Chance an average student for some top notch public schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I've done a few of these, but I figure I'll simplify it and make the focus on state schools. Here goes.</p>

<p>NOTE: I transferred from a top 25 public school to a private school iafter freshman year and my grades suffered)
Gender: Male
School: Highly Competetive Private
Location: Florida
GPA: 3.44 with Freshman, 3.22 without
Class Rank: (without freshman) top half, could break into top 25
Class size: 95
SAT Scores: 670 CR, 660 M, 630 W 1330/1960 (plan to take again for 1400)
ACT: 31
SAT II: Plan to take</p>

<p>APs/Honors
AP Euro (3, B-)
Honors Spanish 3 (B-)
AP US History (4 or 5, A-)
AP Computer Science A (2 or 3 A)
AP Macro Economics (Senior)
AP Micro Econ (senior)
AP US Gov (Senior)
AP Comparative Gov (senior)
maybe AP Physics (senior)</p>

<p>Sports
JV Lacrosse (10,11,12(could be V))
JV Golf (12) (Could be V, very unlikely)
JV Soccer (12)
Intramural Ultimate Frisbee (11)
Club Ultimate Frisbee(12)
-travel team</p>

<p>ECs
Summer Study at Penn State (A in Psychology)
Senior Class Treasurer
- Got class out of debt
Work on a web2.0 startup owned by internet advertising exec (11,12)
Started freeware game review site(10,11,12)
Politcal Issues Synopsium(9,11,12)
Scrabble Club Founder (9)
Debate Club (9,10,12)
-Won third in novice debate event
20 hours of community service so far (going to go to about 75)
Taking summer courses
JSA (10)
School Scrabble Championship (6,7,8)(does this matter?)
Student Council (9)</p>

<p>Awards
Computer Science Award (11)
Computer Science Pathfinder Nominee(12)
--One nominee per school in Palm Beach County
--4 or 5 people place. Have a chance at placing though I likely wont win
School Scrabble Champion(6,7,8,9)
Honor Roll (9,10)</p>

<p>Other:
- a lot of family controversy around finals this year could be good essay topic in addition to school switch (not to be callous, ha!)</p>

<p>Schools: UT-Austin, UMich, Penn State, UFlorida, FSU, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Albany, UIllionis, UWisconsin, UConn, Emory, Syracuse, Case Western, Georgia Tech, Lehigh</p>

<p>Any other schools that you can reccomend would be appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Can someone please help me out? I'm really starting to freak out that I may not get into anywhere decent.</p>

3

<p>Why are you excluding Freshman year? I thought colleges did count those grades...maybe not??</p>

<p>As far as the schools I am familiar with, I would say that you have a good chance at Uconn and a realistic reach for Lehigh.</p>

<p>Try to get your SAT scores up a bit and that would help your chances, obviously. You have very good EC's. I don't think anything you did in 6th,7th, and 8th grade count.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>I didn't think that either, but just wanted to try. Anyways, I post both GPAs because I know certain schools like UMich only take Freshman and Sophmore. Also, universities can misconstrue that sudden drop in grades to me getting lazy. It would be utterly ridiculous but I fear it so much that I actually assume that it's going to happen.</p>

5

<p>I'm going to presume here that you GPA as listed is unweighted, meaning your overall weighted GPA is probably around a 3.52 to 3.56 considering the the AP courses you took so far. Based upon the good SAT scores, but somewhat low unweighted GPA relative to the schools you've listed, and upon the ECs you've noted, I estimate your chances as follows:</p>

<p>Texas-Austin/Michigan/Emory/Georgia Tech/Illinois--Reach
Syracuse/Case Western/Wisconsin/Lehigh--Slight Reach
Penn State/FloridaState/UConn-Match
SUNY Binghamton--Safe Match to Safety
SUNY Albany--Safety</p>

<p>For your information, of the "slight reach" schools, the most likely ones you would have a chance at are Syracuse and Case Western, the least likely are Wisconsin and Lehigh. For Penn State, you are going to have to keep the GPA up because they focus more on this (they almost demand a 3.5 GPA (weighted)) than on the test scores--meaning you have better chances at Florida State and UConn than at Penn State. Other possible schools to apply to would be Ohio State, Purdue, and Indiana. Another good safe match/safety might be West Virginia </p>

