<p>THIS IS MY NEW HYPOTHETICAL THREAD QUESTION</p>
<p>I have a 5.0 GPA and plan on getting between 25-30 on my ACT. My subject scores in Math 1, Math 2, and English will not be as stellar. Math 1 will be average to good, Math 2 bad to average, and English good to great. I plan on majoring in math and want to get into CCS at UCSB, which is an accelerated mini-school in UCSB with a fantastic math department that is supposedly almost as difficult to get into as an Ivy.</p>
<p>Schools:</p>
<p>NYU
Ivy’s
Stanford
Caltech
MIT
CA UC’s</p>
<p>What are my chances as a California resident?</p>
<p>GPA is relative to each school. If you are doing well at your school then that’s good.</p>
<p>If your 5.0 ranks you 1 in your class, and you have a 30 on the ACT (what is that, a 2100 SAT?) and your SAT IIs hang around 650 each, then UCSB is extremely possible. Nothing at UCSB will even come close to as difficult as an Ivy.</p>
<p>Using your given data:
You will not be getting into an Ivy.
MIT/Caltech/Stanford also impossible.
UCs. You will stand a small chance at. Probably not UC Berkeley or UCLA. UCSD and below are possible.
NYU, unlikely.</p>
<p>You are just excusing mediocrity. If your sickness is really all that - well I really don’t know what to say. But if its some stupid thing like " Oh I’m stressed" or " I can’t concentrate", you won’t receive any sympathy for low test scores. They’ll tell you to get on some adderall. </p>
<p>“aaronjv15” - the fact that they explicitly use them in a point system that calculates an eligibility score?.. that seems important.</p>
<p>GPA mostly shows you are putting some effort into courses. I know plenty of dumb*<strong><em>s with 4.4+ GPA. I know no dumb</em></strong>*s with 2300+ SAT. Past 4.0 I’d be surprised if there was any difference in quality. GPA is also inflated in a lot of districts and your GPA is dependent on the teachers you get. That’s why Ivys care about SAT/ACT.</p>
<p>i just saw this thread right now, and know it may be a little late, but i just want to let any other ccers out there who may be reading this that to get into great schools extremely high scores are not necessary. i’ve gotten into a bunch of great schools already, (including a few ivies, northeastern, and NYU) with a 1980 sat score and decent gpa. high scores are not the key to everything, it’s how you portray yourself to the adcom and if you they see you as a good fit for their school. that is why essays are increasingly more important to top-tier schools.</p>
<p>i’m sorry that you have trouble testing, but it’s AMAZING how you have such a high GPA…does your school not make you take tests or something? With your testing problems, if you can get A’s on your tests but NOT decent standardized testing scores, then clearly your school inflates grades and is extremely easy.
High GPAs are a dime a dozen these days.
I’m not an adcom, but I know that at some of the schools you’ve listed, they accept a very limited amount of students in your score range.</p>
<p>Like people were saying earlier, if you did not take any hard classes then your 4.0 means very little. Since you’re planning to be a math major and have not even taken calculus you’re going to have a really hard time explaining why you didn’t take any advanced courses. Also, colleges are likely to wonder with that high of a GPA why you didn’t challenge yourself more, it seems like you took the easy way out with the easiest courses you could take.
Taking the Math 1 and Math 2 subject tests is pointless, if you’re serious about math take Math 2, but taking both of them is repetitive, and not looked favorably upon.
Mary-um, I’m not sure how you got into those schools with that SAT, but I’m sure you had some hooks that you’re not including to make your point.</p>
<p>BTW, you are flat out wrong about which is the better indication of college performance. SAT’s simulate the college testing experience, the setting, the pressure, and the time. In college you will take courses which have a midterm and a final and no other grades. Doing well for 4 years of high school means you worked hard or took easy courses or had easy teachers or had great grade inflation or a number of other things. It does not show how you will do on college level work, nor does it prepare you for the stress and rigor of collegiate exams.</p>
<p>GPA nor SAT gives an accurate estimate of collegiate success. They both fail.</p>
<p>Not to be mean or anything, but if you have testing anxiety which prevents you from doing well on exams, how in the world did you manage to get As on your school tests?
Or were the As on your report cards unfairly earned?</p>