College Recommendations for a less than stellar GPA and a high SAT

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Grade: Rising-senior, IB diploma candidate
Sex: Female
Race: African-American
Location: Maryland</p>

<p>Scores:
My GPA's throughout the years:
9th-W:3.29. UW: 2.88
10th-W: 3.38. UW: 3.0
11th-W: 3.43. UW: 2.43</p>

<p>PSAT: 176
SAT: Superscored, 1960. CR+M:1290. I'm predicting 2100 as my highest
SAT II: I took Math I, World History, and Biology M. Waiting for results.</p>

<p>AP/IB scores: None so far, but I took these classes Junior year.
AP Lang
AP Euro
AP Spanish
IB Biology SL
IB Math SL
IB World Religions SL</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Speech and Debate (9,10,11,12)
Black Student Association (9,10,11,12)
String Ensemble (9,10,possibly 12)
Student Ambassador (not a big deal, just helping out at open houses and hosting 8th grade shadows)
Hospital Volunteering (January-May, I didn't like it too much, I'm looking for a new volunteer position)
A possible job at Barnes & Noble or a movie theater (I have yet to hear from them)</p>

<p>I know that my GPA is rather low, and that will hurt me. But I've always liked prestige in a school. Are there any schools with great reputations that I could possibly get into? And I also am trying to find a few safeties. Thanks!</p>

<p>You didn’t give any hint at your intended major, that would help in finding colleges.
Just my opinion, but I would think that taking those AP classes helps, especially if you get good grades on the exams.
Your SAT scores are really high though, so that should help out a lot.</p>

<p>^ I have no idea what I want to major in.</p>

<p>If you’re good at debate you should try to get recruited by a college for their debate team or use that heavily in your applications because I think a lot of colleges look very highly on that</p>

<p>If you’re looking for a recommendation, you need to give information on Price (what you can afford to pay, how much you’re willing to pay) Location( In state in MD, or OOS East coast, south, west coast, etc) Potential Majors (even if you’re undecided, anything is better than nothing.) or any other things that might pique your interest in a school.</p>

<p>Price: doesn’t matter
Location: Out of state, preferably. I’m okay with New England, Mid-Atlantic, and not too far south (VA and NC. Maybe GA). West and Southwest I like too, but idk if I could handle the distance.
Majors: Psychology? History? I really am not sure what I like. But, I don’t like Math or anything related.</p>

<p>what do kind of college experience do you want? What do you want the people to be like? What do you want to do at college?</p>

<p>I ran College Confidential’s college search engine with your SAT score, a 3.0 UW cumulative GPA, Located either in the Mid Atlantic, North East, and South East, with majors in both Psychology and History (general) with price being no option, and being a “selective” college (admits 1/3 to 2/3 of applicants), all on “very” important consideration and got some results. Note that your GPA is going to hinder you. And while this search engine can be helpful, its not perfect. Here is the link if you want to play around with it. [College</a> Admissions, Search, and Financial Aid Help from College Confidential - College Admissions, Search, and Financial Aid Help from College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/)</p>

<p>Wilson College, Chambersburg PA
Daemen College, Amherst NY
High Point University, High Point NC
Mississippi State University, Mississippi State MS
Spalding University, Louisville KY
Montclair State University, Montclair NJ
University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana
William Peace University, Raleigh NC</p>

<p>(With more criteria, you’ll get better results)</p>

<p>theconnoisseur: I want to go to school with intellectual people. That’s why prestige is important to me. But I also want there to be somewhat of a party scene and things to do. It has to be near a city or a big town. I want the classic college experience.</p>

<p>Bump?? 10 char</p>

<p>Prestige schools don’t have a lock on intellectual people. Large state schools have lots of students of every type and your state flagship, UMD-CP meets your desire for the classic college experience as well as being close to a major city. I know you said that money doesn’t matter in your college search but that’s true for very few students, so I think you are very lucky to have such a good in-state school. In fact, it may be a bit of a reach for you but I think you could find everything you could want there.</p>

<p>You should meet with your school counselor and see what his/her perspective is on your chances of admission.</p>

<p>The only thing about college park is I don’t want to see kids that I used to go to school with. I’ve been to more schools than average person, so I know more people. And I would like to leave Maryland/D.C.</p>

<p>Bump 10 char</p>

<p>bump again? :/</p>

<p>Bump, please! Solid suggestions??</p>

<p>If you really are going for prestige, the women’s colleges might work for you–Wellesley and Bryn Mawr are near big cities. Smith is in a mid-sized (very fun) city. You might get some help there from being a minority. Spellman is another option.</p>

<p>You’d be surprised at how little you actually see people you knew from high school in college.</p>

<p>I would apply to MD and see if they admit you. They value SAT more so than GPA I have found but I would look to get your SAT closer to 1400 to make up for low grades.</p>

<p>SAT 50% Range of 1260-1410
GPA ~4.0 W</p>

<p>I went through this exact situation (very low gpa, exceptional test scores) and managed to end up at a very good school (top 15 in the US News world rankings in fact). Do you think you can do well on your AP tests? I’m talking multiple 5s. Is not going too far from home very important to you?</p>