<p>4 Honors classes
3.55 GPA
2330 SAT
32 ACT
259 Hours of EC's
Harvard SSP During "rising senior" time period. Economics major.
Harvard, Yale, MiT, Stanford, Upenn- Ucalberkeley, University of Michigan, Duke, Notre dame, Penn State, Villanova</p>
<p>Your GPA is probably way too low for HYSM and UPenn but it’s worth a try. You should apply to a lot more match/safety schools though.</p>
<p>I agree with ac with two caveats: </p>
<p>1) If your GPA is low because of a poor freshman year, and your trend has been consistently upward, know that neither Stanford nor Berkeley (don’t know about the others) includes your freshman year in their GPA calculations.</p>
<p>2) If you have a hook (URM, etc…) and/or an exceptional life story, you might still be a viable candidate at some of the top schools.</p>
<p>That said, there’s no reason not to apply to a reach or two if you really want to - but your list is much too top-heavy.</p>
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<p>Agree with above but not even an interesting life story, legacy or upward GPA trend is going to make a 3.55 GPA competitive to over half the schools you listed.</p>
<p>Your GPA will be a problem at most/all of those schools.</p>
<p>Also, you have three OOS publics on your list. That means high cost even if you have need since those schools don’t meet need for OOS students. They often expect OOS students to be full pay.</p>
<p>What is your budget? how much will your parents pay?</p>
<p>You need some better match and safety schools. You also need to make sure that you have affordable schools on your list.</p>
<p>I come from an upper class family and I don’t need student loans. My parents don’t mind paying as long as i’m committed. And yeah freshman year was a pretty big struggle. </p>
<p>Freshman
S1-2.3
S2-2.4</p>
<p>Sophomore
S1-2.6
S2-3.4</p>
<p>Junior
S1-3.9
S2-3.7</p>
<p>Senior
S1-3.8
S2-3.9</p>
<p>My grandmother was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease freshman year and the struggles went throughout sophomore year as well. It was a huge blow to me and it was really difficult driving an hour to NYC every weekend and staying until sunday, then going to school the next day at 6:00 AM when i get back from NY at about 3:00 AM. This was a horrible cycle. I dealt with it during the 2nd Semester of sophomore year as well, but it was a huge struggle. If you’re wondering why my grades Junior and Senior year are so much higher, it’s due to the fact that i transferred to a public school from a private prep school.</p>
<p>So are you a graduating senior who chose not to apply to colleges this year? What are you doing for your gap year? I’m sure there are some very good colleges that will accept your impressive upwards grade trend but as mentioned before, that won’t be good enough for schools with a less than 10% admit rate.</p>
<p>If you are a senior, why did you not apply this school year?</p>
<p>And i’m pretty sure I can get into University of michigan, Penn State, Vill, and Notre Dame because countless schooling professionals have said so themselves. Those 4 are my safety schools. GPA has no reflection on one’s intelligence, and many school officials say that it’s becoming the singlehandedly worst way to judge a student from being accepted. My SAT scores prove that I scored better than 99.81% of all SAT test takers (2330). The average SAT score for Harvard is 2200 AND I have better extracurriculars than them and i’m gone to Harvard’s summer school program and I took economics with Undergrads. If this doesn’t make me qualified to be accepted by at least 9 of these schools then I do not know what does besides an extremely high GPA. </p>
<p>“but not even an interesting life story, legacy or upward GPA trend is going to make a 3.55 GPA competitive to over half the schools you listed”</p>
<p>Well how about intelligence? GPA to me is more of a “how responsible you are” rather than an “intelligence measure” and I am 190% sure I can compete with the best. Sure there are people who are more academically inclined than I, but i’m sure that I have more passion, tenacity, and experience than these other candidates.</p>
<p>There are applicants with a 3.97 and a 1800 SAT score who were accepted to Harvard
whereas i have close to a 3.6 (after all the struggles i’ve been through) and I still managed to score 99.87% better than the rest of the test-taking population. I would like to think that my SAT’s balance out with my GPA. Especially my ACT, which is also on point with many Ivy League applicants.</p>
<p>You are way too overconfident and ill-informed. I’m beginning to think this is a joke… I go to one of the top public schools in the nation, and I’ve seen my friends, who seem to be perfect candidates (4.0 GPA, 2350 SAT, 35 ACT, numerous ECs in every possible aspect) get rejected from Ivys and top tier schools like ND, Georgetown, and UNC. Just remember this - why would a school like ND that accepts 20% of applicants want you over someone with exactly the same test scores expect a better GPA? You do realize that every student who applies to the Ivys has a 2300+ SAT and a 4.0 GPA right? To me you seem like a rich, stuck up, and ignorant kid. That won’t go over well in your essays either.</p>
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<p>You forgot to state that they are also living on an Indian reservation or are a nationally ranked athlete/Olympian being recruited.</p>
<p>I don’t know about your “countless schooling professionals” but even a cursory look at admitted students threads for your school list will show that the majority of intelligent and passionate 2330 SAT students are turned down at most of the schools on your list and most of them have strong GPAs as well.</p>
<p>Don’t fall into the trap that says if your test scores are above the 50th percentile you are likely to be admitted.</p>
