<p>I have a 3.3/5.0 gpa right now. I'm working to get it to a 4.0 or 4.1 which will happen because im stepping it up.</p>
<p>Well there are a few things to consider:
- Of the few hundred chance threads you see, that makes up a pretty small amount of the actual applicant pool, and is not representative at all of what happens in the real world. Many people on this forum are students who really don’t need to be nervous about college but are nervous anyways.
- Take anything you see here with a grain of salt. It could be a ■■■■■.
- It is good to try and get your grades up, good luck.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve noticed this as well. I feel completely, well, stupid whenever I’m on this site. One of the main reasons I avoid this site. It feels like this place is just a place for people who have been prepping for years. Not people like me, who only started caring about getting into college halfway through junior year and by then the damage was already done. Not a fan of the extracurriculars either.</p>
<p>It’s my favorite when people post things like
“I got a B on my Freshman year Midterm for Pottery. My GPA is 5.1, I only have 300 hours of community service, a 2350 on the SATs, only captain two teams, and I am only the leader of six clubs. Will I still get into my top choices?”
Some people have legitimate concerns while it seems others are trying to prove something to the online CC community for some reason.</p>
<p>^ Totally agree. But I also have to agree with moonman because there are only a couple hundred of those posts on here per year and those are people spread out all across the US and Internationally. So there should be anything to worry about. Its not like everyone you are competing with for a spot in a college has all of that criteria.</p>
<p>Yeah, it seems that all 2331 students that tested 2350 or better on the SAT are posting and chancing and applying to 17 schools.</p>
<p>It’s called “sampling bias”, an error caused by a non-random sample of a population resulting in some members of the population to be less likely to be included than others</p>
<p>So do what ALL students should be doing: looking for colleges that are a good fit given your abilities, talents, curricular needs, and finances.</p>
<p>Hundreds of good schools out there . . . and the national median number of schools applied to is 4 :-)</p>
<p>Anthony:</p>
<p>First of all, good luck in bring up your GPA. It speaks well of you that you want to do the best you can.</p>
<p>Some things to consider --</p>
<p>The ‘average’ SAT score per section is somewhere around 500. Less than 5% score more than 700 on a given section.</p>
<p>90% if students are NOT in the top 10% of their class. 50% are not in the top half. BTW, these numbers will NEVER change.</p>
<p>There are schools where you probably need to be both in the top 10% of your class and have SATs averaging over 700 (or ACT equivalent) to be competitive-- Maybe 50 or so total. Compare this to the hundreds – no, make that thousands – of schools do not have such requirements. </p>
<p>In any event – work your hardest, I’m sure you’ll get into an excellent college and receive an excellent education.</p>
<p>I definitely think members of this forum are too harsh about college acceptance. Everyone has the mindset that if they don’t have a hook, perfect ECs, GPA, SAT/ACT scores then they will not get into a top 10 college. In real life, I have heard of plenty of stories about people with subpar GPA, and ECs getting into Ivy League caliber schools with just a high SAT score.</p>
<p>You say 50% aren’t in the top half? SHOCKING!</p>
<p>^^LMAOO ikr!?
But yeah I notice that a lot here on this site but there are still stories out there where people have a normal GPA (85-94/3.0-3.9) and still get into good colleges so that still gives me hope but not so much when it comes to Ivy League because I swear that everyone is convinced that you must be the perfect student to even be CONSIDERED.</p>
<p>I have a 4.3, a 2300, I’m captain of 4 varsity sports… but I killed a guy in Reno. do I get merit aid?</p>
<p>My credentials are far from flawless. I have a 3.2 GPA and that’s the best it’s ever been. I got suspended for cheating freshman year, I failed my first attempt at Chemistry. I’ve done plenty of ECs, but only because I thought they were fun. I have a 1900 SAT, which is probably in the bottom 5% around here, and I’ve never had a school-year job or been on any sports teams.</p>
<p>I don’t really fit into the general demographic around here either. I came after having already been accepted to one school and having already applied to several more. I just though it would be cool to talk about what college will be like. Soon I was mired in a sea of nervous overachieving students and their helicopter parents. I find them quite entertaining to be honest. I was a latch-key kid, my mother could be described as borderline neglectful. I’m quite alright with being independent, if my parents were like most of the ones posting around here I would have run away from home and committed myself to an orphanage. It’s good to find out I’m not alone in not being one of the mega-elite.</p>
<p>“Flawless credentials” are only on SOME sub forums, and usually NOT the parent ones.</p>