I just wanted an outside opinion on this, because I will be applying this fall RD. I’m looking for an honest opinion and advice if my chances are bad. I know my sat scores are pretty low but here goes nothing(obviously I’m retaking them but for now I’m going to assume it stays the same):
Prospective Major: Comp Sci or IT
GPA: 4.0W
SAT: 1490CRW(500CR, 500W, 490M)
Sophmore Year: Algebra/Trig honors, Geometry honors, honors lang
Junior Year: Precalc honors, LAL 3 honors, AP Lang & Comp, APUSH, chemistry honors
Senior Year: not quite sure about anything other than AP Lit and AP Calculus AB, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have honors classes wherever my school offers them
EC’s:
Korean self-study 3 years(mid-intermediate)- German self-study 2 years(low-intermediate)
Mid sophmore year-Present started managing a “microbusiness” I created for myself. While I did not directly offer services that earned me the money, I bought, sold and managed the devices that I left running on survey websites. I thought this should count for something because this was the only way I was able to afford my textbooks and resources for learning Korean.
VP of Future Educators of America Club(1 yr)
Summer Internship at Brown Brother’s Harriman(A pretty prestigious investment bank on wallstreet): One of my favorite side projects was assisting with the development of an application they were making that would automatically weed out inactive computers and print their information on an excel spreadsheet.
Just wanted to add that I am an African-American female, who comes from a low-income family if that helps? Thanks in advance.
yes, personally, I think you have a chance, especially if you can bump your SATs up even a bit. If your GPA is within the top 10% of your class, that makes that wonderful 4.0 look even better. With your demographics and what seems to be a real sense of drive and initiative, i think you will at least be considered. It looks like you’ve taken advantage of whatever your school offers in terms of rigor and that is important, too. Colleges look at applicants in the context of their environment.
The Common Data set shows the odds, though: in 2014-15, students with CR scores in the 500’s represented only 11% of students, while Math in the 400’s accounted for just 1%. Grinnell does not consider the Writing SAT. So, some – but not many – students with scores similar to yours do get in!! Schools like Grinnell know that low-income students do not benefit from the same tutoring and coaching that affluent students do.
Can you work hard on practicing for the SAT this summer? My suggestion is to go over to the SAT sub-forum and find out what books and studying tips other posters can provide you.
As it stands now I’m ranked 2nd in my graduating class.
About the SATs I’m trying and failing lol. I have been studying with the blue book for the first half of summer and my score barely went up(only in CR). I’m probably going to have to buy a course because I need more structure.
No, I haven’t tried it. The only thing that is holding me back from trying it is the science portion of the test. I have only taken bio and chem so far because my schedule got messed up freshman year, so I’m a little behind my peers in science