<p>Harvard’s summer school program means very little. There is a CCer on the board this year who did research with a Harvard faculty member who said he was incredible in a LOR and his scores were better than yours. Guess what Harvard told him a little over a month ago? You are being over confident.</p>
<p>Average scores of admitted students reflect lower scores of some of the recruited atheletes, as well as of URM’s and first generation college applicants, in whom SAT and ACT scores are widely acknowledged to be of less use in predicting college performance. Check the results threads of the top schools and you will see few successful unhooked applicants with SAT’s much below 2300. As for GPA, while it’s clearly not proof of intelligence, it is a way for schools with too many applicants to decide whose applications wil be tossed in the trash without a second look. I wouldn’t say not to apply, as your grades show improvement, but I think Ivies and their ilk are a long shot, and you should be applying to a number of schools in different tiers – with a lot more schools below the level of the Ivies.</p>
<p>Ehhhh… Decent chances at PSU, villanova, and michigan. everything else is a high reach</p>
<p>One last thing. I don’t know of any school with competitive admissions that does not look first and foremost at the transcript for both the grades earned and the rigor of the classes. This is a much better predictor of your college readiness than a standardized test taken on one morning. Your challenges with your grandmother’s devastating ALS diagnosis are clear and perhaps can be partially mitigated through the GC letter but a C average freshman year and a C - B average sophomore year will not be easily overcome at your target schools.</p>
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<p>Many colleges consider high school course rigor and grades to be more important than test scores, since they are more predictive of college performance than test scores are (test scores exist to expose excessive grade inflation or inadequate high school course content).</p>
<p>No college wants a student with a flaky attitude toward school work and flunks out or only barely passes due to such a flaky attitude toward school work.</p>
<p>Pretty much every school is a reach, with most being high reaches.</p>
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<p>Who cares what you think? It’s what ivy league adcoms think, and they do not agree. The first problem I see is 4 honors classes. Just 4? Most admitted have 10+ AP classes. 4 honors classes with a weak GPA is not going to get you in to a top school. These schools require an immense amount of work - A GPA shows what you have done day in and day out for the last 3 years. An SAT score is one test. To go to an ivy league school, you had better have an incredible work ethic. A 3.55 in 4 honors classes does not show that.</p>
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<p>None of those are safety schools. They are matches. </p>
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<p>So did many Ivy rejects. </p>
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<p>Don’t forget that the average includes URMs, legacies, athletes, and other hooked applicants. You have better ECs? Go ahead and list them. Unless you’ve won a national competition, I highly doubt that you do. Most ivy applicants have leadership, state titles, have taken college classes, and do it all while getting above a 3.9 unweighted.</p>
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<p>Oh, so now you know every applicant? None of them have had struggles? They don’t have passion? I guarantee that many ivy applicants have both had struggles and have overcome them, all with a higher GPA. Hell, I moved after my freshman year, have two siblings with aspergers, and work 2 jobs because my family went bankrupt. My GPA is above a 3.9 unweighted, with an SAT score to match, and I don’t expect to be admitted to an ivy league institution. You have NO IDEA about the passion of other applicants. Why do you think kids stay up until 3 AM studying? Not because it’s fun, but because they have passion and drive, and know that academics are the way to reach their goal. Here you are saying “well, I have passion so I deserve to go ahead of them.” What would an ivy league adcom see in you, when these other kids have been grinding away for 3 years to have a perfect or near perfect application? Also, Harvard SSP is not that impressive - the majority of SSP participants are rejected from Harvard College. It’s more of a pay to go program than anything else.</p>
<p>Don’t make the mistake of applying to just these schools, because you will be looking at a pile of rejections next spring. Find some matches, or go to CC and transfer if you are that set on a top school. And lose the entitled attitude.</p>
<p>“Ehhhh… Decent chances at PSU, villanova, and michigan.”</p>
<p>A 3.55 GPA OOS is a reach for Michigan. I suspect your SAT was superscored. Michigan only takes numbers from one sitting. alwayslea is correct, you need to apply to some real safety schools.</p>
<p>I apologize for sounding like an ignoramus. I was just peeved at the fact that my extremely hard work will not get me into a top 20 school undergrad and I hastily had commented back without analyzing what I had been saying. </p>
<p>Anyway, I have not won a national competition but I got a request to be an intern at Goldman Sachs and J.P Morgan (I took the the offer from Goldman.) and I helped some associates with managing cash flow. I also gave advice to a trader on a few stocks and it brought him 50K (which I sadly did not take credit for from my supervisor when I interned)</p>
<p>And I am not rich. Or at least I don’t consider myself to be… 400,000 a year combined between both parents is not rich to me. Someone who saves and invests and has his money work for him/herself, is. But I digress.</p>
<p>“400,000 a year combined between both parents is not rich to me.”</p>
<p>I’d say your family is pretty comfortable. LOL</p>