<p>If you play a sport for Germantown Acad. that may help at some of your "otherwise reach" school, like UPenn.
Good luck! Get your apps in early!</p>
<p>Well, okay, you have a good chances at Howard, Georgia State, Temple University, and American. However, with Swarthmore, Haverford, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the University of Pennsylvania, they would be considered reaches. Even with your urm status, a 3.0 gpa is relatively low for those schools. Your gpa and transcript is supposed to show how well you've performed in high school, and if you will be able to do the coursework in college. In addition, your sat scores are not that great because you don't have a very high gpa to balance it out. What Northstarmom stated is completely true, "Being a URM does not mean that top colleges will automatically accept you." Granted, I am only going off of stats, and there are other criteria to take into consideration in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Rbase, I have to agree with northstarmom on this one, I think that the only way Swat, Haverford, and Penn will become more reachable for you is for you to raise your GPA to 3.5+(unweigted) and try to get 1800+ on the SATs.</p>
<p>rbase07:
i dont get why its an "OMG must read" but whatever.</p>
<p>If this keeps up, the moderator is going to shut down the thread. We all know why Affirmative Action is fair, and we all know why Affirmative Action is unfair.</p>
<p>In this case, the OP did not say anything about how his URM status was going to help him. He gave a list of colleges and some of them seemed to be unrealistic, and so the right thing to do is to give him a reality check. If a non-URM had posted his stats with an SAT of 1300 and said that he/she wanted to go to Yale, people would have rightfully made some discouraging comments. There is no need to go into all of the AA issues.</p>
<p>To the OP:</p>
<p>You should take the summer and study SAT preparation books and take the practice tests from them. The best way to study for verbal is to do a lot of reading. Typically, SAT scores will go up quite a bit between junior and senior year. You can take the SAT over again in the Fall after senior year starts. Actually, you can take it as late as January for regular decision. However, don't take it more than 3 times. If you take it 2 or 3 times, the adcoms will take your best verbal, best math and best writing. If you take it too many times, they will average all of the scores together.</p>
<p>The schools you have on your list are too much on the reach side. You need to make sure that you have some safeties. Penn is Ivy League and the 50% Verbal range is 640-730 and the 50% Math range is 660-750. The lowest Penn would go on SAT no matter what the circumstances would be a 1200 (and those would have to be some circumstances). UNC and Univ of Maryland are state schools and favor in-state residents, particularly UNC. If you want to apply to LAC's, do a good job on the essays. A lot of large public schools don't even require essays and don't spend very much time reading them.</p>
<p>Back to the OPs original thoughts. </p>
<p>I think the list looks fine so long as you realize that Swat, UNC, Haverford, Penn are big, big reaches even for kids with way higher stats. The others are likely or sure bets. I agree about the Quaker school affiliation helping in some of these schools and if you are attending GFS or PennCharter in Phila then a 3.0 isn't the same as a 3.0 in less competetive schools. Swat is a very intense academic environmment so consider that if you are accepted into a school where you are in the bottom 25% stats wise you may find that you'd rather choose a school where you are higher in the range so you can expect a better chance for success.</p>
<p>You need to bring up your SAT scores so work on that aspect. For some of these schools being a URM will help a little.</p>
<p>Ok, thank you all so far. I have read all of the posts, and I realize that some of these schools are kind of reachy. I do, however, still need some suggestions for safeties and reaches (mostly safeties where the campus atmosphere is similar to the schools I already have)</p>
<p>Basically, my criteria are:</p>
<p>1-A academically focused environment, though not totally devoid of all fun and games (and maybe not as hard as Swatmore)</p>
<p>2-A very racially, ethnically, economically, etc. DIVERSE campus (Think Swat.) ***This is a huge sticking point for me because GFS, the school I attend now, isn't diverse at all, no matter how much the school claims it is</p>
<p>3-It's got to be on the East Coast and not farther north than NY (for parental reasons) Basically, I can only look into schools in PA, Ohio, West VA, VA, DE, DC, MD, NC, NJ, GA, AL, and that's pretty much it, give or take a state.</p>
<p>4-I'm looking for a residential campus (ie. one that doesn't empty out on the weekends). I am aware that Georgia SU is more of a commuter campus, but I love everything else about that school, so I'm willing to look past that.</p>
<p>Basically, what I want out of college, if it helps you at all, is the quintessential "college experience", minus the drinking. My ideal college is a "racially-and-every-other-kind-of-diverse-as-well" that will promote me doing well in a 'somewhat' rigorous environment. I am fully aware that Swarthmore has a reputation for being more than a little 'somewhat' rigorous, but because it has matched ALL of my other criteria, for now, it stays. </p>
<p>So, if you need any more information about me or my criteria, speak now, while I'm still on the computer. But if you don't have any more questions, I would really appreciate if you all would start suggesting some safeties (that, of course, match the aforementioned criteria). Oh yeah, I did see the Penn State and Pitt suggestions, btw.</p>
<p>I'm all ears. :)</p>
<p>And oh yeah...</p>
<p>"i dont get why its an "OMG must read" but whatever."</p>
<p>-I KNOW it's not a must-read, but the title served it's purpose. It got you to click the hyperlink and read my thread. So if you don't have anything pleasant to say, you can click the back button and leave, but the snide comments are totally unnecessary.</p>
<p>"580 + 550 = 1130... that is INCREDIBLY low.
you'll get into american probably... if u fill out your apps right"</p>
<p>-I am completely aware that my SAT scores are low. I don't need you to tell me that. What offended me about your post was the "if u fill out your apps right" bit, which insinuated that my SAT scores indicated that I might not be smart enough to fill out an application properly. FYI, SAT scores are not a measure of intelligence. As it has been stated time and time again, SAT's only measure how well you can take the SAT. Nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>Granted, my SAT scores ARE low, but compared to what? Certainly not to the national average, which on the old 1600 scale, typically hovered
around 1000. Since when is 130 points above the national average "incredibly low"? Maybe you need to think a little more before you simply blurt out what's in your mind.</p>
<p>people here are comparing it to the score needed for the most selective schools. On your list you have those schools so it is pretty low compared to the people applying. No offense but if you plan to apply to those schools you'd better raise your score.</p>
<p>Consider Guilford College in N.C. It's diverse, Quaker and it probably is a good match for your scores.</p>
<p>just because you are under a URM status, it doesn't mean anything. U Penn, is definitely a no go....A 3.0 GPA will hardly get you anywhere near the schools you applied for. I would suggest applying to a smaller college first, doing well there, then transferring to one of the schools you listed.</p>