<p>The only fact I don’t get is how you tried to accelerate courses…
yet you still got B’s in them? B’s in the regular courses at a mediocre high school?</p>
<p>Your EC’s are great though</p>
<p>Wow roadto3b, you’re very arrogant. I think you have a good shot at all, but yale is probably a reach. Dartmouth could be hard too, but I have lower stats than you (standardized test scores, I mean), and I am applying there as well! And admissions officers consider your school in the admissions process. They will know that getting a high gpa is difficult.</p>
<p>Wow roadto3b, you’re very arrogant. I think you have a good shot at all, but yale is probably a reach. Dartmouth could be hard too, but I have lower stats than you (standardized test scores, I mean), and I am applying there as well! And admissions officers consider your school in the admissions process. They will know that getting a high gpa is difficult at your school.</p>
<p>vivalife: I wasn’t being sarcastic! Haha, thanks!</p>
<p>Holy ****… ROadtob3, why would I trust your opinion when you can’t even follow a conversation? You have been told about 4 times that my school didn’t allow me to take summer math and science courses for credit in my freshman or sophomore summers.</p>
<p>Huh? I got one “B” in a regular course in my freshman year. Only one. Not sure if you caught this, but I was suffering from family drama and I cut ties with my popular group of best friends. I went through depression in my freshman and sophomore years.</p>
<p>
Please read Terms of Service and keep the discussion civil.</p>
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rOadTo3b, not Roadtob3</p>
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</p>
<p>haha keep deluding yourself. </p>
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Because you didn’t take pre-reqs during your fresh and sophomore year when you had the option to take them? haha ok.</p>
<p>How do you get an unweighted gpa at your previous school of 94 when most of the grades seem to be Bs? </p>
<p>Honestly, I think most of the posters here are a little too optimistic. </p>
<p>The answer to your question depends much on the strength of your private school. My best advice is to ask the guidance counselor of your school and check Naviance. Remember that most students with the same gpa from the private school have been attending longer than you so the kids with your gpa from that school and the same test scores probably have better choices than you because they earned Bs at top private not at regular public. </p>
<p>My other advice is to put some matches/safeties in there. I’m not trying to dissuade you. You have excellent scores but I think you need to find some other schools too. If you’re willing to consider women’s colleges, how about Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke or Scripps? I’m not quite sure if you’re looking for a larger or smaller school and I might have missed your major, but two safe schools where you might get some merit are Syracuse and Goucher. Syracuse is particularly known for public relations if that’s a field in which you’re interested. If you want to continue writing and are full-pay, Kenyon might be another good choice. Are you looking for financial aid and are you a National Merit scholar? </p>
<p>By the way, I would heartily recommend you keep your gpa up. I suspect that several of those schools will be looking at your senior midterm grades to be sure those junior grades are repeated.</p>
<p>You had around 8 b’s in your freshman/ sophomore year. Honors or not, it doesn’t matter, especially when other students get A’s in those courses, and you went to a mediocre school.</p>
<p>If you were a college adcom, and an applicant wrote that he/she had issues with his/her best friends at a mediocre High School, and apparently family issues, would you say oh those B’s are perfectly fine?
