Chances for a low GPA high test score student

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hey everyone. I'm looking to get into poly-sci/government during college, and my ECs reflect that. However, I do not have the best GPA (nor class rank). My school does not weight GPAs, so many people have taken easier classes than I and have a higher GPA. We also only report year-long grades. Anyway, this is what I am expecting my application to look like:</p>

<p>Background:
White Male
Upper-middle class family, but will require significant financial aid
Extremely competitive (cutthroat) public school in Vermont</p>

<p>Freshman Year: 3.65 GPA UW, with all required courses (no honors level courses offered), except for an advanced math class that I recieved my only B in. It's accelerated, around AP-level difficulty.</p>

<p>Sophomore Year: 3.4 GPA UW, with all required course (once again, no honors level courses), with the same math class (you have to test into it btw) that I got another B in. This was a very bad year. I slacked off and basically had no motivation.</p>

<p>Junior Year: 3.75 GPA UW
YL = Year-long, fully averaged into GPA as 3.67, 4, etc.
OS = One-semester, averaged into GPA half as much as a YL course
Trig/Pre-Calc: B+ (YL)
Writing Prose: A or A+ (OS)
Experimental Theater (most advanced acting class): A (OS)
Trends in Contemporary American Fiction: A (OS)
US History (did not take Honors course as teacher is horrible and I was told by countless people not to take it): A (YL)
AP Biology (most difficult course in school): B 1st sem, B+ or A- second sem (These are reported seperately) (YL)
Driver's Education: A+ (OS)
Spanish IV: A- (YL)</p>

<p>Senior Year 1st semester: 3.94 GPA UW (this is predicted, if I work hard I should have this)
AP Government: A (YL)
AP English: A- (YL)
AP Calculus: A (YL)
Spanish V: A (YL)
Physics/Mechanics: A (OS)
Current Issues: A (OS)</p>

<p>Overall GPA: 3.66 UW
Class Rank: ~65/336 (incredibly difficult school; top 10% have >3.86 UW)</p>

<p>This may seem like a light course load, but I have taken/will take all hardest courses avaliable with the exception of Honors US History, AT Chem and AT Phys. These are the only AP courses avaliable.</p>

<p>Test Scores:
ACT (may re-take depending on writing score): Composite 34
English 32
Math 35
Reading 34
Science 35</p>

<p>SAT II: Expecting 700+ on IIC, Bio and possibly History (taking to show colleges that even though I took regular US History, I have done a lot of self-study and know the material).</p>

<p>AP tests: Expecting Bio 5 (2/3 of the kids in my teacher's class get 5's every year), don't know about senior year APs.</p>

<p>ECs:
Scholar's Bowl 9, 10, 11, 12
Cross-Country JV 10, 11, 12
Outer Limits (film discussion club) 9
CY anti-drug and alcohol camp (over summer): 9, 10
Math League 11, 12
Amnesty International 11, 12
National Honors Society (earliest you can get in is 11th grade) 11, 12
Drama Club 9, 11
Princeton Model Congress 11, 12
Leisure Sports & Barbeque Club 11</p>

<p>50+ (not sure how much it will be yet) hours volunteering for local Senate campaign during Junior Year</p>

<p>Attended Governor's Institute on Current Issues and Youth Activism, a two-week intensive seminar about world issues and global politics. It basically turned my life around and accounted for the big switch in GPA and activities between sophomore and junior year. I was selected to be a Junior Counselor this year-only 2 of the 50 students who attended are given this honor, and I will be getting a recommendation (most likely) from the politics teacher there. I will also likely write my college essay about this experience (and have begun).</p>

<p>I was in the Student-Directed One Acts this past spring as Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld. I've gotten at least 50 people saying I was the best in the show, so I must've been pretty funny =D. I am sending along a tape of that to hopefully catch admission's peoples attentions.</p>

<p>Worked at the Vermont Expos, local AAA baseball club, serving food from summer before 9th grade through summer before 11th grade.</p>

<p>Awards (will have more by the time I apply, of course):
Excellence in Social Studies, 9th grade
Positive Risk-Taking in Writing Prose, 11th grade
National Merit Commended (possibly semi-finalist, although I doubt it)
National Honors Scholar (based on ACT)
Honor Roll every quarter throughout high school</p>

<p>SO, now that that's all done. What are my chances at:</p>

<p>Georgetown (dream school)
Brown
Bucknell
Colgate
Hamilton
Umass-Amherst
Wash U in St Louis (have legacy-sister there)
Skidmore (have legacy-brother there)
Wesleyan
Vassar
American University
Cornell
Claremont-Mckenna
Kenyon
Vanderbilt
Oberlin
U of Miami</p>

<p>THANKS A TON!!!</p>

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<p>Anyone? 41 views no replies...</p>

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<p>wow check out my thread im the same kinda of student</p>

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<p>Hehe yeah I noticed...anyone have information?</p>

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<p>Georgetown- with great recs, semi-reach, match
Brown- reach
U Mass, Amherst- match
Wash U- match/safety
Skidmore- safety (yay for legacy)
Wesleyan- with good recs, semi-reach, match
American- with good recs, match
Vanderbilt- reach
Kenyon- match</p>

