<p>3.8UW/4.1W I didn't take any AP's or honors sophomore year because I moved a lot and was too late to sign up freshman year. Junior year I'm only taking Honors Pre-cal, AP calc, and AP English because Honors chem and APUSH were full. My EC's are mostly out of school, again I barely moved to this school so I haven't gotten a chance to participate. No awards, no research experience. I plan to major in math, and I'm looking for small schools with high student retention. I'm not religious and I prefer co-ed. However, I will consider schools like Pepperdine and Smith. I assume my essays will be good because I went through some difficult situations the past 2 years that I learned a lot from. I haven't taken the SAT yet but I'm aiming for 2000+. My reach schools are Rice, Emory, the Claremont colleges(I realize these are a very, very far reach for me). My safeties so far are the CSU's and UC riverside, but I would much rather stay away from these. I also need to find schools that meet full-need, because I come from a very low income family. Any suggestions would be great, thanks:)</p>
<p>Taking pre-calc and AP Calc at the same time does not make sense, even if you want to be a math major. Hold off on the AP Calc til senior year.</p>
<p>Do you have a hook of any kind (under represented minority)? Which “Claremont Colleges” are you considering? They are all quite different, and you have different odds of getting into different colleges. Any geographic preference? I assume you reside in California given your safety list.</p>
<p>I understand it doesn’t make sense, I have a unique situation. I only have to take pre-calc for 1 semester and I don’t want to go the whole 2nd semester without math. I was looking into Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, and Scripps. I’m hispanic and 1st generation to go to college. Yes, I reside in California but I don’t really have a geographic preference except to stay away from the cold but I realize some of the best colleges are in the northeast so that’s going to be difficult to avoid.</p>
<p>I think you would struggle at Mudd with a 2000 SAT. Pitzer and Scripps might work out, they seem more like matches than reaches. </p>
<p>The issue with the pre-calc/calc combo is that if you need components of the pre-calc to understand the Calc, you are going to have trouble with the calc if you aren’t there yet in the pre-calc. Colleges will be more understanding of the gap (you can explain in your application) and taking AP Calc senior year than they will be of a bad grade in Calc because you did not have the right prep.</p>
<p>I understand that but I’m advanced in math, I already know trig and enough about limits and derivatives. My math teacher wouldn’t have recommended it if he didn’t think I would do well. I’m very self-motivated and it’s not the colleges I’m concerned about, I just really like math and don’t want to take any time off. What SAT score should I aim for to increase my chances for Mudd?</p>
<p>Well, the 50% ranges at Mudd for 2012 were:</p>
<p>CR: 680-770 (so midpoint, 50% marker, is 725)
Math: 740-800 (so midpoint is 770)
Wr: 680-760 (so midpoint is 720, but not sure how much they count the writing socre, it is hard to tell for a given college)</p>
<p>Because you are hispanic and female you still have a decent chance to get in the third quartile (so CR 680-725, M 740-770). They also require the Math II subject test and one other subject test. Just to give you an idea, my D was accepted last year with a 2380 SAT and 800 Lit/800 Math II subject tests. Competition is stiff both to get in and to succeed once you are there.</p>
<p>What about larger universities, like UCLA?</p>
<p>Wow your D’s stats are amazing! Do you mind passing on some info of good test preparation resources? As to larger universities, I really don’t think I’d feel comfortable and feel ‘‘at home.’’ I’ve seen the campus and it seems as if it was made more for grad students and the big social scene doesn’t interest me. What about my GPA and EC’s? Do I stand a chance at Mudd? I’m guessing most successful applicants have 4.5+ W and incredible EC’s. Do you know of any good LAC’s that aren’t too difficult to get into?</p>
<p>She self-prepped… just a very good test taker to start with, and used the SAT Blue Book, Grubers for math prep, and I think Princeton for the subject tests. </p>
<p>Here is a link to the list of colleges that claim to meet full need:</p>
<p>[Universities</a> That Claim to Meet Full Financial Need - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/02/11/universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need]Universities”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/02/11/universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need) </p>
<p>Your GPA is great. Regarding ECs, I guess it depends on what your “outside of school” ECs are – it is a disadvantage at a lot of these schools to have none. </p>
<p>You might think about Bryn Mawr (women’s college, right next to Haverford and you can take classes at both), Occidental, St. Olaf (although it doesn’t meet your weather criteria, they are strong in math and your stats are a good match).</p>
<p>I consider myself pretty well-rounded. I play sports, piano, guitar, I draw and write, I like to come up with my own theories and solutions to math problems.I volunteer tutoring children and at a hospice center. The thing is that I don’t do any of these in school because I’ve moved around 6-8 times the past 2 yrs so I never got a chance to actively participate in anything. And all of the colleges you suggested are PERFECT. I’ll start my research on them to see if they are a good match for me, but so far it seems like it. Thank you so much:)</p>
<p>If you look in the SAT-preparation subforum of the SAT/ACT forum, you will find some pinned threads for some good test prep strategies.</p>
<p>@brownparent: thanks i’ll definitely take a look!</p>
<p>For safety/match you consider UCSC, it is smaller than the other UC’s and is a great school where you will get a strong mathematics education. You ought to have a couple UC’s in your mix just in case. Especially since it is one application it is easy to do.</p>
<p>Come back when you are toward the end of your Jr year and have your SAT’s for more advice.</p>
<p>I hope you are able to stay put for the rest of HS. You can try to do a summer program next year to improve your skills, like:
[Support</a> a scholarship for students who wish to attend COSMOS at UC Santa Cruz | Wishbone.org](<a href=“http://wishbone.org/programs/view/cosmos-at-uc-santa-cruz]Support”>COSMOS at UC Santa Cruz - Wishbone)</p>
<p>And get involved in your school now.</p>
<p>For almost-safeties (almost because while admission is almost certain, holistic review means that it is not 100% certain) to low matches, consider the various less selective UCs: UCD, UCI, UCSB, UCR, UCSC. The more selective ones like UCB, UCLA, and UCSD may be matches to high matches. (contingent on the predicted SAT score)</p>
<p>For a reach school, how about Stanford? Not a huge school, has a strong math department (including graduate level), has good need-based financial aid. According to a poster named Data10, 3.8+ HS GPA, 2000+ SAT, and state or national level awards or ECs tends to predict admission: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16289290-post34.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16289290-post34.html</a>. Of course, you need to do something in the state or national level awards or ECs department to have a chance there.</p>
<p>The UC’s are definitely on my list of safety schools(except the more selective ones).I’m not even considering Stanford because it used to be my dream school when I had really good stats and was ranked #1 in my school. But now after my rough 2 years my grades have definitely fluctuated and I haven’t taken AP’s or Honors. I was lucky my GC let me take 3 this year even though I was too late to sign up. Now I really don’t feel I stand a chance against applicants with perfect GPA’s, test scores, and awards. Honestly I feel I’d be wasting mine and the admission officers time by applying.</p>