Give me some hope please

College Search & Selection
1

<p>HI :)
I was wondering if anybody could help me with my college search because I feel like with my GPA, I won't get in anywhere. </p>

<p>Asian Female
GPA: 4.0 freshman year, but then moved to a more difficult boarding school
3.75 sophomore year
3.49 junior year (pretty sad isn't it? i wanted to cry...)
SAT: 2220
ACT: 33
^I plan to make these better</p>

<p>Research:
Northwestern University at the Neuroimaging Lab- I've been here during the school year, and am working daily during this summer. I plan to continue during the coming school year as well. So that's like... 2 years. </p>

<p>presented at 2011 International Congress on Intercultural Philosophy in Costa Rica</p>

<p>EC:
-Church Leadership Team- been a founding member since 6th grade
-Mexico Missions-3 years
-Dancing: 12 years
-certification in Cecchetti method: levels 1, 2, 3, and 4
-Anida Sedala Merit Award
-solo piece
I'm at a boarding school now, so I have to make do with the Dance Team.
-->Dance team 3 years now
-Yearbook Club: 3 years, now section editor
-Amnesty
-Student Committee of Advancement-->team leader for several programs
-Volunteer in Ecuador and Spain
-initiated an adoption program
-taught English in various schools
-Science camp teacher
-Wheaton Symphony Orchestra 3 years</p>

<p>Teacher recs: I'm confident with choosing any of these people.
English--> she's like my mom+grandma put together. She knows me on a personal level, where I can cry in front of her (and that doesn't happen often)
Biology--> I had a rough start, because the molecular cellular biology class is the hardest at my school. But then I worked super hard, meeting my teacher almost daily and improved.
Spanish--> although he's moody sometimes, I know that he's seen my improvement and my love for the Spanish language and culture, especially since we've traveled to three countries together during the past year. </p>

<p>I'm confident with my writing as well. </p>

<p>Colleges I'm looking at, but aren't sure.</p>

<p>Suuuuper reach:
Brown
Rice
UChicago</p>

<p>I don't know about these:
Northwestern
HPME
Boston University
Case western
vanderbilt
GPPA
emory
WashU
Beloit</p>

<p>Safety:
UIUC
UIC</p>

<p>Could somebody chance me please? The cold truth is fine.
I know my EC and GPA are weak, especially compared to my peers. Who can beat being chosen for the US Chemistry and Physics team?</p>

<p>I plan to major in neuroscience or the cognitive sciences and spanish. </p>

<p>Thank you very much.</p>

2

<p>Oh! and my school doesn’t offer APs or honors classes. So that means all the classes are like honors classes. There’s no official GPA calculated or class rank.</p>

3

<p>You need to understand the adcoms at Private Colleges and Universities are fairly well tuned into the differences between 4.0 at Public Suburban HS vs. 3.5 at selective-admission private high school. “Selective” is the key word… you are already among the top 1-5% of all high schools students by virtue of being competitively admitted into the private HS. You further differentiate yourself by the superior teaching and elevated work load at such a school, which better prepares you to excel in college. </p>

<p>The adcoms at NU, or “Fill in the Blank” top 30 college/Uni care much more about your rank within your class, and the rank of your school within all high schools. There is a normalizing that occurs. How do adcoms know this? Decades of comparing the success in their college/Uni of students from every kind of HS. </p>

<p>e.g. a 30% class rank at Prestigious Selective Private HS = top 1% at suburban Public HS. It may actually be top 35% or 40% = Top 1%. Depends on the school. And further on to top 3% at Public Suburban HS = 50% at Prestigious Selective Private HS, and so on. That’s why 3.49 at your tough school is not sad at all. It’s a well respected set of grades that you worked very hard for.</p>

<p>All that to say, you do not hurt yourself by having a lower GPA at your tough HS than you did/would have had at a public HS, at least not with private college/uni adcoms.</p>

<p>Here’s the thing about Class rank and GPA. The adcoms will look at your school’s statistics, profile, etc. to understand where you fit within the whole school. Even though your school does not publish an official class rank or GPA, it is easy enough to figure out from your transcript bumped against the whole school profile. </p>

