<p>You have everything perfect in your college application like high recs, 36act/2400sat, amazing ecs (1st at siemens/isef, leading research to curing cancer, make your own business, etc) and sharp upward trend in gpa...</p>
<p>But a really crappy gpa? Cause I know a lot of kids like that (not exactly me but pretty close.) Like 3.0 or 3.4 or something.</p>
<p>Is our future a state/community college? What do you think is possible for people like us? Uc's? Small privates? Cornell? Duke? HARVARD?</p>
<p>How your GPA will be viewed will depend on the class rank associated with it. Although, curing cancer will certainly help Upward trend also helps GPA look better. Don’t worry, you’re not necessarily doomed to community college, especially with spectacular test scores and ecs</p>
<p>It’ll depend again on your class rank. If your school doesn’t rank, then colleges will look to your test scores and teacher/counselor recommendations to try to make sure that you are suited for the school academically (that is their first priority). If your scores / recommendations seem to put you in place academically, then your GPA could be attributed to grade deflation. If you ARE great academically (and GPA is attributed to grade deflation) then you will have quite a shot at schools, especially with that curing cancer bit Hope that all made sense. Best of luck!</p>
<p>I will be extremely disappointed to see someone go to community college with a perfect SAT score. Although your GPA is pretty weak, with your scores you should be able to enter a decently ranked school. Maybe around BC range?</p>
<p>Anyways, if you want to go to a top institution such as Duke or the Ivies, you definitely need to pull your GPA up. A lot. And you could do a bit better with the ECs, and I’m personally a bit skeptical about your cancer research.</p>
<p>Oh dear ahah is said its similar to me but not exactly. There’s no way that I could cure cancer. That was a joke but I am planning on doing lab research with a stanford professor. (I live in ca so I’m thankful for that) but unfortunately as a second semester junior my maximum grade is a 3.4 as my grades are so low. Upenn was my original goal but that’s more like a dream now. I would love to go to at least duke /cornell but thoses seem pretty far away too. What about nyu and usc??? Any uc’s?</p>
<p>What’s the rigor of your curriculum? How many AP’s have you taken? What is your reason for your low GPA relative to a high SAT/ACT score? What is your class rank?</p>
<p>Umm extremely rigorous public school. Ranked by us news as top 70 best high schools in the nation, I took 3 aps so far and will take 5 senior. Why bad gpa? Sophomore year I got a bad chem and math teacher and also I was bullied because of my first year in student government and political issues and that job in student council was really time consuming so that played a factor too. So I ended up with 3.0 both semesters sophomore year and didn’t get student council this year. Well my class rank is unfortunately 70 or 60% but if I bring it up to 3.4 iit will be 50 to 40%… we have decidiles not ranks</p>
<p>Forget Cornell and Duke and Harvard. You need to be in the top 10% to seriously consider schools at that level.</p>
<p>Sorry, but EC’s are not an excuse for a low GPA. Not even a perfect SAT/ACT score is going to make up or excuse away a 3.0 GPA. </p>
<p>College admission’s will use your transcript through junior year when reviewing your application for acceptance. If your transcript shows 3 AP classes and a gpa of 3.0, then you need to look at colleges based on these stats.</p>
<p>Be realistic when making up your college list.</p>
<p>Finally. Someone gives me a straight answer. Thank you to everyone though! Any suggestions on safety/match/reach schools?</p>
<p>I would think usc, uop and uci are my reaches at this point. Csu would be a match though? Or would it nnot be? Any other suggestions on out of ca state colleges? Penn state?</p>
<p>^colleges still look at the rigor of senior schedule, and most people have not taken many ap’s until junior year (because their school is like that–sadly mine is like that). It’s good that your taking 5 ap’s senior year and if you can get at least 4 A’s and 1 B for 1st semester senior grades, then that will bode in your favor with colleges that consider mid-year grades.
I’m trying to positive here, but in in the end, your class rank may be the nail in the coffin. There are a lot of really good undergrad schools for a 3.0-3.4 gpa student with near perfect SAT’s. Northeastern, BC (maybe), UMich(unlikely but you can try_, University of Washington, American University, Syracuse, BU, University of Rochester, University of Miami. Those are some pretty good schools with some being reaches. Try to bring that class rank up as much as you can, the rest of your junior year. Try to get a near perfect gpa this semester. But if your set on an ivy or something like that, theres always grad school. :)</p>
<p>Yes that’s my case exactly. Though my high school ranks high in terms of national rankings, we don’t offer any AP classes for freshmen or sophomores (other than AP chinese but then most of those students are native speakers) I did take 2 honors classes in Pre-Calc and Chemistry sophomore year though. As a junior I am taking AP Calc, AP Bio, AP US History (with classes offered at school) and in addition I am going to take AP Psychology and AP Comparative Government (without taking the class). Senior year I plan to take AP Statistics, AP macro & micro economics, AP Literature, AP US Government and Politics, AP Environmental Science, AP Music Theory (with classes offered at school) and AP Human Geography and AP Chemistry (without taking the class)</p>
<p>so in junior year I will be taking 5 AP tests though my transcript says 3 taken at school and senior year 9 AP tests though my transcript says 6 taken at school (as micro and macro is just under “AP economics” at my school)</p>
<p>So in total I will be taking 14 AP tests. So please don’t get me wrong, there is no way I’m aiming for these schools with just 3 APs.</p>
<p>Reed seems to specialize in ‘angular’ kids - very bright with high test scores, but lopsided grades (super math and science grades, but couldn’t be bothered with history and Spanish, for example). Colleges That Change Lives is another good source of schools that appeal to kids with lots of promise academically but who didn’t ‘catch fire’ in high school.</p>
<p>“Sophomore year I got a bad chem and math teacher …”</p>
<p>Don’t even hint anything like this to any school, even if true; it can mean instant rejection. They don’t want to hear you blame others for your shortcomings.</p>
<p>I know a two kids who had mediocre grades (do not know their SATs) but both made it to international olympiads in a math/science area. They both got accepted into Caltech and MIT. One of them, I know was turned down at Stanford and Harvard. I am not sure where the other applied.</p>
Upward trend also helps GPA look better. Don’t worry, you’re not necessarily doomed to community college, especially with spectacular test scores and ecs</p>
Hope that all made sense. Best of luck!</p>