<p>OK, let me preface this by saying that I'm really sorry to be posting this here, but UVA is far and away my number 1 choice and I don't even know whether I should waste my energy fantasizing over whether I will receive an acceptance letter this Spring...thanks!</p>
<p>I'm a middle class white kid from Northern Virginia.</p>
<p>ACT: 32 (36 reading, 35 English, 28 science, 27 math)
SATs: 1340/1600, 2060/2400...two 12s on the essays.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.32
freshman year was a 3.07
sophomore was about a 3.14</p>
<p>junior year was a 3.5 UW (3.71) with a reasonably difficult schedule.
senior year was a 3.71 UW (3.85)...but I don't feel as if I challenged myself...1 IB, 1 AP.</p>
<p>In fairness, my freshman and sophomore GPAs were terrible, but a contributing factor to that is the fact that my school does not weight honors/pre-ib courses (I took 3 freshman year, 3 sophomore year and 1 junior year), so the only year with any weighted courses was junior year (3 IBs) which becomes a 3.71.</p>
<p>School district (Fairfax County PS) is also on a 94+=A, 90-94=B+, 84-90=B,... grading scale. I have received 4 this year and 3 last year B+s that would be A's in other school districts.</p>
<p>So anywhere else I would have straight As this year and all A's and 1 B last year for a 4.14 and a 4.03, respectively.</p>
<p>...but is that even taken into account?</p>
<p>School does not rank, but I'm probably top 20% or so in a graduating class of ~600.</p>
<p>I'm a fantastic writer, but sadly I can only deem my essays as being slightly above average.</p>
<p>Recommendations, probably average -but both speak to my improvement, both academically and as a human being, between the first and second halves of my high school career.</p>
<p>-I have a close family friend who is a relatively high-ranking university official...supposedly he has some juice with the admissions office, but definitely not enough to completely hook me up....</p>
<p>ECs:
4 years tennis (all-district as a sophomore, suffered serious arm injury and couldn't play junior year, but expecting to be Captain this Spring)
4 years school paper (nationally ranked publication with which I have held pretty powerful positions)
2 years DECA (11,12)
2 years Quill & Scroll (11,12)
1 year It's Academic (interscholastic trivia competition thing), will participate in regional competiton. (12)
Won School Science Fair's engineering category freshman and sophomore years.
2 years Cross Country (9,10)</p>
<p>probably a couple more average activities, too.</p>