Family income: $42,000
EFC, I’m not sure…
APs: AP World History (5), spanish (5), comp science principles (4), psychology (4)
Psychology, I self-studied for that one because our school didn’t have the class but I liked the subject (I only had like 3 months to prepare for it though… that was… interesting)
I got a 5 in spanish because I am a native speaker. It was my first language actually! One of my essays was about struggling to learn the english language when there was no one who understood me speaking spanish in 5th grade. The math I have for senior year is college algebra, AP stats, and AP Calc AB.
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If you’re already a QuestBridge Prep Scholar, that’s great! Talk to them about applying to do the College Match part, too.
Texas has lots of public school options (41 four-year schols). Find out from your counselor if you’re in the top 6% or top 10% of your class. If you’re in the top 6%, then I believe you get an automatic acceptance at UT-Austin. If you’re in the top 10%, then I believe you get an automatic acceptance to Texas A&M at College Station.
For your interests, I would take a careful look at:
- Texas State: About 33k undergrads
- UT-Austin: About 41k undergrads
- UT-Rio Grande Valley: About 26k undergrads
- U. of Houston: About 39k undergrads
- U. of North Texas: About 33k undergrads
I would look at their degree programs, see if any offer you a spot in a special cohort (like an honors college or other program for a smaller group of students), see if some offer you a better scholarship than others, etc. Look at what student organizations there are and what life on those campuses are like.
ETA:
This gives info on the TEXAS Grant (good for up to about $5400) which you may be eligible for:
http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/apps/financialaid/tofa2.cfm?ID=458
This gives info on the Tuition Public Education Grant which you also may be eligible for:
http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/apps/financialaid/tofa2.cfm?ID=406
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Those are some pretty amazing grades! In my thinking, ACT Prep Skills is one of those non-academic classes that colleges aren’t likely to pay much attention to. I really wouldn’t worry about it, in the context of all those amazing grades in your academic classes.
What I’m puzzled about is, how does someone who is getting perfect grades in AP Eng and near-perfect grades in Advanced Precalc wind up getting a 27 on the ACT?
I agree with Questbridge for you. With grades like yours, you may wind up better off applying without a standardized test score. Your AP scores confirm your academic achievement, in my opinion, better than an ACT less than a 34 could. So I’d probably consider applying test optional, but include your AP scores.
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I don’t understand how you have college algebra and Calc AB at the same time. College algebra is significantly below the first Calc class.
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Not sure if the purpose of this essay, but when you write essays for college admissions, it shouldn’t be about something that happened in 5th grade.
It could be the overall student body. There are certainly schools where the top students are getting ACTs in the high 20’s.
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Also, Prairie View A&M may be a safety candidate, if you meet the automatic full ride criteria of 3.5 HS GPA and 26 ACT. It has majors in psychology, sociology (including some course offerings on criminology), and criminal justice, but not journalism.
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College algebra typically largely duplicates the non-trigonometry parts of high school precalculus. If you know the precalculus (including trigonometry) material well enough to be ready for calculus, you do not need to take college algebra.
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The elective of ACT Class is meant to give you a class to learn and study for the ACT. In my opinion, however, it does not work. We are overwhelmed with snaps that don’t even help and mastery machines that, if you get one wrong out of three, you’re in the path to fail. It ends up stressing most of my peers and me instead of helping. I’m also self studying for AP Japanese, apart from the other AP Classes I’m already taking… It’s hard to focus on the ACT, especially with how tough the class can be at times (don’t get me wrong, I love a challenging class that pushes me to learn further to what I thought capable. This class though, is not that). As to my perfect grades in AP English, I’m a very good writer and a very good multiple choice (in english) taker as well. My two highest ACT scores are 30s for english and reading (which isn’t breathtaking, but shows that I struggle less with english). My essays were usually always 1-3-1s, and by the end of Q3, 1-4-1s. The very first mock exam, I had already gotten a high 4 (mid october) and by the next one, a 5 (around february). I’m not sure how competitive it is, but if it helps highlight that I am good at english, I got into the Princeton Summer journalism program as well. As for pre-calc, although english is my strength, math is still fun to learn since there are so many different ways to solve one problem. Again, the only class I ever struggles with was ACT Prep skills… Even micro economics (the one I struggled the most with from the APs) was easier than that class…