<p>i have taken 3 honors courses in high school and one AP</p>
<p>i do volunteer work such as singing at a retirement home, feeding the hungary, doing karate with kids with special needs, help fundraise for cancer benefits.</p>
<p>i also have 2 part time jobs.</p>
<p>i also participated in soccer and indoor track freshmen year, indoor track sophomore year, and cross country senior year.</p>
<p>i am part of drama club, as well as club chorus groups.</p>
<p>Reading: 490 = Bottom quarter of admitted students
Math:550 = about average/mean for UA admitted students
GPA: 3.3 about average/mean for UA admitted students </p>
<p>Rigor of secondary school record: Rigorous (3 honors courses)
Extracurricular activities: Plenty
Volunteer work: yes
Work experience: yes</p>
<p>You appear to be a pretty typical 'Bama student, your chances are very good.</p>
<p>Also considered at Alabama are:
Essay (write well, have your English teacher check it)
Class rank
Recommendations
Alumni relation
First generation college student
If you are any of those, make sure you include it.</p>
<p>You should also study for the reading SAT and retake it as well, your score is a little low.
Some students find the ACT reading is easier, take that as well.</p>
<p>An essay is not needed unless the school requests one. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that the scores are a “typical Bama student,” (since the avg student wouldn’t be in the bottom quartile for CR…and the average student has a M+CR SAT of 1110) However, I do think this student will get accepted because it’s early, he has a 3.3 GPA, and he’s retesting.</p>
<p>IMHO,
Typical = center 50% (or the wide part of the bell curve) between the 25%-75% point
Which is CR: 490-600, Math: 500-610
*30% CR scores are between 300-499 (almost 1 in 3)
jobs, extra-curricular and charities balances out the CR</p>
<p>just waiting for a response is the hard part! alabama was suppose to be a safety, but the more i look into it, it is becoming my second choice! i still have yet to visit the campus, but UA sent me a video tour which is amazing! my mom said well take a trip if i get in since i live in massachusetts. i cannot wait! thank you for your help too!</p>
<p>I’m not so sure you can do much about your reading score even with study. It seems that the score is not amenable to improvement with study, it’s more a reflection of how much recreational and other reading you have done over the course of your life. However, if you study really hard for some months for the math SAT section, you should see a substantial improvement in your score.</p>
<p>I hope I do! i got all my login info… which is bad because i check every 5 five minutes… haha im hoping sometime this week they will get all my information. I also retook the SAT’s on October 9th and had a really good Reading SAT tutor so I’m hoping my score improved drastically, but even if it breaks the 500 mark… ill be happy! my fingers are crossed! I am also loving this rolling admissions process, so much less stress</p>
<p>“I’m not so sure you can do much about your reading score even with study.”</p>
<p>I totally understand this comment was meant in the spirit of helpfulness, but as an SAT tutor I have to disagree strongly. I do agree that the best thing a student can do is to read, read, read, for years (especially challenging books)–but failing that, students can certainly improve their scores through tutoring and self-discipline. </p>
<p>The biggest change is in my students with special needs: those with Asperger’s and those with reading track issues and ADHD issues. These students’ scores have improved by 100-300 pts per SECTION. For instance, I had a student with Asperger’s whose score went from around 350 to 600: a phenomenal change. For students with special needs, I diagnose the source(s) of the problem and then focus and work and work and work on that. </p>
<p>I do the same for regular ed students. Sometimes the worst problem is psychological; many of my students abandon reading passages because they don’t like them—they sort of give up in disgust. We work on that. But we also work on strategies in vocab, say–the voab section is a bit like algebra; you can score quite high if you know how to approach the problem and how to eliminate–so we work on that.</p>
<p>Anyway, my point is you can DEFINITELY improve your reading scores with good tutoring. Studying alone helps, but not as much as a qualified tutor. </p>
<p>I realize that’s expensive though, so highly disciplined self-studying is very important, as long as you’re very honest about what your problems are and rigorous in addressing them. Princeton Review is probably the best self-help book (I don’t work for Princeton Review!) Best of luck.</p>
<p>My younger son had CR score issues at first.</p>
<p>He took a practice book, did the practice sections. He’d mark which ones he “guessed at” (after narrowing down), then after he scored, he looked at why he got some answers wrong (explanations are in the back of test books). AND…he also noted why his guessed right answers were actually right.</p>
<p>He also read the tips at the beginning of the book.</p>
<p>And…he learned that he was one of those kids that “pronounces” each word silently in his head. That slows reading. He learned to move his eyes quickly over each word “absorbing the word” without “pronouncing” it in his head. </p>
<p>He used his finger to force his eyes across the sentence. Improved his reading speed immensely and really kicked up his CR score.</p>
Good!</p>