I have not took my ACTs yet but I am planning to not get below a 30, and I’m going to take it at least 3 times just to see if I can get up to a 31 or 32. So far my (uw) GPA is between a 3.1 to a 3.3 (I have not gotten my grades for this semester yet, and I did horrible freshman and sophomore year getting a 2.81 / 2.52 and a 3.0 / 2.9 so cumulatively for both years it is a 2.8* ,we use a 12 point scale if that makes any difference). I dont have any ECs unless you count 10 years of piano lessons and a choir that mets on the evenings as one. I want to take AP English 12, AP Psychology and AP American History (maybe AP Calc, but I never took calc or pre calc, so i might just take calc my senior year). The only thing I fear is that I will do horrible in these classes and get C’s / D’s. Should I take 3 AP classes to help boost my GPA, or should I just take all regular classes. (I at least plan on taking AP psychology senior year, because that is what I want to do in life).
*I was going through a ton of personal things in those years and added on to the stress of school it showed significantly in my grades.
Most highly selective colleges like Michigan look for course rigor, so I would suggest you take AP classes where possible. However, I fear without much better/deeper ECs and a significantly higher GPA, UM will be a high reach. Good luck!
If you’re in state with that sort of GPA – even with a 30, UM is a very high reach. You’re better to aim for one of the other public schools (Western, GVSU, CMU, EMU, Ferris, WSU, UM Flint)
1° If you want to take Calculus senior year, take precalculus junior year or next year, whichever is earlier.
2° You can’t “plan” on getting 30. A 30 is top 10% in the country. You have to actively prepare by reading practice books, taking practice tests, answering “question of the day” every day. Once you have a practice test result, come back to post it here.
3° No college will be impressed with AP classes where you get less than a B. Ask your current teachers if they think you can get a B in an AP class. If they don’t, take the Honors version (if they think you can get a B in the Honors version).
4° Colleges look at unweighted GPA.
5° For UMich, you need 4 to 8 APs and about every grade should have been A-/A, with perhaps a couple B+'s in the mix. At this point, UMich is thus out of reach regardless of test score. MSU is a high reach, too, but if you keep raising your grade and get mostly straight A’s you’d have a shot.
6° Look at the following colleges: Albion, Alma, Lawrence Tech, Kettering, University of Toledo, Capital, Muskingum. Run the Net Price Calculators for each (since each college calculates differently) so see which ones would be the 3-4 cheapest.