Getting into a top 20 school after taking two years off

[mike28]

Recently I've been doing lots of research on different colleges, and plan on going back full time in the fall. I think playing poker professionally for the past two years or so has really given me some great insight on on life, and ironically enough, has helped me mature a ton.

So, I've made the decision to pursue college seriously now. I don't want to go to random state university x and get by with a C average. I feel like if I am going to devote myself fully to my education, there's no reason I shouldn't strive to go to the best university possible.

Herein lies the problem. Getting into Dartmouth/Emory isn't exactly easy. Tons of overqualified students get deferred or flat out rejected every year. My piss poor freshman year of college, plus taking two years off to make tons of money playing poker doesn't exactly give me the perfect track record it pretty much takes to be considered at these schools.

How does one go about applying after taking time off from college? How does the adcom perceive it? How much weighting is done on high school performance, college performance?

Here's a little bit of my academia history-

High school was well, high school. I held a B average in a course load full of APs. Multiple Varsity spots, lots of great ECs (SGA president etc). Pretty much your stereotypical popular kid I guess. Had pretty excellent test scores. I figured my ECs/Test scores were on par with most kids applying to the big name universities, but my GPA was lackluster.

Then came college. I went to a sub-par out of state school on scholarship. Started making tons of money playing poker, decided college sucked. Joined a frat, pretty much drank and played video games all day. Being 19 and making more money per month than 90% of the college's graduates would make their first year really had some negative effects on my lifestyle. It was really fun though, a waste, but insanely fun. I guess my college career wasn't a complete disaster though, as I did debate on the national circuit and made some pretty big waves as a freshman. Won a bunch of awards, and debated mainly JV/Varsity.

So I dropped the majority of my classes second semester, and started living the dream life I suppose. It's been two years now, and I've learned a ton from the expierence.


So now that I've bored you to death, what's my line? I figure I can write a great essay on how playing professionally has really made me grow as a person, and helped me really understand what I want out of life. But at the same time my past two years have pretty much been void of anything that isn't traveling, making money, and playing video games.

Should I just go to a state university and really excel, then consider applying to the top schools? Would it be pretty much impossible given my track record?

[capone0]

How good is good with regard to scores? B average isn't that great. And are we talking a top 5 school such as Harvard / Princeton or fringe top 20 schools such as Wash U and Emory?

I went to Cornell, but I went the normal track. I don't really know anyone who has had your type of experience but I think it would be tough to transfer after doing poorly after your freshman year. You might want to goto a solid school, get a 4.0 for the first year, work your ass off and then try to transfer. I really think it's almost going to be impossible sans you buy a building on campus, to go from decent high school student on hiatus to a top tier University. Your ECs are going to be your strong points but I think it's going to be tough to make the move.

[Triumph36]

definitely sounds like you should go to a halfway decent school first, then try to move up. a friend of mine had mediocre high school grades and mediocre SATs, and had taken a year off between high school and college where he did nothing in particular. he attended a small liberal arts school, got excellent grades, and transferred out to cornell.

[mike28]

[ QUOTE ]
How good is good with regard to scores? B average isn't that great. And are we talking a top 5 school such as Harvard / Princeton or fringe top 20 schools such as Wash U and Emory?

I went to Cornell, but I went the normal track. I don't really know anyone who has had your type of experience but I think it would be tough to transfer after doing poorly after your freshman year. You might want to goto a solid school, get a 4.0 for the first year, work your ass off and then try to transfer. I really think it's almost going to be impossible sans you buy a building on campus, to go from decent high school student on hiatus to a top tier University. Your ECs are going to be your strong points but I think it's going to be tough to make the move.

[/ QUOTE ]

i had a low 1500s sat, 34 act. I was going to take he sat IIs but decided against it once I got the scholarship offer. I'm pretty confident I could get a high 700-800 on American History/Lit. Probably bomb the math iic but I figure i could pull at least 6-700 with a ti89.

Scary to think these are like three year old test scores though. Should I consider retaking the SAT? Maybe take the sat IIs (I think they were required when I was looking at some top 5 schools) Is there any point in taking these test after highschool?

Ideally I'm shooting for a top 5 school, but at some point you have to accept reality and I'm sure even variance comes into play in the application process.

[capone0]

Are you a white male? Do you have any thing else you could use? Top 5 is going to be impossible imo at this point. They won't let you in Harvard, Princeton, etc. with a B average and good scores even if you don't even mention your stay at the other school.

You need to goto a decent state school or something similar, do really well there and then transfer. Otherwise your odds are very slim. Those are good scores but scores aren't going to overcome a lot of your other stuff.

[chisness]

Maybe don't say that you ever started college if your grades were that bad? With the debate stuff, you probably still should.

I'd definitely go somewhere mediocre and aim to transfer to a top 20 (probably not the top 5 or so) after sophomore year.

[willw9]

FWIW, I got deferred and then rejected from Dartmouth. 4.93 GPA, 1450 SAT, plenty of extracurriculars and stuff, AND I'm a legacy. GL...nobody gets into Dartmouth these days...srsly.

[emon87]

OP,

If you are white or asian, unless your parents have donated tons of $$ to one of the schools, you have no shot at top 10. Probably not even fringe schools like Emory/Wash U. But you could try applying there.

I would figure out where you want to live and go to a solid school in that region. The alumni network and regional prestige will help you a lot.

[eamato]

I think your best bet is to go to a Junior college and get your grades in order, cheap and then tranfer.

I went this route and ended up in a top 20 school. The price is right and the new gpa will go carry more weight.

good luck

[thedarknight]

most of this sounds more like a brag how you made a [censored] load of money playing poker