@BigflowerSusie thank you also for your comments. I am not looking to be a STEM student, math I scored 730/760 on the psat, so I guess I’m not too terrible but I do best in subjects such as Spanish and physics. I think this 9/11 internship will be very helpful. Also, about my GPA, my lowest grade was an 87 and my highest was a 92. Does this condensation of grades help me as it shows I’m balanced or is this is bad? I had a 87 in both history and physics because APUSH difficulty is absurd and physics I struggled with but for quarter 3 I am doing significantly better. The 92 was in Spanish, but I have no interest in lan
College counselor said that i could apply to strong colleges such as brown/cornell, but i'm not sure
Are you studying HS in NY? Cornell’s contract schools give “some” preference to applicants from NY. IF you are away from STEM, and with your EC in Chess/ 9/11 intern - have you looked at the College of Industrial/Labor Relationship in Cornell? GPA is not end all and be all, the trend, the level of classes matter. IF you are going for non-STEM, make sure you have the highest, strongest grades in those subjects. Take more AP History, AP Econ, AP Psych stuff. Your PSAT Math is pretty good, actually, if your PSAT is at 1380 and Math in the 700s, you are likely to have more troubles with the English portion of the SAT. Either way, just don’t have your sights all in the Ivies, if you are in NY and want to stay in-state - NYU, Vassar, Colgate could be other options. JMHO.
Significant? Of course it’s always best to have higher grades. I will briefly tell you about my D, who applied to Brown and Tufts. Her old SAT was equivalent to 1530 on the new test. Her grades were similar to yours. Very rigorous courseload. Two SAT 2, 750 and 720. 6 AP scores of five, one score of four. Violinist for eight years. Of course you are very different people, but by the time her apps were in, we understood she had virtually no chance. She was not exceptional. Gtown, Cornell, Brown are looking for exceptional people. She might have had a shot at Tufts, but Tufts is looking for really high GPAs from its unhooked students.
Read this: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1878059-truthful-advice-about-getting-into-top-colleges-for-your-average-excellent-student-p1.html
You are an “average” excellent student, I would say. That’s a compliment:-) You should definitely apply to a couple of reaches, because you never know. But don’t appoach it as a lottery, because it isn’t. They don’t randomly choose.
@Jeanvaljean123 , if you are male, honestly, you have excellent chances at some of the very best LACs. Seriously consider Amherst, Middlebury, Hamilton, the Maine NESCACs, and many other fine schools. Esepcially if you aren’t a STEM person. These schools offer so much and are top notch. They have very high retention rates, produces many Fulbright and Rhodes Scholars, and do extremely well in grad school admissions.
I am not located in NY, but planning to take ap euro and ap economics next year. My grades aren’t the strongest in non stem, everything is between 87-92 so I don’t know what I can say about that for now.
@Lindagaf I am still looking to keep my options open so yes I would consider those colleges, thanks for the advice. I would consider business too, and even so I love physics so engineering wouldn’t be the end of the world either. But yeah I’m not limiting myself to saying I have to get into an ivy or I have failed life.
I’d apply to 2-3 colleges at that level as reaches. But I’d spend more time looking for matches & safeties you like.
You are an excellent student but your guidance counselor doesn’t understand that the Ivies need much higher SAT scores to even be in the running – unless, maybe, you’re an international champion at chess and the schools have competitive teams? I’m glad you’re seeking advice. Being Asian can work against you in this crazy process from what I’m read and heard. You need some match and safety schools; so far, unfortunately, all you have is reach schools – even UVA and even if you’re instate. This is not to say you can’t be accepted by Ivies or near Ivies; it’s just that you might not. I’ve seen students and parents misled as you’ve been, and it’s so unfair when they are rejected everywhere and don’t understand why.
I see you’re in New England; too many New Englanders were disappointed last week when UVa announced and students with perfect stats had to be turned away. More OOSers apply to UVa then instate.
Again, it’s not all about stats. Bringing gpa up 2-3 points is good, but not enough in the “whole” picture.
