well, but I had 1490 SAT so didnt get the Presidential award. I have not enrolled anywhere since.

So two days ago I applied to the graduate entry programme that I've been waiting for an entire year.

I wrote the application document a long time ago, and didn't reread it thoroughly before submitting it. I know I was careless, I'm still regretting it ;(

Unfortunately the university I'm applying to doesn't allow applicants to amend their application on the website after submitting, so I updated the document and contacted my agency today (I'm applying through an official agency as an international student), heard that they emailed the school to update the document for my application. I also emailed the admissions contact personally just to make sure if updating document is possible. I feel so dumb, and I'm so so worried that this will cause any problems in the future — admissions process, student visa qualification etc.

What I wrote wrong was the graduation dates of my former university and my years of work experience… should have wrote 4 yrs not 3 yrs but at the time I wrote my CV it was 3yrs

The documents I sent again was my CV and Statement of Purpose

Has anyone experienced this kind of situation?

for those who applied to UNC Chapel Hill EA in the last week and chose an assured enrollment option, did you see the optional prompt that asked why? that is a supplemental essay right? it was 500 words and phrased like an essay prompt, but I haven't heard anyone talking about it before since it seems to be new. was I crazy for writing an essay there?

I know it’s a bit early in the semester to even get senioritis but ever since i completed my ED app I genuinely just stopped caring about everything and feel so unmotivated. I used to study for hours during sophomore-junior year after school but lately i have just been napping😭 how do I get out of this rut? Can I even get out of it at this point

I know a few people who go to Oxford/Cambridge and all, and I mean ALL, of them hate it. The main points they make is that the unaliving rate is very high, dropout rates are high (but the internet says otherwise), the structure is demanding but gives u no help, they are really deceptive about certain regulations like mental health support and taking a term off, and the number of new people u can meet or interact with is very limited due to the college structure.

I applied to one of the two regardless (won't be saying for personal reasons), didn't get any response, but I just want to know if anyone else has had similar experiences.

I took the ACT once in March and got a 36, but I didn't send my ACT score to any colleges.

But somehow my UT Austin application portal shows that my ACT score was submitted and I got a 31 on a test taken in July?

I haven't seen this happen to anyone else. I've already emailed admissions but have yet to receive a response.

How does this even happen? Like is this someone else's score? And can this be fixed?

Do colleges actually care? If they do, how do they know an applicant is interested?

I am in my senior year of high school and the procrastination words can’t even describe how bad my procrastination has gotten to, It’s horrendous.

It’s gotten to the point that I delete all my social medias and I will just sit there doing nothing rather than doing my work early. I like physically can’t do any work unless it the day before the due date and it’s impacting my mental health a lot like there’s 0 cortisol in my body like I have such a lack of urgency and when the due date comes I get a sudden spike of stress. I genuinely don’t know what to do I like tried everything. I tired exercising before my work because I thought I had ADHD and I saw online that moving before doing work helps, which it did work for like 10 min.

Also when I like start one assignment the stress of the other makes me just dissociate and I will just sit there and zone out. It’s literally almost 10 at night and I have an art assignment to do but I feel stressed about college app so I just distracted my self with Netflix because if not, I would just zone out. Music kinda helps but it’s annoying to me personally.

But like idk what to do, if anyone has any solutions or tips pls pls pls let me know. I have achieved many great things in my teen years that I feel really proud of but I feel as though because of this habit I feel as though I can’t reach my full potential and it’s preventing me from a lot of the opportunities I would get if I actually get it together.

I’m a senior in high school. I don’t have to best grades/GPA, I would say I’m average, maybe even below. I hardly went to school my first 3 years due to some personal/family issues, and my grades reflect that. I will have the credits to graduate, but not the credits to get into a university. Ive taken 4 years of english, two years of math, and two years of science (biology and physics). I know I really have no other choice but to go to a community college, and even though it’s not a bad thing, I feel really crappy about it. I’ve wanted to be an engineer since I was a kid (specifically aerospace). But with only two years of math, and a year of physics (where I got a C), that future doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me. So what do I do? I don’t want to give up, but what else can I do? I’m already a senior, it’s not like I can go back and retake those classes and add some more. I don’t have teachers at school or really anyone that can help me in my life. I feel really stuck, and so far behind the rest of my senior class. Everyone else is committing to their colleges, and I’m sitting in my room writing a reddit post.

What do I do? How do I save my future?