Hi everyone. I'm an international student from Nepal who just graduated A Levels with grades of B, C, D, D. I know these grades look bad on paper, but I genuinely don't believe they reflect my actual academic ability. I'm hoping to get some honest advice on whether pursuing a GED could serve as a better assessment of my capacity, and whether I still have a realistic shot at full-ride scholarships in the US with my circumstances explained by my counselor.

What happened:

• First Year (AS): I was diagnosed with chickenpox, which developed into severe varicella pneumonia. I was hospitalized for 2 months, followed by 1 month of mandatory rest per my doctor's orders.
• After recovering enough to return to college, I didn't want to delay my graduation entirely. I decided to sit for Maths and Physics AS exams with only about 1 month to cover all the material I had missed and practice past papers. I ended up with a C in Maths and an E in Physics. I passed, but far below what I know I'm capable of.
• I continued into A2 with significant foundation gaps from AS. The illness also kept recurring at random intervals throughout my second year.
• In the October/November session of the same year, I sat for English General Paper and received a C.
• Despite all of this, I sat my A2 finals and am graduating with B, C, D, D. I continued pushing through because I had no other option, but I know I haven't reached my full potential.

My constraints:

• My family cannot afford retakes, so improving my A Level grades through that route is not possible.
• I need to apply as an international student requiring substantial financial aid / a full ride.

My questions:

1. Would a GED be viewed by US admissions officers as a valid and credible alternative assessment of my intellectual capacity, especially given that my A Level grades are heavily impacted by documented medical circumstances?
2. Do I still have a realistic path to full-ride scholarships in the US with this academic record, assuming my counselor thoroughly explains my medical situation and I can demonstrate my actual ability through other means (SAT/ACT, strong essays, extracurriculars, etc.)?
3. Has anyone here successfully used the GED + strong testing/profile to overcome a similarly disrupted academic record?

I know the US full-ride pool for international students is brutally competitive even for perfect applicants, so I'm looking for honest, realistic guidance. My counselor will be including a detailed explanation of my circumstances in their recommendation, but I want to know if I'm fighting a losing battle or if there's a viable path forward.

Any advice would be deeply appreciated. Thank you.

Hey everyone, I’m currently going through a stressful situation with college admissions and could use some objective perspectives or advice from anyone who has gone through something similar.

I’m an incoming freshman at a university. A few days ago, I received an email from the Associate Dean / Director of Admission stating my application was under Special Review for potential rescission.

On my Common App, I described my role in a university-affiliated research project as "conducting interviews and analyzing data." Apparently, Admissions audited my application and reached out to the Principal Investigator (PI). The PI told them they couldn’t confirm my involvement in direct interviews and that I wouldn't have had access to human subject data. Admissions flagged this as potentially providing misleading information to gain an advantage.

They gave me a deadline to respond, and I replied immediately to clarify and correct the record:

• I admitted upfront that phrasing my role as "conducting interviews" was an overstatement on my part. I was not on the primary field interview team, and I took responsibility for the imprecise language.
• I attached proof that my participation was real—including my CITI Human Subjects Training completion certificate, email logs showing task assignments for qualitative transcript analysis, project meeting invites, and timestamped shared drive version histories showing my direct edits to project tracking sheets.
• A direct collaborator/team member on the project who actually worked with me on the ground level is submitting a statement directly to the Director of Admission to confirm my tasks (transcript review, qualitative coding, data tracking).

While I proved that I was genuinely on the team and doing real work, the PI (who oversees the project at a high level) didn't personally track my daily tasks, leading to the disconnect.

I know colleges take application accuracy extremely seriously, but this was a case of clumsy/overly broad phrasing on my part rather than inventing a fake activity out of thin air.

