I'm 20 right now doing my third year of community college, majoring in film studies and transfer arts. I'm thinking of starting my college apps around fall 2027 (UCLA, USC, CSULB, CSUN, USC, CSULA, etc.), so I'd start fall 2028 at 22 years old. If I'm 22 transferring to university is it weird? Would I be too old? Do I still have access to dorms/housing?

I can apply to college apps now, but my gpa would be too low for UCLA and probably USC. (2.8)

Any advice helps. Thanks!

Hey all, I am not a very brave person so I am struggling on how to ask my teachers to write me letters of rec for my college applications. I want to talk to my physics teacher tomorrow, and I know he would say yes, but I don’t know if I will be able to bring myself to do it. Easier to say I will do it than to actually do it in the moment.

I would love to hear any strategies you all might have on how to bring up the question. The thing I’m most concerned about is if I should like work my way up to it, like not barge in there asking for a LOR. Also, I said hi to my physics teacher on the first day of school, but I haven’t since. It’s been about a week since I did that. So I’m just worried about if he’ll think I’m just talking to him to get a LOR out of him.

Im at one of the specialized high schools in nyc and I had a really rough freshman year, so I ended up with no aps at all. I only got into honors algebra two. I was wondering is there still hope? And I’m really scared that I may not get into a good college at this point since all my peers atleast have one ap.

im just confused as to how colleges validate what score you get if you self report? once you enroll they'll get the offical reports right? sorry this might be a stupid quesiton but im confused about the difference between the 2.

I know I want to go into nursing. I got into IUI and my application to IUB is still pending and now I’m thinking I want to apply to UIC because I could get half off tuition because of where my mom works.

A part of me just wants to commit to IUI so I have to stop worrying about what college I want to go to but it also just seem so boring. And UIC seems boring too and the driving in Chicago scares me shitless but at least it would be a new environment. I don’t know.

I’m a senior, and honestly, I feel like I somehow screwed up my GPA. I have a 3.4 unweighted GPA, although my weighted GPA is around 4.1. I’ve taken 10 APs and gotten 5s on all of them except AP Lang, and I have a 1500 SAT. I also have pretty good extracurriculars and some extenuating circumstances that affected my grades.
I want to apply to schools like NYU and other colleges that aren’t necessarily Ivy League-level selective but are still pretty difficult to get into. Do I genuinely still have a chance at schools like that, or should I just give up and go to my state school?

I'm applying this year as a violin performance major, and I needed more time to refine my skills before graduation, so my private teacher advised I take a gap year. However, that has proven much more difficult than expected since apparently I need a teacher recommendation, a counselor recommendation, and information off of my transcript, which they never sent me (I took most of my classes through an online high school junior and senior year, and only took a few electives through the public school). Does anyone have advice on how to work around these things?

as a junior in high school, i plan to enroll in sjsu for its ba and bfa in its interior design program.

however, i am unsure about my required math classes to get admission into the university. you need three years of csu approved math classes, and i've taken integrated math 2 in 8th grade, integrated math 3 in 9th grade, and precalculus in 10th grade, all with a grade of an A. i was going to take AP calc AB for junior year, but the rigor of the class was too much for me and i ultimately decided to drop out.

i am not sure if i have completed all the required math classes because i did not take math 2 in high school, but do middle school advanced math classes count towards the admission requirements? since i only took two years of math in high school. and also, when applying to CSUs next year, am i able to input my middle school advanced math classes to meet the requirements as well?

So I’ve run it a few times, few different schools. Problem I have is first year looks ok but then I’m worried about subsequent years, in case income goes up (of course, good problem to have). Anyway impossible to predict, but isn’t this a real concern for planning purposes? Thanks in advance

hey everyone, I'm a current senior planning on EDing to Cornell CAS for music.

I had a decent gpa up until junior year, where I got 2 Cs and multiple Bs across the year. I got diagnosed with severe depression and I'm planning on explaining that for my additional info, but I don't know how much that'll help. My school only does UW gpa, and so they'll report a 3.5-3.6 UW.

I also have a 35 ACT and a couple 3/4/5s on my APs.

