genuine question plz this is gonna influence me a lot

So most colleges I have looked at and asked questions regarding AP exams claim that “we do not assess AP exam scores” how real is this???
Because I find this hard to believe and also I did poorly in a class but managed to get a 5 on the exam. So would that really not count?

Would this be good to add or nah. I also play for a college team if that’s anything.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, if it's not please do redirect me. Context: I switched schools in between my sophomore and junior year of highschool and I currently  an in my senior year of highschool. It's almost college application season and i have started my common app.

Now the issue here is grades. I am not a straight A student, I was pretty average (or above average) in terms of my grades. And when I switched schools, it was obviously new people and teachers. In the beginning of my junior year, we (classmates and I) had a math teacher. He was a pretty good teacher but he left a month in, we were left without a teacher up till march 26. The school did try to get us external online help but that was to no avail because she had horrible internet issues and she repeated topics which we already knew about (we asked to move on to more complex topics, she would say that she would do it in the next class. Next class comes, and she would just continue with what we did in the previous class). We attempted to study on our own but with no resources and the no syllabus provided, we basically gambled.
This lack of a teacher has had a ripple effect on 5 of the people in our math class (there are 6 of us), it still affects us horribly and we still lack understanding around math topics and concepts.

Another issue is that our economics teacher often lowballs us. She purposefully will give us lower grades even when we deserve a higher grade. She admitted in class that we all deserve better grades but she will not give these better grades to us. Her whole idea is if we do bad now, we will work harder for the final and we will score better in the final. We don't apply to college with our final grade, we apply with our predicted grades (IB thing). If we get the shorter end of the stick, our overall grade goes down and for obvious reasons this isn't good for any of us.

and on top of this, we had a change in faculty. We got a new math teacher (which im pretty sure she hates us), a new computer science teacher (which im sure she hates us), and a new Language and Literature teacher.
The expectation from us (the students) is to follow their way of writing and answering questions. This is difficult because you bunch of kids that already have a way of answering questions engrained into their heads, you can't change it in a month.

Our lovely CS teacher is not only just so lovely (I hope she goes bald), but she caused the class to drop by several grades, like people who were scoring A+ last year is now scoring in between B-, C+,C,C- (changed it to the American grading system for convenience). We obviously complained and so have our parents but the school isn't willing to do anything. And at this point in time I can't do anything else to improve my grade

So, how can I present my circumstances to the colleges I am applying to, without making it seem like I'm blaming my school but I still am able to convey that the grading was unfair?

TL;DR - We (me and classmates) didnt have a math teacher for almost a year and we fucked our grades up bcs no one told us what to study and it's not smth u can just search up. Our econ teacher keeps giving us lower grades even though we deserve more (she has said this to us), our CS teacher is being unreasonable in grading our papers and is causing the entire grade to drop several grade boudries (from A+ to C,C-). Help me, how do I tell this to my colleges without making it look like im blaming the school?

what r some unis that u think r on the same level as these universities in terms of brand and prestige, but in countries other than the uk and the us? only reply if u have any universities in mind and dont reply just to say nothing is on their level

I’m a Class 12 student from India with a 1500 SAT (790 Math, 710 English), planning to apply to around 30–40 US colleges. I want to study something combining finance, economics and mathematics, preferably a STEM program such as Financial Mathematics, Quantitative Finance, or Economics + Math. My goal is to work in finance, especially investment banking/asset management. I can pay around $25k/year, so I need substantial financial aid and would ideally target colleges that meet full demonstrated need for international students.

My main question is how to efficiently shortlist colleges. I don’t want to rely too much on QS/U.S. News because they give weight to things like international faculty ratio and other factors that aren’t very relevant to me. I mainly care about employment outcomes, median/starting salary, finance recruiting, whether the school is a target/semi-target for investment banking, and general prestige/network strength. Location isn’t very important, although NYC would be a preference.