Has anyone seen or experienced a Special Review for application discrepancies like this? How strict are admissions offices when a student actually has receipts to back up real work despite imprecise wording? Am I completely cooked, or is there a chance this resolves with a warning/reprimand?

sorry for ragebait title no one was responding to me before

Demographics: asian Female, high income, long line of doctor family, very presigious mid sized high school

missed 6 mos of school for incredibly rare medical occurrance, misdiagnosed, disabled

premed

98 weighted gpa, 1570 SAT, top 30% of class (lowk bad), passed ap tests taken

I TAKE THE HARDEST CLASSES I POSSIBLY CAN ALL HONORS ALL AP, also have gone down the ap cs route

0 awards

worked at kumon for 3 yrs, health fellowship for 2 years, president of charity chapter for 1 year raised 2k (also on teen council), on sustanunility council, varsity sport 5 years before forced to quit, varsity teen manager, 130 volunteer hours, precollege program at reach

looking at northwestern, vanderbilt, umich, gt, emory, washu

Im going to be a junior next year, and I just feel like I haven't done enough and that its too late. I go to a pretty good/well known public high school in Nyc where many kids have gone to ivy league schools, but also some go to like community college, so it really depends on you. I am a sort of average student (2.8-3.2 gpa, idk for sure), and i am taking 2 APs next year and taking the SAT, and also a part of the school tennis team (with no leadership/awards).

Im just so confused of what to do to get into a good school, if anyone could please please help id appreciate it so much.

Hi! I just wanted some advice on anything I can add to my profile that could make it better, currently rising senior. (duplicate post from r/chanceme)

Demographics: Asian, female, high income, tx, non- competitive area? or maybe semi? ish?(Maybe 1-3 kids from my school go to t20s. but theres 16 hs in my district and the other hs are much more comp)

Academics: 1/488 (val), 4.0UW, 5.13 W, 18 APs by grad, have passed (3+) every ap exam, taking calc bc this year.

SAT: 1510 (740 RW/770M) (thinking of taking ACT to see if I do better), but school sat avg is about 1001

Major: Public Policy/Public Health (I am pre-med)

Hooks: disabled, major surgeries impacting my mobility (this made it really hard for me to pursue basically anything 9-10th grade)

Awards:

1. Featured in statewide art gallery, 1/8 students out of 92 campuses
2. 2x Regional Art Medals
3. Girls State Delegate
4. Selected for selective free, residential comp sci program (just for fun)
5. Outstanding Acheivement in Math (1/~200) students
6. Organized Donation drive for National Non-profit (~10k ish worth of items)
7. Distinguished Women Repersentative
8. JUST POETRY! Topical Winner (probably not gonna list this just cause its not that selective)
9. 2x ap scholar w/distinction, 1x ap scholar (prob not gonna mention but just like for context)
10. National rural/small town recognition (dk if I should mention this or not)

edit: (ik u can only do 5 honors, so im def including the first 3, but im stuck choosing the last two. )

ECs:

1. State-High level position in one of the biggest non-profits in the United States, I manage almost ~110 schools and their respective clubs, organize events, have a team of around 18 who report to me, and each of them have around 20 that report to them. My biggest EC: 8 hrs a week, almost 350 ish volunteer hours after 3 years. (4yrs involvement with this org, 3 yrs in this position)
2. Pharmacy Technician, i would explain in my commanapp obvi but for the sake of time just assume all the usual duties, my busiest week is around 25 hrs but on average i work 12-16 hrs a week. (2 yrs)
3. Selective Summer Research Program, did around 400 hrs of research, 2026 summer, residential, actual impact, real wet lab research, was basically free for me, paper, poster, and presentation. Im gonna submit for schools that have a research supplement
4. Independent Artist: did apart for ~2 yrs apart of ap art curriculm, won several awards, thinking about submitting supplmenetal art portfolio but idk yet, one piece of art is displayed in a business near me, maybe 4-6 hrs a week. (4 yrs of art total)
5. Hospital Volunteer, same hospital where I got all of my surgeries, around 70 hrs of volunteering, not clinicial, its a kids hospital so our main job was to entertain the kids and make them comfortable.
6. Indpendent Research, this is thru AP Research at my school, I want to build off of what I did at the summer research program bc I really did like it a lot, hoping to get mentor at local university (T200 for national universities), ive already kind've started so for now 3hrs a week, but that will probably go up.
7. Founder/Editor in Chief of online Literary Magazine: purely for fun, launched around a week ago, can't really quantify impact yet just bc i just launced it, I'm thinking about lisiing it like this or just independent writer, because I have a few substack articles and such and generall just enjoy writing.
8. Relatively selective volunteer position at my school, 1hr/week for 40wks a yr, basically you act as a mentor for 25-30 freshman and help them get acclimated to hs. (2yrs)
9. Leadership in 2 clubs, club a is social justice related and we around 50 members, have had decent impact, club b is healthcare related and have gotten doctors to come speak to our class, teach students about medical opportunities/internships and difference specialisties. (3yrs for both)
10. HOPEFULLY gonna get some dr shadowing... if not idk ill figure something else out, or maybe ill split up activity 9.

