@MYOS1634, I think it’s in response to post 48, which was a response to posts 31 and 39.
Have you made a list of reach, match, and safety schools? There are lots of great colleges, but because your parents will only pay for certain ones you need to make sure your matches and safeties are schools they’d be willing to pay for and are colleges you’d be happy to attend. You may get into your reach schools, but you need a list with viable matches and safeties so you’re not shut out in case you don’t.
You said your GPA doesn’t reflect your ability and you rarely get over 75 on the papers you write. I’m not sure why you feel that colleges that match your stats are beneath you. You said you study all the time, so if your grades are lower than you want it’s not from lack of trying. Your parents can pay for whatever school you want and you’ll have lots of great options if you open your mind to them. Whether or not you choose to be happy is up to you. If I had parents who could pay for any school I wanted, I’d be pretty happy.
@00110011
Have you actually come up with a target list of schools that are all ones you think you cannot get into and are the only ones you can see yourself being happy at? I’ve seen a few maybes and a lot of no’s to schools but nothing that looks like a list yet. It sounds as if you are focused primarily on name and not much else beyond overall setting and culture. I understand that you do not know what you want to study which means at a minimum you need a school with a lot of flexibility, regardless of whether it is a safety, match or reach. If you can define what it is about match schools that make you say you can’t see yourself there or ever being happy at them, as well as the reach ones you like that it would help people here help you. You have many wonderful options.
Stopping going to school, as I am sure you realize, really will not help you achieve your goals. A 3.5 is a solid gpa, you are a solid student. There are hundreds of amazing colleges out there that fit your stats and have the potential for you to be happy at. Some kids, many kids, work really really hard, study really really hard and a 3.5 is their hard earned result. You have not failed yourself. Your SAT is solid as well. No, they are not tippy top but they are solid and very much in sync with each other. You need to come to terms with that. I know you feel that your grades don’t reflect your ability and you blame the teachers. The SAT is a standardized test and your scores do line up with your GPA. They are solid and in range for many many many schools. Don’t discount what you have achieved as it will get you places. Yes, you can work to improve your SAT score, you can also work on solid grades senior year. Choosing a colleges that matches your stats also means your chances of doing well there are greatly improved. While a reach school may sound like something amazing you can brag about, if it is so difficult you can’t survive your freshman year, it’s not worth much. No one here is suggesting you do not apply to reach schools, just that you have a balance and find matches and safeties you can see yourself happy at. Love the safety is the mantra and while that might be hard to see, I really do believe there is a safety out there for all students that they can be happy at if they open their mind to it.
Name recognition is a huge part of it.My matches I presume would be quinnipiac or u Scranton or some random place like that.I have never heard of them before looking at the us news rankings.What I find so frustrating is that I am right below the tier of schools I want to be at.From reading reviews Quinnipiac seems like a school where kids don’t try and drink all the time,I also read an article confirming it.I consider myself a pretty flexible person so fit isn’t that important because most colleges seem pretty similar.I would prefer certain stuff over others but my thinking process is would I rather go to school A over school B so I’m not that picky.I would prefer to not go to a school with 40,000 people but would choose that over my state school so I am having trouble deciding what colleges to choose.I am trying to make a list by the end of this summer but I am going to be gone for a month.
The fact YOU have never heard of a school means nothing. In fact, name recognition has very little to do with wha happens to you after your graduate. What matters is what YOU do: seize opportunities, take advantage of everything you college offers.
If you don’t like Quinipiac, look at other schools.
Do you have a Fiske Guide (comprehensive), or Princeton Review’s Best Colleges (faster to read, no as much about fit/experience.)
Do you presume those are your matches or do you actually know? Most students have many many matches, not just two. They also have safeties. As you have not identified even a list of reach schools you feel are acceptable to you it is difficult to offer help.
While you state you think all are basically the same and are very hung up on name, you then also state not wanting a large school or a party school so yes, honestly you are being picky. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being picky but you need to realize you are creating some limiters in your options and that is certainly fine to do. Summer is 8-10 weeks long, being gone for one month should not prohibit the creation of a list. US news is certainly not the only, or even the best, source of rankings and what you have heard of, been exposed to is just that. Limited by your own exposure. Simply because you haven’t heard of it does not mean it is not an amazing school. However you are certainly free to limit yourself that way.
Bear in mind that for those reaches you have not identified, as well as matches, your chances for acceptance will always be better the earlier you apply and senior year is quite busy for most. The sooner you can find a few schools you could actually be happy with, the sooner you can move forward with the application process.
Best of luck.
How detrimental would it be if i switched out of Spanish 4 which I am supposed to take next year?I got an A in Spanish 3 with a lot of studying but I am trying to do the summer assignment which is reading a book and answering a ton of questions which we will have a test on and I can not even get through the first paragraph without google translating lots of the words.If I can’t even handle this I feel like I will do horrible in Spanish 4 which is a ton of reading and writing.I know most colleges only require 3 but I don’t know what to do.
Some schools only need level 2 or 3 for admission. But then the student finds out that to graduate from that college/university they need level 3 or 4. So now they have to take a 1-2 semesters college level foreign language. It really depends on the university AND the major at that university. Even within a university one major may only need HS level 3 another major may require HS level 4.
Update:I got a 720 on math and 680 on reading.Should i retake the sat or is it not worth it?
How many times have you taken the test?
If only once or twice, take it in October, aiming for 750 math and 700 reading - modest bumps that nevertheless qualify you for full tuition scholarships at several universities.