<p>I'm a junior in high school I got 2370 on the SAT (the 770 was in writing), but my unweighted GPA is only around 3.5 or maybe a little bit less. I'm in the IB diploma program. I want to study math in college and will have taken at least Calc III and linear algebra by the time I graduate high school (I'm almost positive I'll get As). I taught myself Calculus BC (was in the AB class) and am positive I got at least a 4 and maybe a 5.</p>
<p>I don't have really any interesting extracurriculars. I speak French fluently (or did -- I'm rusty now but that's not really the point) because I spent a year in France last year. I'll probably be the vice president of a club next year but other than that no leadership positions or anything like that.</p>
<p>What would be some good college choices for me? Places that have good math programs and where I'm likely to get in with my less-than-stellar application.</p>
<p>Your upward grade trend bodes well for you. IB is good too, I’m in IB and it definitely helps. I’m not a huge UW fan because I live in WA but have you checked out UW? </p>
<p>BTW, don’t just look at “Places that have good math programs.” You may get a whole lot more of attention and nuturing out of an institution that isn’t exactly renowned the world over for its Math department.</p>
<p>If you’re really worried about your GPA you could try some of the schools in the UK. They don’t care about it at all, only your test scores. If you do well on the IB exams you’d even have a good shot at Oxbridge.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t want “attention and nurturing”; I want a big college with a big math department and famous professors and lots of honors classes I can take immediately and graduate classes I can take later on. I don’t think I can get in anywhere that satisfies the “famous professors” requirement, but certainly I want to get as close as I can. University of Washington is something I’ve actually been looking at. Plus I love apples, so Washington’s not a bad place to live ^^</p>
<p>Although I have never used a college cousellor, you might want to talk to them or some other more experienced people to see how you can package your ECs. If you are not a joiner, that’s fine. But self-studying academics and taking the APs independently is worth mentioning, especially if you can throw in another one like econ over the summer. Indiependent academic study could be listed as an EC.</p>
<p>Also, do you have any paying jobs, help out in the family business, mow lawns…anything ? Those can be listed in their college apps. Move beyond the HS clubs, to see if there is anything else outside of HS that shows a strong committment - even if you do it on your own.</p>
<p>I would absolutely love living in Montreal, but I’m not positive I’d be comfortable (at least the first few months) in a French-speaking university. McGill is a wonderful suggestion! I didn’t know there were any English-speaking universities in the French-speaking region of Canada.</p>
<p>its a real big reach but if you really hunker down and do something (amazing ec’s/better grades senior year) + write an amazing essay maybe uchicago is for you.</p>
<p>It sounds like McGill would be perfect for somebody like you. </p>
<p>As a fellow high SAT/low GPA student, I’d say that it is important that you package your ECs well. I didn’t have any leadership at the time I applied, and my ECs as a whole didn’t seem too outstanding, but I got into many great schools. I’m going to Duke next year after having had a 3.4 GPA with a 2320 SAT.</p>
<p>I agree with miktau. UChicago has a unique admissions process unlike any other elite university. I am kind of in the same situation as uman. Does anyone know if UChicago looks at senior year grades? I know some schools require the applicant to send in a progress report of senior year grades.</p>
<p>very interesting, I have similar stats to you. I have a 2380 on the SAT, with the 780 in writing! I’m also strong in math, and my school does the IB as well =D I dunno if we report GPA though, and mine is probably high enough anyways.</p>
<p>you would be good for most Canadian schools I believe. McGill is nice, so is Waterloo (which is one of the top engineering schools in the world now).</p>
<p>Okay. I will seriously consider McGill and the U. of Washington. Chicago looks amazing; I really don’t think I have a chance there but it can’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>Thanks also to the three people who PMed me with advice.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m in a similar position and I’ll be applying to Colgate, McGill, Oxford, University College London, King’s College London, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Rutgers.
Hope that helps, you should look into honors programs at state colleges, Schreyer Honors College at Penn State has a 100% entry into medical school which is pretty awesome.</p>
<p>Well there are some very good schools that are more likely to ignore the mediocre grades and be impressed by the SAT score. In terms of ivies, Dartmouth and especially Brown tend to favor SAT more than most. UPenn on the other hand not so much.</p>
<p>If you are looking at LACs, Pomona really likes students with high SATs, so that school may deserve a look.</p>
<p>By the way, two pieces of information: I got this SAT score on my first try, if that matters. Also, I’ll probably get really good recommendations, especially from my community college Calc III teacher. I’m thinking he would say something like “one of the best students I ever taught” if I keep doing as well as I have been in his class. Will this help at all?</p>
<p>I know a similar stat kid (1600/2350 first try, and 3.4 at a tough school, but with interesting EC’s). His experience leads me to believe that Dartmouth, Brown and Pomona are not smitten with high scores, as suggested above. Another kid - a math whiz with not stellar GPA - was very impressed by University of Michigan’s math department. Be sure to apply in time for the scholarship deadline. If you apply to UW, definitely try to get in the honors program.</p>