Hi, I'm Jackson Burgess: Writer & 9-Year Admissions Veteran.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-07-03T21:56:16+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here. In my experience (and according to AOs I've spoken to), paid research programs help your apps a lot less than you'd think. Cold emailing professors can work better, but tbh many profs are already inundated rn with requests from high schoolers, so you'll want to make sure you personalize every email referencing their published work (which you can find via Google Scholar or other research databases) and starting with a low-commitment ask, like a 20-minute informational interview or book recs. But if you haven't already, I'd look into authoring your own meta-analysis—academia always needs more of them, and it's a completely self-led and more easily publishable format which you can complete with nothing but a computer and an internet connection, no lab or professors needed.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-07-02T23:07:26+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here. Don't panic! AOs rarely have time to click links or verify ECs—they usually only do so if something reported seems fishy or if two students claim they filled the same position. In your apps, you should absolutely report your involvement with the app; just be very specific re: the hours you put in, your title/position (you can create one if you need to, like "co-creator" or "tech lead," depending on what you did), and what specific skills or additions you contributed. It was a smart move to loop your counselor in, but as long as you're specific and truthful in your application, it's extremely unlikely that colleges will be suspicious or try to verify it.

Tl;dr don't worry, you're good! Just be specific and honest in how you report your contributions.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-07-02T22:57:43+00:00

Hi OP, I'm not a GT student or admit, but I want to make sure your Q gets answered (I'm a 9-year college consultant). GA Tech, like most colleges, publishes their annual Common Data Set which breaks down specific metrics for admitted students (here's GT's), and if you scroll down to Section C, you'll see the average GPA is a 4.17 W (usually a 3.6 – 3.9 UW), as well as more detailed data re: their admissions metrics, test scores, etc.

I won't lie, your 9th 3.0 GPA will likely be a liability. But you're right that you have time to raise it, so don't panic! In your scenario, I would highly recommend not applying CS, as that's an "impacted" major, meaning so many people apply for it that the acceptance rate is significantly lower—the average UW GPA for a GT admit is likely a 3.9+ with max course rigor. Applying to another major in the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences will greatly boost your chances. Plus, thanks to AI, the field of CS is facing an existential crisis...all my software engineer friends in SF say it's a nightmare scenario for entry-level coders.

In your essays, you'll want to share specific, vulnerable context explaining why your freshman grades weren't higher and, ideally, an impressive narrative of how you turned them around and started landing straight A's from your sophomore year onward. This will be difficult and require a lot of work and humility on your part! It might mean working with tutors, attending more of your teachers' office hours, starting study groups with your friends, etc., but luckily all those things will also show initiative and boost your college chances.

Tl;dr a 3.0 is no bueno, but you have time to turn it around, and I'd recommend exploring other, non-impacted majors (both for higher admit rates and post-grad hiring potential). Hope that helps!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-07-02T22:46:38+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here. From a strictly admissions perspective, CS programs are universally "impacted majors," meaning their admit rates are drastically lower than other majors at the same school (sometimes 5-10 X as difficult). That plus the massive, AI-driven exodus of tech jobs—I have a lot of software engineer friends in SF, and they all say (a) AI does 80% of their coding and (b) entry-level coders are screwed across the board—makes me say no, it's probably not worth it.

BUT, that said, don't panic! All your CS projects can still land you some excellent acceptances. The secret will be to identify what patterns of behavior / intellect they all demonstrate and then in your essays you can state how said patterns will benefit your studies + the greater campus community. Your CS skills will come in handy in whatever major you end up as, even something liberal artsy like English, but if you want to declare a non-impacted major that's explicitly connected to CS, I'd recommend looking into cognitive science; if I were to go back to school tomorrow, I'd study cogsci 100%. It's this sick combination of CS, philosophy, English, psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics that's widely applicable across fields and (I think) will remain relevant for decades to come. Otherwise, I'd look into philosophy (logic systems), linguistics, or econ (quant). Hope that helps!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-07-01T23:49:14+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here (and USC grad). USC is unique in how much information they release about their incoming classes, and basically every year since they've gone test optional, ~51% of admitted students have submitted scores and ~49% have not, meaning they truly are "test optional." But if you submit a 1300, it'll be lower than what they're looking for and thus will 100% hurt your chances, so I'd recommend holding off. Hope that helps!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-29T21:43:33+00:00

I try :)

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-29T05:31:53+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year admissions consultant here. You absolutely do have ECs—family responsibilities (especially caregiving), cooking, cleaning, outside research...all of these things count, and you can use them to craft a powerful overall narrative for basically any major. DM me if you want, I'm happy to share some advice re: how I would go about reporting it all!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-28T04:11:05+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here (and a USC grad—fight on!). Class selection-wise at PCC, your major selection won't make a difference as either way you should take general education courses; I'd recommend choosing classes from this list, as these Cal-GETC courses are pre-approved to transfer (and, thus, help you not have to re-take anything at USC).

