<p>I'm currently in my junior year of high school. My cumulative GPA by the end of this semester will be about 3.3 unweighted. This is pretty low, and I'm worried about my options for college.</p>
<p>That being said, my school is one of the top schools in the state, and generally a B in a class at our school is equal to an A at an average school. Some colleges may be aware of our school's reputation and be less harsh in evaluating my GPA, but I'd like to be prepared for the worst and assume they will judge me as any other student.</p>
<p>I also took the SAT in October for the first time and scored a 2200, but I am going to retake it in January and I expect to get somewhere between 2200 and 2300. My extracurriculars are okay, nothing fantastic, but there's a decent amount of volunteer hours and I will be doing a 4 week long internship in a different country over the summer which might prove to be interesting. </p>
<p>I'm looking to major in psychology, and my parents need me to go to a good really well known college. They want me to apply to places like Stanford, but I'm not so sure I'll get in there. My dream college is University of Michigan, they have an excellent undergrad psychology program and I'd just love to get in there. Other schools I'm looking at are in-state, like UC Berkeley and UCLA. </p>
<p>Also, my family is well off and so I don't qualify for a lot of financial aid, but a scholarship is another thing that I should think about. </p>
<p>What do you think my chances are, with such a low GPA?</p>
<p>You have a mighty fine chance of getting into Michigan because your SAT is great and you aren’t going for an impacted major. UCLA is hard but Berkeley is a maybe. Just increase you GPA.</p>
<p>Do you have a naviance account for your school? If so, you can look at what kind of GPA students at your school need to get into the colleges. For example, last year I was really worried because I was looking at some of the colleges and they all had 3.9-4.0 as their average GPA for incoming students, and my GPA was lower than that. It turns out that our school’s average was only a 3.7-3.8 for those colleges, so it just really depends. If your school is well-known enough (and it sounds like it is, since it’s a top school in your state) then the colleges should know your school’s students’ GPAs.</p>
<p>For FA, if you’re in-state, I would definitely opt to go to a UC school (preferably UCLA or Berkeley but it’s not easy to get in hahaha) because the tuition is much cheaper. As UCSDUCD said, your SAT is competitive for UMich, but I’m not sure about the GPA. Look at naviance for a better guide.</p>
<p>The thing about Stanford and pretty much all the Ivy level schools is that you have to really stand out. Your SAT score is alright for the Ivies but it’s not going to make you stand out amongst the rest of them. You mentioned that your ECs were “okay”, but that’s definitely not going to impress the admission officers for those highly selective schools. You might want to let your parents know that. You could always apply, but you have to know that it’s very hard to get in. I applied to Columbia for ED because my parents wanted me to, and I didn’t get in (my GPA was 3.82 and SAT was 2300), probably because my ECs were weak and I didn’t stand out amongst the rest of the competition. Luckily my parents were okay with it I didn’t expect to get in anyway, so it wasn’t a huge blow.</p>
<p>From what you’re saying, I need to focus on getting my GPA as high as possible in these next few months and try to make my ECs outstanding. </p>
<p>I was wondering what kind of ECs stand out to colleges? I’m officer in a few clubs (not president though), and I’ve been doing piano for 8 years. I have 200+ volunteer hours as well. The only thing that might stand out is my medical internship in a foreign country for 4 weeks, as I said. What do you think I could do that stands out? :</p>
<p>Also, this might be a dumb question, but do colleges look at your first semester senior grades? As in, is it a factor in your GPA when they review your application or do they only look at it after they’ve accepted you to make sure you’re on track? I always thought they put it in as part of your GPA, but people have already been getting their acceptance letters before the semester has ended and so now I’m confused.</p>
<p>EDIT: I recalculated my GPA and it’s actually around a 3.45 unweighted because I retook a class. If I get all A’s and one B next semester (which is likely for a variety of reasons), my cumulative GPA will be a 3.5. My senior year classes, though some are still APs, will be a lot easier for me. For example, at our school, AP Stats is not hard to get an A in (by our standards), and AP Gov/Econ will be a relatively smooth ride after having taken APUSH. If we take this upward trend into account, and assume I get all A’s and a B senior year first semester as well, then my overall GPA UW would be a 3.5. Weighted, 3.8. Do colleges look at weighted GPAs at all?</p>
I didn’t expect to get in anyway, so it wasn’t a huge blow.</p>