Reasonable expectations with my current stats? (HS sophomore)

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hi,

While it may be early to be thinking about college applications, I would appreciate any guidance and direction. For now, my list is quite small (not categorized by target, reach, or safety), but to start, UMich, UCLA, the University of Washington (Seattle), UC Berkeley, Boston College, and San Diego State University are what I’m looking into. I don’t want to give away any personal information, but if it affects admissions (specifically for Michigan), I live on the west coast.

My current unweighted GPA is 4.0, and my weighted GPA is 4.325 after completing my first semester of sophomore year. My first and only AP class this year is AP Seminar (going for AP Capstone), and my junior year will consist of 5 APs, 1 college class, and continuing my CTE program (forensic science). Obviously, I haven’t taken the ACT or SAT, but my scores probably won’t make me stand out based on my mediocre PSAT score. To note, my class rank is 23/626 (around top 3%).
If all goes to plan, I will graduate with 8 honors, 10 APs, and 1 (maybe two) dual credit/college classes. The highest weighted GPA I can achieve is around a 4.5 with all A’s. I don’t know if specific classes will add any further discussion but I purposely left it out for reader purposes.

But as far as extracurriculars go, I quite literally have none. I struggle with joining clubs at school, as none have peaked my interest or I’m too scared. This summer, I’m looking into internships or any kind of volunteer work. My extreme reach of a dream profession is sports psychology (I’m a girl) so I want to add stuff to highlight my passion for sports (specifically hockey) and statistics. If that isn’t in my cards, I’d aim for criminal psychology. Either way, my major of choice (psychology) is highly competitive in my desired schools.

I understand that there’s nothing exceptional or original about me. So while there’s not a lot to work with, with the addition of extracurriculars and if I follow my current academic path, do I have a shot at any of the schools listed? And, is there anything I can do to make me stand out? UMich is my dream but probably the hardest to achieve as I’m out-of-state. If not, I’d appreciate any suggestions for schools with decent psychology programs.

Thank you for reading!

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If you play hockey well, ask at your rink if they’re hiring - some will hire high school students to teach groups lessons to little kids or summer camps. You can make decent money, get a solid extracurricular, and perhaps use it as a springboard into broader sports psychology interests.

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Thinking more now…Check out Voice in Sport, a great organization that you might find opportunities with - they focus on gender equality in sports which, as a female hockey player (or maybe I am just assuming you play?) is probably an issue of relevance to you. Also, I know my daughter’s school is currently doing some review and revisions of their Title IX policy adherence - maybe that’s something you can work at at your own school? Maybe gender equality in sports might be a topic worth working on, if you are interested (again, just assuming here based on girl + hockey, forgive me if my assumptions are off base).

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A few comments:

–I would not spend a lot of time focusing on particular colleges until next year. But keep in mind:

  1. You can major in psychology anywhere. Any solid college should provide a fine undergrad education in this area. FWIW my D was a psych major at a LAC and loved it – she had the chance to get involved in multiple research projects with professors (one of which was published in a peer reviewed journal) which I imagine was a plus when she applied to grad schools. When the time comes to create an application list think about what you want in your overall college experience and go from there.
  2. Be sure you consider finances as part of your college selection – especially if you are considering grad school.

–ECs DO NOT have to be at your school. But in general colleges DO look for people who are actively engaged in their school and/or community. If you don’t like the activities at your school then seek out opportunities elsewhere – you can volunteer at your house of worship, at a neighborhood soup kitchen, hockey arena – literally anywhere. Also a part-time job or a sports commitment (even outside of school) are valued as an EC.

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Do you participate in any sports? Do you skate? Do you play hockey?

I live in the northeast of the US. The downside is that this is a long way from the west coast. We also have real winters. However, we do have hockey up here! If you wanted to consider other universities this far away, or alternately in Canada, then let us know. I am originally from Montreal, where of course hockey is THE sport.

And yes there are a LOT of universities that have very good psychology programs.

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I would spend some time looking into some likely schools to add to your list. You really need a couple that are basically sure things - both for admissions and cost. And look into the cost of those currently on your list. Can you afford them?

