<p>This is my first post on CC. I felt like writing this to share my story and to help others achieve success in being admitted to the top colleges.
Personally I feel like there is a lot of false information that floats though the internet and even through CC so I thought I'd do my best to clear it up. I have a connection to false information as I was lead to think that b's in honors classes were equivalent to a's in general which is tue, but it had destroyed my UW GPA. Since my freshman year I have dedicated my self to my studies. Currently, I am a junior who has a an unhealthy obsession with attending the university of Pennsylvania as I live in the Philly suburbs. My freshman year has caused me an absurd amount of stress over the past year because it damaged my GPA so badly (5 b's). I wanted to help reduce the chances of something like this happening for fellow high schoolers or for up and coming freshman. </p>
<p>To start off with the basics for college admission. There are four major categories that determine your admission, each category then has subcategories.</p>
<p>The first major, and most important category is GPA. NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE HAS TOLD YOU, GPA IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ON YOUR TRANSCRIPT. As mentioned above, this category is broken into subcategories such as your weighted vs. unweighted, course load, and the school you attended. I would advise any high school student to search for colleges though a website such as CC or college ******* and find the schools that YOU are most interested in. Yes it will take a good amount of time but then you have your targets set. This is a very important thing to do. If you find a college such as a state school that has an average GPA admittance of 3.5, don't even think about shooting for a 3.5 during your four years of high school if this is your dream school. Colleges want to see the best regardless. If your dream school has an average GPA of admittance of 3.0, you better work your ass off to get the best possible grades. You should always shoot for a' sand expect nothing less from yourself. GPA can be destroyed by only a few classes, don't let that happen. If your shooting for an Ivy League, you better have a GPA UW of over 3.7 (unless your a legacy, athlete, minority, or you have ties there) if you want any real chance of admittance. The ivy level schools are honestly a ****-shoot sometimes. Kids with 4.0's and a 36 act might get denied while someone with a 3.7 and a 31 act gets in, but that's because the latter student had something special. You should never ever rely on something special to get you in. Essentially, if you want to go to a. Community college, do your best and get the best grades possible, but it's not nesecary. If you want to go to a mid-range school 50% acceptance rate, shoot for A's, if you don't get an a in every class, it's perfectly fine as long as you have a fairly decent course load. If your aiming in the range of a 30% acceptance rate, again, do your best. Get almost all a's. If you want to go to an ivy level school, you better be taking the best classes and have a GPA over 3.7. Some colleges don't even look at the rest of an applications application if there GPA is not up to standards,</p>
<p>Standardized test scores are the second most important factor and of course these are broken into subsections. Firstly and most importantly are ACT/SAT score results. These can easily be looked up for whatever college you wish to go to normally. Then there is the act writing section (which can replace subject tests at most schools) and the sat subject tests. If you want to go to an ivy, you better be at about 32 or above on act and 2200 or above SAT with a 9 or above on act writing and a 740-800 on subject tests. And of course there are the AP exams but many colleges don't make you submit these- it can't hurt to get a 5 so you might as well try to.</p>
<p>Extracurricular activities fall in third, however, with schools like HYPSM, extracurricular activities are the things that will get you in. Top schools want to see leadership and participation in a diverse field of activities. They also want to see sports/volunteer/special talents/achievements/work experience and anything else of the sort. At colleges at the top, almost everyone you compete with has top GPA and SAT scores, extracurricular activities are what set one another apart. No matter where you want to go to school, you should try and get involved in probably 3 or more activities at school and volunteer/work/sports. </p>
<p>Finally the fourth and final section, the admissions process. This involves things like reccomendations, essays, interviews, level of interest, etc. there's not really much to say about each but just don't make essays and such clich</p>