Chances at UVA, Virginia Tech, James Madison.. etc?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! So I am currently a junior and starting to get really serious about my college search. Here’s my list of colleges that I want to apply to:

University of Virginia (reach school)
Virginia Tech
James Madison University
University of Mary Washington
Longwood University (safe school)

I wouldn’t mind applying to Washington and Lee, University of Richmond, or William and Mary, but I know that those are difficult to get into and difficult to pay for.

I’ve taken the SAT only once but I signed up for it again in June. My overall score was 1180, which is slightly above average. But the math was awful: I got a 490. I didn’t have time to study considering that I was prepping for AP exams. I’m terrible at math so hopefully this time around it won’t be as bad. My reading score was a 690 though, so I’m not too worried about that. I also have a 3.86 GPA, and I’m working to raise it to a 3.9 or 4.0 by the end of senior year.

Academics
Freshman year:
Latin I
Algebra II
English 9 Honors
Earth Science Honors
World History I Honors
Art I
PE 9
Econ and Per Finance

Sophomore year:
Latin II
Trigonometry Honors
World History II Honors
Art II
Graphic Design
English 10 Honors
Biology Honors
PE 10

Junior year:
AP Literature
AP US History
Art III
Latin III
Photography
Chemistry Honors

Senior year:
DE English
DE Government
Physics Honors

Extracurriculars, Activities, etc.:

Residential Governor’s School (A summer state program that selects 200 students in Virginia based on academic merit to attend Radford University for a month and take classes.)
National Honor Society
National English Honor Society
National Art Honor Society
Placed 2nd in the Virginia High School League Film Festival in both 2015 and 2016
Animation Club (2 years)
P.A.W.S Club (A club that helps cats, dogs, and other domestic animals) (3 years)
Recycling Club (3 years)
Junior Marshal (A privilege that is rewarded to juniors with a 3.5 GPA or above)
Artwork published in the Virginia Art Education Association magazine Winter 2017 edition
Currently serving on the 2018 class committee (I help coordinate graduation and prom)
Artwork submitted at the Hampton Roads Student Gallery, which received an honorary mention out of 400 other submissions and was put on display at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
Volunteer work at my local elementary school, little league baseball organization, and humane society.

One thing to keep in mind is that my school offers very few AP classes. I didn’t take AP Calculus because of my C+ in Trig (which is my biggest concern about my chances on getting into college.) I’ve made As and Bs in all my other classes though.

2

Sorry for late response; I started typing but had to go. Also, sorry for the organization.

On your GPA: Is that your weighted or unweighted? You say you might be able to get it up to a 4.0; this is impossible on an unweighted scale if you don’t currently have a perfect one.

Schools
**University of Virginia/b: Even considering in-state bias, you don’t really have much of a chance. This one in particular has become extremely holistic in its acceptances lately and a lot of very interesting cases of rejections have come up even from those who presumed it a definite match. Definitely apply, though, as it would be great!

**Virginia Tech/b: It has a high acceptance rate, but you’re still not 100%. Try to raise up your SAT as much as you can. On the other hand, definitely apply; you’ve got in-state bias on your side and it would be great.

**James Madison University/b: Apply. It would be really nice, and is supposed to be a great school.

**University of Mary Washington/b: I’m getting some bad vibes about this one; definitely tour this one first.

**Longwood University/b: No comment. It’s supposed to be ok, and you’ll get in.

I might say try William & Mary, as I’d say they’re about as hard to get into as UVA and would be pretty nice in terms of price. W&L and UR can be just as affordable if not more so if your finances check out (if your parents make under $60K per annum by their calculations, you’ll practically get a free ride), but I would consider them extreme reaches for you. On top of that, they have OOS diversity bias that plays heavily against Virginia applicants, so good luck with that. I’d say you’re well out of the running for those (same with UVA and W&M, but you can still apply and might make it on a miracle).

On your AP’s: Don’t worry too much about not taking as many as some of the competitive applicants. If your school doesn’t offer as many AP classes as another, it won’t matter; just take as many as you can and the colleges will judge you in the context of your environment. Talk to your school’s calculus teacher about whether she thinks you’re ready; a good teacher can teach a student (to AP standard) who doesn’t know a single thing of trig before entering the classroom. If I remember correctly, the only trig things I had to learn are:

  • Understanding unit circle and being able to tell stuff like sin(90º) = sin(π/2) = 1, cos(90º) = 0, tan = sin/cos, etc. and being able to convert degrees to radians.
  • inverse trig manipulations which I would consider tedious but would net you at most an entire MC question and is thus almost useless on the test.
  • Being able to remember several trig rules on deriving and integrating, such as (and this is the easiest): if f(x) = sin(x), f’(x) = cos(x) & f’'(x) = -sin(x), and vice versa.

EDIT: Might have lied/underestimated Calculus ^^^. Google search “All the trig I need for AP Calculus AB - Humble ISD” and download the document, and that will give you a better image of what content you need to understand on both trig and pre-calc.

Also, I see that you’re taking advantage of DE. Are they taught at the college by a regular professor alongside college students, or are they on college endorsement alone and taught by a high school teacher at high school who happened to have some training. Make sure with your options that they accept your kind of DE; I’m going to UR, and they didn’t accept anything that I had DE in (not that I cared about it).

3

I actually don’t think UVA or W&M will be too much of a reach for you. There are some important things to keep in mind when applying to prestigious schools. I myself was accepted to UVA, and my school has sent many students there. They value service above all else, and the fact that you’ve taken as challenging a courseload as possible. From the classes you’ve taken and your level of participation in school activities, you should do just fine.

Also, I would say Tech is a probable.

4

@collegebound67 I would say that W&M, and UVA might be a reach for you. And Tech possibly if you are applying for a competitive major like engineering or a STEM field. Tech also is dealing with a huge freshman class this year due to them underestimating how many kids would accept their admission offers. So they might be more selective next year to compensate for that. My kid had a much higher SAT, similar GPA, much less impressive EC’s, but took 7 AP’s and got admitted to Tech in a less competitive major, got admitted to JMU, was rejected by UVA. She could have done much better on her essays at UVA (it wasn’t one of her top choice schools so she didn’t try that hard) so I would encourage you to work hard and submit good essays which would help you in admissions at UVA and W&M (there were several supplemental essays on the UVA app unlike Tech and JMU which were pretty easy). I would also beef up your Senior schedule if you are aiming for UVA or W & M - the more selective schools want to see you continue to challenge yourself in your senior year. Have you considered Christopher Newport? I would consider that a match/safety for you, and I’ve heard it is considered a better school than UMW and Longwood. I’d also put VCU above UMW or Longwood.