As my fellow seniors are pretty much done with their Ed applications and are playing the waiting game for their acceptances, I am growing more and more scared about applying next year. I am worried because of my latest sat scores and a score I got on my practice ACT. Even though it is still almost early that I shouldn’t be extra anxious about my test scores which are critically low(when I say low I mean low).I still feel that the schools I would like to apply to wouldn’t even look past my scores. The schools I have in mind are Georgia tech,Johns Hopkins,Syracuse,Oklahoma ,George mason and Loyola (md). I am a black female and my W GPA is a 3.49 ( I guess without my junior year grades) and unW gpa is a 3.1. I have taken mostly honors in 9th and 10th grade(one Ap class in 10th which was bio.) and in 11th my courses are all honors execept for 2 which are Ap physics 1 and Ap Lang.I am also taking courses that are aligned with the pltw engineering curriculum all 4 years.My ECs are I guess pretty unique for someone in my school which is that I’m interning at Johns Hopkins BME lab with grad students,I’ve participated in the girls who code summer immersion program , and im a regional coordinator for a non profit program that encourages teens to teach younger kids computer science,I’m also a programmer/secretary of my school’s robotics team, A goalie for my field hockey team and will be working in a group for a MESA competition.what are some studying tips for scoring high on the ACT math and English mostly in general with act/sat or should i really not even worry about my scores? (regardless I will study).any other tips I should follow for applying next year or rather words of encouragement
Thanks!
My recommendation is that you look into some more safety and match schools. This way you can reduce stress knowing that you will get into some schools that you will like and not worry so much about the others. Don’t get super attached to the schools that you have mentioned above, as many of them are rather selective, especially Georgia Tech and JHU. For a more detailed response, what is your class rank and sat score? Where do most of the people in your position from your high school end up going to college?
@WinnerWannabe my class rank is 69 out of 436 but this doesn’t include my junior year grades which are improving Very well .freshman and sophomore year I Keep getting gpas on report cards ranging from a 3.5 to a 3.83.my first quarter gpa for junior year was a 4.25 so im praying that both of my wieghed and unwieghed gpa will go up after junior year.my sat score is well…very embarrassing to say but i took the PSAT from 9th grade all the way to 11th and first got a 870 sophomore year,920 junior year and then with the real sat which is a 940 
This is why I’m experimenting with the act. In my school I’m in a magnet program that specializes in biomedical health and kids in this program could get in penn state,Umbc,Towson,umd or any surrounding colleges in MD or a community college.
@WinnerWannabe at the jhu internship I have now which isn’t apart of the apl internship program for high schoolers.Im working with grad students and I’ve asked about admissions chances with my stats and they’ve said that having an internship like this would help tremendously and test scores do matter but not that much and they preferred people who are going to shape their campus culture.
You should consider adding some test optional schools to your list. Here is a list; there are some really good schools on this list:
@intparent I have been looking at some good test optional schools like George Washington university and George mason.Would I have a chance in either of those schools?
Ask your parents to invest in a test prep program like prepscholar.
@Hope567 The internship will definitely help with admissions if it is an actual in depth internship where you have full participation and have potential to be published or have work that is of that caliber. What the grad school kids say regarding test scores is true, but only to an extent. Test scores are not the end all be all, but they do factor in. Not everyone needs a 2300+ (or rather a 1550+ now), but they do need to pass a certain threshold. To be brutally honest, even with your URM boost (I’m assuming African-American), a 940 is not very attractive to most of the schools that you are considering. Your GPA has an upward swing, which is good, but the end result is not that great. Hopefully it improves, and with it your class rank, because that would be very helpful to you. All that I have said does not mean that you are an automatic reject, but do take into consideration that there are others out there with more competitive stats that will be applying to the same schools that you will be.
@WinnerWannabe Thank soo much for the advice! If gave myself an ideal score for the ACT and Looking at my latest SAT scores, do you think I could get a 26-29 on my first try and how would scores like these be viewed in admissions along with my GPA and among other things?
@nw2this In January I will be taking an online prep course in SAT/ACT math because thats mostly my weakness in the remaining areas including math I will just use practice tests.Do you have any tips on how can successfully self-study and use practice tests?
@Hope567 I personally have no experience with the ACT or the New SAT because I took the Old SAT last year as a sophomore and was happy with my score. What I found worked best for me study-wise was doing 20-30 minutes a day, every day, for about a month.
Khanacademy.org for the SAT including the free practice tests that are there. Our Naviance has a free version of Method Prep for the ACT, check to see if yours does as well. Get prep books from your local library. Use the free materials on the prepscholar website.
BTW, don’t just prep in math. Prep for everything or consider less selective schools like Morgan State if you want to stay in Baltimore.