<p>i have those kinds of parents that give their kid the illusion of having descision making power by saying "you can pick from this, this, or this. but nothing else."</p>
<p>my parents will only pay for me to apply to private, top 25 colleges in the united states but with my lowly 3.2 gpa (all honors and ap, so weighted it's like a 3.68, but still...) i doubt that i'll get admitted into any of them. i've got good test scores, (i say this even though i haven't gotten my scores back yet because i've always gotten good test scores, i'm expecting atleast a 2000, and if that's not what i get, i'll take it again until that is what i get.) but i know that test scores are not enough.</p>
<p>i do have good, varied extracurriculars, and do a lot of community service.
i'm also multiracial, (hispanic and african american) which could possibly help.</p>
<p>i've heard that some schools care about numbers more than others, but which are these?
i'd like to know which ones to research more.</p>
<p>and just in case there are no top 25 schools that would admit me (which i think is the case) i'm planning on paying to apply to u of washington (local state school), u of british colombia, western washington u, cal state long beach, and maybe some others, i don't know</p>
<p>a 2000 SAT is a good score, but not “good” for the top 25</p>
<p>If you can get around 2200, you may have some good prospects for a top 25, but usually they accept people with excellent GPA and test scores because its so competitive</p>
<p>I agree with ib612. Since your GPA is not really in the range for basically all of the top 25 colleges, you will need to make up for it with your SAT/ACT scores. Since grades are pretty subjective, colleges use standardized testing to ensure you can actually do the work at their school. If you get into the 2200’s, you will definitely have a shot but you will still need killer essays, etc. </p>
<p>Are you referring to a top 25 University or top 25 Liberal Arts College or both? Just so people can actually know what sort of schools to suggest that you look at.</p>
<p>Did you take the PSAT? If you did, and you reported your Hispanic minority status, you may qualify for the National Hispanic whatever-its-called-honors. Colleges and universities that are looking for good Hispanic students get the list of these candidates and then contact the ones they are interested in. In other words, you might get targeted junk mail from places willing to throw a bit of money at you. Some might be “top” enough to please your parents.</p>
<p>Don’t fee bad that your parents are only willing to shell out for the very top universities. To a great extent their judgment is correct. Very few places are truly worth the huge difference between a private education and a public one. Check out your home state public universities and find one that you can be happy at in case everything else goes wrong.</p>
<p>You might also want to see if your parents would be willing to learn about top liberal arts colleges as an excellent option. Many of these schools, because they take smaller entering classes, also look more carefully at the “whole student” and also are often interested in increasing diversity in their classes. Most have outstanding records of getting kids into grad schools (including high ranked universities). So exploring these yourself and then educating your parents might pay off in some interesting options (with scholarship options)</p>
<p>2000 SAT is not enough to offset the low GPA, especially since there’s a trend of standardized tests scores losing weight among private colleges. Some universities’ 25th percentile score is actually around 2000. Look up each universities’ freshman/admission profile. Apply to ones that have lowest average SAT/GPA, preferably with a higher rate of admission as well.
Do your parents have USNWR ranking memorized or are they just talking approximately 25? You can try showing them other rankings that may work better in your favour. What about schools like Wake Forest? It’s just outside of 25 (it’s still top 30), provides a great education, and have a relatively high acceptance rate (~40%).
And apply to a couple safeties behind your parents’ back. They won’t find out until after the fact anyway. If you got accepted to top 25 come April, fantastic. If not, you still have somewhere to go and I doubt your parents would refuse to pay for it if it was between going to a non-top-25 university or not going to university at all. Your stats are good enough to be accepted at many great universities. It’s not just the top 25 that is great. Where are you from?</p>