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<p>erm....sorry, but I have to disagree with the previous poster...
Georgetown- Reach
Brown- Reach
U Mass, Amherst- Safety
Wash U- Match/Reach
Skidmore- Match/Reach
Wesleyan- Semi-Reach/Match
American- Match
Vanderbilt- Reach
Kenyon- Sry, dunnoo...
I hate to tell you, but I doubt you can get into Brown or Georgetown. Show ALOT of interest though for Georgetown, and hey, you never. btw...im I almost the exact same boat as you...same schools, same testing, about same gpa...good luck!</p>

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<p>Yeah, all along I've known Georgetown would be very hard to get into. I appreciate the honesty. Do you really think Skidmore is match/reach though? I have about an average GPA (with high upward trend), and something like top 5% test scores and legacy-I considered it at least a safe match.</p>

<p>Oh, and my school is something of a feeder of competitive but not top tier students to Skidmore- we send 5 or so a year.</p>

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<p>Oooh I'm the same kind of student...but with lower stats...whatever check out my thread and I'll give you chances</p>

<p>Just Kidding :)
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=167478&page=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=167478&page=1&lt;/a> (final list on the last post)</p>

<p>You have good chances at most of your schools....good night, and good luck. (Edward R. Murrow, Good Night and Good Luck)</p>

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<p>lol...ok, maybe I was being a tad bit harsh, but if your essays are good and teacher recs and all, then yeah, skidmore would be more of a match. I was also wondering though, although I'm not sure which school you would apply to for GU, what would be a realistic way to get into SFS...like, when applying is all you need high soc. st./language/english grades, or do they really still like you to do well in everything. I'm fine except with math where I have a B/B- or so, with great (not to brag, haha) SAT scores. Will they really care about the math? And sorry to steal your thread, but who knows, it might help you too :&lt;/p>

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<p>Sure, no problem. I don't think I'm applying to SFS though, probably just the College for Government (easier to get in there).</p>

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<p>hmm...I really have no shot in sfs either...haha, I should apply to nursing and transfer out.</p>

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<p>Any other opinions?</p>

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<p>Georgetown (dream school) - Reach. I would strongly recommend you take SAT's, because it seems - to me at least - that their acceptances were based a lot on SAT. Don't do SFS, this is very hard to get into. You'd be better off going to the college then trying to beg your way into SFS later, if you so desire.</p>

<p>Brown - reach</p>

<p>Umass-Amherst - safety</p>

<p>Wash U in St Louis - reach</p>

<p>Skidmore (have legacy-brother there) - match/reach</p>

<p>American University - safetyish match</p>

<p>Cornell - reach</p>

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<p>There's just some stuff here that doesn't make sense. A cut throat public school in Vermont. Isn't that an oxymoron? Isn't Vermont all about laid back? The next thing is being upper middle class and needing a lot of financial aid. That doesn't happen very oftejn, and it never happens at ivies or schools without merit aid. If you need merit money you need to focus on schools you're overqualified for. Given that you're barely in the top 20% of your class, that's going to make most of your schools super reaches.</p>

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<p>Brown big reach
Cornell big reach</p>

<p>No matter what you say, 3.6 isn't so hot. I doubt the math course was that advanced since you are only in precalc as a junior. I am quite amazed by the amount of students that get 5 on the ap bio test though from your school. I would consider my school somewhat competitive and only 50% get 5s on the AP bio test. Maybe you have a chance if your school is as hard as you claim.</p>

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<p>Vermont is a laid-back state in general, but the school is still cutt-throat-it's at least #2 in the state, some would say #1. I say it's cutt-throat because we have a huge percentage of graduating seniors going on to college for a public school-2/3 or so I think. We may be upper middle class, but I will be the fourth kid in my family to go to college, and the loans are racking up. When I say upper middle class, i'm talking ~80k a year-maybe that's more middle class for the better schools, but my family just can't afford $40 thousand a year to one college. My sister has about $20k a year to pay at Wash U, for example.</p>

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<p>Brenny, a cut throat school is one where 100% go to college and 30 plus percent to top 10 colleges. A really competitive school is one where 95% go to college and the top 10% go to top 25 colleges. A school where 2/3 go to college is not going to be seen as a tough school by colleges.</p>

<p>I would think you'll get pleanty of need based aid with 4 in college on an $80K income. Also, look at schools that give good merit aid and focus on those where you're in the top 15% stats wise. Being from VT will help if you apply to schools in the MW and South as I would think they don't get many VT applicants.</p>

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<p>nice I guess my school is competitive then. 94% or something go to college and around 15% make uc berk. although only around 5% make the nicer ivies.</p>

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<p>Holy hell. I guess it's not cutthroat...never mind then-we have about 15 kids of 330 or so going to top 10 colleges, anyway, the math course isn't advanced because of the name-it's because we covered so much content. It was Geometry one year and Algebra II the next, but we did a lot of trig/pre-calc stuff, programming on calculators, spreadsheets, abstract math (analyzing hypercube, etc.).</p>

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<p>Does anyone know, if you have to take the Regents, do colleges look at your scores on them or not? I got an 81 on Bio in 8th grade, and a 94 on Math in 9th.</p>