I’m currently a sophomore, going to be a junior. I was wondering what are my chances of getting into a good school, not hardvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. I expect my overall gpa to stay about the same or fluctuate a tad bit.
GPA:4.3, 3.8(unweighted)
Volunteer: I will have over 400 hours at a hospital
Club: I will be starting a club with my friend called the “jappenese friendship garden club”.
Extracurriculars: I have been playing the piano for 9 years and the hardest songs I’ve played are rachmanioffs preludes. I’m also going to be on varsity soccer as a junior, I was co-captain for 2 years on JV.
Thanks for reading if you got this far, any response would be greatly appreciated.
It pretty much comes down to what you mean by “a good school”.
Your GPA is enough to get you into what I would call a “very good university”. However, you still need to take a standardized test such as the SAT or ACT. There are some schools that don’t require these tests, but most schools and particularly larger schools usually require that you take one of these tests.
You should be thinking about what you want in a university. Do you want a large school or a small school? Near home or further away? Big city or small town?
One very important question: What is your budget?
Regardless, just considering admission to a good school, you are doing well.
My bad, I didn’t list them because I’m going into junior year but I will be taking AP Language junior year and AP bio and AP Literture my senior year. I have also been taking a lot of honors classes.
SAT and ACT: I think I will get a 1300-1350 on the SAT as I got a 1280 on the PSAT and I think I will get a 27-29 on the ACT
I’m also not sure what school I want to go to. I want to get into a good pre-med school that has like a 30-40% acceptance rate. I will also be taking AP Pre-calc and AP Calc
First of all there is no AP pre-calc. Anyway gauging from the stats that you listed above, your ECs don’t stand out too much for top tier schools. You’ll need a 1400+ SAT to even be considered at one of the top schools. You have time to work on that so definitely put in the work and you should be fine. My recommendation is that you get an internship and use your piano skills to play at different events (I’m not sure exactly how the instrument stuff works, but if you have that much experience, you should begin to showcase your talents in different places, just so it shows colleges that you truly have a passion for it). Unfortunately, at the moment your stats don’t exactly stand out, so work on yourself a little more. Like I said before, you have time so don’t be discouraged.
Yes, I have been going to different events and competitions for piano and there’s this program called the “Arizona Study Program” where once a year students take a theory test on music and have to play 4 different songs from each era like the romantic era. I have been doing it since 6th grade and plan to do it through 12th grade. I also go to different competitions to compete with other pianists in the state and I have gotten good standings. I usually do 3-4 events and competitions a year for piano.
Dang19, I got a similar psat 10 score to you and I ended up getting a 1540 with just a week of studying, so if I were you, I wouldn’t count yourself out of not being able to get a 1400/1500+ with enough preparation. Good luck in your college process, I would say you have almost certain chances of getting into a top 100 university in the country. Just be mindful of overly ‘cute’ ECs, because from where I’m standing, Japanese Friendship Garden Club doesn’t seem very serious. Again, good luck!
^ on the other hand, this activity, well explained,* is unique and thus interesting. Colleges don’t necessarily want “serious” ECs - they want to see what impact you made.
*Detail in “additional information” if you can’t explain properly in the evening list.
Your on a great path and your psat does not predict future scores. It might just give you an idea on what you need to work on. I would start looking at your instate schools first and learn about them. Usually the cheapest route for most people. Then expand out to like the top 50 schools. Learn about them and see which ones make sense to you. See what their admit rates are and Sat, grade point, act requirements are. Try to be in the middle 50 - 75 % for those. Even though my son gave me his list of schools, which were mostly top 10 schools, I made him look at the top 50 and just learn about them. I wanted him to pick schools in like every tier. So he had a few in the 20’s, 30,s and 40,s… Interesting enough… These were really good schools with great programs. But this way he had safety schools that he researched and was happy with. There are actually really good schools in the top 100 etc. All depends on what you are looking for and need. Then run the net calculators to see what you can afford out of state. Don’t disregard private schools since they will give usually a good amount of grant money to drastically bring down the costs. It is partly a game when looking at colleges.
For good schools.,whatever that means, I would shoot for 3.8 or higher GPA with 33/34 Act and or sat 1450 or higher. Into the 1500 is better. Do some ec for more then 2-3 years and stay involved with school and yes work on your spelling. But I know when I text to this forum fast I also make mistakes. Good luck.
You are on track to qualify for many fine colleges and universities. Once you get some firm standardized testing, you will need to honestly asses your academic stats (including GPA, standardized tests, course rigor) as well as your financial needs and seek out a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be happy to attend. There are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.