<p>I'm a rising senior this year, and I have no idea if I'm able to get into GW. I feel like my grades are absolutely fine, but I'm not so sure with my SATs. I plan on becoming a lawyer and majoring in Political Science and minoring in International Affairs.</p>
<p>My overall GPA (weighted) is a 4.4 (out of 5.0)
I know I'm top 20% of my class, maybe even 10% I'm not sure yet.
My senior year I'm taking AP Government and Politics, AP English V, Honors Pre-Calculus, Honors Italian V (highest Italian in my school), CP Physics (that may change to Honors). My electives I chose were Genocide, Psychology, and Constitutional Law.
I tried to make my schedule as rigorous as possible, so GW knows I'm working hard and not slacking off my senior year.</p>
<p>Extra Curricular:
National Honor Society
Honor Roll since 9th grade
Editor of yearbook (been on it since 9th grade)
Italian Club
Cancer Awareness Club
Soccer and Basketball (Captain)- but only in 9th grade
I was a camp councilor for 2 years
I worked for another children parties' company for a year (they closed down)
I also do community service. Mostly for my church.
This summer I applied for a few jobs at law firms but because of the recession I'm not sure what will happen. I plan on just doing community service if it falls through.</p>
<p>My SATs: I'm taking them one more time before the Early Decision Date
Math: 570
Reading: 500
Writing: 570
I was hoping in October I can receive around 1740 at least. I did not care about high school until my sophomore that's why my SATs aren't as great as you would expect them to be.</p>
<p>GW is my first choice and I plan on doing an interview. I also know GW loves different ethnicities, which I wrote my college essay on that best describes me (Writing is a strong suit of mine).
Also should I take the ACTs? I know I need a SAT subject test but I need to redo my SATs which is the same date as the subject test, so should ACTs cover that?</p>
<p>Let me know what you think! And any suggestion are appreciated! I will not take offense to anything anyone says, I just need some advice!</p>
<p>If you can swing it - Top 10% of your class rank/GPA would be good. The SAT’s are your weak point as of now.</p>
<p>Rec’s
Take an SAT prep course (e.g. Kaplan, Princeton Review). They raised my son’s SAT 's from 1800 to 2090. They teach you how to take the test.
Seriously consider the ACT, but don’t send the results to schools until you see the results. No penalty for guessing on the ACT and the test is more fact based knowledge.
Show as much “demonstrated interest” in GW as you can - visits, definitely interview, etc.
Consider applying ED if you know GW is for you and comparing FA awards is not an issue. Acceptance criteria are a little more lax for ED students.</p>
<p>All that being said - the admit stats for the class of 2014 were very impressive - GW is now a “Most Selective” school. Overall acceptance rates was about 30%.</p>
<p>By the way - GW offers Yearbook Editors scholarships just for that!</p>
<p>Search this forum for the class of 2014 admit stats and you will get a good idea of what you need.</p>
<p>These are strictly my opinion - my son is an incoming freshman class of 2014, and my daughter class of 2012.</p>
<p>Had almost the same stats as you but with higher SATs scores and I got rejected this year. They’re acceptance rate this year was ridiculously low and next year you can probably plan for the same, but good luck ED should help a little.</p>
<p>Based on current SATs and URM status ( are you URM?) deferred ED then, who knows? I think they will wonder about the high grades vs low SATs =grade inflation at your school. How does not caring about HS= low SATs? SATs are aptitude tests, not achievement tests.</p>
<p>schmohawk is right. definitely boost your SAT scores (to reduce the gap between your school grades and your SAT’s) and take subject tests if you can. this year both ED and RD applicants’ stats went up and acceptance rate went down so just keep working hard.</p>
<p>There’s is no grade inflation at my school. There are 2 types of gpas, one is regarding if you are in honors, ap, cp, whatever and the other is just a normal gpa regardless of what level you are in. For example the gpa that is weighted based on level will separate a student that has an A in an AP class and a student who has an A in a CP class. (Obviously, they aren’t on the same level)</p>
<p>And i know SATs are not achievement tests, but they do reflect on how many skills you have learned throughout high school, but I will try to get my SAT score up.</p>
<p>Beachgirl - In addition to retaking the SAT consider the follwing:</p>
<ol>
<li>Take a SAT prep course prior to retaking the SAT as per my prior post.</li>
<li>If you’re analytical and more of a knowledge type student - take the ACT. GW admissions will take the higher of the SAT/ACT.</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m not so sure that the ACT measures specific knowledge per se, but some people do definitely find it easier than the SAT and vice versa. My college prep curriculum having been formulated around teaching students how to approach the ACT rather than memorizing specific facts to be tested on, I’m more inclined to feel as though it’s more a way of thinking than memorizing any specific facts. The only section that I can think of that requires specific knowledge is the mathematics portion, but I imagine that that’s how the SAT works, too (I never took the SAT, so I wouldn’t know). In addition, while the ACT definitely measures your ability to analyze information, it’s mostly in a verbal sense; even the science portion is really a glorified technical reading exercise - you don’t actually have to know anything in the way of science so long as you can read the passages and correctly interpret simple graphs (I was a mediocre science student in high school, but I still managed a 30 on this section because I have strong verbal skills, however I’m a poor student in regards to quantitative skills and as such only managed to scrape up a 16 in math).</p>
<p>In any event, do try to raise your SAT score, as GW has become rather more competitive of late. Barring that, attempt the ACT; you may find it less challenging to score more highly.</p>