<p>Re: AP classes. Most prestigous, selective HS classes are the quality equivalent of IB or AP anyway, so there’s no point in offering AP or IB. Many would argue that a normal Calculus course at Prestigious Selective Private HS is harder, and teaches the student more, than Calculus AB or BC at a public school.</p>

<p>Trust that the adcoms have been around the block a few times and know how to identify quality when they see it… from every background.</p>

4

<p>thanks DunninLA for giving me a little bit more hope.
But what if I said that my HS is actually public and funded by the state?
Ever heard of IMSA, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy? I don’t know how it compares to the “Prestigious Selective Private HS” that you talk about.
And the seniors and alumni tell me that the name of my school doesn’t matter outside of the Illinois state and some surrounding areas.</p>

5

<p>christmasgirl613, as the father of one of your classmates (I’m sure you can tell which one by my screen name), I can tell you that lots of schools “outside Illinois and some surrounding areas” know about IMSA, its special qualities, and especially its grade deflation. (Only 4 of 200 members of the class of 2011 graduated with 4.0s, in spite of an average ACT of 31.)</p>

<p>Not every school - but most of the highly selective schools in the United States are on board. Examples: USC and CalTech (can’t get much farther away than that), overall admit rates, 24% and 12%, IMSA 2011 admit rates 55% and 36%; Vanderbilt, overall rate, 15%, IMSA rate 50%; Univ of Rochester, 37% and 70%; MIT, 8% and 16%; Princeton, 5% and 13%. And so on. (Harvard is a notable exception, unfortunately.)</p>

<p>Not too shabby from a school where they say, explicitly and publicly, that their mission is not about getting kids into good colleges (although obviously, that’s a byproduct of what they do).</p>

<p>[Overall admission data from CC website, probably from 2010? IMSA data from the College and Academic Counseling coordinator’s presentation to IMSA parents, May 2011.]</p>

6

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<p>Oh, and how many of those weighted GPAs from standard high schools who will be your competition have something akin to that on their resumes? And not as an EC, but as a graded research project?</p>

7

<p>OP - trust me, the colleges will know all about IMSA - 4 years ago we were worried about the same things for our IMSA student. Your list of schools looks realistic to your GPA, ECs, etc. I think you are qualified for your ‘super reaches’ but as they are super reaches for everyone, I would advise to concentrate on a solid list of match schools and please remember the CC wisdom to love your safety, and make sure it is a true safety - financially and academically and you would go there if need be. There is plenty of data available for you at IMSA to put together a solid list. I would also recommend concentrating on a list that includes schools that would be a good fit, irregardless of prestige.
DunninLA’s advise absolutely applies to IMSA and is absolutely spot on.</p>

8

<p>R-E-L-A-X and have some fun please. You will get into a great college. Stop beating yourself up. I understand you are highly motivated, but please get some perspective.</p>

9

<p>OP – “Selective” is the key word, moreso than “Private”. Adcoms at Top 30 schools will know ALL ABOUT the 100 or so really, truly tough schools in the US, and how to put your GPA/Rank, class selection, and ECs in proper context.</p>

10

<p>IMSA, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Ranked 37th in the country
Naaa… College Admissions probably never heard of it (if they are totally incompetent)
Please!!! </p>

<p>[Newsweek’s</a> Annual List: The Best High Schools in America - Newsweek](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/19/the-best-high-schools-in-america.html]Newsweek’s”>Newsweek's Annual List: The Best High Schools in America)</p>

11

<p>IMO, any college admissions officer who pays any attention at all to that ridiculous Newsweek ranking is indeed totally incompetent.</p>

12

<p>It sounds like you’re going to go to a really good college! I have friends @ IMSA who got worse grades. How is the dance team? Was it super time consuming? I love dance & I want to join. How competitive is it? Will I have time for other activities besides dance?
I’m scoring 700s on SATs right now so I think I have a chance of getting into IMSA. (I’m a freshie) Thanks, you seem really smart :)</p>

13

<p>you’ll definitely get into the University of Chicago</p>

14

<p>You’ll get into some very good schools, but I’m not seeing ivy level schools. The grade drop junior year is a big issue to colleges. Even coming from a top high schools, this will be a problem.</p>

<p>The good news is you have a generally realistic list after the first 3 schools and NU HPME. You should get into most of those schools.</p>

15

<p>OP never posted again, maybe because she felt annasdad knew who she was! Refer to Post #5.</p>