Hello fellas, I’m a junior in high school and the big decisions about my future are coming up. I am a Hispanic student at a mostly white small private high school that is known for its competitiveness. GPA isn’t anything incredible but I wouldn’t say it’s the worst in the world, 3.7 weighted freshman year(spanish 2 honors), 3.6 weighted sophomore year (Spanish 3 honors, and Geometry Honors), 3.7 junior so far (honors algebra 2, spanish 4 Honors, Us history Honors). Apparently my gpa is 3.4 unweighted which isn’t as good as I wanted it to be at this point. Senior year I’m planning on taking Ap Psych, Ap Spanish, honors statistics and Cp Precalc, along with some Shakespeare English class. My school offers 12 AP classes in total. My extracurriculars are Student Council member 1 year, Peer leadership 1 year, Varsity Soccer 3 years, AMBYESE Y.E.S I CAN program 2 years(held at UCONN exposes students to the inner workings of business and the sciences. Also is very selective and helps promote students to colleges), 75 hours of community service(100 by senior year), G License in Coaching, CFC premier soccer player, and have played premier at another team before that. No Sat or Act scores yet only a 1110 on the PSAT. Now that I’ve mentioned literally everything am I aiming too high by considering these schools in the application process? Please let me know I need to know from an outside opinion since my parents believe that I can make any school.
Schools I’m considering for marketing:
Boston University
UCONN
West Conn(safe school)
Emerson College
Temple
Penn State
NYU (reach)
Villanova(reach)
Marquette(safe?)
Fordham
University of Buffalo
Bentley
Let me know what you guys think!
Note that several of those schools can be very expensive. Check with your parents about what your budget is. Good luck!
Yea we discussed these schools and my parents are really pushing for Penn State, I would really appreciate to know what my chances are at these schools based on Academics and ECs, thank you.
To be completely honest, although you should certainly apply to them, NYU and Boston University are slightly beyond your reach. I’d say Penn State would be an excellent choice for you, as long as you work on improving your SAT score to around a 1250, which is certainly feasible. Good luck!
Thank you very much!
Btw I’d like to note that my school is a catholic high school, so along with PE being required I also am required to take 4 years of religion.
Forgot to list recs: Harvard grad is writing one of my recs, guy loves me and has had me for two years, will have me for senior year. Also another teacher known for writing great recs, always admired my work ethic.
I would recommend some SAT preparation. Presumably there will be classes at your high school. In our experience a tutor can help a lot since they will give you a practice test, score it, and see specifically where help is most appropriate. Even a very small number of visits to a tutor seem helpful. Also of course pacing yourself is important, and SAT preparation can help with this.
Having taken SAT preparation classes and a small amount of tutoring, and assuming that the students that I am competing with for admission are doing the same, I would then personally be inclined to avoid any university in which I was below the 25th percentile. Mostly this is based on “how hard will it be once there” rather than concerns of getting in. However, given your list I doubt it would rule out many and am not sure whether this would rule out any of the schools at all on your list (SAT is usually higher than PSAT, and preparation should improve this a bit more).
The methods for calculating weighted GPA seem to vary quite a bit between high schools, which makes this hard to judge (I have heard that universities recalculate weighted GPA to make the numbers comparable).
I am not familiar with the cost of the schools that you are applying to, nor what your financial constraints are. However, make sure that you have an economically safe school on your list (ie, you will get in, you are willing to go there, and you and your parents can afford it).
It looks to me that you are doing well and thinking this through in a sensible manner, and doing so at the right time (not in January of your senior year). Good luck!