<p>On my SAT reasoning, I did very poorly and only got 1650, but I have a 4.36 gpa and I am in college approved extra curricular activities such as honors chamber orchestra, wind ensemble, and general orchestra. I've also held a job and did a lot of community service, will work experience along with all the ap/honors classes I've taken still give me a chance to get into 4 year universities like UCI, UCSD? I've taken the test twice now and have shown little improvement. I'm more hardworking and put a lot of effort in vs.a good test taker going in cold turkey. I'm a graduating junior and the classes I'll be taking next year are CP ENG, AP BIO, AP CALC, AP GOVT/ECON, HONORS CHAMBER ORCH, ORCH, WIND ENS, PE MARCH BAND. Please reply, I am very concerned, all of my friends have scored in 2000's....</p>
<p>Take the ACT and see if you do better.</p>
<p>why ACT?</p>
<p>(interested cause i am kind like bad sat scores and good transcript, even though my SAT is not THAT bad)</p>
<p>act is supposed to be "easier" but with a tighter time constraint</p>
<p>Generally people who do bad on the SAT do good on the ACT and vice versa, but this is just a generalization</p>
<p>Pham, we'll need to know your schools API ranking. You GPA is excellent but you may jsut go to a very easy school. If your API ranking is low, your GPA holds very little weight and you will have to worry. However, with a 1650, you rout of the picture for quite a few of the top 100 schools and even if your schools API ranking is good, it may not be high enough to save you from a 1650.</p>
<p>You have Honors Orchestra? Is it like a real honors class and you get credit for it like that or is it just the name of the best orchestra class?</p>
<p>Try the ACT!!! I got a 1640 on the SAT, but then got a 29 on the ACT (which BTW is much, much better then a 1640).</p>
<p>Act All The Way =d</p>
<p>It's better to have good GPA than good SAT score. You mentioned you took it twice but did you prep? If not you should until your score improve before retaking it again.</p>
<p>i'm in the same situation too. bad scores, good grades. that's why i'm going to do prep over the summer, in hoping of raising that score!!</p>
<p>As others said, definitly take the ACT and try the SAT again after some prep.</p>
<p>Also, check out this list of SAT/ACT optional schools: <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/optinit.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.fairtest.org/optinit.htm</a></p>
<p>Try the ACT, as everyone else has said. Don't ever give up on yourself! lol.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned API ranking. How do you find your hs's ranking?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p><a href="http://www.greatschools.net/%5B/url%5D">http://www.greatschools.net/</a></p>
<p>API ranking is not that accurate. It's not a good indicator that a school is the best if it has top score but it's a concern if it has very low score.</p>
<p>Orchestra happens to be weighted and my school's ranking is 773, 8/10. I'm in the top 5% of my class. But it just doesn't seem to be good enough, is California into affirmative action?</p>
<p>If you are in the top 4% you qualify for ELC
check this out
<a href="http://www.ucop.edu/sas/elc/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ucop.edu/sas/elc/</a></p>
<p>No California does not have AA, but if you're Asian you are not consider URM, however you may quality for lower Social Economic Status</p>
<p>just look at this: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=349961%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=349961</a></p>
<p>there is hope</p>
<p>ur gpa may not say much, if your school just throws out "a's". try to get better standardized test scores, at least 1800-1900.</p>
<p>I go to Huntington Beach High School, good high API school. I retook it and got a 1790 on the SAT. I got a 26 on the ACT. And my first semester senior report card came and my gpa is 4.8...how does that sound now? Am I still looking bad?</p>