Longshot?

[bigdreamer14]

High School Junior (rising senior) at a catholic school in New York

Hooks: I am a URM (Hispanic), a first generation college student, and I’m also adopted

SAT I (breakdown): 2400 (no need for subscores lol)

ACT (breakdown): not taking

SAT II:, us 750 , math 2 740 Lit 730 bio 750

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.7

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesnt rank

Course Rigor: Frosh- Stage Band Honors, Integrated Geometry Advanced (took Algebra 1 in middle school).
Sophmore- Biology Honors and Global History Honors,
Junior Year: APUSH

AP: US - 4

IB (place score in parenthesis): not available at my school

Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit AP Government Honors Calculus Honors Physics

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing aside from National Honor society and foreign language honor society

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 150-200 volunteer hours, golf team, bodybuilding, peer tutoring 4 yrs of band, National Honor Society, Foreign Language Honor Society

Job/Work Experience: 3 different jobs in three different businesses

Summer Activities: Worked 20 hrs per week summer of freshmen year
worked 30-35 hours per week summer of soph year
Summer of Junior year got 100 hours of service volunteering at a nursing home

Essays: Extremely strong have been working on them for many months

[notjoe]

Yes.
As it is for everyone.

[gibby]

The first question an Admissions Officer might ask themselves: With a perfect SAT score, why did you have 3.7 GPA? Did you not work to your full capacity for all 3 years of high school? Did you have a difficult freshman year? Was there a family situation that you were dealing with that might have caused your grades to be less than perfect? Did you take ultra competitive classes and not do well? You obviously don’t have test anxiety, so why the 3.7 GPA? To answer those questions, the AO’s will look closely at your teacher recommendations and guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR). See top of page 2 where your GC rates you in comparison to all other college bound student’s at your high school: http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf.
Much I imagine is going to depend on what your teachers and GC say about you, and that’s a complete unknown.

[IvyWin]

@gibby How much will colleges compare GPA and tests? I’ve done quite well on my tests but my GPA isn’t super strong (3.80 UW). Will my tests compensate in part?

[gibby]

@IvyWin: From everything I’ve read, Admissions Officers use test scores as a kind of double-check on your transcript. Both should theoretically be in-sync, meaning that a straight “A” student should be scoring in the 2200+ SAT range. And conversely, a student scoring an SAT of 2200+ should be a straight “A” student. When test scores are not in-sync with a GPA, a regional Admissions Officer will tend to dig a bit deeper to find out why, as it’s a question that might be raised in the full committee meeting (should a student be presented) and the regional AO, like a good lawyer, cannot present an applicant to the full committee without doing their due diligence.

Selective colleges place MORE emphasis on a student’s transcript, as it’s a 3-YEAR window into their scholastic ability, whereas an SAT/ACT score is a 3-HOUR window into that same ability. This is especially true as many students spend hours in test-prep, but many more hours in the classroom and doing their homework. So strong test scores don’t ever compensate for your overall GPA. Yale address’s this nicely on their website. I imagine it’s the same for Harvard: http://admissions.yale.edu/what-yale-looks-for

Yale is above all an academic institution. This means academic strength is our first consideration in evaluating any candidate. The single most important document in your application is your high school transcript, which tells us a great deal about your academic drive and performance over time.

While there is no hard and fast rule, it is safe to say that performance in school is more important than testing. A very strong performance in a demanding college preparatory program may compensate for modest standardized test scores, but it is unlikely that high standardized test scores will persuade the admissions committee to disregard an undistinguished secondary-school record.

[IvyWin]

@gibby i did a lot of really hard courses and I made some decisions (such as skipping a year of math) that adversely affected my GPA (since I got out of a class that I could have got an easy A in). Furthermore, since I elected to take the hardest possible courses by GPA isn’t in the straight A range. So I have a 3.80 UW GPA but a very high weighted GPA. But will admissions officers see my 2380 SAT and 800 on Bio M, Math 2 and Chem and think I don’t try in school? My guidance counselor knows i really care about school, since I tried very hard to get switched up into a harder class. But will the disparity of sorts between my test scores and GPA matter?

[gibby]

Your recommendation writers and your GC might have to write-against your GPA, as at first glance your test scores would indicate that you are capable of a higher GPA, so you should have a conversation with your teachers and GC, as Harvard is looking for answers to all these questions: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/what-we-look

[IvyWin]

@gibby thanks for the advice! I think my teacher recs are going to be strong, so hopefully that will dispel any doubt as will my GC’s opinions. But schools say they value GPA the most, so will they be able to do a lot?

[gibby]

^^ It depends upon what your GC and teachers say. Talk to your GC and your recommendation writers!

[IvyWin]

@gibby sounds good! I’ll see what they say!