<p>School Type: public
Location: New Jersey
Race/Gender: Black/ African American Male
Prospective Major: Neuroscience, Biology
Freshman GPA: 3.1 Sophmore GPA: 3.4 Junior GPA: 3.9
Unweighted Cumm. GPA: 3.2
Weighted Cumm. GPA: 3.5
Class rank: unranked at very well known (by colleges) and competitive HS</p>
<p>SAT I Scores
SAT I Math: 650
SAT I Verbal: 670
SAT I Writing: 670</p>
<p>SAT II Scores
SAT II U.S. History: 640
SAT II Chemistry: 650
SAT II French: 710</p>
<p>Extracurricular Info </p>
<p>-Community Health Seminars in union with Local Hospital (3yrs)
(Co-founder/facilitator)
-Swimming (Varsity- 4years) (Co-captain)
-All-Area and Regional Conference A-team selection in swimming
-Regional Christian Young Peoples Assembly (Class VP) (4 yrs)
-Volunteering at Local Hospital (courier/ special assignments) (3 years)
-Band (Clarinet) (4 years)
-Model United Nations Club (Gabon Representative) (2 years)
-Future Problem Solvers of America Club (2 years)</p>
<p>Honors/ Awards</p>
<p>-Venture Scholar
-National Honor Roll
-National Society of High School Scholars
-National Achievement Scholar
-Selected for Mentoring in Science/Engineering Program (2 per school)
-AAPSG award for excellence in Band (2 per year)
-Selected to interview for Boys State</p>
<p>Your best chances at are schools that will throw out that Freshman GPA and rate you on your sophomore and junior GPAs. Schools that do this--and at which I think you would have excellent chances for acceptance would be:</p>
<p>Princeton
Stanford
One or more of the University of California campuses (I think you could get definitely get into most UCs, but maybe not UCLA or UC Berkeley--because they don't consider URM status--that's illegal at the UCs.) Still, I think you would qualify for UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC Irvine, or UC Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>Among the schools you listed (besides Princeton which I mentioned above), you would have a hard time getting in at Harvard, Columbia, and Swarthmore, but you would definitely get into Rutgers and Lafayette--and John Hopkins and Penn you're kind of borderline--I'd say you are probably a slight reach. The problem is your freshman grades hurt you and your SAT scores aren't all that high for the top, top schools--which is what you have listed here.</p>
<p>no chance at HYP. no offense to you, but i find it offensive that you have basically no safeties or matches, and seem to consider yourself competitive for HYP</p>
<p>Swimjim23, which school do you go to? PM me if you want. I think that should have some bearing on your chances, since a low GPA at a competitive school is better than at an uncompetitive school.</p>
<p>PM is private message. click on someone's username and there is an option to private message them</p>
<p>Swimjim, good luck. I have a feeling you will get into some good schools. I know an Asian girl who got into Harvard with an SAT score in the 1900s, a mediocre AP courseload, and extracurriculars that weren't all that stunning. She was hardworking and really really sweet though. Good luck to you. Don't listen to the people on this thread who for some reason hold a grudge against African Americans who aim high.</p>
<p>Bobert: why are you so angry? And who said the OP is applying to HYP? He's only applying to Harvard and Princeton, not Yale. His list is actually quite reasonable. Upenn and columbia are the only other Ivies on his list, and he's got some good safeties (Lafayette and RutgerS) on there too...gosh, such anger...</p>
<p>just to let you know, some of your honors/awards are bogus.
-National Honor Roll
-National Society of High School Scholars</p>
<p>National Achievement Scholar - maybe this one too? although i'm not sure</p>
<p>and bobert...i guess it's the complacency that african american blacks have b/c of affirmative action. with all due respect, just my two cents, although i definitely know some african males with MUCH better stats</p>
<p>paco, national achievement scholar is a big deal and it's pretty well known...meaning if you haven't heard of it then you aren't much of an expert. it's the equivalent of national merit for african-americans
this person looks far from complacent. i WISH i had a 3.9 GPA!</p>
<p>Captain of swimming and the fact that you founded that health seminar: very impressive!</p>
<p>given your reasoning, someone could easily just slack off freshman year and get a 2.0 or whatnot, because freshman year "doesn't matter" if you look at the big picture. he's not applying to stanford, princeton yes, but he should add some safeties to his list just in case. </p>
<p>either way you try to put it, grades matter the most, and i was just observing his. don't be jumping on my case.</p>
<p>upward trend is a +. better to have your lowest GPA frosh than junior year. dont apply early anywhere because your scores are low and the extra semester can help raise GPA and SAT. stanford and princeton may not look at frosh year, but your soph year wasnt stellar. the east coast factor helps a tad for stanford. the legacy at penn helps, more for ED than regular. african american also helps at all these schools. your standardized test scores arent the best. your competitive highschool hurts alot because you will have lots of competition from peers for these schools, so those with higher GPA or higher SAT may beat you out, unless your GPA is very high for your school (my school is very competitive too, but for top 5% at mine you need like 3.95 uw). your ECs and awards are not bad, but wont stand out for these top schools. your SATII scores arent great either. dont take this the wrong way, but as it stands, i say you get into rutgers and maybe lafayette (dont know much about the school). penn CAS and JHU are probably waitlisted at best (but you can always be picked up). but this is right now with your current GPA and test scores. if you get the SAT to 2250+ and GPA 4.0 for your 1st semester then it's a new ball game. also your essays and recs will change everything. if you want neuro science, brown has an amazing program, but it's just as competitive as harvard for admissions</p>
<p>throw all the negative stuff i have said out the door if you are being recruited for swimming. Also, good for you for applying to all these reaches and taking the risk of getting a few rejection letters in April. you are better tahn all the kids who are afraid of rejection and wont even fill out applications for top schools. you never know how the admissions game works so you could very well get in, but you wont find out if you dont apply.</p>