I’m an incoming junior from Florida. My cumulative unweighted GPA is 3.45, and I’m taking my ACT in July. My classes are all honors and AP except for math, and I’m a part of my school’s yearbook club and marching band as its percussion captain. My strong points lie in English, science, history, and music, but I haven’t much to showcase those. How are my chances of getting into college? Everyone I ask says “if you can dream it, you can do it”, but I need a real, unbiased answer. I’m planning on majoring in psychology and then going to med school for psychiatry. Also, if you have any tips on making myself stand out on applications and how to better myself academic-wise, it’d be nice if you could post those.
The colleges I have in mind are:
Columbia University
University of California - Los Angeles
New York University
University of South California
University of Florida
Stanford University
I know a lot of these are reaches, but I feel like I could get into NYU, UF, and USC if I got better grades next year. If there are any colleges that match my abilities and specialize in psychology, I’d appreciate it if you were to tell me. Thank you
@bisenchanted Welcome to College Confidential. First I would like to ask you have you came up with your list? Secondly, I I would ask how much your parents can pay towards your college costs?
UCLA is a California Public University so as an out of state applicant you will receive little to no financial aid and your costs will be close to $65K/year to attend.
Some statistical admission data for UCLA:
Average Unweighted GPA: 3.88
Average UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.40
Average SAT score: 1425
Average ACT score: 32
Some statistical admission data for USC:
Middle 50% GPA unweighted: 3.77-4.00
Middle 50% SAT composite: 1350-1500
Middle 50% ACT composite: 31-34
USC is a private university and would be more generous with financial aid however, you will need much higher GPA and an outstanding ACT 34+ to garner good financial aid.
Stanford has a less than 5% acceptance rate and should be considered a High Reach school regardless of what you accomplish next year.
I suggest you first work on getting your GPA up Junior year, do some test prep for the ACT and research more suitable schools based on your current academic performance.
If you google either Freshman profile for XXX university or google common dataset for XXX university, you can find admission information such as average GPA, test scores and what each school considers in their application review.
Best of luck and find a safety school first and foremost before compiling the rest of your college list.
@Gumbymom I made the list by searching for schools that had good psychology programs and a challenging curriculum, as well as being in a location that I can stay after college for a while. My parents have a college account for me, so I’m planning on using that, scholarships, work money, and grants to pay. My last resort is to take out a loan.
According to UCLA’s GPA calclulator, I have a 3.35 cumulative GPA from just my first two years. Hopefully, I can bring that up a bit and balanced with a good ACT score I might look good on applications.
My safety schools are UF and FSU since they’re in-state and don’t seem too daunting, but I haven’t looked too much into those schools.
Get your GPA up to be competitive. With regards to your courseload - pretty much all successful Ivy League applicants take a plethora of AP/IB courses and get UW GPAs above 3.75. It will be hard to change your GPA by this time, so work hard senior year, get involved in extracurriculars (especially ones focused towards psychology in addition to what you’re doing already - volunteer at a mental health center?), and hope for a 33+ ACT score. Add a few safety schools to your list - Florida State?
UCLA only uses 10-11th grades for their UC GPA calculation so even if you get straight A’s Junior year, you will still below the 25th percentile in GPA. Just consider UCLA a Reach school especially if you are OOS and do not expect any financial aid other than any federal aid if you qualify. UC’s also tend to be very GPA focused, so high test scores will not compensate for a lower than average GPA.
Also as a student, you can only take out $5500 in loans for Freshman year, $6500 for Sophomore year and $7500 for Junior and Senior year. Make sure you run the Net Price Calculators for all schools of interest which can give you an estimate of your costs and share them with your parents.
I’m also from Florida… Since you’re in-state, I think you have a good chance of getting into UF and FSU.
If you’re thinking about staying in Florida, maybe also consider University of Miami. They have a good psychology program, from what I hear. According to the info I found, their average admitted GPA is also not too high - around 3.6. When I applied, I got a $15,000/year merit scholarship (but I am a transfer student).
All other colleges on your list are definitely reaches. I’d say that they are even reaches for the vast majority of students.
I’d recommend searching for more safeties and matches.
@TomSrOfBoston I was thinking since I should be competitive for them by the end of my junior that I should get into them, especially because I’m in-state. Worst case scenario I could enroll in FGCU, which I would have no problem getting into.
@chromium0818 I’m hoping to get 75% As and 25% Bs next year which would lift my cumulative GPA by a bit. I’m also taking 4 APs and 1 honors class, so that should bring my weighted GPA to above a 4.00. Hopefully in my personal statement I can tell admissions why my sophomore year grades ended less than satisfactory. And thank you for recommending that I volunteer at a mental health center, I haven’t thought of that yet!
