Please help! College question!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I have been slacking off a bit in freshman and sophomore year, but junior year I worked VERY HARD. Due to my behavior in the past, my GPA was killed.
But I’m wondering about a couple of things;
• Would colleges look at my unweighted GPA or weighted GPA more?
• Do colleges specifically look at my Junior year grades? (Because it’s the only year I got straight A's)
• How much does my SAT matter?
• Are my clubs and awards really helping or do colleges not really care about them?
• How important is my college essay? Compared to GPA and SAT
• I will apply to Cornell, CAL Tech, Carnegie Mellon, UPenn, and some state safety schools. Which ones can I make it into? I would love to go to Cornell or Cal tech.</p>

<h2>Junior Year Courses:</h2>

<p>AP Physics
AP Chemistry
AP Calculus AB
AP US History
AP Lang
Spanish Honors</p>

<h2>Numeric Distinctions:</h2>

<p>3.75 (max 4) -- unweighted GPA
4.41 (max 5) -- Weighted GPA
2320 -- SAT score
800 - SAT Math IIC score
790- SAT Chemistry Score
790 - SAT Physics Score</p>

<h2>Clubs and Awards:</h2>

<p>District Science Fair winner for Physics Project
Science Olympiad Medal Winner
Secretary of Protein Research Club
National Honors Society
Vice President of Academic Decathlon Club
School Physics Team (4 people from entire school are selected)
State Science League Medal Winner for Physics
Volunteer 100+ hours</p>

2

<p>Protein Research Club? That’s AWESOME! Unweighted GPA is probably considered more since many schools have a slightly different way to calculated weighted GPAs. HOwever, I think your SAT I and II may make up for it. Essay is VERY important when you get to the really competitive colleges (like the ones you are considering) because it is a chance to distinguish yourself when all the applicants look similar with just the humbers.</p>

3

<p>Your SAT is nothing less than amazing, so that should hopefully get you to where you want to go.</p>

<p>• Would colleges look at my unweighted GPA or weighted GPA more? </p>

<p>I’d assume weighted would be looked at more, in order to give you your deserved credit for taking the honors/ap classes</p>

<p>• Do colleges specifically look at my Junior year grades? (Because it’s the only year I got straight A’s)</p>

<p>They look at junior year a little more than sophomore, and much more than freshman year.</p>

<p>• How much does my SAT matter?</p>

<p>A LOT</p>

<p>• Are my clubs and awards really helping or do colleges not really care about them?</p>

<p>Colleges like well rounded students who are involved within their school and the community. They aren’t used as a make/break factor, but they do consider them, especially if they pertain to your intended major.</p>

<p>• How important is my college essay? Compared to GPA and SAT</p>

<p>For more prestigious & competitive schools, it is sort of important.</p>

<p>• I will apply to Cornell, CAL Tech, Carnegie Mellon, UPenn, and some state safety schools. Which ones can I make it into? I would love to go to Cornell or Cal tech.</p>

<p>I’d say go for all of them, your SAT should make them really think about accepting you.</p>

4

<p>I think that:</p>

<p>• Would colleges look at my unweighted GPA or weighted GPA more? </p>

<p>Neither, they will be looking primarily at your grades in the classes and the rigor of the classes, b/c gpa is just a number, why would they consider that over looking at your actual transcript (besides schools weight things differently, it would be kind of unfair to only consider that)?</p>

<p>• Do colleges specifically look at my Junior year grades? (Because it’s the only year I got straight A’s)</p>

<p>Like I said before they will be looking at all of your actual grades (except stanford and princeton which completely disregard freshman year) but they are looking for an upward trend, which you have. </p>

<p>• How much does my SAT matter?</p>

<p>2nd to only to transcript at most top colleges</p>

<p>• Are my clubs and awards really helping or do colleges not really care about them?</p>

<p>Clubs/Leadership/Awards are particularly important for top colleges because they will get a multitude of people with high sat scores and gpas and those aspects will be the only things that the colleges can use to distinguish their applicants.</p>

<p>• How important is my college essay? Compared to GPA and SAT</p>

<p>1) Transcript 2) Sat. distant 3rd would be all of the subjective aspects like the essay, and activities, etc. but again with so many talented applicants things like an essay become really important.</p>

<p>• I will apply to Cornell, CAL Tech, Carnegie Mellon, UPenn, and some state safety schools. Which ones can I make it into? I would love to go to Cornell or Cal tech.</p>

<p>I think you can make it into carnegie mellon & cornell. UPenn would be a bit harder, and I think you may have some problems with Cal tech. because they want REALLY strong science/math types and although a lot of your ECs fall under that, you don’t have many stand out math/science awards. In addition, you didn’t mention your SAT I break down, so i don’t know what you scored in math, but atleast one year, all of cal. tech’s admitted students had an 800 on the math section of their sats.</p>

<p>Hope this helped.</p>