<p>I'm not going to be able to say the name of my school, but it is located in a huge city, is in a severely impoverished area and among other terrible things, was given a college readiness index of 7.4 (out of 100!) by USNWR. Will top schools consider me if i come from this terrible school? I was the only one to pass an AP exam last year.. Seriously! Its atrocious.. what should i do?</p>
<p>They’re not automatically going to write you off because you go to a terrible school. They just want to see that you’ve worked hard and excelled with what you’re given. It’s fabulous that you’re already doing that - congrats on the AP test! Keep working and rising above, and it will show. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, many top colleges offer summer bridge programs for incoming students from schools like yours.</p>
<p>Ignore what’s around you and work your ass off. Do really well on the act/sat, in your situation doing well on the standardized tests is imperative.</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I535 using CC</p>
<p>Just work your butt off, most colleges and universities (especially top-tier ones) look for how well you did with what you’re given. so if u come from a school where most students pass their ap exams, if you get 5s on every single one ur excelling in their eyes. however, if u come froma school where nobody passes their ap exams except u, ur still excelling. so chin up and work with what ur given :)</p>
<p>Thanks guys… how good is a 1340/1920 on the sat without studying? And going to a school like this has been pretty bad for my ec’s because no one shares my interests or sentiments. How this?</p>
<p>Marching Band- Tuba 1st Chair
Tutor- for both tenth and eleventh grades (I’ve been really trying to help my peers)
Gents Social Service Club (One of only major comm. service organizations at school)
NHS
Worked for three summers in a row trying to help my severely low income mom pay bills.</p>
<p>As long as you take AP Classes, do well, do extra curricular activities, community service, etc., colleges will see you did the most you could with what you had</p>
<p>if you do excel in your current school(AKA get near a 4.0 and score 2100+ on the SAT) colleges will see that you went above and beyond the opportunities you were given.
However, if your school is not safe, or if there are a lot of bad influences(drinking, drugs, sex) definitely move if possible(and from what you wrote, it sounds like your school is not the safest place).</p>
<p>^ that gives me hope</p>
<p>@OP, a 1920 without studying is great considering where you’re from. I don’t remember who this was, but someone got a LL from Brown with only a 17something on the SAT - it was considered an excellent score because his/her school’s average score is in the 1100s. </p>
<p>Do know that without any context, a 1920 isn’t going to look good to tippy-top schools. Please make sure your counselor explains in the recommendation the obstacles you’ve overcome. </p>
<p>If you want to look even better, try grabbing an SAT prep book, studying a bit, and taking it again. You can probably improve your score by 100+ points. (This is anecdotal evidence from others here - I only took the test once - but it stands to reason that prepping will increase your score.)</p>
<p>1920 a great score but you’ll want to get it higher for top schools.
I got a 1970 without studying and after a year and some studying I got a 2340. So I think you could definitely get your score higher with a prep book.</p>
<p>U mention “huge city”, is it possible to just simply transfer to a different high school?</p>
<p>I cant transfer because my single parent of four has no income leaving me unable to attend other schools. And 1340/1920 (690 math, 650 cr, i bombed writing) isnt a good score? Around these parts i was treated like the second coming, seeing that the average score about 200 points below my cr+m score.</p>
<p>And what are a few schools in my range?</p>
<p>You should look into the Questbridge program.</p>
<p>I think you have a great chance! Not to brag, but I go to a great high school, very competitive, a lot of smart kids, good teachers, good opportunities, but there are kids who do not take full advantage of that and even under your circumstances you still excel and do better than most kids I know! So good job! Keep up the good work! I think you can get into a good school</p>
<p>Answering your question about range: Given your socioeconomic standing, where are you realistically thinking of applying (where you get enough Financial.Aid/Scholarships)? That way we know where you may end up. Also if you’re URM, are you interested in HBCUs. What part of the country are you in/how close to home do you wanna be, what you may wanna major in, etc.</p>
<p>The fact that you are working to help your low income family will be very impressive to admissions officers, as impressive as many EC’s, so don’t worry about that. Admission officers know each school and consider each applicant in the context of that school. Do any college admissions officers ever visit your school? If not, when you apply to a college, you should contact the admission office and ask to speak to the person who handles your “region”. Do this well before they are slammed with applications. You can even call schools you are interested in, this year, after notifications are sent out and things quiet down and get the name of the person in advance. Talk to them about your concerns with your school situation and see if they have any suggestions.</p>
<p>Talk to your guidance counselor about Questbridge. It is a program that helps low income students and has affiliations with many of the top colleges. My son goes to a poor high school, although nothing as bad as yours. It has not met performance standards for several years. We know two low income students who used Questbridge this year, one got into Princeton, the other into Cornell. They were both very good students in the context of the school. Neither had many EC’s, but both worked to help their families. Top colleges want to recruit low income students, especially if you are first generation (first in your family to go to college).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks guys. Also would an internship at NASA during co-op next year and a trip to Israel this summer be good to put on a college app?</p>
<p>I am interested in:
Rice
Baylor
Vanderbilt
UT Austin
University of Michigan
UNC
Northwestern
Boston College
Tulane
Georgetown
Morehouse
Howard
Amherst
Wesleyan
Bowdoin
Trinity(TX)
Emory
Ivies?</p>