Despairing junior seeks your advice.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello, I need your advice! </p>

<p>GPA UW(freshman and sophomore years): 3.0 (grim, I know!)
GPA W: 3.4</p>

<p>PSAT: 224 (80CR, 74M, 70W)
On practice SATs out of the blue book, I consistently get 800CR, 800W, 650M, so my PSAT scores struck me as a little bit odd. I psyched myself out on the writing and changed answers; hopefully I won't make that mistake again, but you never know. Math is another story. I’ll be taking the actual SATs in March.</p>

<p>There are three major problem spots in my GPA, which is otherwise a reasonable mix of A’s and B’s. </p>

<ul>
<li>D in biology 1st sem 9th grade (A 2nd sem)</li>
<li>F in PE 1st sem 9th grade (retake one way or another)</li>
<li>F in art 2nd sem 10th grade (no excuses really)</li>
</ul>

<p>My GPA junior year /should hopefully/ show a lot of improvement.</p>

<p>APs this year are:</p>

<ul>
<li>APUSH (I LOVE it and have had a consistent A so far)</li>
<li>AP French Language (consistent A)</li>
<li>AP Psychology (self-study, fascinating topic not offered at my school)</li>
</ul>

<p>Our school has a program focused on international stuff, so I'm taking a lot of international-related classes</p>

<p>School is pretty competitive, but it's public and in the south, so go figure. Class rank is currently ~50/150. (Yikes!)</p>

<p>In the way of extracurriculars: (sadly, all of these began just this year) </p>

<ul>
<li>Founder/co-president of Amnesty International at our school</li>
<li>Co-founder/co-director of a school-wide tutoring program </li>
<li>Founder/co-president of the Movie Club (just a fun thing!)</li>
<li>Writer on the school newspaper, almost certainly an editor next year </li>
<li>Volunteered last summer at an elementary summer school program for 40 hours and plan to do it again - it was surprisingly rewarding </li>
</ul>

<p>I live with a single mom who makes ~20k a year (she's a graduate student and a Princeton alumna), but I'm white and definitely not first-generation.</p>

<p>I'm really interested in USC (as in Southern California) and Tulane. I realize USC is quite a reach with my GPA, but miracles do happen! (Occasionally.) I would really like to start looking into some more schools, though. Here are a few of my preferences. </p>

<ul>
<li>someplace warm (no New England or Midwest, please)</li>
<li>a school in a city, preferably one with a lot of character</li>
<li>not too small...in other words /probably/ no LACs</li>
<li>I'm looking into PoliSci and Psychology</li>
<li>non-religious privates with good financial aid – not interested in my state schools</li>
</ul>

<p>Any help would be hugely appreciated!</p>

<p>...wow, this turned out long, didn't it? Sorry!</p>

2

<p>Your mom is a Princeton graduate and makes 20k a year, man that sucks.
And as for grades, they are not that bad. Just try to get A's in classes that apply to your interests and practice towards getting that high SAT score.</p>

3

<p>To be fair, she's in graduate school right now so she's not working full-time. But still...go Princeton, right? </p>

<p>Thanks, any recommendations for possible colleges to look into?</p>

4

<p>Any suggestions from anyone at all for possible college selections? :O</p>