<p>OK. First of all I would like to start of by asking if it makes a difference in admissions if you attended high school in an inner city. I attend a school in Paterson Nj. Paterson is a predominantly hispanic/a american city. As far as I know the two major high schools here have terrible education quality. As some of you might know , the movie "lean on me" was about EASTSIDE HIGH SCHOOL in paterson. Last year's valedictorian at the two major high schools scored 1820 nad 1780. Now obviously nobody can make an assumption that the whole city is just dumb so the quality of education definitely has an effect. I spent my 4 years of high school in a school in this city and regret it very much. I can honestly say I have learned almost nothing this past four years. Everytime I would ask for an AP course to be offered they would turn me down and try to put me at the others students' level. My sat scores are 1370/2050 M level 1 710 M level 2 710 . GPA=3.97/4.0
I realize that with these scores I don't have a chance of getting into any top 25 colleges.
My guidance counselor said that I might have an advantage because I am from an inner city school. Do you think it makes a difference ? What are my chances. I have been involved with ECs and w.e . </p>
<p>Do you guys think being from an inner city helps?
Is it fair to us people who go to schools where not enough people want AP classes etc?</p>
<p>
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I realize that with these scores I don't have a chance of getting into any top 25 colleges.
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a 2050 SAT, 700+ Math II, 3.97 GPA coming from a ****ty school? are you URM? if so, you probably would be in great shape for admission anywhere, from a quantitative standpoint. </p>
<p>one of my good friends is from a crappy public school in Washington DC (worst school system in the country), he's black. he had 1800 on his SATs, and just got into Columbia ED. </p>
<p>Mostly science and robotics competitions. newsletter club president, track and field, soccer team, we won the robotics competition. and i played in three musicals for drama. i am a first generation colleg student. But i dont know if i would be considered urm. I'm kurdish. I was born in Turkey but we are a mix of iraqi and persian. And my parents were born in a place where everyone expects them to be terrorist . Its complicated . That's the reason why we moved to the U.S. but I have not seen any Kurds go to college in the U.S. at least close to where I live. So may be urm because I got an invitation from Villanova telling me to apply for the presidential scholarship for minorities. But I got rejected from Vandy so IDK.</p>
<p>URM stands for Underrrepresented Minority. how many Kurds do you know enrolled in college? of course you are URM. </p>
<p>i'm surprised you got rejected from Vandy. maybe you didn't play your background/context of your achievements well enough in your essays? if you write good essays, you could probably get in almost anywhere. if i was you, i swear i would apply to HYP</p>
<p>not to be crude, but you are from a race that has suffered genocide in the past 20 years. [Swingers]You're so money, and you don't even know it.[/Swingers]..</p>
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URM stands for Underrrepresented Minority. how many Kurds do you know enrolled in college? of course you are URM.
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</p>
<p>You don't understand what colleges mean by URM. Hispanics, Blacks and Native Americans are the only groups that get a leg up in admissions. The whole system is bizarre enough that the OP is actually considered caucasian.</p>
<p>"Do you guys think being from an inner city helps?
Is it fair to us people who go to schools where not enough people want AP classes etc?"</p>
<p>Yes, and no. Colleges know that, on average, it's harder to get a good education in an inner city school. Given two equally talented students, the one in the wealthy suburbs will typically score higher on standardized tests at graduation than the one in the inner city, whatever the reasons. Colleges try not to penalize students who had less access to AP classes, be they rural or in the inner city or wherever.</p>
<p>College operates on the premise of those whom much has been given, much is required. If you attend a school with limited resources it is important that your prospective colleges know about it.</p>
<p>It is important that your GC sends out a copy of the school profile with your your transcripts/recommendation letters and write about your accomplishments in spite of, in your recommendation letter and when checking off the GC evaluation form. It will help to put your grades & course work into context. </p>
<p>Your "advantage' would come from the fact that in spite of the odds; low graduation rates, low number of students who go on to 4-year colleges, low average SAT scores, large number of title I & title III (free lunch & ESL) students, linited number or no advanced placement courses offered, etc. that you still managed to do well with what you were offered.</p>
<p>OP, colleges take into account the type of education that a student got. Your scores indicate that you are smart enough to be able to handle the courseload at virtually any school in the country, so yes, you do have a chance at top 25 schools.</p>
<p>Frankly, you're probably smarter than are many students from excellent schools who got scores much higher than you did. They probably had a much better education, and also had more access to enrichment opportunities such as SAT prep classes. Colleges are aware of this and will judge their applications and yours with those considerations in mind.</p>
<p>suatkilic, have you applied to any of the schools that offer FIRST Robotics scholarships (I'm assuming that you competed in one of the FIRST programs, but maybe not)?</p>
<p>Consider the small LACs like Pomona, Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin etc. They go over applications really carefully and yours would stand out in a really powerful way. I don't know if you're using that, but the fact that the area your parents come from an area that makes everyone thinks they're a terrorist, and that you have a complicated story to tell abut it sounds like a great essay topic to me. The top 10-15 LACs or so have really great endowments and I'm sure would give you as much financial aid as you needed. </p>
<p>I too go a pretty -----ty school and I can say that it's both a blessing and a curse. To colleges, it's more like an added plus to your application and if you're in the lower 25%, there's a good shot of getting in. In other words, it's that push that will get you into the door. At the same time, it doesn't mean that they will let in very-below-average students into their colleges just because they did well. The school may have been easy and you weren't really trying and got a good grade-- colleges don't really know that for sure. What I'm trying to say is: While going to a crap-school may give you a small push, don't count on it to get you in.</p>
<p>Here is a link to the FIRST Robotics scholarships for this year.</p>
<p>FTC is the FIRST Tech Challenge (which used to be VEX). These schools all value the commitment that involvement in robotics involves (even if you aren't interested in a technical field).</p>
<p>I go to a poor inner city school that's 86% black or hispanic, however I'm white. I neither met the average SATs or GPAs of my school, but I got accepted ED.<br>
Did I get in because of my ECs and essays, or because of my past academic experiences? I don't know.</p>