I Need Advise!

Applying to College
1

Hi,

After research and college visits this is my list of colleges (#1 being my top choice):

  1. Drexel University
  2. Penn State University Park
  3. Rutgers

These are my stats:

GPA: 3.35 out of 4

SAT:
-Math: 800
-Reading: 620
-Writing: 630

Since the beginning of high school, I’ve taken the hardest classes I could. My schedule for this year (senior year) includes AP bio, AP calc, AP english and AP french. I was planning on including AP chem but it didn’t fit into my schedule.

EC:
Key Club

Volunteer:
Library Summer Volunteer (2 hours weekly)
Hospital Junior Volunteer (2 hours weekly)
Store to Door order taker (I help senior citizens get groceries) (1 hour weekly)
Algebra Tutor for middle school kids (1 hour weekly)

Work:
Kumon (tutoring center)

I also babysit/tutor my many cousins
I love helping and knowing that I’m able to do meaningful services for others.

I’m a first generation college student… And I was ignorant for the most part about the whole college application process. I didn’t really know that getting B’s was that bad or that EC’s were that important. I started gaining a lot more knowledge about the whole process towards the end of my junior year (which explains the poor gpa).

Questions:

  • What are my chances for those colleges?
  • Should I aim for more competitive schools? And what other colleges do you recommend that I look into that are not more than 3 hours away from south NJ, won’t leave me in a lot of debt and are strong in the sciences. I prefer something not liberal and small. If my stats were near perfect I would have applied for U penn.
  • I was planning on taking SAT subject tests Math ll and Chem in october. I thought it would add my strengths into my college app. Would this be a good idea or should I just retake the regular SAT’s again and aim for higher writing and reading scores.

I don’t really have too much guidance outside of school so any tips for a newbie are greatly appreciated.

I’m Asian and I plan on going to medical school…if that helps in any way

Thank you.

2

Why do you like Drexel better than Penn State or Rutgers? Just curious.

3

Forgot to mention;
I’m in the top 20% of my class

My school grades by 7…
100-93=A
92-85=B
84-77=C
Most of my B grades are in the lower 90’s. Would this affect how colleges view my gpa?

4

Where are you in-state? PSU out-of-state tuition is more than 40k per year. It’s also NOT small. At all.

Edit: Reading back, I’m not sure if you meant “not liberal and not small” or “not liberal and yes small.” If the latter, my original point stands. Also bear in mind that most universities are fairly liberal.