(I’ve already made this thread, but i wanna make sure i get a wide range of opinions and advice )
Race: African American
Citizenship: Born and raised In United States
1st Generation American (However my parents went to college)
Location: Maryland
Language(s): English, Basic Igbo (language spoken in southeastern Nigeria)
Planned Major: Molecular Biology ~ Pre med
Planned Minor: French
High School GPA: 3.385
(Got a 3.169 freshmen year, 3.079 sophomore year and will finish with a 3.908 junior year)
Sat Score: 2250 (I am shooting for perf score this June, I can at least hit 2300) (99+ percentile for african amerians)
Sat ii Bio: 790 (94 percentile %)
Sat ii World History: 800 (95%)
Sat ii Math Level 1: 760 (95%)
Over 400 Hours Volunteering at Church
Over 200 hours working at Charity I founded (tutoring kids)
50 hours working at summer camp with kids struggling with English
Freshmen Class President
Member at Large- Senior Year (this is position I will get next year)
3 year member of Student Affairs Council
3 year member of Robotics Club
Student Honor Council (sophomore year)
Co-founder and 3 year member of Chinese Club (taken honors Chinese since freshmen year)
Varsity Cross Country (Freshmen Year), Varsity Indoor Track (Sophomore Year)
National Service Honor Society
Speech and Debate (Freshmen Year)
Junior Retreat Leader
2 year member of SADD (students against destructive decisions)
Volunteer Paramedic at Local Firehouse
Enrolled in Community College while in high school. (I started this semester) I have taken 1 class so far (Psychology)
(Side note: I have taken zero AP Classes)
Senior Year Schedule Semester 1
Honors Chinese 4
Christian Life (I go to a catholic school)
AP Calculus AB
Honors English 4
AP Chemistry
Honors or AP Physics
Predicted Senior Year GPA: 4.583 (if I take AP physics 4.666)
(Semester 2 will be the same but add acting 1 )
College list:
Harvard University
Cornell University (College of Arts and Sciences)
(I am visiting Cornell later this month)
Emory University (Oxford & Emory College)
University of Southern California (Letters, Arts and Sciences)
Boston College (College of Arts and Sciences)(I am visiting in the next 2 months)
Stanford University (School of Humanities & Sciences)
Tufts University (School of Arts & Sciences)
Pepperdine University (Seaver College)
College of William & Mary (Arts and Sciences)
Northeastern University (College of Sciences) (I am visiting in the next 2 months)
Rutgers University (New Brunswick- Schools of Arts & Sciences)
Hofstra University (Hofstra College of Liberal Arts & Sciences)
University of Maryland- College Park (College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences)
I’m in the works of writing an essay explaining my horrendous gpa fresh/soph year.
(Switch out USC with Dartmouth)
Your test scores are fantastic, and your ECs seems pretty strong (albeit, relatively plain.) However, I think your GPA, even with a hugely positive trend, makes any Ivy a big reach. You said that you have a ~3.3 GPA right now, but can get a 4.6 in your senior year, meaning that your GPA is weighted somewhat heavily. Most people that get into Ivys/Stanford have a 3.8-3.9 unweighted GPA… The best thing that you can do is be sure to get your grades up as much as possible this year, and hope that the positive trend helps compensate.
For some of the other schools you listed (Rutgers, Northeastern, Maryland) I think you should have a very, very strong chance of getting in if you continue to improve as predicted.
I admire what you’ve done, however, a current 3.4 GPA – with no AP classes – is a acceptance impediment for the Ivies and their selectivity-peers. With this said, there are many outstanding, highly prestigious LACs and Research Universities where your admission probability will be high. Reach for the stars, but also apply to several matches and safeties. Good luck.
I agree with the above. I would also say, don’t spend your essay trying to explain your grades. The essay is the only chance to show who you are and portray yourself in a positive light; don’t waste that chance. If the circumstances that caused you to get low grades were legitimate (vs. just being lazy or something), get your guidance counselor to mention it, or include it in the Additional Information section.
And just curious, but if you live in Maryland and are premed, why isn’t Hopkins on your list?
what prestigious universities/ research universities do you think i can get into?
thanks for the advice guys
I will add Hopkins 2 the list. It’s just there classes are extremely hard and they don’t practice grade inflation like the ivies lol. Plus I hear Hopkins is weird with the way they grade. Like there is a quota of how many people can get As and things like that and idk if I wanna deal with that
I agree with the others. A 3.3 GPA with 0 AP classes will raise many eyebrows with college admissions officers.They will question your ability to succeed academically at that institution.
You probably don’t need to take the SAT again, 2250 is an amazing score, especially for a URM. The people who got into all 8 ivies had around 2200~ SAT scores, so I would recommend that you don’t take it again, I think it’s not worth your time. It might interfere with your classes etc.
Your other test scores are phenomenal and your EC’s show a lot of dedication. It’s unique that you’re learning Chinese, maybe take the Chinese subject test or AP Chinese?
Also, not too sure about this, but I think you should take Math II. I don’t think many colleges will accept Math I scores, but you already have 2 great subject test scores which I think is enough. However, a lot of colleges REQUIRE a Math II subject test.
I would say you will get into most of your universities. Harvard and Cornell ehh… I would say it will be tough because of your GPA and lack of AP’s but people with 3.3’s have gotten in and I think it’s a good possibility that you’re one of them.
Not much can explain away your earlier grades, at least in terms of the ivies. You can get into some selective schools with strong jr grades and a good senior schedule/gpa. I wouldn’t count on 1st gen American helping to get into an ivy, per se.
@rdeng2614 Alright thank you. Your right I shouldn’t take the SAT again, I need to focus on school anyway. My Chinese is good, but I do not think I could take the Chinese Subject Test and get 700+. My Chinese isn’t that good. Sadly, my school doesn’t offer AP Chinese. Also, all the colleges on that list accept Math level I.
I honestly can’t take Math level II. I don’t know enough Math to even take it. I am currently taking Honors Trig lol. I looked at the practice section on college-board and I didn’t even know how to answer most of the questions. But yeah I know that taking Math level I isn’t as good as taking Math Level II but I don’t have an option sigh.
Thanks for the comments. I pray that I am one of them that get in. I hope I get into Cornell lol I visited today and I want to be apart of their community so bad lol
@onceuponamom I gotchu. hopefully God finds a way 
@intentuspax Not wanting an overly rigorous education is a fair enough reason to not apply, lol. I don’t think that all classes have “quotas” for their grades, and I wouldn’t say all classes are “extremely hard,” but there is hard work involved. You will probably be able to do a lot more outside of the classroom and library at another school than at Hopkins, but make sure wherever you end up has strong research opportunities / opportunities to volunteer and work with hospitals / clinics / etc.
@OnMyWay2013 Alright thank you!
I’m going to assume that you are calculating your gpa on a 5.0 scale. I see that your gpa for your freshman and sophomore years are quite low. When you fill out your college/university application and/or during your interview, just be prepared to talk about why your grades weren’t as good as you expected, why your grades continue to drop in sophomore year, what you did to drastically improve it, what you have learned from it… etc. Other than that, your SAT scores are impressive, and so are your extracurriculars. Don’t be upset if you didn’t get into your first choice of university, but i’m sure you will get into at least one of the above you listed. I think you still have a chance.