<p>My GPA is a 3.5 UW, and I'm hoping for it to be at least a 3.6 by midyear. My high school is in a rather affluent suburb of Dallas, TX and is ridiculously competitive. I'm in the top 16 or so % of my class of 800. My test scores are alright (31 composite ACT which I'm retaking) and my EC's are really good, in my opinion.</p>
<p>These are the schools I'm applying to:
Boston College
UChicago
Columbia
Brown
UPenn
Stanford
Georgetown
SMU
UT Austin
Texas A&M (safety)
OU (safety)</p>
<p>Do I even have a chance with my rank? Also, my GPA has a story behind it: my 40 year old mother was going back to school a during my sophomore and junior years, and my dad works full time. Since my parents weren't home a lot I had to take care of my 4 younger siblings a lot, which is why my grades dropped.</p>
<p>Stanford I’m honestly only applying to because my dad wants me to, I really could care less if I get rejected.</p>
<p>I think you have a chance of getting into UPenn and UChicago. A girl from my school go in UPenn being in the top 10 of our class, but her ACT was a 24. She was a URM. UPenn has a soft spot for minorities. Maybe consider Cornell? Its everyone’s saftey Ivy</p>
<p>Ranking doesnt matter that much if you are in the top 16. There isnt really that big of a difference.</p>
<p>You are competitive. However, many URM students admitted into those top schools (Columbia, University of Chicago) were in the top 10% of their classes.</p>
<p>Just to add on to what others are saying, maybe you should add some match schools to your list. You have to remember, it isn’t Ivy-or-nothing. There are many other schools that are amazing that don’t have to be your state school or your safety. I’ve seen too many people with college lists like that (URM and ORM) that end up with only their safeties to consider at the end. Just some food for thought</p>
<p>@halimzie SAME HERE! hahaa my mom is making me apply to yale and stanford but i don’t really care if i get or not :/</p>
<p>And yeah, I feel your pain COMPLETELY! I’m in the top 20% at a competitive high school but I feel like a failure because everyone on CC is valedictorian or top 5%. Ahhhh ! :(</p>
<p>considering the size of your class and the fact that you have a 3.5, I wouldn’t worry about it. Just make sure your application is, overall, impressive.</p>
<p>On a side note, I know how you feel about having to care for your siblings … I’ve been there. Maybe through a recommendation from a teacher or your guidance counselor, you can have your situation explained. But I’m going to be honest with you, colleges might not really take that to heart, as I’ve seen stories where kids have persevered through the worsts of tragedies and still managed to be valedictorians of their classes. Nonetheless, like I said, just make sure that for what you lack in one category you make up in another and make sure that your overall application is great. I felt the way you’re feeling with my SAT score so I know how stressful and agonizing it is. Don’t let the little technicalities get to your head … You don’t want to go insane here. Essentially, you’re not screwed. No ones holding a gun to your head because of faulty facets of your application.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I really appreciate it! :)</p>
<p>Probably won’t get into any except your safeties, UT-Austin, and SMU. You can’t rely solely on being a URM. It’s seriously unfair that you guys get advantages when other students work harder than you. Your ACT score sucks. Your rank sucks. Your GPA sucks. And you will seriously be wasting money applying to:
Columbia
Brown
Stanford
Georgetown</p>
<p>LOL someone’s feeling extra SALTY. You crack me up.</p>
<p>And this is why I can’t wait to start school. I’m going to prove everyone who thinks I’m less than because of my skin color wrong when I pwn in my classes. I wonder what the excuse would be then. </p>
<p>Halimzie, this guy is obviously feeling some type of way. I have non-urm friends with stats worse than yours going to Stanford, Columbia, Brown and Georgetown. You’re fine … Don’t let people tell you otherwise. Have some faith and don’t succumb to the haters.</p>
<p>um okay @dylandlima ??</p>
<p>psh, i see you getting into more than half of the schools on your list! you have great credentials from what i see !</p>
<p>@justadream I do not think that anybody is “less” or “more” because of their skin color. I never made a statement that implied that. Assuming that I think of URM’s as “less” without me making a corresponding statement displays your doltishness. Maybe I would think “more” of you if you used proper English. </p>
<p>“I’m going to prove everyone who thinks I’m less than because of my skin color wrong when I pwn in my classes”</p>
<p>So you think that everybody that isn’t a URM thinks that URM’s are “less than”. Shows how far your going to get trying to “pwn” your classes.</p>
<p>Sorry, dylandlima. I was unaware that we were in a school setting and slang (pwn) was prohibited on an internet forum. Shucks … I’m supposed to be taken seriously by some random ass guy in Texas who’s feeling salty over spilt milk. School me on proper English if you will; I’m apparently being roasted over nonsense. I could honestly care less what you think of me to be quite frank. Hold your thoughts and feelings to yourself please. </p>
<p>Did I call you out specifically? I don’t recall, and my above statements have no evidence of that. So before you start making comments on my posts, make sure that they aren’t directed towards your CC username. Thanks! </p>