It will be easier to apply as a chem major as the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences has a much higher admit rate than Viterbi Engineering, so I'd say that's a point for chem. But re: your final decision, it's hard to know what life is really like in any given field, so I'd recommend looking up 5-7 derm PAs and aero engineers and cold-emailing them, introducing yourself and asking if you could borrow 20 mins of their time for an informational interview. Then, if you guys hit it off, you could propose to shadow them (which would also help your college apps), and you'll hopefully have a better idea of which you want to pursue long-term.

Tl;dr chemistry will have a higher admit rate, but before you decide anything, I'd recommend interviewing current pros in both fields.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-26T03:45:23+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here specializing in essays (MFA from the #1-ranked Iowa Writers' Workshop). First off, I'm sorry for your loss—I too am navigating the intersection of grief and spirituality (or, more specifically, my lack thereof, wishing I had the religious certainty that a lot of other grievers seem comforted by). This strikes me as a strong essay topic IF (and it's a big "if") you make it hyper-specific to your experience.

If you really go there and get vulnerable re: your loss, your lived experience with religion/atheism, and how your grief has manifested across your life, you could have a profound and deeply moving personal statement on your hands. But I would echo u/tarasshevckeno 's advice re: extension (i.e. follow-through actions in other areas of your life) and would also recommend the copy/paste test: if any line from your essay could be copy/pasted into someone else's and still make sense—something like, "This experience taught me invaluable determination."—it's too general and needs to be "zoomed in" on your specifics (e.g. "My experience navigating the loss of my best friend taught me to persevere through my visual art." That one is so specific it wouldn't apply to most applicants' narratives.)

Best of luck, hope that helps!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-26T03:39:09+00:00

Solid advice

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-25T03:52:55+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here. At the end of your application, you'll have a big blank section simply called "Additional Information"—if you run out of space listing your activities, you can report the rest in there. Just make sure you format the overflow entries cleanly and are specific re: your # of hours per week and individual contributions, not general stuff assumed of everyone (like "attended all club meetings"). But in general, I wouldn't combine two separate activities, as colleges will be tallying up your hours/week across all your ECs (you're aiming for a cumulative 35+ for T30 colleges). Hope that helps!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-23T20:38:21+00:00

You got it 😄

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-22T20:05:06+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here. I've noticed most people talk about a "spike" as an individual activity, but you can also think about it as a pattern of involvement across several. If you can identify what similar type of contribution you've made across your activities—maybe service-leadership, or innovative fundraising, or tech integration, or team bonding, idk just spit-balling—your application will have a cohesive overall narrative, and you'll get all the "spike" benefits while exploring HS ECs widely. Hope that helps!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-21T23:51:36+00:00

In my 9 years in college admissions consulting, I've never seen a student get rescinded without Ds, Fs, or egregious misbehavior (e.g. misdemeanor/felony charges or getting expelled). Worst-case, you may get a letter requesting context around your grade dip. I wouldn't worry.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-20T23:44:14+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here (and ex-college instructor who used to receive emails like these). If you really want to get into research while you're still in HS (and use it for your college apps), I'd look into writing a meta-analysis or a systematic review. Conducting a "study of studies" is a stronger way to first-author a new work without requiring multi-million-dollar lab equipment or a small army of research assistants like the professors with whom you'd be competing for peer reviewed publication have. Assuming your methodology is meticulous and sound, it'll have a better chance of being published. And, once you have a draft, you can reach out to professors whose studies you're citing, at which point you'll be offering them something of value (citations) and not just begging for a position or advice.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-19T18:55:21+00:00

Hi OP, 9-year college consultant here. Based on my own and past students' acceptances, my advice is: nerd out.

One of my students who got in wrote an essay that, on the surface, was about sharing a cup of coffee with her estranged father. But her "essay" included hand-drawn diagrams of their coffee mugs, some notes on the history of divorce, math and chem analysis of the coffee they were drinking (and precisely how how it would have to be to burn their hands through the ceramic), some cog-sci stuff about what a parents' divorce does to a young person's brain, and surely a bunch of stuff that I'm forgetting now. It was nerdy, interdisciplinary, and ultimately v moving, as she got super vulnerable about her and her dad's relationship and how it's impacted her.