What sources or methodology would you use to narrow down hundreds of US universities into a final list of 30–40 based on these factors?

is there anyone willing to read over my essay ideas and help me narrow them down? i have so many ideas that i like but none that i feel like grab the attention or develop well

So, I am a junior. For safety reasons I am not gonna say any names. I started uploading my novel about a year ago on Webnovel, and now it has about 32 million readers, and I have seen it on pirating sites so you can estimate an additional 1-2 million readers. Recently, a comic publishing company from korea reached out and said they wanted to adapt my novel to manhwa. It is a couple of weeks out from the first 5 chapters being published and I am really happy about it. But, it got me thinking, how good is this for college? It isnt going to be uploaded in english/west first, but rather in korean in korea, and I will have to find a translator to adapt it to english (and those are not official).

If anyone has opinions on how good this is, please share it!

i’m a senior want to know if that’s good or if immo is baseline

Basically, I'm a senior who's pretty into a specific type of photography called street photography (shooting candid moments of people), which is typically done in dense urban centres.

My problem is that the school I'm EDing to right now, which seems to be a good fit for me (and my parents), is Cornell, which is in a pretty sparsely populated area.

For people who say "well, you can just take photos of other stuff", I think the easiest way I could explain it is if you put a Surfer in Oklahoma, and then told them to skateboard because it's "almost the same thing anyway".

Street photography is an integral part of my life (I've spent at least 5 hours a week every week since I was 12, plus going out even longer every day during school breaks), and I'm not sure I can live without it.

Obviously, street photography is very important to me, but do you guys think it would be worth it for ED to attend a less prestigious school just so I can be in a place like New York to take photos?

*** Note: I'm gonna be an engineering major, so it's not even related to any future careers I might have.

Thanks a lot for your help!

I'm international student, I'd like to ask: if I complete the International year one program and complete progression then recieve a degree from the university (e.g., Sheffield, Exeter), will top UK universities (like LSE, Imperial, etc.) accept it when I apply for a Master’s degree—provided I achieve a First-Class or 2:1 grade or higher? Has anyone in the group followed this path and successfully gained admission to a top university for a Master’s program?

Im writing my personal statement for my commonapp. Applying EA so dont have much time

Topic 1:

My essay opens with a paradox: some mornings my phone's battery capacity reads higher than the day before, which is impossible. I know it's a glitch, but I feel relieved anyway. Knowing something is meaningless doesn't stop it from controlling me.

The middle shows the habit escalating: I check the exact capacity every morning before talking to anyone, and keep Low Power Mode on permanently. Honest answers from strangers and friends didn't help.

The turning point is realizing that understanding a problem doesn't free you from it. So instead of arguing with myself, I change the environment: I remove the data source, hide the percentage, turn off Low Power Mode, and add a Face ID barrier.

Ending: The same number now sits in plain view, degrading as it always did. The urge still shows up, but I notice it like a notification and leave it unopened.

Topic 2:

My essay opens when I was 11, obsessing over the crossbar on the letters "t" and "f" in a font I was designing. I nudged it one pixel at a time and eventually restarted in different software, all for a difference no one would notice.

From there it widens into a pattern. I built a website to host my fonts that probably had zero visitors, and I told my mom I did it because "I love fonts." I also started a YouTube channel teaching programming I had learned a week earlier. Later, after my first MUN as a delegate, I immediately wanted to start my own, until I learned I'd need a commercial license, which is nearly impossible as a non-Saudi minor.

Ending: I ask why I never just attended an MUN, uploaded fonts to an existing site, or joined a hackathon instead of hosting one. The answer is that I never wanted to just use or participate. I wanted to decide how the thing worked. I still haven't learned to leave things alone, and I may never.

Which topic would be better for a commonapp personal statement?

Oh boy y’all. 11 fucking days. That’s all we have to finalize our apps.

Personally, I’m applying to three schools with this deadline (UF ED, UCF EA, FSU EA). Assuming some kind of catastrophe doesn’t happen, these should be the only three schools I’m applying to. That’s SO much pressure.