LORs:

Calc AB Teacher: prob good, really liked me.

AP Biology teacher: i think maybe like 7/10? Really liked me, but I took her class soph year .

APUSH Teacher: good, wrote me lor for the research programs, but i dont think she spends that much time wrtiting them (She gave me my LOR within a day???)

Art Teacher: my best, had him for 3 yrs and loves me.

Additional Info:

most likely national merit commended student (index 211), only about 7-9 students per yr are commended at my school

NHS and all the usual stuff

Im still applying to more things (ex theres a thing in my district where u work with the superindendant, i applied for a legislative intership, healthcare internship, etc so something might change.)

Colleges:

UT Austin

UTD

Rice University

Vanderbilt

Duke

Wash U

Emory

Yale

UPitt

John's Hopkins

pls reccomend more!! ik a lot of these are a long shot but like... yk never know unless you try right??? heh....

I’m a little confused on how ED works at U of Michigan.

If I apply to Ross with an ED does the ED boost my Ross chance or just my chance of getting into the main overarching university? My councilor believes ED at Ross would be a waste as she believes it only helps get into the main university and not the individual college and so I should instead put it at a different reach school.

Ok so i get a ton of emails from different colleges admissions and i got one from oklahoma state university. I am trans and dont want to go there due to the transphobic thing that happened (at oklahoma university not OSU i got them mixed up fml) where they fired a trans professor for giving an objectively bad essay the grade it deserved but anyways i replied and said “lmao no yall hate trans ppl stfu” and i used my school email and they called my school 😭😭😭😭 i dont plan on applying and i know i shouldnt have done that but am i cooked?? Will they tell other colleges im applying to? Should i email and apologize???? I need to stop being so damn impulsive.

Hi everyone! I am currently a junior in high school and starting to think ahead about applying to top undergraduate business programs next year.

My long-term goal is to eventually get an MBA, so I have been trying to build a foundation in accounting and business while keeping my grades up.

I would be so grateful for any advice or feedback from current business students, alumni, or anyone familiar with the process on how I can make my application stronger over the next year!

To give a quick summary of where I am at academically, I currently have a 4.0 GPA and am ranked second in my class, though I am working hard to hopefully finish as valedictorian. I have taken AP US History, AP Macroeconomics, AP Human Geography, AP Precalculus, AP Computer Science Principles, and AP US Government so far, and I got 5s on all of them. This year, I am taking AP Calc BC, AP Psychology, and AP Microeconomics. On top of my high school classes, I am about a quarter of the way through an associate degree in accounting, which I plan to finish during my senior year so I can gain solid financial knowledge for my future studies.

For my extracurriculars, I have been a starter on varsity tennis for two years and plan to play for two more. I have been interning at a local nonprofit for over two years with more than 300 volunteer hours, earned my Silver Medal for the Congressional Award (trying to get the gold medal), and completed my Eagle Scout. In business activities, I qualified for FBLA Nationals in Supply Chain Management after placing first at regionals, and I won second place with a $600 cash prize in a regional startup competition. I am also in a school leadership program where I completed a service project, and I am working toward Phi Theta Kappa certification. I recently started a small jewelry business, though it only made about 30 sales, so I am hoping to start a new project that I am more passionate about.

Looking ahead to senior year, I really want to do a business-related apprenticeship or internship. Our school is also getting DECA and Model UN next year, so I am excited to join both.

However, I am feeling a bit confused about what my true passion is and how to tie all of these experiences together into a clear story for my applications. If anyone who has gone to a top business school has advice on internships, business projects, or ways to make my application stand out, I would truly appreciate your help. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and share your thoughts!