And 87 in a major AP humanities class plus in (regular?) physics set you behind for hum or stem. Sorry. But they will look for your strengths- in classes, in school and community ECs, and in your thinking. The competition will be solid 4.0 kids who’ve been activated over several years.
Add to that, no directed ECs (mun is good for some majors, sure, but what else? And you have no math-sci activs to back up a possible stem intetest.) Chess is not a hook. It’s a nice thing, but even natl champs need more.
What about local service or local community involvement?
You need to look at this from an adcom’s perspective. (And right now, you haven’t. Youre asking about stats.) Sorry, but the competition is fierce. You need to start asking yourself who you are, what you would add on their campuses, not just view this in your hs context. You need a coherent picture.
Please tell us your state. If VA, there are no guarantees for UVA.
The one intriguing thing is the monastery. But what balances that?
Let me add something. There’s a way to make yourself more attractive, sure. But right now, you have no idea what that is. Or what they want. Have you even researched these schools yet?
It’s like you’re looking only at the binary, “Could I get in, is it worth applying?” What you’d need is a savvy strategy. And you don’t get there by asking about bringing up grades. Nor assuming a new internship is it.
Please dig in, learn about these colleges from them, what they say and show, the sorts of kids they seek. Then, we can help you refine your approach, if interested in these schools. Right now, I don’t think you even know if you’re truly interested in them.
I completely agree. I was simply bringing up these colleges just to have a sense of whether they were realistic or not and I certainly can’t say whether I’m ready to commit to one or the other for now. I haven’t even visited a college yet but that is #1 on my priority list.
@lookingforward I would prefer not to disclose state for now but I do not live in Virginia.
Good for you for asking this question now! there are quite a few posters who didn’t and are now getting strings of rejections, with ‘safeties’ that they loath.
Of course you can apply to those schools, but as @Lindagaf points out, it is not a lottery where the more you play the better your chances. At the level of selectivity you are talking about, results can be surprisingly idiosyncratic (in stats talk, they are independent). Many, many students turned down by a ‘lower’ or ‘equally’ ranked college only to get into a ‘higher’ ranked place.
As @lookingforward suggested, dig into the schools you are interested- learn more about them and figure out a good ‘why them?’. Work out how your best things align with what the college emphasizes. In my experience (which is admittedly limited, but does include a collegekid at one of them who had offers from both), the student who responds to Brown frequently does not respond to Cornell- and vice-versa.
Also, Naviance is particularly helpful for places like UVa and UCLA, where the admissions stats for in-state and OOS applicants tend to be noticeably different.
“Why them,” as well as, “Why me?” Why would this college want me? Once you get into the swing of this, it’s not hard or that time consuming. Each new bit of info gives you more idea of what you want and what you offer. And it can show you your own gaps, what you need to add or change. (And that’s a reason to start asap. You can add some EC now or for this summer, but have to have some idea of the right opps. I’m not talking about getting a last minute title in some club, holding a fundraiser or entering some contest. It’s in what you actually do, some stretch, some responsibilities, some impact.)
Later, you pull the pieces together, first for your own check, then for the app and supps. Thing is, this effort, whether or not it later wins you some admit, is also a life growth thing.
Happy hunting.
Yeah, thank you everyone for your advice! I’ve yet to decide my future but maybe I just need more time to find out what i’m truly interested in. For now better just focus on school and decide to do stuff during the summer.
Depends on your definition of “top school”! You can get into a Top 100 school for sure.
also, if you provide state, folks can help a little more. I will pm you.
Little bit of an update: Just got my March SAT scores back, 1500 790 Math 710 Reading and Writing. Unfortunately I did very poorly on the essay, 6/4/6 out of 8/8/8. Is this poor essay score going to affect me a lot?
Bump
I think you should! You can refer to the following article to make the right choice: https://gpahub.net/many-graduate-schools-apply-america.html
Congrats on the 1500! I don’t think the essay grade will factor much into admissions decisions.
With your score and background, you are a viable candidate to apply at just about any school. As noted previously by many other posters, please do research on colleges, look for schools that match your interests, keep in mind that selective schools are reaches for everyone, don’t get blinded by reputation, and develop a well rounded list. I trust that you will do well!