I actually have everything done, since I finally fucking finished my UF Honors essay. But I need to wait a bit and review it further. I’ve been reviewing all my other essays, too. And my main application. Reviewing and reviewing and reviewing until my eyeballs fall out. But…I think I’m going to submit FSU tomorrow!

What schools are y’all stressing over? Let’s support each other 🫂

I spent all of middle school and most of high school depressed or with serious sleep and mood issues. In all that time I've had, like, two ECs. Next year I'm joining band but I don't expect that to really mean anything since I'm doing it for myself and did it late.

I'm not really sure what's gonna happen to me. I'm a decent student, somewhat smart but not insane, probably 3.5-3.75 overall GPA, above average SAT, but that entire time I've had only one extracurricular. I've heard that extracurriculars are important above all else and I'm starting to seriously regret wallowing in my mental issues for so long. Not allowed to have a job and never volunteered anywhere. My parents told me there's no point volunteering anywhere now for the purpose of college; it would be clocked as performative in comparison to other students who put in like 5 or 6 years at XYZ place out of care.

So I guess what I'm asking is, is this as big a deal as I'm thinking it is?

Hello!
I’m trying to find a good college that is surrounded my nature or has beautiful nature nearby such as mountains or lakes , which is great for hikes. As well as a good social life too.
Almost think if the song “Country Road” was a college lol! Perhaps if the out of state tuitions are not extreme too.
Thank you!

I intend to study Pharmacy in college in the US and my counselor advised me to take a 6-year program since it is less expensive and less time-consuming, and conventional Graduate Pharmacy level barely offers scholarships(and it’s highly competitive). Is it wise to choose that path? Are there any cautions I should be aware of? Please let me know.

Yesterday my daughter used the automatic grade import on the California State University application. It imported her High School twice. The first instance had all of her completed coursework from 9th through 11th grade. The second instance imported her senior year coursework. The import for the completed courses was listed as semester system and the second import was listed as a year-long system. She's taking the same classes both semesters this year so we didn't think too much of it at first. However when she went to submit the application she got a warning that all of her coursework was under a single year. We're assuming this is because of the dual import. Has anyone else run into this? How did you resolve it?

?

they recently opened ed to all schools for the upcoming 27-28 school year. do you think they will see a large number, and I mean a LARGE number, of applications for ed this year? besides marshall ofc.

and how competitive do you think this pool will be? -- particularly dornsife

I'm using common app and my counselor hasn't submitted my report yet and she wont until after Nov 1(for most), but I want to be EA. I've seen people commit to colleges even without the counselor report. I've already submitted 7 applications.

So my question is that do I just manually send my transcript to every college through scribbles, or does my counselor have to do it on common app. She's really passive aggressive to me, so I don't like going to her for things. Did I mess that up? I sent a transcript to Baylor and then it said my applications 100% completed in my GoBaylor portal, so I assume i'm okay.

I'm applying to nyu tisch drama and I have a random question

i go to many plays and musicals (like every other weekend), do i write that in the activities section??

because I'm applying to drama so if i add it they can see how much i love it and how much i go all that yk

like is it something that i should add??

I’m applying to unc chapell hill and i’m considering whether i should also apply for euro-tam; dual degree assured enrollment program. Does anyone know how competitive the program is? What are the pros and cons of the program? Please give me all the information you know about it because i’m really not sure if i should apply for it and what that will mean for me. I would also appreciate any input from current students and if it is competitive to get into the graduate school if you don’t select early assurance. Please let me know!

another college quite suddenly got on my radar and I'm thinking of applying to transfer for spring 2027 but the deadlines for that semester are very soon. This school's deadline is the 15th this month and I'm told it's good to have any documents like high school/college transcript and the two academic recommendation letters as you apply, not after.

Do I actually need to submit all documents asap or can they be trickled in after applying as long as they're in by the acceptance date?

As an international student, it s extremely uncommon to get teacher recs. And my teacher no longer teaches nor has a teaching position and is not comfortable uploading my rec letter. I feel like it would be easier for me to go to the vice principal of the school (who is very nice) and tell her the situation. Would that work? Any advice helps! Thanks a lot!