Average kid applying to average colleges.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>No, I am no genius although my SAT scores and GPA don't do me justice because I haven't really put much work into school, and our school basically cant prepare anyone for the SAT.</p>

<p>First I want to say that my high school is the second to the worst in high school academics in the state mainly because of kids not wanting to learn anything. </p>

<p>The best school that a student of the class of 09' is going to is UC Irvine.</p>

<p>We only offer 2 AP Classes: English and Calculus </p>

<p>State: Hawaii
Ethnicity: Caucasian/Mexican American (I mark Mexican American or Hispanic on everything)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.5 UW 3.6-3.7 W
Class Rank: Top 10%
SAT's: 1760 (CR 630 M 630 W 500) I hate sentence errors.
SAT Subject Test: Still deciding on what to take.
EC's: Varsity Basketball- Top 50 player in the state of Hawaii
Some Government Activities
Read Aloud Program
Beautiful Child Program (Collects items for homeless children)
Prevent Child Abuse</p>

<p>As you can see, I do alot of things for kids because I feel fortunate I had a burden free childhood so I decided to give back to kids that are less fortunate. (Essay Topic?) LOL</p>

<p>Teacher Rec's: They love me
Counselor Rec: She loves me</p>

<p>This year I had an epiphany and I decided to take the most rigorous class schedule next year that my school can offer. We do 4 classes a semester so its something like this..</p>

<p>1-AP Calculus
2-AP English
3-Physics
4-Spanish</p>

<p>then</p>

<p>1-AP Calculus
2-AP English
3-Economics/Psychology
4-Spanish</p>

<p>The colleges I plan to apply to are:</p>

<p>Matches:
University of San Francisco
San Diego St. University
University of San Diego
University of Washington</p>

<p>Reaches:
University of Southern California (I'll prolly improve my SAT scores by a couple hundred points by application time)
University of California-Irvine
University of California-Santa Barbara
New York University- (I love NYC for some reason. My English teacher went there and he said I can definitely handle it but getting in is a different thing so I dont know. I mean, how many applicants from Hawaii can they get a year?)</p>

<p>And no need to criticize me because I dont have a 4.5 W GPA or a 2300 SAT score. </p>

<p>And if you have any other suggestions for colleges that I could get into that would be nice.</p>

<p>I'd like to be in a city and be on the west coast. (Cali, Washington, Oregon)</p>

<p>Thanks for any answers.</p>

2

<p>you are WAY above average, and i believe the ones you listed as matches are easy safetys and USC and NYU are matches.</p>

3

<p>For NYU, I know CAS is a reach
LSP is probably a high match with that SAT Score.</p>

<p>My suggestion is to get a 2000+ on your SAT, check off Hispanic on common app, and then apply ED to NYU. I would say then you would be a match for CAS. Good luck and definitely take that SAT again. ( Check out NYU’s new policy, i think you will like it!)</p>

4

<p>finances always have to be considered. Are your parents paying
full ticket or do you need aid. EFC?</p>

5

<p>My parents are going to pay my way fully. </p>

<p>I’ll just apply for scholarships.</p>

<p>Does the financial part hurt or help?</p>

6

<p>I don’t think it affects admission for those schools.</p>

<p>(Edit: I’m finally a standard Member now. Only took about two years!)</p>

7

<p>What are you interested in studying?</p>

8

<p>I’m probably going to study Finance then go to Law School.</p>

9

<p>Considering your school environment, your resume is not that bad. I would recommend retaking the SAT if at all possible and try to increase your writing score. it is by far the easiest section to improve on if you put in the effort (college board book is all you need). </p>

<p>As it stands now, you are in for sure at SDSU and USF and have decent chances at USD and UW. Your only potential holdup with UW will be because you are out of state. But increase your SAT and you have a good chance there too. I believe UCI and UCSB are not as big of reaches as you think. You are out of state, but I think both are definite possibilities especially if you improve your stats. I think you are right that USC and NYU are reaches at this point.</p>