I frankly think they would only care if it completely stopped your education process. As in you had to skip lots of school for some unique reason. Otherwise, it’s too cliche. That situation is not unique, and happens to every single high schooler in the world. That is what high school is.</p>
<p>It was up to you to take advantage of all your resources given; you can’t blame your guidance counselor for taking easy courses for two years; those can’t be excuses. They’re mistakes, and mistakes will inevitably hurt you.</p>
<p>“The schools officials were in the way of me excelling because they were constantly focused on graduating the students”</p>
<p>Ok… well don’t you think they would’ve wanted you to “graduate really well”? not just graduate? as a plus? Why would they tell you “no you can’t take advanced courses cause then you are graduating well”</p>
<p>Seems to me as if you have a lot of excuses for things. It’s ok though, just hope your EC’s shine through. Like I said, that is your strong point. As well as your Test scores.</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>No, I wasn’t having “issues” with my best friends. I had no friends for two years. But the bigger issue was my family. My stepmother has made me feel like an outsider in my own home for years, using me as the scapegoat for her marriage problems with my father. In addition, I’ve been switching back and forth between homes, weekly and monthly, since the 2nd grade which has really taken a toll on my life.</p>
<p>I did not take easy courses for 2 years. The only year in which I did not take the most rigorous schedule was my freshman year. That summer, I was planning on taking Geometry and Biology but my school wouldn’t allow it. In my sophomore year, I took the hardest courses available to me. The next summer, I wanted to take Chemistry and Algebra II. I fought harder, but nothing came of it.</p>
<p>Lol, take advantage of my resources given? My school had none. I’m not making an excuse. It was my GC’s responsibility to inform me. Again, attending a mediocre public school, I didn’t know about APs, SATs, competitions, etc. until the middle of my sophomore year.</p>
<p>Yes, my school’s focus was simply graduating students, not helping them excel as many attend a local CC.</p>
<p>My private school is nationally-recognized and is an Ivy ‘feeder’.</p>
<p>Thank you ^^ I was only asking for chances for my reach schools. I do have match and safety schools which I am applying to as well.</p>
<p>I am definitely keeping my grades up. No way will I let them slip.</p>
<p>No, the highest UW GPA in my graduating class is a 94. Mine is between 90 and 91.</p>
<p>I am very concerned that my transcript will lead to rejection 
I thought that my upward trend and perfect grades at a top private would help me.</p>
<p>Your transcript may lead to rejection in some places but if you really want to attend and can afford the application fees, go ahead and apply. The issue is having reasonable choices and really not getting hung up on the reaches. I tell my kids that the goal is to have at least one rejection and one acceptance; that way you know you reached high enough and secured yourself a spot. </p>
<p>Honestly, I do see all of those schools as reaches. It’s not that you didn’t have a good reason; it’s that they have lots of kids applying that don’t have the Bs and had those honors classes. So what? So what if you don’t get accepted? Maybe you’ll go to another school for a year and then, with a few years of high grades under your belt, you can transfer. But really, I think you should strongly consider (and maybe you have) making sure your schools are located in places where you can continue your extracurricular activities and meet like-minded people. It seems to me that that’s your passion and it’s important to keep that in your life.</p>
<p>Your recent grades, high test scores and writing ECs will definitely help. Nevertheless, your B’s in your past school cannot be overlooked. If you could get your current counselor to try to explain this, it could help.</p>
<p>Middlebury is perhaps a match.
Barnard and Pomona high matches/low reaches.
Dartmouth is a reach.
Yale is a high reach, but you have a chance.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of misinformtion on this thread. Pomona a low reach? No, not for anyone with many Bs. </p>
<p>Counselors can not explain away what’s done as much as we wish we could.</p>
<p>I encourage the OP to add several match schools. Schools where she is a match based on existing stats from both schools.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all of your opinions and advice.</p>
<p>Can someone please recommend some match schools for me? I’ve been struggling to find matches that I could see myself attending.</p>
<p>You can’t deny your transcript is weak. Please stop getting all defensive whenever someone gives an opinion you dislike. You put yourself on the chance thread; thus you will have people find flaws in your application no matter what.</p>
<p>What do you plan on writing your essay about?</p>
<p>Under the circumstances which I’ve had to deal with, I’m proud of what I have achieved. Why shouldn’t I defend myself? I don’t think my transcript is weak, but it is weaker compared to those of other applicants to top schools.</p>
<p>Why do you ask?</p>
<p>If it is weak compared to the ones you are competing against, why would it matter if it’s stronger than average? You don’t seem to be aiming for average to me.</p>
<p>Because. I have a feeling you’re going to write an essay about your no friends/ bad family problems and then how you moved to a private school and things all changed. Am I wrong? I’m just assuming though, feel free to correct me.</p>
<p>Again, I don’t think it’s weak, just weaker.</p>
<p>Oh god, no! Lol, I’m not going to bring any of that **** up in my application. My essays are coming along really well. I think that they’re creative and portray my voice and personality really well.</p>
<p>Haha, I just brought that up here to give reasoning for all of my B’s, proving it wasn’t laziness but a lack of focus because I was concentrated on the bad things in my life.</p>
<p>Ok… Then how will they know why you got those B’s?
Why are you giving us excuses! It shouldn’t matter to you what we know. There is nothing to prove to us. Just present to us what you are going to present to them. Or what good would this chance post do?</p>
<p>I do think you have a good chance at most schools and that you are pretty motivated. But you see, the transcript and GPA is the #1 thing colleges look at. You will need luck, and to really show them why you are better than the person who got those straight a’s. Why they would take you, not them.</p>
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^Amen, bro</p>
<p>For matches I’d look at Trinity, Conn College, Bates, Sarah Lawrence, Smith, Skidmore, Scripps.</p>