Chances at WashU, Northwestern, UC Berkeley, NYU

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! I am a junior right now with a cumulative GPA (unweighted) of 3.79 and (weighted) 4.5. I have taken every honors and AP class available to me. This year, I took 4 AP’s and 2 honors (Euro, Psych, Physics I, Lang) and plan to take 4-5 next year (BC Calc, Gov, Chinese, Lit and maybe Physics II). I have taken the APUSH AP and received a 4. I have not taken the SAT yet but I have been scoring around a 1500 on practice tests. In school, I am involved in student government, the new students welcoming club, a tutoring club for underprivileged kids, and am cofounding/copresident for the Chinese Honors Society for next year.

Outside of school, I ride horses 4-5 times a week at a barn an hour and a half away and attend horse shows 20+ times per year and go to national finals every year. I also am set to have a leader dog training puppy for the summer and regularly volunteer hours.

My sophomore grades and junior grades have been pretty good so far (3.89 sophomore year and an average of 3.89 as of now) but my freshman grades were much lower (3.67 unweighted, 4.05 weighted).

My freshman grades are a result of some personal issues (very bad custody battle started that is still ongoing). Currently, my mom is remarried but my dad is mentally ill, homeless, and has been to jail because of failure to pay child support.

I have a very solid essay and will have great letters of rec for next year, but I am worried by GPA is too low from freshman year.

Thanks!!

2

Also in NHS (don’t know if it will make a difference)

3

Are you in-state for Berkeley? If not it will be expensive. They don’t take into account freshmen grades, but if you are OOS, only AP/IB/DE classes taken in 10th/11th grades get the GPA weighting.

Upward trend in GPA is good. The only concern is that most of your peers have already taken at least 1 actual SAT/ACT now so you might be slightly behind. Also the leadership side of the ECs is weak if you plan to start a Chinese Club senior year. The equestrian stuff seems interesting and you could use that as a college essay.

What ethnicity are you? If you’re URM that would be helpful.

4

I did take the ACT in September but my school has trimesters and because of how the AP date fell and my schedule worked out, after may 5th I had 4 electives and a study hall- basically, nothing academic for 5 ish months. I got a 28 blind without doing anything. I am white and from Michigan. My aunt is on the board of trustees at WashU if that makes a difference for anything

5

Caucasian/interested in Chinese could be an unusual hook.

Looks like you might be more suited for the SAT. 28 ACT is too low for your choice of schools.