GPA: 3.6 weighted (3.3ish unweighted)
SAT: Taking it in December, 1160 on PSAT
ACT: take it in spring but got 26 in Pre-ACT
Taken 3 APs and all honors with the exception of math (my Achilles heel for sure)
I think I’m a pretty smart person but i messed around a lot in freshman year and got a lot of B’s (high B’s albeit but still a B nonetheless. Never gotten a C. I have set up my classes this year to play to the best of my strengths taking APs in United States History and English. I’ve talked to my counselor and she said a jump to 3.75 is a reasonable goal. I guess some of my highest academic achievements are getting a perfect 5 on my AP World History exam and getting all As since 1st semester of last year.
As for ECs, I’m currently in 2 clubs, and plan on volunteering in a couple of months.
I’ve seen a lot of different acceptance and rejection stories and as you can tell I’m very nervous and quite scared of getting rejected by all of the colleges I would like to attend. My family’s financial situation is not the best although my parents made clear college comes first. To make it easier on the purse, I’ve decided to stay in state which is no problem at all as I Love NC and don’t like traveling very far anyways.
Right now these are the schools I’m most interested in.
- (Dream School, probably unrealistic) App State
- Western Carolina
- UNC Asheville
- UNC Charlotte
- East Carolina
I would love if you guys could share some insight of how my chances are looking or if you had a family member or if you yourself have any acceptance/rejection stories for these schools. Thanks!
@HelpfulSource Have you actually read any of the threads you’re pasting that SAME EXACT comment on? This poster IS staying in-state.
I think that the post #1 above is being too pessimistic. My understanding from your post is that your overall GPA of 3.3 unweighted comes from nearly all B’s freshman year, and nearly all A’s sophomore year. Freshman year does matter some but not as much as sophomore and junior years. If you can pull off all A’s junior year then you will be showing a strong upwards trend as well as two years of strong grades. You will also need to do some SAT preparation. I see from prepscholar that the average SAT at Appalachian State is 1220. If you are starting from 1160 on the PSAT then with some preparation you should be able to get above this by enough to help you significantly.
It is too early to give an accurate estimate of your chances since at this point you don’t yet have SAT scores and you don’t yet have your Junior year GPA. However, if you work hard and do well from here on I think that you do have a good chance at most or all of the schools on your list.
If Math is your weak point, be aware that Math is very much a subject where what you learn today is based on what you studied yesterday and last year, and what you are going to learn next year will be based on what you are studying today and last year. As such it is an area where it pays big time to work hard to fully understand what you are studying now. It helps a lot to understand the concepts and not just try to memorize formulae. Getting some one-on-one tutoring in Math can help a lot. However pretty nearly every student has some areas where they are strong and some areas where they need to work hard to keep up so having to put in extra work in one area is perfectly normal.
One place where @HelpfulSource is correct is that you should pay some attention to finances. My understanding is that you are in-state for Appalachian State and the two UNCs. In most cases this helps quite a bit but you probably should nonetheless run the NPC and make sure that your parents are fine with the result.