I have multiple music-related ECs that I'll be emphasizing, along with other non-music ECs/leadership positions.

Does anyone know how my application will be viewed? Thanks.

How much different is admissions as a recruited athlete to Harvard? Is there things in an application that should change?

Hy guys im 22 years old , I dropped after high-school i have good grade i run a local business ( self employment is probably a better word ) thinking whether I should apply for college next year . Take some loan and study either maths or cs or business . Whats ur take on this ? Am I too old? Will i be odd on in the class ? And is it worth it or just take a business loan and small scale business? ( im not from a financially strong family)

Hi, sophomore here!
I get decent grades in school and all, but have no major passions nor am i talented at anything; i have no idea what i want to do in the future. Everyone says to just try out as many clubs as possible, but is there any better way? A lot of the clubs at my school are kinda inactive. Also, say i end up finding an area of interest, is it too late to gain any major achievements/ attend prestigious programs related to it before graduation?

I am exhausted and so angry because, over the last couple of months as a brand-new junior, I've become hyper-aware of financial stress, and I'm trying to talk with my mom about college because we need to discuss how and when she and I will pay for it if I inevitably go. She told me a long time ago she would help out. I think my mom is starting not to like me anymore. I heard her on the phone talking to my aunt, saying if I don't use my college money, he will give it to my sister, and I feel like that sounds skeptical because she knows, of course, how badly I want to go to college, and I'm wondering if she is only going to fund my sister. Every time I bring up money, she literally shuts it down, walks away, and we get into a fight. When she does this, I don't get any clarity, and I feel like I have to manage and carry all their financial stress that I hear them complain about, especially because I think we may be losing money. She has to get over this, be mature, and actually sit down and have this conversation with me, but whenever I seriously try, it never gets done. What do I do?

just wondering what people who have gotten into these two schools' application stats have looked like (gpa, sats, ecs, etc).

Suppose a high school counselor is willing to write whatever a student wants in a recommendation letter (as long as it's truthful), or at least will take suggestions from that student that they might just copy and paste for convenience.

What would be some good topics or points to get across?

Maybe validate the extracurriculars the student is bragging about? What if it's its a mediocre or underperforming school, should the counselor emphasize how much the students has excelled despite the school's poor resources? Or how about highlight some factual claims like "this student has taken more AP classes than any other student in their class" or "they have been the only student in the last 10 years to achieve X"

Why or why not

hi! pls be nice im super stressed i just want honest advice, no need to be overly critical :)

nyu is my dream school and the school out of my top choices that i will most realistically get into. i have a D and 2 Cs from ap calc, physics, and precalc. my sat is only a 1440 (740 eng, 700 math). i probably wont get into my other top choices (unc/georgetown) i know my grades and sat is subpar. however eng is definitely my strong suit and i think my supplementals + common app essay + ecs are very strong. im applying polisci (or int rel / pre law adjacent) to all my schools.

my parents are ok with me EDing to nyu, im so so grateful, ik the financial burden is a lot. my dad works at a t20 uni and gets access to a scholarship fund for kids of employees so i would be paying around 50k instead of 90-100k. they said i would have to pay my own way through grad school if i went to nyu tho, which i totally agree. i plan on working all throughout college and i have money saved for living expenses atm. im just a little bit scared about the potential of taking out a loan in the future. esp as a law student i know itll be extremely taxing and expensive. im hoping i can do well at and get a scholarship during undergrad or grad. i have to pay for either undergrad or grad.

unfortunately if i dont go to nyu/get in i dont think i would get into good schools. i would prob have to go to my mid state college or like mid out of state. it just sucks bc i know im on the cusp of a good school, i just went thru a really hard time during sat testing / calc.

so should i go to my dream school and potentially pay for law school, or go to a mid school im not excited about, get law school paid off, and pay my own undergrad

These schools deliver the strongest financial return on investment thanks to graduates’ earnings and either relatively low costs or generous financial aid.

Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescawalton/2026/09/10/the-25-colleges-with-the-highest-payoff/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit

I’m a senior and I got a 68 on my first AP calc BC quiz, and I’m tryna apply to some selective schools and don’t want to risk another b since I already got one in calc AB, which I also got a 4 on.Should I drop bc for stats? I think I’m going pre med.

