@ucbalumnus well yeah your right. It kind of sucks that the more the selectivity the more the prestige, and the more likely schools are going to choose the best of the best and reject the lesser people. Unfortunately, that’s the way college admissions and selections work. But hey, at least schools like penn state and VTech has some prestige!
But it looks like they won’t be safeties for you.
OP has champagne tastes on a beer GPA.
^^ At least look at craft beer…
Safety: Acceptance rate above 50%, you’re in the top 10% admitted students for BOTH GPA and SAT score, the programs resemble your favorite (less selective but same “vibe” that you like), and after running the NPC your parents can afford it (apparently your parents can afford 15K based on your sister’s example). You need at least 2 of those.
Match: Acceptance rate above 40%, you’re at or near the top 25% threshold for both GPA and SAT score (& preferably above one), resembles your dream schools on some key criteria, and is within budget after you’ve run the NPC. You need at least 3 of those.
Once you have these schools nailed, you can add as many dream schools as you wish.
Taking into account high-level athletics + 2200 SAT + 3.5 GPA + rigorous (but not most rigorous) rigor:
Right now, your only match is GMU, everything else is a reach to high reach to out of reach. (BU is a very bad match because many NoVa kids apply and the competition is fierce.) GMU may be a low match but you need many more along those lines.
(Note that some universities only consider grades 9 to 11th, some only consider 10th and 11th).
Are you potentially at Olympics/international level for figure skating?
DO NOT plan to “take the SAT as much as it takes”. Selective colleges frown on the SAT being taken too much. Limit yourself to 3. You can try the ACT too.
DO note that APs are classified according to difficulty and “rigor of curriculum” is a more important factor than GPA. Ideally, you’d take AP English Language and 3 among AP physics/bio/chem/foreign language/ history/calculus. That would likely make your schedule “very rigorous” to “most rigorous” depending on how good your school is. AP Stats, Human Geo, Environmental science, and Psych are “AP light”. They boost your GPA but only boost curriculum rigor ratings marginally.
The goal is for you to find a balance where you take rigorous classes and get A’s, with no grade lower than a B.
Talk with your guidance counselor to see how s/he’d rate your curriculum: rigorous? Very rigorous? Minimally rigorous?
For UCB, UCLA, etc: 1° It doesn’t sound like your parents have 55K. There’s no financial aid. 2° You need 3.4 to even be allowed to apply to any UC, using grades from 10th and 11th grade only. Get familiar to the way UC GPAs are calculated. 3° For UCB and UCLA, you’d need about 3.9 unweighted, 4.1-4.3 weighted.
I know you replaced Penn State with BU, but in case you were to reconsider, Penn State admits to UP if you apply 1° before November 1st and 2° have a 3.4+ GPA based on you 9th, 10th, and 11th grade results (2/3 of the decision). 3° It’s 46K without any financial aid.
Have your father check where he’s got Tuition Exchange from Georgetown and what the criteria are. Check out the “TE” thread on this website, by a poster named Marguerite. TE doesn’t work with every college in the US - for G’Town it probably works with most Catholic colleges but ask for the conditions, then give yourself the goal of meeting them.
@ucbalumnus why can’t vtech be my safety? I originally had it as my safety nut as soon as I realized there was no rink there, o took it down. I would have made pen state my safety if I was in state.
@GMTplus7 I take it that you think prestigious schools are too good for me.
You guys aren’t even getting the point. I wasn’t speaking about prestige for myself, I was speaking for all the “prestige hunters” out there.
But thanks for the comment about champagne and beer, that really brought up my self esteem!!!
No, it’s not that. I’d hate to see you possibly end up empty handed next April. College admissions outcomes are so crazy now. GMTson1 is graduating at the top of his class, top 1% SAT, and overall strong profile, but cautiously applied to a wider range of schools than you are considering with your mixed profile. He had some slam dunk financial+admit safeties that he could live with if his preferred schools didn’t pan out. What many posters here are trying to tell you is that they don’t see any realistic financial+admit safeties on your present list (relative to your present stats)-- only reach schools.
My intention is not to mock you but to light a fire under your butt to spur you to CYA. If everything works out, then you don’t have to go to your safety, but for god’s sake have at least a couple of realistic ones.
@GMTplus7 thanks for the explanation. Well, my rant about prestige wasn’t even about me, and it wasn’t even directed to nasa2014 (sorry if it sounded like I was blaming him). He simply brought up the topic, and made me realize that people who care about well known universities are wrongfully attacked by CC posters.
@MYOS1634 if you read the previous posts, you can see that the list I made wasn’t for me. It was made for possibly future me with a 3.5 GPA and a high SAT score in order for me to be motivated to raise my current gpa. If I create a list based on the schools now, then I most likely would have no determination, and might even keep my 3.2 GPA throughout high school year because I already have planned out my 3.2 GPA colleges, so what would be the point of increasing it, am I right? I have taken UC schools off my list wayy long ago.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
For that reason, I am closing this thread which went off the rails several pages back. Feel free to open a new discussion with your revised college list.