@basedchem Well, that is my GPA unweighed. Without counting all my honors, ap, and dual credit classes. Our school’s rank is based on the weighed GPA.
“Unweighted”
It’s not really worth your money or your time to apply.
You claim you’re “just bad at taking tests.” Well even if I believe that’s the issue (which, quite frankly, I don’t) what are you going to do when your entire grade in a college class is based off of a couple of tests? Surely you’d find yourself failing out of MIT quite quickly.
You need to reevaluate. You barely have the stats for middle-lower end state schools, let alone anything in the top 25.
@HarvardMaths Gee thanks.
You have a good GPA and high rank but such low standardized test scores, this may imply grade inflation at your hs. Did you prep for the sat? Because that makes a huge difference.
@typicalhobbit, the schools may say that it’s not about scores and that they look beyond that. But, their own statistics suggest that they really do care about GPA and test scores.
The reality is that the schoolwork is intentionally hard to challenge the current level of the students. Based on your test scores, you would really, really struggle.
Apply, if you feel you need to, 'manita, but be realistic about your expectations.
@a20171 No grade inflation. The SAT is merely a test of how you do on the SAT. I didn’t do good, that’s it. A friend of mine, who never tried in High School, got a 2100 the first time he took the SAT. No prep. No AP of advanced classes. And no, I did not prep because I decided to go to the test blind the first time, but I am taking it again in October with prep.
@“aunt bea” Thank you for for input and I can see you point, but my test scores do not represent who I am as a person or a student. In the end, a school is admitting me, not my test scores.
Actually, until your scores change, among the thousands of kids applying, they are admitting your test scores.
I’ve recently read about some very impressive things that UT Austin is doing related to diversity and helping students who have had to overcome obstacles really excel in college. I think Gateway Scholars was the name of the program they were talking about. It sounded really great, and I think you should definitely have UT Austin on your list.
Schools that are test mandatory put heavy weight on SAT and GPA and you will not get accepted with those scores. Without a major hook some of them won’t even read your application. That 4% that get accepted with those score are for mostly athletes and others that will benefit the school in some other way besides academics, not bad test takers. They will have no reason to accept someone with those scores when their are thousands and thousands with better ones that they do not have space for. Unless you can get your sat composite to a 2000 and your subject tests above 650, you really don’t have a chance. Another thing, mentioning depression or other mental disorders can be more of a reason for a school to reject you than accept you. I know this isnt what you want to hear but it’s my honest opinion.
Here’s the deal.
Until you hit a certain threshold of quantitative academics, the schools most certainly are basing your worth to there school upon your test scores. (Notice that this may not be true for extreme circumstances, but this is not you.)
Once you hit that threshold, then they’re admitting you as a person, based upon your EC’s, interest, personality, awards, etc.
Consider three fictional applicants applying to Harvard:
Person I:
GPA: 3.0
SAT Score: 1400
EC’s: Club I, Club II, Local Award, Regional Award, Regional Award, President of Club III
Essays: Normal essays, life experiences…etcetc
Person II:
GPA: 4.0
SAT: 2270
EC’s: National Award, International Award, International Award, President of Club, International Award, other good EC’s
Essays: Good, whatever
Person III:
GPA: 3.95
SAT: 2300
EC’s: Similar to Person II
Now, chances are, Person I was rejected almost immediately, regardless of who they are as a person.
Person II & Person III are now compared for their individual achievements and who they are as people. Maybe both are accepted, maybe one, maybe neither.
The point being, it did NOT matter who person I was, unless they had amazing circumstances.