<p>I am a rising senior in a public high school in West Virginia.
My unweighted GPA is 3.5 and weighted is 3.7. I took my SAT's my sophomore year and scored a total of 1900 with 570 in math, 680 in reading, and 650 in english. For extracurriculars I ran track for all 4 years of high school, I was selected to attend the American Legion Boy's state program, and I had an internship this summer at the U.S. Embassy in New Zealand. I also have a part time job at a fast food restaurant. I only have a few hours of volunteering but I plan on getting more this summer before I apply. I want to go out of state and study economics. </p>
<p>The colleges I am looking at are all pretty big reaches but they are:
College of William and Mary
American University
George Mason
JMU</p>
<p>Any advice or college suggestions are greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Two questions - can you study (maybe take a prep class) this summer and get your math score up? You really need it to improve your admissions changes. Second, what is your financial situation?</p>
<p>Yes i could increase my math score and financially we are good but not great if that makes sense, any suggestions?</p>
<p>So if your finances are not set, you need to take each college on your list and work with your parents to run the net price calculator that is available on the financial aid page of each college’s website. It will help give you an idea of whether and how much need based aid you might get from a given school and what you might have to pay. The calculators are less accurate if your parents are divorced, own a small business, or own rental real estate.</p>
<p>Looking at the schools on your list – Here are the 25-75th acceptance rates for SAT scores for them for 2013 admissions:</p>
<p>William & Mary:
SAT Critical Reading: 630 / 740
SAT Math: 620 / 720
SAT Writing: 620 / 720</p>
<p>American:
SAT Critical Reading: 590 / 690
SAT Math: 570 / 660
SAT Writing: 580 / 680</p>
<p>George Mason:
SAT Critical Reading: 520 / 620
SAT Math: 530 / 630
SAT Writing: - / -</p>
<p>JMU:
SAT Critical Reading: 520 / 620
SAT Math: 530 / 620
SAT Writing: 520 / 610</p>
<p>You said you took SATs sophomore year. Most students take them once or twice as juniors (getting higher scores than they would have as sophomores). You have missed that window for retake, so will want to sign up for a fall test date and study over the summer. It is hard to predict your chances without your final scores. With your current scores, I would say W&M and American are reaches, George Mason is a match, and JMU is probably a low match. So check the affordability of each as a next step, and get registered for the SAT and start studying. :)</p>
<p>Many students naturally increase the CR+M 100 pts sophmore over Jr year. With some prep you should do better, the math should be the easiest to improve. There is a SAT prep subforum here with tips at the top. Also Khan Academy has free prep videos for the math portion online.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help everybody, does anyone have any other college suggestions though?</p>
<p>Yes. Why isn’t WVU on your list?</p>
<p>II just really want to get out of state. I visited WVU and really did not like it.</p>
<p>i have kept it as a backup school though</p>