@Gumbymom UCLA is one of my dream schools so I’m just hanging onto a string of hope that they let me in. I’m hoping that my junior year GPA can balance out my sophomore year GPA.
Maybe self-study for the AP Psychology exam and do well. Also, find meaningful volunteer work in the psychology/social work field or do research in order to distinguish yourself. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to have top scores and good grades for the competitive schools; you’ll need to distinguish yourself with extra-curriculars, particularly ones that are related to your goal of studying psychology. Best of luck!
You don’t need to go to a famous school for undergrad in order to go on to medical school. Most in-state public universities have very good premed programs. A very large number of universities also have very good psychology programs.
With a 3.45 unweighted GPA, Columbia, UCLA, and Stanford are somewhere between very high reaches and out of reach. UCLA would also be very expensive as @Gumbymom has pointed out. NYU also has a reputation for being expensive and might also be a reach.
If you want to go on to medical school then you need to avoid debt for undergrad. Also, if you switch from psychiatry to psychology as a career path then again you will need some graduate school, and getting your bachelor’s with no debt would make this a lot easier also.
We are not from anywhere near Florida (we are at least 1,000 miles north of you) and haven’t looked at schools that far south but to me it seems like your in-state public universities should probably be the first ones for you to look at.
For next year, I think that you need to try to pull up your GPA as the number 1 priority, and find very good match and safety schools as your number 2 priority. Also do some preparation between now and when you take the ACT. Good luck and best wishes! The US (and probably most of the world) does indeed need more psychiatrists and psychologists.
@UrbanMum I was planning on taking AP psychology my senior year along with AP physics and possibly calculus. My schedule for junior year has AP chemistry, U.S. history, Capstone, and literature. From where I live, there aren’t many oppurtunities for psychology, so I was thinking about volunteering at the hospital.
@DadTwoGirls I’m making it a goal of mine to get a 3.75 unweighted GPA next year which would make my cumulative above a 3.5. My weighted GPA should be pretty good next year since I’m planning on taking more APs like I previously stated. My state universities don’t seem too bad, but worst case I can try and transfer after my sophomore year of college.
@aquapt Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll look into those colleges. I’m going to limit my reaches down to maybe 3 by the time I apply.
I’d like that a music is a huge part of my personal criteria for a university. Since I plan on doing marching band throughout my college years, all the colleges on my list have marching bands.
@bisenchanted, you’re new here to College Confidential, so maybe you haven’t gotten a sense yet for how crazy-competitive these top schools have gotten. It’s not so much a matter as to whether your stats and ECs qualify you for the level of work at these schools… it’s the sheer numbers of highly-qualified students applying to them. There simply are not enough spots for all the super-bright, disciplined, ambitious students with perfect and near-perfect scores that want to go to them. The good news, though, is that an excellent education can be found at a huge array of fine schools that are not in this elite category. Medical schools will not care where you got your undergraduate degree…Med schools look foremost at your grades, MCAT scores and recommendations. Plus, medical school is extremely expensive… so go to the undergrad program where you can get instate tuition or scholarships and the best mentoring for your future (not the school with the biggest name.) IF you can get into these reaches, I can practically guarantee you will not get a scholarship with your stats. There’s nothing really wrong with your stats…you’re a solid student…it’s that your stats don’t match up to these schools. Many or most of the students who are admitted to these elite schools with stats below the 25% mark (or even the 50%mark) will be athletic recruits, legacies, underrepresented minorities, or students with some other exceptional qualities wanted by the school. I’m not trying to discourage you, but trying to steer you to look at more realistic places than Stanford, Columbia, etc.
If you can, visit a number of colleges and Universities to find what “feels” right to you, and find out where you can thrive, learn and get the best grades.
Just wanted to note that SDSU is also a California Public university so you will receive little to no financial aid as an OOS student, although less expensive than the UC’s, you are still looking at around $40K/year to attend.
^^ Yes, absolutely. I’m just taking it from the info provided that OP is not coming from a price-sensitive perspective at this time. (And SDSU out-of-state is still a lot cheaper than UCLA!)
@inthegarden I view Stanford and Columbia as very high reach schools. I’m not depending on them for admission. I know there’s a massive chance that I won’t be admitted, I just want to see how good I have to be to have a chance. I mainly want to go to these schools for the quality of education, location, and just the experience as a whole.
Update: I just took a practice ACT test and I got a 25 all together. I haven’t started prep yet, so I think if I study a bit (especially the math section, which I scored pretty bad on), I’ll be able to bring my score up. If I decide to retake it, I think it’ll be good enough for admission into FSU or UF.