<p>Also, why not apply to UC Berkeley? I know it is very difficult to get in to out of state but you are applying to other UCs already (one application for all) and I know people who have gotten in with worse stats than you have now. granted I’m instate, but it never hurts to try. They also judge more holistically than do UCLA, or UCSD, so stats aren’t everything.</p>

10

<p>I do have the blue book and it has helped me a bit but I just don’t get the sentence errors. Me + Sentence Errors = Hell. </p>

<p>I am going to be taking the SAT this coming June so I hope I’ll do better. </p>

<p>I plan on applying to all UC’s but just put those down.</p>

<p>Thanks for the answers everyone.</p>

11

<p>Looking for some more answers.</p>

<p>I have a question though. When you calculate your A-G courses for your GPA on the UC site and when it says you add 1 point for honors or AP class, is it like this:</p>

<p>Lets say I get 117 points fom 30 classes without the honors. And I have taken 2 semesters of an AP Class. I just add it so its 119 points from 30 classes right?</p>

12

<p>why don’t you just study your butt off to retake the SAT? its one test that could aid you so much, considering it’s your biggest weakness. top 10%, decent SATs, hawaii, and mexican/URM could get you into a lot of top schools…</p>

13

<p>I do study everyday for the test. </p>

<p>Stupid question but what does URM mean?</p>

14

<p>MikeFos123,</p>

<p>Yes, you compute the UC GPA as you mentioned. There is a maximum of 8 extra points possible (only an extra 4 points at your school, since they only offer two AP courses).</p>

<p>Make sure you only count your courses taken during the sophomore and junior years, though (not freshman, nor senior since those grades won’t be available yet). Also, don’t count non-academic courses like Health, nor Physical Education, nor Teacher’s Assistant, nor Student Government.</p>

<p>This means it is more likely that you have taken about 20 to 24 courses in your past two years, and that your GPA computation should reflect that. </p>

<p>Based upon what you posted, you should have a good chance at all the places mentioned except for USC and NYU. You will need much higher SATs for those schools. Also, you need to remember that the UCs only count the best “single sitting” score. This means you have to keep your scores high in all areas on the single test–and can’t just concentrate on only one area and let the other scores slide.</p>

<p>Also, I totally disagree with spaceneedle about applying to UC Berkeley or even to UCLA–these would be wasting your time (and the time of the admins). Stick with UCSD, UCI, and UCSB and it will show you are more serious about going to a UC and have taken the time to study the schools. A “shotgun” approach demonstrates that you are just applying everywhere and haven’t done any “homework” on the schools.</p>

<p>(I do agree with spaceneedle’s assessment about UW and USD, though)</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>P.S. URM means under-represented minority.</p>

15

<p>Thank you for your response! </p>

<p>My school does 2 semesters with 2 terms in each so we get a total of 4 terms. So 4 report cards. </p>

<p>Do I have to put in my grade for each term or just my semester average? I’m pretty sure I put each terms grade.</p>

<p>While doing each term and only using my 10th and 11th grade years, I have a 3.86 GPA.</p>

16

<p>Still looking for answers.</p>

17

<p>One last search for answers.</p>

<p>Please chance me!!</p>

18

<p>3.86 UC GPA and a 1760 SAT should put you just a ways above the cutoff for OOS students at UCSB, UCI, and UC Davis. I’m predicting that you will be accepted at two out of these three.</p>

<p>Don’t know about the 2 report cards per semester thing, though. I never heard of any school doing this before. Personally, I’d go talk to your high school counselor before putting it down on the college application to know if this is the correct methodology to use.</p>

19

<p>I’m not familiar enough with colleges in California to chance you, but I notice that your ECs include several things related to children, which says something important about you. It sounds like you may have a passion for improving the lives of kids, and anything you have a passion about is something to emphasize on your college apps. You’ll get into most of the schools you’ve listed, I believe.</p>

20

<p>Kids are very important to me. I will emphasize that on my applications.</p>