My junior year is a disaster! Is there hope for me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a junior- I transferred from #3 public school in Minnesota to a VERY competitive and more academically rigorous public school in Virginia, and in fact, so many seniors from my new school were accepted into prestigious colleges (MIT, Harvard, Brown, Yale, Princeton, Columbia,...). </p>

<p>Female African American
RANK: Unknown
GPA: 3.88 UW, 4.18 W
Junior Year: AP USH, AP Psych, Honors Math Analysis, Honors English 11, Honors Chemistry, Photography I, and Leadership I as an extra elective which is taken before school (Because of moving, I struggled and got Bs in AP and Honors classes in the first semester; I am doing MUCH better in second semester, so hopefully, I will get straight As in second semester)
Senior Year: AP Calc AB, AP GOV, AP ENGLISH 12, AP BIO, Honors Physics, Photography II (I love photography-it is one of my hobbies!), Leadership II as an extra elective
PSAT: 161
SAT: 1670 (610M 570W 490V :( )
I have a profound hearing loss (I am deaf), and this really affects my English skills. It is why my CR and W skills are low, along with no prepareness. I am planning to retake SAT I, and of course, I will study very hard for it. I am planning to take SAT II History this May (600s), and Chemistry and Math 2C (getting 700-720s on practice tests).</p>

<p>WORK EXPERIENCE
Sharing and Caring Hands (food programfor the homeless)
Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Student volunteer)
Habitat for Humanity (Built houses for unfortunate families)
Mentoring elementary students
Will do internship and research this summer- my boss went to princeton</p>

<p>ACTIVITIES
Club Youth Extending Service (a school volunteering organization) (9, 10)
National Karate (9, 10)
Chess Club (During lunch- 11)
Science Club (During lunch- 11)
Psychology Association (During lunch- 11)
Health Science Academy (After school- 11)
University of Virginia Mini-Medical School (After school- 11)</p>

<p>HONORS
Academic Honor Roll
National Karate Summer Program Award
President's Student Service Gold Award (volunteering 100+ hours)
National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine (a scam but considered a scholarship to me because I was given $8,000 and then paid $2,000 for airline tickets)
A Venture Scholar (Minority scholarship for excellence inmath and science)
Will be getting Academic Award this May</p>

<p>I am worried about my SAT score as well as my Junior grades. Is it possible that I will get in:</p>

<p>Yale
Princeton
Duke
Stanford
Brown
University of Virginia
William and Mary</p>

2

<p>Bring up my post</p>

3

<p>Your GPA and ECs are fantastic, confused517. If you're able to bring up your SAT, I'd imagine you can get into most of the schools on your list easily. Good luck! :)</p>

4

<p>Thanks, but I want you to be BRUTUALLY HONEST (I don't care if your comments are brutal)! I just want to do everything I can do to get in my dream schools.</p>

5

<p>You certainly have still managed to do an impressive job depite your personal challenges.</p>

6

<p>I agree with RyanZ. Despite your personal challenges, you've done well in both academics and in non-academic areas as well. You definitely should raise your SAT as much as possible (between 1900 and 2100, I'm guessing? - if anyone disagrees or agrees, please confirm or negate).</p>

7

<p>id shoot for a little higher in SAT scores...perhaps between 2000 and 2200?</p>

8

<p>I can tell you this: there is no way I will get score of 2000-2200, but I am positive my score would be 1800-2000.</p>

9

<p>Well i only know of the big schools that you mentioned (Im west coast) but if that's what you feel your range is, go for some safeties. I dunno if W and M is a safety or what not. I don't even have an idea about U of virginia...but yeah the others are probably gonna demand a bit higher score, unless you get exactly a 2000 or slightly above...</p>

10

<p>Confused, check your personal message box. I just sent you one with some important suggestions that may help boost your chances.</p>

11

<p>Your record is impressive. Have you studied for the SATS and used any practice books to test yourself? That could help a lot. You're an unusual candidate, so you have a chance at those schools, but you should also balance your list out with some sure bets and slight reaches.</p>

12

<p>I think that you have chances for all schools on your list, but your best chances probably are for the Virginia colleges plus Brown, which of all of the Ivies seems to take scores less into account. </p>

<p>It will be important for you to have your GC's report include info about your hearing loss and how that may have caused your scores and grades to be depressed.</p>

<p>I strongly recommend that you also apply to colleges that don't put as much emphasis on scores as do most of the Ivies. </p>

<p>I also am thinking that you may do best at a small liberal arts college where you could get lots of personal attention and smaller classes where your hearing loss may not put you at as much of a disadvantage.</p>

<p>Also consider colleges that make the SAT and ACT optional. The latest list I could find is here: <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/optional.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fairtest.org/optional.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I imagine there will be people who will post here saying that due to your being a URM with a disability, you'll have excellent chances for places like Ivies and Duke. From what I am seeing this year, that is not true.</p>

<p>I am seeing URMs (including legacies !) with state and national level achievements being waitlisted and rejected this year by such colleges. It's clear to me that colleges must be being flooded with exceptionally strong URM candidates as well as mainstream ones this year. Since the number of students applying next year is expected to be even higher than this year, I anticipate even stiffer competition when you apply.</p>

<p>Your scores are very low for some of the colleges that you list. Your ECs also are not remarkable for most of those colleges. Venture Scholar is not an impressive award since one needs only about a combined V, M score of 1000 to get. Colleges of the type you're considering are more interested in quality of community service (such as whether one organized a community service program or did major work to raise a significant amount of money) than hours. </p>

<p>Have you considered doing volunteer work that is related to deafness? I imagine that you are aware of some concerns that need addressing. That's the kind of thing that could make your application more impressive: demonstrating focused concern and action related to a specific need.
I am not saying do not apply. I do think you have a shot at all that you list. I am saying, however, to make sure that you also have on your list some excellent colleges that aren't as competitive as are the nonVirginia colleges on your list.</p>

<p>I am assuming that since you are in-state your best chances lie with the Virginia publics that your listed. However, check with your GC to make sure that you do not need some in-state less selective public universities to act as safeties. Your GC would be more knowledgeable about this than I am.</p>

13

<p>are you kidding me??? you're like at the top, i'm adverage joe trying to break out of the shell
yeah... the SAT score I KNOW!!!</p>

14

<p>I think these schools are all "realistic reaches". Good luck</p>

15

<p>Thanks for your comments. Jenny, you are not average Joe (I know this sounds corny)- despite your hearing loss, you work very hard and it is not easy to achieve what you get. You should be very proud of yourself!</p>

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<p>do you go to TJ at northern virginia? btw, i think u have an okay shot for uva because ur urm, good class rank... dont worry about sat.. if u get a 1800 + i think u will have a good shot.. uva is all about class ranks and gpa. so dont lose hope</p>

17

<p>Which school provides a better program for science: Princeton or Yale?</p>

18

<p>depends on wat science u wanna study
Yale=good chemistry</p>

19

<p>either biology or pre-med</p>

20

<p>
[quote]
I have a profound hearing loss (I am deaf), and this really affects my English skills. It is why my CR and W skills are low, along with no prepareness. I am planning to retake SAT I, and of course, I will study very hard for it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>ETS will not accomodate for this??</p>