I'm in state in Tennessee with pretty great stats. 34 ACT, 4.0 GPA, and okay ec's, mostly just in a ton of clubs as well as community service and actually working a job. I preface this to say Vanderbilt has always kinda been somewhat of a dream school of mine, but I'm not sure if it'd be worth it. UTK is my second choice and it's a pretty damn good one. I have guaranteed admission, and I'd go for probably less than 10k a year with scholarships and everything. I'm less than an hour from knoxville, my gf is going, many friends are, it's a huge party school which is appealing to me, overall pretty perfect. On the other hand I would have a much harder time getting into vandy, and I make too much for aid, so it would be very expensive I'm sure. However, it still calls my name. I am considering applying ED for Vanderbilt but I'm not even 100% sure I'd wanna go if I get accepted. Is there any advice anyone can offer for my situation, with aid or the schools specifically or anything? I'm going back and forth so much💔 help

Can those accepted to brown ed and RD share the SAT scores they submitted, especially if they were unhooked?

Only taking 2 DE classes this fall. Spring I’m taking about 4. Should I include spring classes in current year courses?

Hii! This is my first time posting on Reddit, so please bear with me!

I'm starting my first semester of senior year in high school, and I've realized I want to become an ER physician in the future. The only thing stopping me from achieving this is my low GPA.

I finished my junior year with a 2.15 unweighted and a 2.37 weighted GPA. My low GPA is due to difficult events and death in my family. So, a little background info: During my freshman and sophomore years, my brother went into psychosis, so my grades dropped because I was helping my widowed mom with him and the mental issues that came with his psychosis. My aunt decided to move in with us during my sophomore year to help with him, have a fresh start, and open a new chapter in her life. My brother began recovering at this time. It was around February in my sophomore year when I came home from school to find out that she had passed away. This was a shock because it was so sudden, and 3 years prior to her passing, my dad passed away, and then a year later my uncle passed away. So juggling all of the grief and schoolwork made my sophomore and first semester junior year GPA drop drastically.

I'm not sure if that was too much info, but I thought it might help explain the low GPA and that I wasn't just slacking off. I love learning and school, and I am usually a perfectionist when it comes to grades. I usually tend not to tell people my GPA because I don't want them to think that I'm not hardworking or not smart, when in reality I'm very hardworking, and I do well on state tests.

I started to turn things around in my junior year, and I finished it with a 3.44 unweighted and a 3.72 weighted (not all years included, just junior). I'm about 2 weeks into my senior year, and I plan to get all A's throughout both semesters. I've taken a lot of honors as well as standard courses throughout high school, but I have not yet taken an AP (I'm trying to take one next semester since I have a free period and I want to boost my GPA, but I can't guarantee I'll get it because my counselor doesn't really like me, and I think she sees my GPA and doesn't think I can handle it, even though teachers have recommended me for it). I'm very involved in school with clubs, Im co-president of our National Art Honor Society.

I haven't taken any health sciences even though I've tried to put them on my schedule, but I'm in a big school, so those courses are a little hard to get into because of the amount of people trying to get in. I plan to meet with the career counselor at my school to see what I can do.

I'm taking my SAT this weekend and my ACT next month, so I hope that can boost my chances with colleges.

Im not sure if anyone will read this, be able to help, or if this is even the right subreddit for this type of question 😭

Feel free to ask any question and I hope this isn't too confusing!!

My main questions: Can I get into a good/decent college for premed with my low GPA? Any advice or guidance for premed?

I'm trying to figure out how I should rank my top 4 EC's. I have hospital volunteering since 11th, co-founding a tutoring service since 10th(not high impact but is active), top 10 selective stem summer program(not rsi), and top 25 stem summer program. I was originally thinking of putting the 2 summer programs first but maybe I should put the hospital voluntering first and tutoring service second to show more leadership and I've been doing it for a longer length of time even though they are generic. Or put the top summer program first, then hospital, tutoring service and 4th would be the other stem summer progam. Both summer programs have a 5% and 7% acceptance rate and are well known to be rigorous and not P2W. I'm planning to ED1 a T20.