<p>Major dilemma here:
3.9 GPA Weighted at Top 200 high school nationally
Junior Year (AP Macro, AP Gov, Honors English, Honors Physics, Honors Sociology (semester long course)
Low-Mid 20s ACT
Extremely Hard Worker, moderately intelligent, suck at ACT
Soccer- looking lower half DI and DIII (Great Extra-Curiculars)
Business Major
Looking for decent private/very competitive public schools
I've seen all the SAT/ACT optional schools- Any other opportunities?</p>
<p>Is the ACT screwing me over? What other steps need to be done to help my chances? Thank you for any and all help.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m in the same boat as you. I don’t take standardized tests well, but work hard and make good grades. I’m sure you know Wake is test optional, and a great school at that. I want to see what other people suggest.</p>
<p>It really depends sometimes how far you’re willing to travel or how much you can pay for school. I was in the same situation as you last year and I was told to not apply to many schools but I did anyways and got into many top schools. I think colleges prefer a hard working kid (high GPA) with low scores than a low GPA kid who can score really high. Definately apply to a couple of safeties (not sure what your situation is…maybe state school?) but also apply to a few reaches.</p>
<p>Here’s a link that might be helpful
[Low</a> SAT Scores? 20 Great Colleges for Students with Low SAT Scores](<a href=“http://collegeapps.about.com/od/choosingacollege/tp/great-schools-low-sat-scores.htm]Low”>20 Great Colleges for Students with Low SAT Scores)</p>
<p>The standard response on CC are:</p>
<p>1) Obvious grade inflation. Newsweek HS rankings don’t mean anything. Score>Rank>GPA. What is your rank?
2) Apply to test optional top rated LAC if you are chasing some type of prestige.</p>
<p>Perhaps you’ll do better on the SAT than the ACT?</p>
<p>Beyond that, there are the usual standardized test taking techniques, such as doing easier questions first (you might be able to answer 10 easy questions in the time it takes do to 1 hard question, even if all questions are the same credit), plugging in the multiple choice answers back in the the math problem, doing some basic probability/statistics to find the expected value of guessing if any of the multiple choice answers can be eliminated, etc…</p>
<p>1) Obvious grade inflation.</p>
<p>I shake my head at that every time I see it.</p>
<p>You have time to bring your ACT score up. Since you have other areas covered fairly well, focus intensely on bringing up your ACT score. Also, consider whether you may have to submit SAT II scores and pick your best topics for those if so. Be strategic about your senior year so that it looks strong but allows you to focus on improving test scores. Also, work hard this summer to create a stack of sample application essays that you may be able to modify to answer essay questions for applications. It’s harder to do well on essays when you’re really busy with schoolwork and completing applications otherwise. Be careful if you use prewritten (by you) essays that you truly answer the questions and don’t just submit an essay that is polished but that doesn’t answer the questions. Really, prewritten essays are mostly practice and content development so you have things to write about and know how to write about them. Definitely include a wide range of schools in your application list from the sure thing schools to the pipe dream schools. Select your safeties as carefully as you select your schools because you want to be happy with going to one of them if you need to. Keep in mind that if your grades are inflated and you manage to get into a school that is beyond your capability, you’ll be miserable and may have to transfer to a school that is a better fit. For each school you are considering, look at the range of ACT scores for the middle 50% of students admitted in the previous year. If your scores are in that range, you may have a decent chance. Standardized test scores really do help determine your abilities, along with other indicators, and so I would not discount the importance of them. Bring them up as much as you can and apply to schools where your score falls in the range of those scores of the middle fifty per cent of accepted students or at least almost hits that middle range. Just for kicks, you could go on the discussion forums for a few schools you would like to go to and ask your question there to get school specific advice. You can do it anonymously of course.</p>
<p>You need to go have a sit down meeting with your guidance counselor and perhaps the school psychologist about the discrepancy between your classroom gradesand your standardized exam scores. Three possible causes (there are others as well) to start with are poor exam-taking strategies, exam-induced anxiety, undiagnosed learning disabilities such as dyslexia or processing disorders. Each of these has a different fix or work around, but your testing results can be improved. </p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>Happymomof1, that is a good point. He might be able to ask around among his peers and see if others have disproportionately high GPA’s as compared to their standardized test scores. If so, it might be grade inflation and nothing unique to him. But, if he’s the only one or one of few, it certainly would be worth looking into identifying an issue such as those you mentioned.</p>