I would also push yourself to get involved in some activities. This is an important part of your application. The type of colleges you are looking at want well rounded students who will hopefully be involved on their campus. Also, activities show them you are hard working, committed and honestly a little interesting. They give you something to talk about in interviews. If you don’t want to get involved at school, what about out of school? Volunteering is easy, maybe at a local food bank? Or get a job? Maybe a local tutoring service since you have good grades. You want to go into psychology so you want to show you like people and can get along with them. Can you get involved in some way with your school’s hockey team assuming you don’t play? Maybe as a manager? Or work at a local rink as someone else recommended. If you skate is a rink around you hiring? My daughter was a figure skater and taught Learn to Skate classes. The common app has space for 10 activities I believe. You don’t want this section blank!

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Hello! You seem to have a great profile for a sophomore and I would say you’d get accepted into most State schools, which is great. If you are looking for advice, I would recommend taking more dual-enrollment courses and definitely developing your activities profile. Try to do something even if you are slightly interested as it’ll go a long way especially if you commit to it long term - you might even develop an interest in it. Overall, wonderful that you are trying to plan your career so early.

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Hey, hey, hey now, we have some SOLID hockey here in California. It may not be Montreal, but we do OK :wink:

(The OP did not specify that she is from California, just the west coast, but I see some UCs on the list of potentials.)

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As a Junior, I was in the same situation not too long ago.
Just be wary of education requirements for these jobs. For psychology related jobs, one will most likely need to have a PhD.

Cost is also something to be wary of. In a PhD field, your undergrad matters far less than your graduate school. Talk to your family about finances, as none of the public schools you mentioned are cheap for oos students with UCs and Michigan being roughly 70k. On top of all that psychology is notorious for having small stipends during a phd. Take all of this with a grain of salt because it can be different depending on circumstance, just be sure to research this.

Getting into undergrad schools at the top level, as you seem to be targeting, can be very difficult.
Your Class Rank and Rigor will not hold you back. Your biggest issues seem to be extracurriculars and test scores.

I don’t think you need to worry too much about your PSAT 10. I got a 1290, but after doing stuff on khan academy, I was able to get a 1540 on my first sat. I know many who did the same. Just be sure to grind practice tests, and I’m sure you will do fine.

Extracurriculars.
These are probably some of the most important parts of the application and will probably require the most work. Even if you don’t find them particularly interesting, i think it is beneficial to you if you join some clubs that relate to psychology or sports in some way (math club, sports, debate)
I would also look into trying to intern with a researcher. If you can find local psychology researchers, and you gain some knowledge in their research topic, they may let you intern for them. I have done this twice, and once the researcher even listed me as a coauthor when they published.

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This is not too late to start exploring ECs. What interests you? What piques you? And it’s not always about ECs at school.
I am not familiar with what’s required for psychology major but I think being a psychologist requires you to deal with people, to have empathy in order to help people. Have you ever thought about volunteering your time for low income population such as tutoring kids from underprivileged background? I know in my area, we have high school students tutoring elementary school kids, our local library have volunteers teaching English for ESL students.
Are there any non-profit where you can get volunteer work?

Frankly, no one knows what is exceptional or not exceptional about someone but not having EC or something that you do outside of your classroom will make you “just a number”. If you want to have something interesting, find something, explore, and that will be your story. You can make it as exceptional as you want to be.

Good luck.

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Are you in-state for California or Washington? That affects admissions at the state universities there.

It also (perhaps more importantly) affects cost and financial aid (i.e. more expensive with less or no financial aid if out-of-state). Have you checked with your parents about what they will contribute, and used the net price calculator on each college’s web site?

For UC admissions, consider this chart:

Recalculate your HS GPA with GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Use the weighted capped version for the table below.

Fall 2021 admission rates by campus and HS GPA range from Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California :

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 30% 11% 2% 1%
Davis 85% 55% 23% 10%
Irvine 60% 31% 14% 1%
Los Angeles 29% 6% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 98% 96% 89%
Riverside 97% 92% 62% 23%
San Diego 75% 35% 5% 1%
Santa Barbara 73% 28% 4% 1%
Santa Cruz 91% 81% 46% 9%

These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).

