Realistic Hopes? Need some answers...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Well I'm trying to decide on some colleges as junior year seems to be flying by for me. Basically I have been underachieving for the last 2 and a half years....and I want to see if my hopes of getting into certain schools are even possible. </p>

<p>I goto a very competitive public school (ranked 38 in the nation for overall HS).</p>

<p>Rank: About top 20%</p>

<p>SAT 2360
ACT (Take later)</p>

<p>GPA - UW - 3.4 ish.... (Really low...I know)
AP classes - 10 by the end of senior year
Honors - 5 by end of senior year
Something like 32 credits for high school classes</p>

<p>Will be attending Cornell Summer College for 6 weeks. So basically I get 6 credits.</p>

<p>Lacrosse player 3 years
By the time I send in college App. over 500+(Should be close to 1000) hours of community service/service learning hours
Habitat for humanity 1 year
Active Church participation - Youth Group etc. for like 8 years.
Active writer ~ published in school literary magazine.
GYM RAT/BODYBUILDER
Side Ebay business</p>

<p>Ethnicity - Mix of Arab/Malay/Flip/Chinese/Jap/Spanish..only a small amount (What would be the preferable race/ethnicity to put down on the app.????)
Canadian citizen
Spanish last name ~ Penaloza ~ and well even though I'm hardly Spanish...I still look the part.</p>

<p>List of possible universities (tell me if I have a shot):
Cornell
Upenn
UVA
UNC (In-state student)
Georgetown
Northwestern
Chicago
Carnegie Mellon
Emory
Stanford
NYU
Dartmouth</p>

<p>Thinking of something like Econ/Finance major.....or something to that effect....</p>

<p>Basically I'm just hoping that my low Unweighted GPA won't screw me over x100000 in the end.....I mean there's nothing much I can do about being a lazy ass fresh/soph. year.</p>

2

<p>UNC In-state you're in. They're required to take I think 83% of their incoming class from NC. You are in there congratulations. </p>

<p>UVA is probably a match as well from what I've seen of a few of my classmates getting in Early (We're out of state too).</p>

<p>Not sure on the others but from what I know I think almost all of them are a match or barely a reach.</p>

3

<p>Realistically, despite your excellent SAT score, all the schools on your list are reaches because of your low GPA and class rank except UNC. After all, these schools get thousands of applicants with 3.8+ GPAs, top 5% class rankings, 2300+ SAT scores, and astounding ECs. Your 3.4 GPA and 20% class rank just aren't competitive.</p>

<p>Your best bet, I think, would be to select some schools at which the average GPA and class rank more closely match yours, some schools where the average GPA and class rank exceed yours by a bit (where your SAT score may help you out), and then add a couple of schools from the list above - the ones you would really like to go to - understanding they are reaches.</p>

4

<p>CMU, Emory, NYU, and UNC are do-able. You might want to consider some LACs, like:</p>

<p>Colby
Trinity
Bates
Holy Cross
Union
Denison
Rhodes
Franklin & Marshall
Occidental
Skidmore
Furman
Centre
Sewanee
Hamilton
Gettysburg
Pitzer</p>

<p>And a few of these universities:</p>

<p>UWisconsin
UIllinois
Case Western
Bandeis
URochester
Boston C
UWashington</p>

5

<p>In my personal and humble opinion:</p>

<p>Cornell - WAITLIST/ACCEPT
Upenn - WAITLIST
UVA - ACCEPT
UNC (In-state student) - ACCEPT
Georgetown - ACCEPT
Northwestern - WAITLIST/ACCEPT
Chicago - ACCEPT
Carnegie Mellon - ACCEPT
Emory - ACCEPT
Stanford - REJECT
NYU - ACCEPT
Dartmouth - REJECT</p>

6

<p>Thanks for all the replies so far guys, but keep them coming. I'll take anything you'll give me comment wise.</p>

<p>A few updates in some of my stats.
* I did the math and should have around 1156 hours of community service by summers end. All mostly coming from Duke hospital.
*I will be retaking the SAT's around Feb., and I am hoping for a perfect score this time. ACT will be taken soon also. Oh, and should I be looking into taking the SAT II ?</p>

<p>Also one more quick thing..kinda off topic. Would it be acceptable to ask my proffessor at Cornell for a college recc. in August (assuming that there is a "relationship" beyond the common student/teacher one over the coruse of the summer).???</p>

<p>Also the low GPA is really bugging me...and I am planning on taking a few on-line courses to try and boost that sucker a little bit.</p>

<p>Again....please keep the comments coming. Thanks.</p>

7

<p>don't focus on ur sat score, it's fine. instead focus on your school work and raising that gpa</p>

8

<p>Well without my sophmore years grades my GPA would be about 3.6-3.65 (frsh. and junior) unweighted, I had some serious personal issues that year and school was just not a concern....Will an admissions board even take this into consideration when they notice my low GPA? There is a decent freshman showing, and a definate upward trend junior year from sophmore. </p>

<p>And for the hell of it....here's a random breakdown of my grades/courses year by year. </p>

<p>*Freshman year was about 3.45 unweighted and 3.65 weighted.
CLASSES: hon alg.2, hon eng.1, WH, Art, Bio, PE, French.</p>

<p>**Sophmore year was about 2.7 unweighted and 3.14 weighted
CLASSES: hon. Precal., C&E, Chem., French II, Hon. Eng. 2, Strength Training. </p>

<p>***Junior year (based on 1st sem. grades) will be about 3.8 unweighted and 5.1 weighted.
CLASSES: AP Stat., AP World, AP US, AP Euro, AP Env. Sci., Hon. Eng III ~ Sociology, Psychology, Health, Spanish 1...maybe 2 also. (Soc, Psy, Helath, Spanish are all correspondence/online).</p>

<p>****Senior year (based on junior year stats and course load evaluation) will be a 3.8-3.875 unweighted and around 5.5 weighted.
CLASSES: AP Lit., AP Bio, Hon. Bio lab, AP Art Hist., AP Gov./Pol., AP Calc. BC ~ AP Macro/micro economics (Online ~ probably over the upcoming summer).</p>

<p>Since senior year grades may or may not be looked at....it really looks like sophmore year raped me....</p>

<p>I believe it is quite clear that something happened to me sophmore year... would an explanation in my transcript be in order? Or would that be a bad idea? </p>

<p>Again some light on the issues that plague me would be golden...Thanks.</p>