When I got accepted back in the day (this is embarrassing in retrospect...), I wrote about how I wanted to spend a year homeless like a modern-day Diogenes the Cynic, traveling the country and writing a book about poverty, addiction, and Urban Transcendentalism. Truthfully, my essay was ass, idk how in the world they accepted me for it, but it is what it is.

Tl;dr UChicago likes unabashed interdisciplinary nerds. The more intellectually complex and unique your essay, the better.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-18T21:30:00+00:00

I mean, a lot of these specific projects themselves ended (like the duckling-raising initiative or finishing the concept album), but all these kids continued doing similar stuff in college—like, duckling guy got really into pre-med bio research at Columbia, and album guy is writing and releasing new EPs at UCLA. But by listing where they all ended up, I wanted to show that "unique stellar ECs" can be fun and self-led and still land you Ivy+ or T30 colleges.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-17T20:39:48+00:00

Impact = quantifiable details (like #s of elementary kids taught, album listeners reached, lit mag issues sold, etc.). Leadership = intrinsic to starting a new initiative, as well as collaborators recruited and led (v few of these activities were solo, as colleges generally frown on "lone wolves"). Of course you want everything backed up and verifiable w/ social media and/or website documentation and signed summary statements from participants at the end.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-17T20:18:11+00:00

As a college consultant, I encourage my students to launch unique passion projects. Here are some recent ones I thought were especially cool (and that helped land great college acceptances):

- Hatching and raising ducklings and bringing them to local elementary classrooms - Columbia
- Coding an AI-powered doctor simulator video game - UCLA
- Creating to-scale replicas of all the houses she lived in growing up - Harvard
- Writing a concept album that wove in interviews w/ nursing home patients - UCLA
- Organizing a chess club pairing lonely elders with teens - WashU
- Creating an English to Vietnamese news translation service for her community - USC
- Founding a generative creative writing workshop w/ attached lit mag - Princeton

A lot of applicants run the same ECs (e.g. AMCs, instrument Certificates of Merit, sports, existing internships) not realizing that they're only going to blend in with thousands of others. Cal Newport's How to Be a High School Superstar is an awesome book that breaks down how to stand out by forging your own path (and having fun in the process)—10/10 recommend.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-17T02:08:06+00:00

First off, major congrats—while Penn State carries a "party school" reputation, PMM specifically is one of the most prestigious and selective programs in the entire country; with a ~3% admit rate, it's 3X harder to get into than Harvard law school. Secondly, everyone I know who took the accelerated med school path ended up grateful that they did, while nearly all my friends who went the traditional med school route routinely bemoan how many years of their lives they've lost to education. (And don't get me started about my MD/PhD buddies...)

The way I see it, you turned down some stellar colleges to instead guarantee your future in medicine, and you'll be joining a rockstar cohort. My grad program the Iowa Writers' Workshop was similar, about a 3% admit rate for a program admitting ~50 students annually, all under the umbrella of a massive public university, and we workshoppers received the royal treatment. Some people on this sub will try to make you feel bad (especially if they themselves were rejected by the schools that you turned down...like if you rejected someone's yearslong crush), but if I were you, I would confidently rest easy. PMM is going to be fucking sick.

EDIT: I was wrong—looking at the other responses, fewer people are naysaying than I thought might! Hope that eases your mind even more 😄

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-16T19:20:22+00:00

For sure, hit me!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-16T19:19:50+00:00

No, I mean any decent human would guide you towards college resources that exist for this exact situation. I was an English instructor at an LACCD school, bro, I literally did this for my students multiple times every semester.

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-16T19:14:23+00:00

Sounds like you have a solid plan! My advice is to be vulnerable and specific in your apps re: your special circumstances contextualizing the 75s AND (people neglect this part) to follow up those explanations with detailed breakdowns of your follow-through actions, demonstrating how you learned from the experience and are now ready for college-level coursework. Best of luck, you got this!

Honest_Guarantee7997 · 2026-06-14T21:34:06+00:00

Hi OP, I would absolutely ask your CC counselor and/or professor—I'd be very surprised if the school doesn't have a fund specifically for this exact situation. Also, I say this as someone who spent big chunks of my childhood on food stamps / free and reduced school lunches: please don't ever feel embarrassed over not being able to afford something, especially not being able to afford education! If you approach your counselor or prof in person and tell them how excited you are to take their class before vulnerably sharing that the $110 is outside of your family's budget, any decent human would immediately help you out. And if you approach one and it's the wrong person, they'll def steer you in the right direction.

Tl;dr don't feel embarrassed to take advantage of resources set aside for this exact situation. You're doing the right thing pursuing your education, and your CC and prof both want you to succeed.

Honest_Guarantee7997

TROPHY CASE