<p>I am a rising 12th grader. I have a 3.0 UW and a 3.3 Weighted GPA. I go to a very competitive high school in the top 100 in the nation. I have taken 3 AP classes so far and will be taking 3 more next year, and have passed all my AP exams.</p>
<p>My first SAT was 1760, but i am retaking it and should get a 2000.</p>
<p>I have wrestled 4 years high school, Varsity letter 3 times, county 5th place and 3rd in my region. I was in the interact club and environmental club.</p>
<p>Do you think I will be accepted if I have a strong essay?</p>
<p>I am also applying for U of Pittsburgh, U Mass (Amherst), Penn State, and Syracuse University, and Drexel. I am from Georgia.</p>
<p>How long will have passed between your first and second SAT? Are you doing any kind of preparation?</p>
<p>More often than not, I’ve seen that retaking the SAT tends to lead to a similar score, and I’m not a huge believer in SAT prep anyway, though I certainly see how it could help if done properly. If you’re just expecting to pop up to 2000 without any major effort, you may very well be disappointed.</p>
<p>Other than that, your GPA is somewhat low, and “passed” doesn’t tell me enough about your AP tests- unless I’m mistaken, a 3 or above is passing, but 3s aren’t really great looking on transcripts. </p>
<p>I’m generally wary of betting that your high school is going to do you any major favors if you don’t live in the region, and even then I generally wouldn’t place a whole lot of weight on it. I’m slightly tempted to suggest that maybe your high school could offset your lower GPA (More difficult school, slightly lower grades), but your SAT seems to refute that- if your school is good enough to bite into your GPA, then your SAT should really be higher. </p>
<p>As for your extracurricular activities, they’re fine, and its good to see you stuck with an activity for four years, but they’re not going to make up for your SAT or GPA. Generally, volunteer work is a good thing to have, but again, its not going to make a huge difference. GPA and standardized test scores really do decide a lot, so I’d recommend hitting the books this semester- shoot for straight As to bump your GPA up a bit for the midyear report, and really work to bring up your SAT into the 1800s at least, though if you can get it all the way to 2000, more power to you. </p>
<p>I can’t really offer to chance you- I honestly find the process kind of silly, the best data are acceptance statistics for previous years to get a good idea of the scoring ranges that are typically admitted.</p>
<p>I’m using several SAT prep books and my practice tests scores have been in the 1900’s, but i’m hoping I can get it to a 2000 at least.</p>
<p>I disagree about SAT scores going up. I took mine three times. First without any practice, second one by intensely studying math, and third one by intensely studying reading (the idea of studying for both at the same time for some reason didn’t occur to me…). My score jumped up by over 200 points. Might have gone up more, but I hit the limit on the math section.</p>
<p>I don’t advise the idea of “planning” to get a certain score, because if you don’t, you’ll feel really horrible. Instead just focus on getting as many problems right as possible. Obviously the score matters, but if you get as many problems right as possible, then obviously you’ll get the best score you can. If that happens to not be 2000, that’s fine. Just give yourself plenty of time to study and really take it seriously. I don’t have to remind you that this is a very important test, and you don’t want to think back in 2 years about how you blew it off for to hang out with friends and didn’t get the score you could have.</p>