<p>freshman year gpa 3.7
sophomore year gpa 3.3, volunteered, youth group, one ap class, and honor class
junior year currently 3.39 , in one club, starting to work, one ap class</p>
<p>summer plan: to volunteer 100 + hours, join a sport.</p>
<p>What can i do to impress colleges?! What can I do to better my chances in getting into UW?!</p>
<p>“Volunteer 100+ hours”… doing what? How are your SATs/ACTs? Do you have any leadership roles?</p>
<p>The amount of time you spend volunteering is largely irrelevant. You need to be able to meaningfully discuss what you did while volunteering, what you accomplished, and - if it’s something important enough to write an essay / short answer on - what you got out of the experience as an individual.</p>
<p>Are those GPAs weighted or unweighted? What’s your class rank?</p>
<p>You should look at some of the other chance threads to see what information people usually put in them. Right now, there’s not even enough information to make a wild guess.</p>
<p>UW usually accepts 3.7-3.9 gpas</p>
<p>
The obvious answer is raise your grades. Yours are not competitive. According to their Common Data Set[ul][<em>]55% had a GPA 3.75 or higher[</em>]30% had a GPA between 3.5 and 3.75[li]15% had a GPA of 3.5 or less[/ul] And I’d bet that the many of those 15% were recruited athletes, so if you’re not on the speed dial of some coach then you’re facing an uphill battle.</p>[/li]
<p>
So says the admission dean at one selective school…</p>
<p>One more thought…</p>
<p>Its really time for you to sit down and think about how you got here and what you can do to change. Last May you posted at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1139770-will-i-get-accepted-any-college-3-4-a.html#post12543651[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1139770-will-i-get-accepted-any-college-3-4-a.html#post12543651</a> that you had a 3.4 that year and were going to buckle down and get it up to 3.5 but instead it dropped to 3.3 </p>
<p>For many students the problem boils down to not knowing how to study effectively. Even if you spend hours studying, if they are not spent effectively then much of that time is wasted. For all the years you’ve spent in school, I bet no teacher has ever taught your class how to study; its supposed to be something you just figure out or are assumed to know.</p>
<p>There are lots of websites with info on good study habits such as [University</a> of St. Thomas : Academic Support Center](<a href=“http://www.stthomas.edu/academicsupport/studyLinks/default.html]University”>http://www.stthomas.edu/academicsupport/studyLinks/default.html) There is a book you should get called “What Smart Students Know” written by one of the cofounders of the Princeton Review that aims to do for studying what their service does for SAT scores. </p>
<p>One tongue in cheek quote says “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” If you don’t change what you’re doing, then you’re going to keep getting a 3.3 and that is going to keep you out of the colleges you want.</p>
<p>Agreed. At this point your choice of colleges will be sort that don’t evaluate your ECs whatsoever i.e. your volunteer hours, your leadership roles – at this point, won’t help you any. But preparing a great ACT or SAT session and gettting a top GPA will help you immensely</p>