Chance Me

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Miami - Florida
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Unweighted GPA: 3.333 / 5.0
Weighted GPA: 4.381 / 5.0
SAT: 1300 (620-M, 680-R)
SAT II: Chem 620, Biology M 680, U.S. History 750
ACT: 30 (English 34, Math 26, Reading 32, Science 30)
ACT superscore: 31
State Of Residence: FL
Male
Hispanic (Puerto Rican)
Class rank: top 24% (out of nearly 550)

AP’s:
9th: AP World History, AP Environmental Science
10th: AP Bio
11th: AP English Lang, AP Chem, AP Spanish Lit, AP Calc AB, AP U.S. History, AP Physics 1
12th: AP English Lit, AP Physics 2, AP Studio Art: 2-D (aka AP Photo), AP Psychology, AP Statistics, AP U.S. Gov, AP Microeconomics
–AP Scholar

Extra Curriculars:
-100 volunteer hours
-Volunteer at a Rehabilitation Hospital with PT and OT and occasionally the pharmacists
-Spanish club all 4 years, Treasurer 11th and 12th
-Spanish Honor Society, inducted in 10th, Vice President in 12th
-FBLA 9th and 10th, Vice President 10th
-March of Dimes 10th, helped with march of dimes walk
-American Cancer Society, helped with Relay for Life Event
-High school varsity swim team all 4 years
-Club swimmer all-year round (afternoon AND morning practices (too much swimming!!))
**Not an EC but I worked at a rehab medicine doctor’s office the summer going into 12th

Major/Field of Study:
Biochemistry (maybe with Pre-med, still deciding)
I’m also considering double majoring in economincs. Or political science/ business administration/ finance. I’m still deciding.
–The long term goal is to go into either medical school or politics

Essay: I wrote about the memory of Monica Puig winning Puerto Rico’s first gold medal in the Olympics while listening to my grandma, (she was in PR I was in the US) who believed she wouldn’t live long enough to see such an event and how I am motivated to succeed based on the constant calls from mi abuelita urging me to do my best and make her proud. I promise the essay sounds 3000x better than this awful summary.
**This essay was written before Irma and Maria hit P.R., and I fear that admissions will see my essay as trying to earn pity points and/or wooing them with my minority status.

Mother has college education in PR
Dad has college education from Iowa State and is unemployed.
We are upper middle class

I applied to UCF (accepted with scholarhsip), Auburn (accepted), Alabama (accepted with scholarship), FSU, UT-Austin, UNC-Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt, and UF. UF is my first choice.

Comments:
I know my test scores and gpa definitely aren’t the best, and I definitely don’t have a lot of volunteer hours and extra curriculars, but I’m hoping they will see that I at least challenged myself and got involved with EC. Also being a competitive swimmer and taking all AP classes is a lot of effort, so I hope they take it into consideration, but I doubt it. I don’t necessarily view UMiami as a reach.

Thank you!!

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I applied RD, if that helps

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What will get you if you don’t get in is your GPA and SAT II scores in bio m and chem. However, I think you have a pretty good chance

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@interstellar29 What were your scores on the actual AP tests? With a 3.33uw GPA you obviously got a lot of B’s in your HS classes, but your coursework is very rigorous so if you got 4’s and 5’s on the AP exams then colleges are likely to think that your HS teachers were very hard and/or didn’t like to hand out a lot of A’s. Your ACT is pretty good and you have good EC’s so I think that it’s going to come down to how admissions interprets that 3.33uw GPA.

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@pl215382 Yes, my uw gpa is definitely one of, if not the weakest part of my application. I also know my SAT II science scores are horrendous, but in my opinion, my extracurriculars and essays were very strong and make up for the weak gpa + SAT II. Thank you very much for the input!

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@EDHDAD

9th: APES (4), WHAP (4)
10th: Bio (3)
11th: Eng Lang (3), Spanish Lit (3), Calc AB (3), APUSH (4)
In my opinion, my coursework was TOO rigorous, just for junior year at least.

My uw gpa is without doubt the weakest component of my application. Thank you for your comment, it’s greatly appreciated!

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@interstellar29 My daughter(middle child) is a HS Junior this year and she is experiencing the exact same thing. She went from almost all A’s Freshman and sophomore with no AP’s to four AP’s this year with almost all B’s and her UW GPA has taken a huge hit. It worries me but I’m hoping that she can improve next semester and I’m hoping that colleges recognize she tried to step up this year. She will be taking the APES, APLANG, APUSH, and AP Psych tests in May. It’s really hard to say what a school like U Miami will do. It’s not an elite school that demands perfect grades and scores but it’s still pretty selective.

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@interstellar29- those AP scores are perfectly fine as even passing an AP exam at all is a feat that many students can’t accomplish. The previous people are right in stating that a weak GPA might hold you back but that is why your counselor is required to submit a school summary. It places you in terms of your school’s environment, rigor, and how your course load and extracurricular a compare to others within your senior class. I applied EA so fingers crossed for us both!

@EDHDAD- do not worry too much about the B’s, there is still time left to pull at least some, if not all, of them to A’s. I also took 4 AP classes my junior year with me swapping out APES for AP Biology instead. I don’t know what your daughter’s extracurricular life is like but I cut back and choose a few things that were really important to me (i.e. a part-time job, NHS, being a student tutor, and Speech and Debate Team). This gave me ample time to study so I could do well in the classes with heavy workloads. If her teacher’s offer tutoring, tell her to go! It helps, believe me. The AP Exams are not as bad as you think when you’re taking the class and learning all the material either. If she has tough teachers, the tests will feel like a cakewalk! Good luck to her!

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@Ella582 My daughters EC’s are practically non-existent this year. She played HS basketball the first couple of years and now she just does a little volunteering. She really tries hard at school and spends a lot of time studying. I figure she has two more semesters to get her grades up because she doesn’t have to apply to schools EA like my son did this year.

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@EDHDAD I promise you that once I receive and admission update, I will let you know if I was accepted or not. That way it will give you an idea of where your daughter stands. Junior year, in my opinion, is the hardest year of high school. Just remind her that hard work pays off.

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@EDHDAD just wanted to give you a (somewhat late) update. I was wait listed. So for my stats and RD, I was wait listed. I had already chosen my college by the time of admission decision, so I just declined to remain on the wait list.

I wish nothing but the best of luck for your daughter, and that she finds happiness and (most importantly) comfort in her future college! I’m glad I could provide some help, and remind her to finish her high school career strong! Senior year can be a bit of a challenge at times, but hard work will only benefit her.