<p>Hey I'm going to be a senior in the fall and would really like to know what my chances are at these colleges. I go to a very competitive public high school in northern California and numerous kids get into Ivies/Stanford from there. Anyways I was wondering about my chances at the following high schools:
UCSD
UCLA
UC Berkeley
USC
Northwestern
Duke
U of Chicago
NYU
Cal Poly SLO</p>
<p>Freshman GPA: 3.75
Sophomore GPA: 3.92
Junior GPA: 3.66 unweighted, 4.33 weighted
going to take 3 ap courses senior year as well</p>
<p>SAT 1: 2310 (1st try)
Sat 2s: 750 in bio and im gonna take math 2c in the fall (should get a 800)
PSAT: 229
just got AP scores in mail today, not too good: 3 in bio, 4 in apush, 4 in stats</p>
<p>ECs: 1 year of HS basketball; 3 of HS track; numerous years of state level soccer played outside of school but stopped in 9th grade; 300 hours of comm. service by end of this summer; internship at nasa this summer</p>
<p>all responses/critiques/anything is welcome. Thank you guys so much!</p>
<p>If you apply to Duke EA, the admission rate is like 30%, so you will definitley get in. Your probably going to get in to the UC’s USC, and Cal PolySlo. NYU, Northwestern, and U of Chicago are match. EC look good along with stats. GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>Weaknesses: ECs aren’t so stellar because they’re so heavily weighted towards athletics and don’t show a commitment to your intended area of study. (ie: a prospective journalism major would work on the school newspaper for 4 years; a drama major would do every play/musical/acting club). AP scores are low. UW GPA is a bit low for some of the schools.</p>
<p>Strengths: GREAT SAT score! Good SAT II.</p>
<p>If you applied today, these are my guesses:</p>
<p>UCSD - Acceptance
UCLA - Probable rejection (because of GPA)
UC Berkeley - Probable rejection (because of GPA)
USC - Spring admit or rejection (USC likes ECs!)
Northwestern - Probable rejection
Duke - Probable acceptance
U of Chicago - Probable acceptance
NYU - Acceptance
Cal Poly SLO - Acceptance</p>
<p>If it’s UCs your after, I suggest you use Davis and Santa Cruz as safeties and strongly consider Irvine. They’re all really great schools and they could be good for your intended major. (Which you didn’t state, so these are also dependent upon what you are going to apply as.)</p>
<p>If you bring your GPA up during the fall, you could have a better chance at Cal, UCLA and USC. But, I’m iffy on USC still because, despite the good numbers, USC is really into the applicant as a “whole person” and will accept someone with stellar ECs, great recs, a commitment to a specific area and devotion to USC over an applicant who is strictly numbers.</p>
<p>You should also look at the Claremont Colleges (can’t recommend which one until you share your intended major) as they are really great liberal arts schools. I’d also look at UVA, Michigan, Notre Dame and Occidental.</p>
<p>thanks so much guys. for the record im leaning towards majoring in an engineering field and i know my ec’s aren’t too strong, but my internship this summer at nasa (wind tunnel research) is definitely something along the lines of what i probably want to do in the future. does that clarification change anything about my chances?</p>
<p>also im curious as to in most cases, does gpa or sat scores play a bigger role in acceptances as clearly my sat score is whats carrying me right now?</p>
<p>It depends on the schools. UCs are strictly numbers based and really only rely on your test scores and UW GPA. Private schools consider the test scores and GPA, but also take into consideration your essays, commitment and recommendations. It is possible to have a moderate GPA and be accepted to a top private school if you sell yourself correctly.</p>
<p>That internship should look good to the private schools. Get whoever is your “boss” at the internship to write your rec letters. I think you should look at Harvey Mudd as a reach since you’re engineering and your SAT score is pretty on par for the school anyway.</p>
<p>If you raise your GPA in the fall, you could see a USC acceptance with strong essays and rec letters. Still not seeing Cal or UCLA happen – but you never know. They are weird. (I was rejected from UCLA from a competitive private northern California school, but someone in my HS class with an SAT score 300 points lower than me was accepted because his UW GPA was better than mine from having less AP classes.)</p>