So scared about where I'll get into.. please help

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Currently my GPA for freshman and sophmore years is a 3.3
So far in junior year however, it looks like itll turn out to be maybe a 3.5 or 3.6 by the end.
Also, when factoring in senior year (1st semester) it does seem like it can go up.
My SAT score so far is a 2100 but I've been taking more practice tests and it seems to have raised. I now score around 2300 and so I'm going to take the SAT again for a definitely higher score. </p>

<p>I know my GPA is horrible. worst case scenario I'll have maybe a 3.4 or 3.5 by the end. I really want to go to a college that is a household name such as:</p>

<p>Georgetown (My sister actually attends Georgetown for Law School)
New York University (first choice)
Vanderbilt
John Hopkins</p>

<p>and I have no idea what I have the potential to get into.
I have a lot of Volunteer hours, and I'm an intern at a Liberty Science museum.
I also attend a special Arts High school that gives me college credit, and it's kind of a big deal I guess considering I had to audition
I have a lot of awards from Piano competitions, and I am part of the French Honors Society and National Honors Society
I have a lot of awards from Odyssey of the Mind and I'm president of the community service club at my school and I created a new club that helps hospitals
I dont know if it helps that I take two AP classes and an Honors course, and have college credit from a Psychology course at my school. </p>

<p>and so much more, so I have extracurriculars and things like that abundant in my favor, but I really have no idea what to do or what the best school I can get into would be. I'm also Asian (Indian) which might make it harder, and I want to major in Chemistry. Please help! this is bothering me so much that sometimes I just feel so bad and I start to give up because it seems hopeless.</p>

2

<p>Georgetown: Reach (if siblings in law school count as legacy, it becomes a high match)
NYU: Match
Vanderbilt: High match
JHU: Reach</p>

<p>Do you have a safety?</p>

3

<p>My safety school would probably be Boston University, George Washington University, or Rutgers State University(because I live in Jersey, everyone here gets in there.)</p>

<p>Do you really think I could get into NYU or the others with such a low GPA?</p>

4

<p>I think you’re underestimating the difficulty of getting into some of these universities. I think you need to have a talk with your guidance counselor (and probably your parents) some time in the next couple of months about making a reasonable list of safety, match, and reach schools.</p>

<p>NYU accepts about 1/3 of the people who apply. Almost 2/3 of NYU freshmen were in the top tenth of their HS class. Are you? Over 90% of NYU freshmen were in the top quarter of their HS class. Are you? And if you’re not, what do you have to offer that would induce NYU to choose you instead of someone who is?</p>

<p>Vandy, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins are all significantly more selective than NYU.</p>

<p>In addition, you’re counting your chickens before they’ve hatched. You’re assuming you’ll end up with a GPA higher than the one you’ve earned so far. Perhaps you will, and that would be great. But what if you don’t?</p>

<p>I don’t know the numbers for Rutgers, but I doubt it can be the case that “everyone” gets in there. Rutgers admits about half of its applicants. Moreover, it’s kind of widely known that New Jersey’s system of public colleges and universities isn’t really up to the task of absorbing all of New Jersey’s high school graduates. Throughout the rest of the Mid-Atlantic, we kind of joke that New Jersey’s #1 export seems to be undergraduates. GWU is about as selective as NYU, so I’m not sure how much of a safety it is. It’s a little hard to know what’s going to happen with GW because of the to-do over GW having inflated the numbers it reported to the public on its admitted freshmen. Maybe GW is a little more forgiving than the old numbers make it look; maybe GW will suffer some loss of prestige over this little scandal, and maybe it’ll be a little easier to get into for a while. Or maybe not. Your current numbers, however, don’t make you a shoo-in at GW–which is what you ought to be if it’s your safety. Ditto, BU. BU isn’t quite as competitive as NYU for admissions, but grades put you in the middle of the pack at BU, and not near the top. I don’t think that makes it a safety.</p>

<p>Another thing: every university on your list except your state flagship is expensive, and some of them are notorious for terrible financial aid. Can you afford these? And before you say “money’s no object,” do you know that? Are your parents really prepared to shell out well over $200,000 for your bachelor’s degree? And even if they are, does that mean that money is still “no object”? I think money is always an object, even on those occasions when you decide you’re going to spend a lot of it for something that you really, really want.</p>

<p>I think you have a list of reach schools that range from “moderate reach” to “unattainable.” You need matches (Rutgers might be one, and so might BU) and legitimate safeties. And a safety isn’t a safety unless it meets 3 requirements: you have to be sure you can get in; you have to be sure your family can (and will) pay for it; and you have to believe you could be happy and successful there if you were to attend.</p>

5

<p>This entire chance report is based on the idea that you actually get 2300 for real.</p>

<p>GWU: Match
BU: Low match</p>

<p>Rutgers SAS/SEBS is a safety at 3.5 weighted/1700 but you can pretty much forget about the 0-6 PharmD unless you have 4.0+ weighted. As for RBS or Rutgers engineering, they’re low matches at 3.8 weighted. Of course, at 2100, GWU/NYU is a high match and Vanderbilt, a reach. BU becomes a match.</p>

6

<p>A 2300 on the SAT creates a different problem. Admissions committees will wonder, legitimately, why there’s such a discrepancy between your SAT scores and your GPA. In many cases, they’ll assume you were a bit of a slacker, unless you can give them a reason to think otherwise.</p>

<p>Generally, a high SAT will not make up for a so-so GPA. A so-so GPA will be fatal to your application at most colleges where most students have SATs of 2250+, because the students who do get in there have grades to match. But high SATs aren’t worthless. They may get you a merit scholarship or an invitation to an honors program at a college where students with GPAs like yours go, or they may get you over the fence at a college that is otherwise a bit of a reach.</p>

<p>And great extra-curricular activities are nice, but they won’t make up for middling academics at highly selective colleges and universities.</p>

7

<p>When I said everyone gets in I meant that I feel like it would not be that hard to get in, I would actually say I’m toward the top of my class, but definitely not the top 10 %. The school I go to has a high merit, and so my weighted GPA as of now is a 4.5. Also, my sister went to Rutgers for Undergraduate. If I did want to get into NYU, what do you think I could do to help my chances? or for any of the colleges I mentioned.</p>

8

<p>UVA is heavy on weighted GPA instead. You might want UVA, then.</p>