<p>Ok so my dream schools are: Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, U of Chicago, and Cornell. My decent chance schools are UCLA and Pepperdine. Safer schools are University of Washington and Arizona state. I'm a junior right now.</p>
<p>GPA(unweighted): 3.75-that's my huge problem, I don't even have a weighted gpa because I didn't take any AP classes</p>
<p>SAT 1: Taking in a couple weeks, for the sake of getting answers right now I'm assuming they'll be around 2000-2100</p>
<p>I've taken 2 honors classes and received A's in both, im in precalculus right now and senior year I will be taking AP Stats, AP Macroeconomics, AP Gov. And APES. I have all my requiered classes for admission (foreign language, ect.)
EC's
Snowboard Team
NHS
debate team(I took 3rd in the state, which led to my school's overall championship)
2 years of JV lacrosse
Club soccer for a year
Church worship Band
I was a theatrical movie actor in LA for many years, I aquired starring roles in t.v. Shows, a movie, and various commercials. For the sake of anonymity I won't say which ones, but will that be a major hook for me getting into these colleges? Thank you so much for reading.</p>
<p>Your GPA and your lack of real effort at taking hard classes shipwrecks your chances at the schools you listed. Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, U of Chicago, and Cornell – only 2 honors classes until now and a 3.75 GPA won’t really be viable</p>
<p>I think even UCLA and Pepperdine are stretches.</p>
<p>Hard to tell. There certainly are very few, if any, applicants with your theatrical experience, but your grades and test scores are sub-par for your reach schools and not taking any AP classes is a huge detriment, although I suppose that can be explained by the enormous amount of time you put in for your theater roles.</p>
<p>Maybe. Almost all applicants applying to those schools took at least ~5 AP courses throughout high school although I’d wager the number is closer to 8-10 for students accepted to Stanford and Duke. You have a unique case though</p>
<p>Admissions to highly selective schools would be helped if you took more honors and harder AP courses (e.g. English, calculus BC, etc.) if they were available in your high school. AP statistics and environmental science are often considered among the lighter AP courses (and less likely to get credit in college).</p>
<p>Yes, UCLA looks like an admissions reach. Washington is unlikely to be an admissions safety.</p>
<p>Have you checked the net price calculators to see if all of the schools are likely to be affordable?</p>
<p>Since I’m new to this lingo, I get confused when people use the term “reach.” Does that mean it is “in” reach for me or does it mean it will be a reach, as in the odds are not in your favor? Also ucbalumnus, how does Pepperdine look? I pretty much understand that Stanford won’t happen. But what about Duke and Vanderbilt? I’ve heard of people getting in there with 3.5-3.7 GPA’s before.</p>
<p>Duke is very competitive these days, but Vanderbilt could be a possibility if you earn great SAT I and II scores. Once you have those, it’s easier to venture a guess. </p>
<p>Find some other match level schools, your current list has too many reach (as in not in your favor) schools. Pick up a copy of USNWR and find schools where your stats(when you have them) are in the 75th percentile of admittees.</p>
<p>If your school has Naviance, a program which shows what scores/GPA earned entrance to a certain college from your HS, you can see what types of stats won admission slots.</p>
<p>Out of reach = certainly not
Reach = unlikely but possible (may be a very low chance, like 5% or less)
Match = likely but not certain
Safety = certain</p>
<p>The terms can be separately applied to admissions and affordability. A true safety is a safety for both admissions and affordability, and is a school you would be happy to attend.</p>
<p>sorry but Duke is out. the reason why those people with 3.5-3.7 could get in are because they take all AP classes. Even someone with perfect sat scores could be rejected</p>
<p>Oh, come on, people! With a hook like that (assuming it’s legit), a 3.75 (A-) is fine for most of the schools listed. Kids on CC can be so out of touch sometimes.</p>
<p>So you guys think most of the schools listed are out of reach, including UCLA and Pepperdine? I plan on majoring in something that will lead me to law school, so I’m hoping the acting experience and the debate will be the main hooks. So if i took 1-2 AP classes this summer, would that help? and the biggest thing I’m wondering is how much that acting hook truly will help me. I didn’t get to develop sports skills before high school because I was too busy doing that. Do you think they’ll applaud that achievement enough to make up for lack of AP’s and 4.0? By the way I’m probably throwing Cal Poly and Whitman in the mix here.</p>
<p>I would say that all your dream schools are probably out of reach. Also the AP courses during the summer seem questionable, because you couldn’t take the tests until the following May, by which time (if you haven’t forgotten the material) college decisions would already be out so it won’t be clear if you actually learned anything in them. The lack of APs mostly hurts your course rigor in HS, because when you apply your GC designates how rigorous of a course load you’ve had. Practically all ivy applicants will have “most rigorous” marked down, with at least 5-10 APs.</p>
<p>IMO, you should do something meaningful with your summer and then try to take at least a few APs your senior year.</p>
<p>It depends on how “big” of an actor you are. If you said your name (hypothetically. don’t worry, you don’t need to reveal anything here) would I, a fellow teenager, recognize it? Would an adcom recognize it? If you’ve been in a couple of commericials and a low budget film, chances are this is not a hook and those schools are out of reach. If you are a recognizable name, maybe it can counteract your stats to help you a little bit. Let’s be honest, even some of the regulars on Disney channel wouldn’t get a hook. Think of all the shows on Disney and Nick, and all of the people on them. I’d bet the only ones who would get a hook are Miley, Selena Gomez, Victoria Justice, Miranda Cosgrove, etc. The rest of the kids on those shows are not well known. So for someone who has been in just a few things, I would say that it is likely not a hook.</p>