what are my chances !! (first post, please help)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

My dream school is Barnard College (going to interview at the end of this month), but my other top choices are University of Washington, UC Berkeley, USC, Cornell, Pepperdine, Chapman, University of Boston, Vanderbilt, and some other safety schools.

GPA - 4.0 unweighted, my school doesn’t do weighted

Rank - 1st in class / 350ish students

SAT - 1340 superscore, 670s in both

APs - ap bio, apush, ap calc ab, ap physics, ap chem, ap stats, ap comp gov, ap lit (i only haven’t taken 2 aps my school offers due to schedule conflicts)

Other advanced courses - honors astronomy and geology, honors English 10, college prep English 11 (this course is actually harder than ap lang at my school, wish it translated the same on my transcript )

Clubs:

  • Future business leaders of America, all 4 years with regional titles
  • Link crew, 11th and 12th
  • National Honors Society, 11th and 12th
  • National English Honors Society, 12th

Extracurriculars:
-Competitive dance, 20ish hours a week, all 4 years (HUGE commitment in my life)

  • Assistant dance teacher, all 4 years
    -Dance teacher, 12th
  • I have won many regional overall titles with solos, trios and group dances
  • Travelled to 3 summer intensives alone with the Joffrey Ballet in New York City and San Fransisco (living in a dorm for 2 weeks dancing 8 hours a day)
  • Competed at a national dance competition in California, winning overall awards

Work:
-Student manager at a community center (kitchen prep and clean up, dishes, serving, event prep, etc.) 10th, 11th, 12th
-Dance Teacher, 12th, I teach my own baby ballet class and substitute teach when needed for all levels.

I KNOW my stats are low, and a lot of the schools are out of my reach. I was hoping to break the 1400 range on the SAT but i suck at standardized testing (test anxiety) and I just don’t have time to take it again with my busy schedule. Ugh.

2

UCB should always be considered a Reach school regardless of your academic qualifications. Your EC’s are part of the application review but GPA, test scores, HS course rigor and personal insight essays are considered Very Important. Your EC’s should not get in the way of your academics including retaking the SAT.

Are you a CA resident?

Do you have a college budget?
UCB does not superscore so what is your highest SAT?
Intended major?

UC GPA’s: unweighted, capped weighted and fully weighted using only 10-11th grades for the a-g course requirements?

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

3

No, I live in Washington. My highest SAT is a 1320, and budget isn’t a problem right now. With all my classes, work, dance and college apps I just don’t know if i can handle another sat retake. I just took it again yesterday but I don’t think I did any better. I am fully aware UCB is quite a reach school for me but I am applying because you never know.

I am still undecided in terms of majors, but I’m considering architecture, engineering or political science. If possible, I will minor in dance (one of the reasons Barnard is my top choice is their relationship with academics AND the arts)

4

“I live in Washington”

The University of Washington is very well regarded by those of us who do not live in Washington.

5

I was responding to the comment that asked me if I was a California resident. I am fully aware of UW’s status and how great of a school it is, which is why it is my first choice in a realistic sense. I always thought that I would go their from a very young age but when I travelled to New York I fell in love with Barnard College and the city, unfortunately for me haha

6

What are your AP tests scores? There are a number of excellent schools with great programs in dance and great academics which are test options, and others which are test flexible, meaning that good AP test scores can be submitted instead of SATs. NYU is one of these, and so is Middlebury.

Cornell requires two SAT subjects tests on top of your SATs.

In my opinion, your dance is a very powerful EC, so you should really focus on colleges which put less, or no, emphasis on having really high SAT scores.

There are also really excellent colleges which are test optional, like Bowdoin, Pitzer, Wake Forest, etc. See which test optional or test flexible colleges have a dance program which will allow you to minor in dance (both NYU and Middlebury do).

Good luck!

7

@celia31 Barnard SAT R/M 25th percentile is 670/660, median is 710/700 so you’re SAT 1340 is certainly not terrible for Barnard which considers standardized test scores to be “Important” and your 4.0 GPA to be “Very Important.”

Also, being from WA, geographic diversity (to the extent that is a “thing” at Barnard) might help.

For RD applicants, Barnard will accept the January SAT sitting.

Taking it after all your college aps are in should reduce the stress level.

“Regular Decision students taking exams in January, may self-report their scores by sending a screenshot of their scores to the admissions office. Your name must be visible on the computer screen to verify they are your scores. Please send self-reported scores to admissions@barnard.edu. While we will use self-reported scores to initiate our admissions review, we will not extend any offers of admission without official scores.”

If Barnard is really your first choice, give it a shot. If it wouldn’t stress you out too much, and you think you can get your score up another 70 points or more, wouldn’t hurt to try the SAT one more time (or the ACT).