No, I have not taken subject tests, but I plan on taking 2. also, I AM APPLYING ED TO VANDY just so everyone knows.
Cowycam7, it is good to have goals that motivate you, but in terms of the kind of advice you will get on this forum it will be more useful to use people’s expertise to find realistic matches based on your actual stats. Students don’t just “get” top SAT scores because they are motivated, and simply knowing that it takes a particular set of statistics to have a shot at a particular top school isn’t a useful way to go about searching for colleges that are a good fit for you.
@Baloney1011 He/she said “will study very hard” instead of “am studying very hard” so I just assumed that he/she hasn’t actually started studying yet.
@baloney1011 its like you can read my mind haha! My top choice is Chicago and I am applying EA, but vandy is my second and if I do get into both I would still be very happy at vandy (ED1) since I think the college life is more well rounded than U of C.
@profparent well I don’t see a point in making a list for my current since the whole point of making my list for the 3.4-5 gpa and 2300 is so I can motivate myself, but If I were to make a list right now, here it is:
WUSTL ED
Wesleyan
Vassar
NYU
Colgate
Colby
Lehigh/Rochester
USCalifornia
BU
GMU
@Irreplaceable i have…i have been since the 7th grade
I’m five minutes away from Colgate! have you visited it? it’s so beautiful during this time of year
Hey @cowycam7 , good to see you again. If I remember correctly, last time you were here, your parents were having some difficulty with you looking at schools outside the Ivy/top state school (e.g. UMich) orbit. Are they cool with Colby and Wesleyan etc.? If so, you have made a lot of progress. Best of luck.
You can google: college-name common data set
You can see Harvard accepts people below 3.0 here:
http://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2013-14.pdf
@NavalTradition Hi! thanks for all the help! ya I just made that list for if i get below a 3.4 just in case(: I just heard that colby was a good wall street feeder school and i sorta like wesleyan haha
@NASA2014 i saw it in vids, it really is pretty(: i am actually applying there mainly bc of the academics, college life, and sports though!
@cowycam7 If you’re into greek life, then you’ll love it here!
You should add Stanford to the list that Gumbymom provided.
The “well known top schools” generally require top end GPA and top end ECs (as well as top end test scores and other criteria). Unless figure skating is a sport that the school is recruiting for, and you are good enough to be recruited at the school, your 3.4 GPA would make all “well known top schools” to be super-reaches. (At least one poster here did get into a “well known top school” with a 3.4 or so HS GPA, but had a 4.0 college GPA in large numbers of advanced college courses taken while in high school, which presumably overrode the lower HS GPA when the school was looking at the academic credentials.)
Is the 3.4 GPA real or is that also projected?
@albert69 its actually around a 3.3 lol ik it sucks. the list i made above was if I get a 3.3 gpa
@cowycam7 That’s amazing! Good luck.
Beware of the “I will study very hard” routine though. I’m naturally good at tests so I pulled a top score without studying, but in the middle of 11th grade I said I would “study very hard” and get A’s, and I ended up getting all B’s, and then at the beginning of 12th grade I said the same thing and that I have definitely learned my lesson now and will get A’s, but I still got all B’s. If you have a 3.3 already it will be difficult to bring that up unless you really really try.
What are your practice SAT scores (if you have any)? Are you gonna be a junior or senior next year?
Neither WUSTL, Vandy, Colby, Wesleyan, Lehigh or Rochester has a USFS figure skating team (although I believe Lehigh has a rink close by). And it’s nice that you want to motivate yourself, but if you’re a junior, it’s time to be a little realistic - if you haven’t been to sectionals yet, your figure skating is nice, but will not make you exceptional. And as others have pointed out, even if you make nationals, your current GPA is low for most of the schools on your list.
I think that Colgate would be a good place for you to start your list - with your current GPA, it’s probably a reach, but it’s not impossible, it has a figure skating team and if your SATs were reasonably strong, you might be in the ballpark.
Miami of Ohio might be a safe option (once again, depending on your scores). The school has a strong figure skating team and a good business program.
And you haven’t mentioned University of Delaware, but it’s one of the best for combining skating and academics.
I know three Miami of Ohio grads - recent. All quite successful and of excellent character. Highly recommend that school.
Hi, WUSTL, Vandy, and Wesleyan have digure skating clubs. Colby has a rink but I guess I’ll make one lol. Also, Miami is way too expensive since I am OOS. Also, I am a sophomres re, and I will be taking regular physics In the summer so I will have time to get an a on that and focus more on other school work during the school year. I am also Chinese, so Chinese is super easy for me. In August I will make flash cards and practice writing for AP Lang, so I am aiming for an A in psychology and at least an A- in Lang. Lastly, am only taking regular percale and HN History which both should be pretty easy and Human anatomy is also supposed to be super easy, which is why Imthink I can get at least a 3.9 for junior year. I even requested the best/easiest teachers in each class @midatlmom
Your courseload doesn’t seem very rigorous, which will make your reach schools even more difficult to get into. Its one thing if your school doesn’t offer very many AP courses, since colleges will judge the difficulty of your classes by what is offered at your school, but psychology and human anatomy are fluff. Colleges might be okay with a 3.4 gpa if you were taking harder courses, like biology, chemistry, and physics, and mostly APs/honors, but I don’t think a good SAT will compensate for an average GPA and an unimpressive courseload at some of the schools people are suggesting.
Have you taken the SAT and/or ACT yet? While it’s a tad early to have taken the actual exams, take a practice exam. If you are staring at 1900-2000, then you may need to recalibrate your expectations. If you’re getting 2250+ regularly on practice exams, that calls for yet a different strategy. Right now, you need stats to offset the grades but nothing will overcome the grades and coursework.
In your previous threads, it’s clear you’re aiming high and that’s great. Keep a few of those schools. Now you need to be realistic. In reality, very very few top universities will take anyone with a 3.4 who does not benefit the school directly and immediately.
It is more productive to focus on schools where you will likely get admitted based on your existing stats. Remember the main goal of this whole process is to attend a college where you can enjoy your time there and tthrive academically, emotionally and socially. Getting into college is just the start. You have to go, attend classes and do well there as well - not so easy if your.academics just barely qualify. Everyone else will be more fully prepared because they took harder courses (and more fully understood the material) and they figured out their most effective study habits.
That all said, 3.3 or 3.4 is perfectly reasonable and your skating makes you an interesting candidate for many schools. You just haven’t found them and need to dig a bit deeper.
For the B/B+ student, I suggest looking at the book, Colleges That Change Lives. (just borrow it from the local library) The book outlines an approach to the college search that eschews the focus on top universities. There is a compilation of schools that you may want to check out but I’m not sure they would fit you. For schools, I’d look in Fiske.
Your coursework should reflect what you want to do and what you need to take to provide you with the necessary strong base for college coursework. Don’t take classes because they’re easy, they look good to schools, they boost your GPA, or they’re AP level. Do take classes you feel will challenge you. Take classes you think may be interesting. Take classes because they are the prerequisite for the interesting classes you really want. Schools consider “rigor of coursework” in evaluating applications. If they see you, a potential business or econ major, taking am easy anatomy class, that’ll be a ding, not a plus.
This is not being mean. This is wanting you figure out what is best for you, not what is the top school.