My parents think I am screwed

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a junior- I transferred from #3 public school in Minnesota with 10-point scale to a VERY competitive and more academically rigorous public school in Virginia with 7-point scale. I used to get straight A's, but now I get straight B's. </p>

<p>Female African American
RANK: Unknown
GPA: 3.8 UW, 4.18 W (4.0 freshman, 4.0 sophomore, 3.4 uw 4.1 w junior)
Junior Year: AP USH (B/B), AP Psych (B/B), Honors Math Analysis (B/B), Honors English 11 (B/B), Honors Chemistry (B/B), Photography I (A/A), and Leadership I (A/A) as an extra elective which is taken before school
Senior Year: AP Calc AB, AP GOV, AP ENGLISH 12, AP BIO, Honors Physics, Photography II, Leadership II as an extra elective
PSAT: 161
SAT: 1670 (610M 570W 490V )
SAT II: History 610
I have a profound hearing loss (I am deaf), and it affects my standardized test scores A LITTLE
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 scientific research this summer</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
Academic Award last May</p>

<p>My parents think I won't get in good colleges (Princeton, Duke, Stanford, UVA) because I have Bs and low SAT scores. I agree with them, but I need to check with others' opinions. My new school is very competitive, but so many kids get higher grades than me. I think I am in at least top 30% (but I am not sure). What is your opinion? Am I offically screwed with top colleges?</p>

2

<p>Confused, if there are any community college or community rec SAT courses this summer, do sign up for them, and if you can come up with the money, a few hours of going over some practice tests with a tutor, particularly about the verbal would bring the scores up a little bit. Your ECs are terrific, and you look a like a geat addition to any college community. HPYD or UVa? I don't know about that. You need to talk to your GC about what someone like you can expect with your stats from that school given your resume. You may want to put a few stretch schools on your list, but start looking at some schools where your stats are more in line with the averages.</p>

3

<p>I don't think you're screwed, I think many good colleges would love to have you. For top colleges, I think you would need a big jump on SATs. The grades would probably be fine given the strong course load. For the next tier, I think you have a shot at many good schools.</p>

4

<p>well at this point, you should not be looking at any top colleges. Unfortuntately, ur SAT scores and are way too low even for a URM. However, if you bring up your Sat scores, I'm sure many more opportunities will open up to you. Your ecs are pretty good but do u have any leadership positions. And just out of curiosity, i'm not trying to downplay this, but how does hearing difficulty affect your standardized test scores?</p>

5

<p>What school is this?</p>

6

<p>Get your sat up. 1670 on the sat just isn't gonna cut it at places like wat you're talking about.</p>

<p>If you can get 2000 sat then your chances improve drammatically.</p>

7

<p>to be honest your SAT is way too low...check out these courses and see if they have any around where you live:
<a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/home.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/home.asp&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.kaplan.com/TestPreparation/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.kaplan.com/TestPreparation/&lt;/a>
they're kinda expensive but they will definetly raise your score. You have a solid GPA and the fact that you're african american is a major +. Dont give up yet. Get that SAT and you have a descent chance to go Ivy.</p>

8

<p>yeah, this summer i will prepare for the SAT- i jumped 400 (200 in math, 100 in reading and 100 in writing) points from sophomore to junior year because i studied last summer, and if it happens again this summer, maybe my score will jump 400 (or more) points to 2000. anyway, because of my hearing loss, it affects my English skills because I don't hear vocabulary or grammar like others do. Because of this, I don't understand grammar and have a lower vocabulary skills than my peers. If you are wondering, I use an interpreter but s/he doesn't intepret every words (she kinda summarizes and misses the articles and prepositions). It takes me a while to understand what the questions are asking and the language of the answers (what they are saying). This is typical for other deaf kids.</p>

9

<p>what about my grades? my parents are quite upset about Bs.</p>

10

<p>No your GPA is okay...just raise it to a 4 and you'll be fine. Just make sure not to get any more B's.</p>

11

<p>I think that if you can get in the 600s on all parts of the SAT I and do at least that well on the SAT II, you have a chance at all of the schools that you're considering. A 600 on each part of the SAT I tends to be the lowest score that one needs to be considered for places like Ivies. Most students who apply with such scores will not get in. However, that's the case with most students who apply to such schools anyway.</p>

<p>The students who do get in with such low scores for those schools are ones that are athletes or have other hooks -- like your deafness. A 600 on each part of the SAT is basically the minimum score that indicates that one has the ability to graduate from a place like an Ivy.</p>

<p>I think that your Bs now can be explained by your GC in the recommendation s/he will write. Do everything, however, next fall including getting tutoring to get stronger grades fall semester and at the beginning of spring semester. There's a good chance that collleges will call your GC in Feb. or so to find out how your grades are since your current grades would be low for places like HPYS.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, make sure that you apply to some schools that will serve as safety and match schools. I also imagine that if you're interested in returning to Minnesota, places like the U as well as Macalester, Carleton and St. Olaf's would give you very serious consideration since they'd be very familiar with your old high school.</p>

12

<p>How can I bring my GPA to a perfect 100% (4.0)?!</p>

13

<p>hahaha i meant as close to a four as possible.....but your weighted GPA is still good. I think your parents are stressing too much.</p>

14

<p>Get your SAT above 2000 (at least) before applying for an IVY. How do you have a good GPA but such an abysmal SAT score?</p>

15

<p>Should I retake US History (610)? I took Math IIC and Chemistry in June, and I have a feeling that I scored 650 or higher on Math IIC (pretty easy). But, I know I will have to retake Chemistry because I know I bombed it! By the way, do you know any good review books for chemistry? I used PR but it didn't help me at all (it was lousy).</p>

16

<p>Your biggest problem with the tests is the SAT1Verbal and I suggest you work on that test. Leave the History as is.</p>

17

<p>don't ever waste your money on SAT courses, from my experience at PR, it was the worst waste of my time in my life!!!
learned better on my own... but still not good enough :(</p>