Grades aren’t the only consideration, however. As the application process grows ever more competitive, college admissions officers are giving increasing weight to the difficulty of classes taken throughout high school.
Tom Bailey took Advanced Placement (AP) German in high school, and his younger brother Tyler, a high school senior, will be taking AP Spanish this year. Tyler, who also has BMD, hopes to follow in his older brother’s footsteps by attending the University of Tennessee after graduation. He says school counselors advise that having more difficult courses on your transcript is a definite advantage when the time comes to apply to college.
Another way to keep college options open is to participate in high school extracurricular activities — something former MDA National Goodwill Ambassador (1996- 1997) Benjamin F. Cumbo IV highly recommends.
Cumbo, who has BMD, says it’s not just a high SAT score or GPA, but rather a combination of things that serves to set applicants apart. A sophomore at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in St. Mary’s City, he says you must seize opportunities to “be as unique as you can be.”
Cumbo cautions against spreading yourself too thin, instead focusing on one or two particular activities.
On his own college applications he wrote about achieving the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, as
well as the fact that he’d written and published a novel. He recommends participating in student government, volunteer opportunities and early internships as a means to gaining experience and skills, and making your application package more attractive to college admissions officers.
by Amy Labbe
So you think you want to go to college. Or maybe you haven’t quite made up your mind, but at least you haven’t ruled out the possibility of continuing your education after high school graduation.
If college is even a blip on your educational radar, take steps right now to keep your options open later. And if you’ve already decided to go on to college, these tips will help make the process easier.
The most important bit of advice is not so much to start the application process early (because how can you start early if you don’t know if, when or where you want to go?), but simply to make sure you don’t create obstacles for yourself that you can’t overcome later.
One obstacle you don’t want to face is the effect of bad grades and a low grade point average (GPA). Although GPA is only a small part of an admissions officer’s decision, it nevertheless provides clues to what can be expected from you in your college career.
“Having muscular dystrophy, I’m not able to be in the labor market, so I knew I’d have to be able to get a desk job,” says Tom Bailey, a senior at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Bailey, who has Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD), adds, “I knew I’d need good grades in high school to get into college, and I knew I’d need college to get a good job.”
Students with neuromuscular diseases may worry about the impact of poor grades caused by disability-related illness, surgery or depression.
Although there’s no standardized “special circumstances” form, the application essay can be one way to explain what happened. Additionally, your counselor can write a explanatory letter to include with your application. Sometimes this turns a perceived disadvantage into an advantage, as admissions officers get a chance to see how applicants faced challenges and overcame them.
Freshman year of high school isn’t too early to take pre-col-lege examination tests such as the PSAT, SAT or ACT, which assess students’ abilities in math, reading, vocabulary, science and reasoning. Colleges and universities have different test requirements, so knowing where you want to attend will help you determine which test or tests you need to take.
Although schools don’t require you to take these tests more than once, many students take them multiple times to get familiar with the structure and content in hopes of maximizing their scores.
“The ones who are really trying to get into school take it multiple times,” Tom says.
Tom took the ACT three times in his sophomore, junior and senior years. Tyler has already taken the test twice and says he plans on taking it as many times as it’s offered his senior year.
Cumbo took the ACT once before taking the SAT three times on his route to St. Mary’s.
No matter how many times you take them, two important considerations are preparation and accommodations.
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