<p>Best of luck to you.</p>

6

<p>Calcruzer: I'm taking summer physics and honors pre calculus over the summer. Would the grades in these count towards junior year? And thank you so much for your in depth help. I've seen the college counselor tons of times and he has really been unclear on where I stand. He seems to think the same things as you but doesn't really talk to me straight forward about what are reaches and what aren't.</p>

<p>Also, what do you think my chances are at BU and Northeastern?</p>

7

<p>Grades taken during the summer count as classes taken for the following year.</p>

<p>In other words, if you take classes in the summer between your freshman and sophomore years, then they count as courses taken during the sophomore year.</p>

<p>In my view, you are a Safe Match to Match at Boston University and a Match at Northeastern.</p>

<p>Counselors tend to "hedge" a bit, because why they can give averages for who gets in. They, like me, can never be sure who will get in. We can only give our best estimates.</p>

8

<p>Wait, northeastern is harder to get into than BU?</p>

<p>Also, can anyone tell me about my chances at University of Minnesota?</p>

9

<p>bump10char</p>

10

<p>Reach: UT-Austin, UMich, Emory, Georgia Tech.
Slight Reach: UWisconsin, Case Western, Lehigh, UIllinois
Match: PSU, UConn, UFlorida
Safety: SUNYs, FSU, Syracuse</p>

<p>Your GPA is a killer. But retake SAT and keep up your hope. Good Luck!</p>

11

<p>I threw UF in there for fun. It's basically impossible for me to get in there unless I get 75-100 hours of community service.</p>

12

<p>It's really difficult to say which schools you will or won't get into based of your GPA, SAT scores, and course load, mostly because you're a fairly good student. To be completely honest, your best bet would be to try hard to get into the schools (I'd say pick 2 to 4, top choices) you would be most happy at (not just "status" schools). By this I mean contact the admission counselors and current students. You could have a perfect profile, yet still get rejected all because you didn't show enough motivation or didn't stand out. </p>

<p>My biggest advice is to schedule interviews with your top few schools, that way you're more than a paper application. It seriously works. I only applied to 4 schools undergrad, and was accepted to all 4 however my number 1 choice was a reach (U of Miami for Marine Biology, top 3 program in the country). I did an interview with them and ended up getting in early acceptance. My high school counselors even told me that I wasn't going to get in. </p>

<p>I hope that helps, stay positive and good luck!!</p>

13

<p>That's a good idea. My counselor tells me to go to the info sessions at our school, but I'd imagine that getting an interview can really improve your chance.</p>

14

<p>High Reach: UT-Austin, UMich, Emory, Georgia Tech, UWisconsin
Reach: Case Western, Lehigh, UIllinois, PSU (your low GPA hurts a lot)
Match: UConn, UFlorida, Syracuse
Safety: SUNYs, FSU</p>

15

<p>Since you asked, you're a match at Minnesota in my view.</p>

<p>P.S. Historically, BU has been harder to get into than Northeastern. But recently it seems to be the other way around--thus the reason for my "chances". (The hardest majors at BU are business and the medical sciences. Most of the others aren't as tough to get into). If you stay a computer sciences major, then it shouldn't be too tough. If you switch to computer (CIS) within the business department, then BU is probably tougher than Northeastern to get into.</p>

16

<p>Well I'm planning to apply to all the schools as undecided. Doesn't this increase your chances? Is there ever a case where it's easier to get into a specific major than undecided? Also I should mention that with freshman year and no pluses/minuses my GPA is over 3.5. Not sure if that's useful though. Basically my UC GPA is 3.55, if that helps people at all.</p>

17

<p>You can't lump all the Sunys together. As a Mom on Long Island, NY, with a son that is looking for schools, Geneseo and Binghamton are harder to get into than Albany or Buffalo. U Conn is easier than to get into than Geneseo or Binghamton. Just one opinion.</p>

18

<p>I listed SUNY Binghamton and SUNY Albany. He is saying those two are safeties.</p>

19

<p>Sorry if I am unclear. Binghamton is harder to get into than Albany, so you may not be able to call both safeties. Check collegedata.com for stats on those that got in or rejected. My son's school has a naviance program that lets him check the stats from kids in his school. Average of thos accepted to Bing is 95.7, Albany 89.8. U conn. 90.3</p>

20

<p>That's strange that Albany has a lower acceptance rate than Binghamton. I used to live in New York and I found that Binghamton was the harder school. Also collegeboard has the test scores and GPA higher than Binghamton. Who knows though.</p>