<p>To get into an Ivy League such as Cornell or Columbia?
Or Johns Hopkins, Stanford, or Georgia Tech(deferred already)</p>
<p>I honestly really want to do great things and study Biology or Bio-medical Engineering in college. Being from a low income single parent Hispanic family, I was only able to afford two tests, the SAT and ACT. A teacher once told me that the tests were meant to be taken without studying, but I hear many students from my school complaining about having to take an extra SAT prep course or study with a giant SAT workbook. I feel like I'm at a disadvantage because I lack these materials. I have not once studied for either test except getting familiar with how they are scored and what kind of sections are in it. I spend most of time working to add to the family income, swimming for a club, and studying for my current courses in high school. As a senior, I'm taking College English (joint enrollment), Organic/BioChemistry Honors, AP Spanish, AP Stat, AP Biology, and AP Psych. My UW GPA is 3.8 but W is 4.22. </p>
<p>My scores are for the SAT are:
math-610
reading-590
writing-530</p>
<p>ACT- 25</p>
<p>Yes, I know, they're not great.</p>
<p>Thank you for future suggestions and opinions and the help.</p>
<p>I think those are just too low… I would have said that you should try taking them again (you could always try getting a fee waiver from your school if you can’t afford the cost of the test, and there are free study materials online), but I think the deadline for the latest test has passed. I mean, I’d still try applying, but they will definitely hurt your application.</p>
<p>I don’t enjoy being blunt but if you want any of those schools to even look at you you need to retake them again.
You have decent extracurriculars, but those scores will really hurt you.</p>
<p>…you have enough money to take College English, and alot of AP’s, but not to afford another test?
Also, I assume you know that the library has SAT and ACT prep for free. Take advantage of it. Don’t blame your ‘low income’ for your low scores.
Retake the tests because I really really doubt your scores are as competitive as they need to be in order to gain admission.</p>
<p>Like someone else mentioned, most school libraries have prep books that are loaned out for free if you really want to have a chance at one of those schools. But if you can’t up your scores by a significant margin… I hate to sound negative, but you won’t stand a chance. A 1730 on the SAT just won’t cut it.</p>