<p>But in case you were wondering, I was referring to you and your ignorant posts all over the forums that particularly involve minorities. That alone gives me enough room that you think of minorities as less than because of their skin color, so what am I supposed to assume? You haven’t given any CC users any reason to believe otherwise. I’m also referring to other people who have the same mentality as you do. It’s disgusting how you feel the need to **** on other people’s credentials … credentials that a lot of students of all backgrounds would die for. It’s disgusting how you just assume that URMs depend on their minority status for admission without knowing a damn thing about what these students have persevered through by having that SAME minority status. You have no clue how hard these students have worked to earn the little bit of success that they have. How dare you make such general statements? What are your answers to the rich? To the legacies? To the athletic recruits? What kind of reconciliation do you get out of venting foolishness here? Are you getting some type of high out of all of this? I hope it’s making you feel better. </p>
<p>Are you scared? Are you nervous? Are you intimidated by the fact that if URMs are given the same opportunities to flourish in college that Blacks/Hispanics will rise to the top of our socioeconomic pyramid? Are you freightened that the black guy who scored lower than you on your SAT, who happens to be sitting in one of your classes in college, will get a higher grade than you on a midterm because he studied his brains out and earned it? Those are sincere questions that I really want you to answer. </p>
<p>And when I do make it, and PWN in my classes, I’ll have the benefit of knowing that I MADE IT HAPPEN in spite of people like you saying it’s because of URM and AA. </p>
<p><em>Word of the wise, AA is fading away. It’s getting weaker and weaker every admissions cycle. That’s a fact. The world is getting more and more competitive everyday. African Americans and Hispanics are becoming more competitive to a point where Ivies are rejecting hundreds of URMs with perfect credentials. That’s life. In the end, colleges, scholarships, etc choose those students who they feel will get the most out of the services they provide and use their resources to make something out of nothing. Just because it’s not the typical number-crazed machine getting rejected over the guy who grew up in a typical low socioeconomic URM crime-ridden community and happened to show true academic promise and potential, you can’t say that it’s because of AA. If you’re meant to get in, you’ll get in. If not, don’t be bitter. Maybe this little bit of known information will make you feel better … *whisper</em> there’s still an overwhelmingly large portion of non-URM students taking up college spots. Why are you crying over about an average of ONLY 7% of URM freshman admits in tier 1 schools? Get over yourself.</p>
<p>Stop assuming AA all of the time and stop and think if URMs actually put in work (if not more work than everyone else-“Work twice as hard to get half as far and even less recognition for it.”) to get to where they are. It’s making you look like a whining buffoon and no one likes a whining buffoon.</p>
<p>Yeah…right. Stereotyping Texas exposes your doltishness even more. Texas is a center for software engineering, has institutions that lead in engineering research (hard to believe, but AT&T is based in Texas). And Texas is far more fiscally responsible than your financially indebted, disgraced state. Drenched in Elliot Spitzer’s Semen. I also argue that while URM’s like African Americans are granted affirmative action to universities, how come Asians can’t be granted affirmative action to sports teams and such you are hypocritical in all aspects of this conversation, which is really not worth having.</p>
<p>Oh my god, how the hell did I just stereotype Texas?! I’m flabergasted LMAO Elliot Spitzer… really smh. You’re quite a character. Are you reading something that I didn’t type? Clearly. I had no intention of making this about State superiority … I’m not even going to argue in that field (what a joke in comparison), since that would imply nonsense on my part. </p>
<p>I know nothing about the dillemma with Asian athletic recruits so I won’t go there. Individual athletic ability and academic aptitude comes to question from that standpoint. I’m speaking about the general aspect of it all. So in what way was I being hypocritical? This conversation is definitely worth having; not in this forum though. </p>
<p>Essentially, just don’t **** on a student’s credentials and doubt his/her acceptance without knowing his/her history, academic promise or the details of his/her overall application.</p>
<p>“I’m supposed to be taken seriously by some random ass guy in Texas who’s feeling salty over spilt milk”</p>
<p>I think you know.</p>
<p>2nd of all, I wasn’t talking about college recruits, I was talking about institutions like the NBA. Why shouldn’t there be some type of affirmative action so that Asians that can’t play sports can get on NBA teams (for so-called diversity)? Why should there only be affirmative action when it comes to URM’s and college? If you can’t play, you don’t get on the team. If you can’t study, you don’t get into college. Why should you be able to game the system?</p>
<p>“I’m supposed to be taken seriously by some random ass guy in Texas who’s feeling salty over spilt milk”</p>
<p>How does that imply a stereotype? Which one, for that matter? lol</p>
<p>That was stated to reinforce my sentiments of you taking me “seriously” because of my previous post. The mention of Texas was just extra and unnecessary diction to prove my point of your randomness and that I have nothing, whatsoever, to prove to you in spite of how seriously you take me (like I said, I could care less). If you’re feeling so bad over it, I suppose that you hold true to those stereotypes which you accuse me of assuming because like I said, it wasn’t my intention.</p>
<p>Speaking of randomness, the NBA? Really … that’s just completely taking the discussion off of its track, off of the OP’s question and off of the purpose of CC (whatever its ‘purpose’ is). </p>
<p>Mind you, you never answered my questions.*</p>