<p>Hi I am a junior now and so many of friends swear by this website, so hopefully you can give me some answers. I am really confused, the top three schools are all reaches for me but i want to know what you honestly think my chances are and in what order. in a few months i am taking the SAT and actually feel pretty good about it, I had a bomb of a 9th grade year, was transferred to a really tough school and just bombed out but since then every year have gotten stronger and stronger. i am a strong B studnet, my 10th grade year was all b’s as an ending average and this year i am taking IB’s and getting again all B’s and 1 A. I do play several sports, hold leadership roles and have TONS of hours with my comm. service, i have also been involved in some major fundraising and am overall pretty active. i know i will have a great essay and good rec’s. that is what there is to know about me. my top three schools in order:</p>
<p>u of miami
michigan
BU</p>
<p>There are others like colorado, indiana, maybe vermont, maryland, and some others but the three above are what i really want. I have visited Miami and BU and love them both, am going to Michigan in a few weeks. I have my heart SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO set on one of the three, especially Miami. With Miami and Colorado, I am getting letters from people on the board who my family knows as a rec, letter although I know that carries minimal weight. Any help would be REALLY APPRECIATED! Thanks.</p>
<p>I want to apply early decision to one of them and need to know which you would apply to if you were me.</p>
<p>well as far as ED goes.. Michigan is rolling so just get the app in early, BU has EDI and EDII and Miami has both ED and EA so I guess it depends on where you want to go and yeah wat kinsasha said..it depends on what you want to study</p>
<p>no matter how you do on the SAT Michigan is a reach... you need at least a 3.6uw for your sophomore and junior years in 99% of cases, and thats on the low end... average for michigan is around a 3.7/3.8uw for soph and junior years, and average SAT is 1400 for math plus verbal... so its a fairly large reach... i know you might be thinking that your ECs and essays can make up for the low gpa, but michigan is almost all numbers based... if you dont have the numbers it really matters very little what you do outside of school</p>
<p>i think that BU and Miami are both slight reachs/matches... im guessing your soph + junior gpa is around a 3 uw, 3.5 or so weighted (IB courses are weighted for junior year, and for you theyd be weighted to a 4)... if you can pull a 2000 on the SAT i think you have a solid chance, just regular match, at miami and BU... if lower then slight reach... </p>
<p>in order to make up for a low gpa you usually need an offsetting SAT, so aim for getting above BUs and Miamis 75th percentile (700ish per section)...</p>
<p>dont let that get you nervous for the SAT... just relax, fell confident and you should be ok... if you really think you need extra prep theres something called the XIGGI METHOD for SAT prep... detailed in the SAT prep forum, it could help you out</p>
<p>I love Michigan and went there for grad school but the SAT average for reading and math is about 1260 (per Michigan's website). A lot depends on in-state versus out.</p>
<p>Remember that with big schools, applications becomes a different kind of numbers game. Michigan needs 5400 freshmen, so they have to admit over 12,000 kids. The total number of applications was about 26,000 so the odds are not terrible. BU needs about 4100 freshmen, so they admit about 12,000 out of over 31,000 applicants. Size = more admissions because even with a reasonably high yield you still need a big pool.</p>