I’m a junior currently and I was wondering what my chances are of getting into U of Miami. This is my top school. I took the ACT sophmore year without studying to get a baseline score and I received a 29, I plan on taking it again in the winter. My unweighted GPA is awful: 3.08. My weighted isn’t much better: 3.27. This is due to my grades freshman year but it will go up this year as I’m taking 3 AP Classes (AP physics, AP US History, and AP Lit and Comp) in addition to Hnrs Pre-Calc. Freshman year I took AP Human Geography and finished with a C (got a 4 on the AP test). I have yet to take the SAT but I received a 620 in reading and a 740 in math on the PSAT. I was on varsity cheer freshman year but couldn’t continue for the rest of hs due to an injury. I currently have all As and a B in English this year. Do you think I have a shot at getting in?
I also plan on graduating early (December 2017) to volunteer abroad. I currently have 127 recorded volunteer hours on my record.
@chicago18 Schools like “success stories” – If your grades show dramatic improvement from Freshman to Soph to Junior (& Sr) year, it shows grit & determination to succeed. Play this up in your personal statement! Tell them why you didn’t do well (no excuses – rather, explain what you learned or did differently to succeed or what motivated you to study more or do better). If you follow up your grade improvements with a strong ACT score in the 30s, which I think you should be able to do based on getting a 29 without studying, you should be in the pool with everyone else. Also, if you apply ED, your chances will go up a lot (I think I read that the acceptance rate is 38% for RD & 52% for ED). Good luck!