Ok so I’m currently a sophomore going into junior year… There’s still some ways off until college but I want to know in advance so I can prepare since the odds are stacked against me.
I go to a public school, top 100 in the nation if not top 50. They offer only honors and AP classes.
I’m taking one AP this year and I’m planning on taking 2 in junior year and 3 or 4 in senior year. I’m also planning to take my SAT in the fall of junior year and again in the spring. If I don’t get a 2150+ superscored those two times, I’ll take it one more time in fall of senior year to get that score. On the new SAT, the essay is optional, but optional means required, obviously 
I think I’ll do fine since I’m taking Saturday prep classes during the school year this year and I’ll be taking prep classes all of summer. When I took the PSAT during the fall of this year, I didn’t study but I got 1320/1520. Not too great but not too bad either.
I plan on taking the ACT too, hope I’ll get a 30+ because I’m not gonna go to prep class for it, just gonna buy some prep books.
My current unweighted GPA is a 95.55 (since freshman year and two high school level classes I took in middle school) which translates to about a 3.74 ish I think.
My projected unweighted average is a 3.7 (gotta take into account those APs).
So I plan on graduating with 6 APs and 2 college courses.
But I come from a low income family, and I’m Asian American and 1st generation. I’m the oldest in my family so I will be the very first to go to university. (My mom did get her Associate’s Degree a few years back in the US.)
Honestly speaking, what kinds of colleges would be my safety, matches, and targets?
Also, I don’t want a too small school that’s <5,000 students but I don’t want a huge one >25,000 students. Preferably the city, suburban area- grew up in nyc haha and I’m hoping to go into the medical field, so a decent biology major school. But please take into consideration that I come from a low income family and that I’m Asian American.
Before anyone gives you chances, you do realize that the SAT you will be taking is out of 1600, right? The one out of 2400 was scratched out so you’ll have to get something out of 1600 to submit to colleges.
Also for my ECs, I’m doing 3 clubs, one of which I might get a position in, not president though. And I’ve done a decent amount of community service. I’ll probably graduate with 300+ hours. I’m not doing any sports. However, I’m involved in a dance type performance thing every year. Yeah… Not much. But I hope I can get some volunteer hours at a hospital before I go to college.
Yes it’s out of 1600, but that’s without the essay. I’m going to be doing the essay portion which is why it’s still going to be out of 2400.
@michevious The new SAT is out of 1600. There are two sections(math and critical reading/writing) and a separate score for the essay which is not factored into your total score.
I had relatively similar stats- grades/test score wise, mine were even a little lower…
My match/ high matches were, BC, GWU, Northeastern, NYU, Oxford College at Emory University, BU,
I got into Northeastern, NYU, and Oxford @ emory, Waitlisted at GWU, denied at BC/BU…
So those schools are some schools you’d might want to consider.
My safeties were- Loyola Marymount, Loyola Chicago, Fordham- All accepted with good scholarships
I’m also asian american, filipino if you’re curious
I know it’s a popular opinion on CC that the odds are stacked up against Asians, but that isn’t as true as you think. Yes, schools may want to take more URMs but that doesn’t mean they’ll deny a strong Asian or Caucasian applicant simply because of race. Also being 1st generation should probably help a lot- there are a lot of special scholarships available as well.