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What is your PSAT, and equivalent SAT? Also, what state do you reside in?

Your PSAT, and equivalent SAT, can certainly under project how you will actually perform, especially given you will have another year+ of high school under your belt when you take the SAT. You also have the opportunity to take SAT study courses which can significantly boost your scores 200+ points in a few months of study.

For reference my son scored a 1040 on the PSAT (550 math, 490 ebrw), which has a 1170 SAT equivalence. Yet he achieved a composite 1360 SAT score (690 math, 670 ebrw), from 1310 and 1340 individual tests, and that was without any study.

I have no doubt had he taken Khan academy or other SAT prep he would have scored 1500. Unfortunately, I found out too late the SAT review class offered by his high school did little to prep and instead was used as study hall by nearly all students.

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Would you mind sharing how long you studied, at what frequency, and what “stuff” you did on khan academy?

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Sure. After linking my khan academy to college board, the first thing I did was take the practice test 10. I think I got 1360 which kind of set the baseline. After this I did some of the recommended practice. After each set of practice there is a 15 min timed section, on both reading and math I did maybe 4 of those. After this I kind of stopped drastically increasing. I started taking practice tests weekly on saturdays, generally at like noon. I got 1450-1470 like 3 times in a row. I then realized that there was non recommended practice, and then I finished the entire grammar practice as well as math. The math practice did not help me much personally, as I got 780-790 pretty consistently on most practice tests, but the grammar was incredibly useful. With the grammar practice, I went from missing 10-15 questions on writing to missing 3-7. Math is just very predictable, after you see a few practice tests and you understand the concepts, you can basically answer everything. Reading was more difficult to work on, it just got better over time. This was mostly July to September. By the end, I was getting 1520+ quite consistently. Imo, Psat is harder than the sat, but thats just an opinion. I took the sat in november of junior yr, so I took 2 practice tests before, and I got a very solid score.

Basically math and grammar can be worked on with the non recommended practice, and reading gets better with practice tests. Just do practice relatively consistently

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Good for you! My oldest only used Kahn Academy and he got a 1560 first sitting. It is a great way to study and you can’t beat the price :wink: I love how you can link it to the college board and it focuses you on your weak areas. Even when my son took a paper practice test he would enter the answer into Kahn Academy to get more specific recommendations for study.

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I understand the need to keep your expectations “reasonable” but you are only a sophomore - you need to gain some confidence - saying there’s “nothing exceptional or original” - that’s simply not true - everyone has something that makes them original - for instance- a sport stats loving female hockey player from California - that’s not all that common (despite what you may think). Plus your stats are great - top 3% with APs is not insignificant. Stats is not for the faint of heart and if you do well in that (AP Stats, Stats seminar), I think that would help as well. Just taking AP stats and a stats seminar will show your passion - not many students seem to go that route - taking the AP Calc route instead. I wouldn’t put too much freight on your PSAT. As others have said, you can boost your SATs through Khan academy, and you definitely should try to do that if you can. If you love hockey - then keep doing that - that’s an EC - especially if you get a leadership position etc. If you love crim psych - try mock trial at school, see if you like it. You don’t have to be the person standing up in the courtroom at first - but it will give you something to aim for. Now, as far as your list - SDSU has a great stats program, Berkeley is of course a reach for anyone, as would be UMich, and likely UCLA. You may want to look at some of the other WUE schools - Utah is pouring money into its Data Science program (think stats with machine learning and computing) - maybe take an AP Comp Sci class and see if you like that? At any rate, keep getting good grades, gain some confidence, and you’ll find a place you love.

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You expressed an interest in sports and statistics. Have you considered being a team manager for one of your school’s sports teams? At our high school, managers record statistics, help keep teams organized, and contribute to overall team spirit. That would be an easy to pursue your passion while being involved in the school community.

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If you’re in a state that participates in the western exchange you should research your options. Psychology can be a good field but is notoriously low paying to start so saving money during undergrad would serve you well.

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