<p>So I've been slacking in school for the past few years getting B's and C's in the classes I don't like and A's in the classes I enjoy. I'm going to be a senior next year and my GPA is approximately a 3.2/4.0 UW and a 3.8/5.0 W in a suburban city a very good education system. I know that these aren't godawful but they aren't even comparable to most kids applying to my reach schools (UCLA, USC, UNC Chapel Hill, UChicago)</p>
<p>My SAT's are much better than most peoples with that GPA(CR-770 M-800 W-660 Composite-2230) and although they aren't astounding they are in the 75th percentiles for math and reading at all my schools and around 50th for most in writing (I tried to find as many good schools as I could that discounted or ignored the writing score).</p>
<p>My EC's are decent, above average maybe but not significant to overshadow my GPA.</p>
<p>The problem I'm having is my SAT's are in the range of some great schools but my GPA is in the range of mediocre to bad schools so I have no idea if I'm a fit academically for a school. What schools and/or school types should I be looking at and do I have even a remote chance at my reach schools?</p>
<p>Go to the Common Data Set for each school. The criteria used for admission is in section C7, the stats of enrolling students are in C9-11. See what you think. The problem is the schools you listed are holistic in admission so they look at it all, and GPA with course difficulty tends to be the largest contributor.</p>
<p>I don’t think you will get into any of your reach schools except possibly UNC. That said, there are still a lot of good schools that will accept you. Look for ones with scattergrams that show a decent percentage of people with stats like yours getting accepted.</p>
<p>Are you in CA? If not forget UCLA. The UC’s will be more interested in your gpa than your SAT as long as your SAT is decent. You can put some of the other UC’s on your list where you have a better chance. But UC’s will look at your UC adjusted gpa so that might look better for you.</p>
<p>There are tons of schools that are good and you can get in with your gpa but you might need an attitude adjustment if you think they are mediocre/bad Learn about lesser known schools that have great qualities.</p>
<p>Chicago doesn’t seem like a good fit for you. You have to be good at everything because you have to take everything --read about the core. Have you considered if colleges with no core might be interesting to you?</p>
<p>Use Search feature to look for past threads on colleges for low gpa high sat students and colleges for 3.2 range students too. Particularly read the threads that come from the Parents forum.</p>
<p>This, I am afraid, is going to do you in at colleges as selective as your reach schools. For one thing, these universities all have enough applicants that they don’t have to take kids who ever slacked, even if they’ve since mended their ways. For another thing, if the reason for your relatively lackluster grades, that’s likely to be reflected in your secondary school report and in your teacher recommendations.</p>
<p>If you were my kid, I’d be advising you that your test scores might help you get into a somewhat better college than would be a match for your grades alone, or help you get merit aid or a place in an honors program at a college for B/B+ students, but that your transcript will keep you out of the colleges that would otherwise be a match for your SAT scores.</p>
<p>So I’ve been slacking in school for the past few years getting B’s and C’s in the classes I don’t like and A’s in the classes I enjoy. I</p>
<p>Top schools are going to see this trend and likely reject you. the reason is that they have to reject qualified applicants, so they’re going to reject students whose GPAs are beneath their SATs.</p>
<p>What is your major and intended career? What is your home state? </p>
<p>Will your parents pay all costs? If so, then maybe some “need aware” schools might accept you.</p>
<p>*My scores were 2130 (CR-770 M-700 W-660) and 2170 (CR-730 M-800 W-640) adding to a super score of 2230. *</p>
<p>BTW…I see that your score is a Super Score. That won’t help you at UCs…they don’t super score. However, your best sitting has a 1530 M+CR…that is very high. But, UC’s are GPA crazy. Are you instate?</p>
<p>@BrownParent
Mediocre was a bad word. I meant schools that have relatively weaker academics. @mom2collegekids
I’m from Massachusetts and I want to major in Biology, Physics or some other science field.</p>
<p>What I’m looking for is a school similar to my states flagship school of UMass Amherst but that’s further away and in a more urban environment. My reaches are, of course, reaches and I don’t really care if I get into them or not. What matters is a school with good academics that I have a decent chance at and schools with average GPA’s near mine don’t always have UMass Amherst level academics.</p>
<p>Have you looked at the University of Pittsburgh? It is a large urban school that has an incredibly strong science program. Your GPA is a bit low for them but your SAT is rather high so if you apply early enough you could probably get in (at the worst you would get into a different campus and transfer after a year)…</p>
<p>What do you want to do with a science degree? research/grad school? med school? what?</p>
<p>What is your budget? How much will your parents pay each year? that will likely determine where you should apply and where you can afford to go to school. Some of your reach schools may give good FA if you qualify, but getting accepted will be very hard for you. Your match/safety schools likely won’t give good need based aid. The UCs won’t give you great FA since you’re OOS.</p>