<p>I'm currently a junior at a very well reputed college prep high school in my state, and I'm also enrolled in an elite honors program offered there only by invitation which consists mostly of the top 100 or so students in the junior class of about 1000. That being said, I haven't made the smartest choices as far as my grades go. I screwed up a lot freshman and sophomore year and I feel like I could've done a lot better this year too. My GPA is currently a 4.1143 W and 3.0857 UW and I'm in the top 24.5% of my class. However, I have been taking the most challenging courses available to me (in the most rigorous program offered at my school) and by the time I graduate, I'll have taken 7 AP's. I'll take the ACT this April, but on the practice test i scored a 31 and I'm aiming for a 36 on the actual one this spring. I've been told most colleges would consider me a "bright slacker" and I know I have the potential to have a perfect GPA if I had just tried a little harder. My EC's are alright. I run indoor track, outdoor track, and cross country and by the time I graduate i'll have been on varsity for two years. I'm in my school's Chemistry Club, GEMS Club, Letterman Club, and Best Buddies. I've also been an open house tour guide for two years now. I know I haven't done anything extraordinary, and that worries me, but one thing I have going for me is that I'm a pretty good writer. I got a 96 in AP English Language last semester while all my friends were struggling to get a 90, so I'm sure my essays will be good. I think I'll be able to get good letters of recommendation also. I'm just really worried about my GPA, as it's relatively low and I don't want to be put into the "bright slacker" category. What do you guys think I should do now and what are the best colleges I should apply to?</p>
<p>There are so many you can apply to.
What is your preference on size, location, cost, programs offered?</p>
<p>I know I should probably know this by now, but I really don’t. I guess I don’t mind going to a small- medium sized school but I don’t think I would be able to focus in a very large school. I’m from the Midwest but I’m not sure yet about where I want to go so I want to apply across the board. Right now I’m interested in either business, law, or medicine. I would LOVE to go to the Ivies (wouldn’t everyone?), or even the Public Ivies maybe? I just really want to get into a well known, well reputed school as I know it would help me out when applying to grad school.</p>
<p>For law or medicine, you want a school with low cost, since law or medical school is expensive. In addition, you want a school with good grade inflation relative to student competitiveness. For law school, you also want the school to have A+ grades on transcripts, since law school admissions counts A+ grades higher than A grades. For medical school, you want pre-med courses that will prepare you well for the MCAT. No specific major is required for either (though you need to take the pre-med courses for medical school).</p>
<p>Your (unweighted) GPA will make getting into highly selective schools difficult. But there are some schools which will give you good scholarships (up to full rides) with a 3.0 and a high enough ACT score: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-14.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-14.html</a></p>
<p>You wont make it to the Ivies with a 3.0 UW. There is no harm in applying but it will probably just be a waste of time. </p>
<p>The low GPA is the major issue on your application. You can make up for it somewhat through high test scores or major ECs, but only to an extent. </p>
<p>The most important thing you can do to improve your chances is to get straight A’s now. An upward trend will help you a lot. </p>
<p>That said, you can apply to your state flagship, some LACs, and colleges such as Northeastern, Boston College, Davidson, GTech, UF probably being the best schools you can reasonably be accepted to.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, are there any specific majors you would recommend for law and medicine that can be helpful in other careers as well? I don’t want to go into college completely focused on one subject area as I may turn out to hate it. Also, how would going to a liberal arts school affect my chances of getting into med school? I was told it won’t be “science-y” enough.</p>
<p>BuBBLES FoR SALE, What about more selective schools? I know the Ivies are high reaches but I should at least try to consider selective schools, right? I do have a general upward trend in my grades since freshman year and hopefully by the end of this year my UW GPA will be at least a 3.4 but I’m not entirely sure I calculated that right. Also, I scored a 2100 on the last practice SAT I took, but I’m working on a 2400 now. So best case scenario, I have perfect test scores and a 3.4. Will that put me in the middle or closer to the bottom of most applicants to schools like Emory, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Wake Forest, University of Michigan- Ann Arbor, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Brandeis, Oberlin, University of Miami, etc.? Am I still aiming too high? I could always go to U of I at Urbana-Champaign, which I’ve always assumed was a safety school but I’m not sure now. (I live in IL btw so that’s my state school)</p>
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<p>You can major in almost anything for pre-law or pre-med. Choose something that you like and are good at (so that you get the best GPA). The constraints are few:</p>
<ul>
<li>For pre-med, majors with a lot of non-overlapping courses may be difficult to fit the pre-med courses around (e.g. engineering other than chemical or biomedical engineering; music may have similar scheduling issues). Generally, humanities, social studies, and science/math majors are fine for scheduling purposes.</li>
<li>For pre-law, consider that the LSAT includes logical thinking questions (see the samples), which is why students form majors like math and philosophy tend to do well on it. Even if you do not major in such things, you may want to consider taking some courses of that nature.</li>
<li>Pre-professional health majors like nursing are said to be frowned-upon by medical schools.</li>
<li>Pre-professional law-related majors including such things as criminal justice are said to be frowned-upon by law schools.</li>
</ul>
<p>For other career options, look at the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html#post15425078[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html#post15425078</a> .</p>
<p>You should focus on national universities ranked in the 45-65 range. You’ll have a better idea of where you stand after you take the SAT.</p>
<p>Have you talked to your college counselor? Does your school have Naviance? It sounds to me like your school has some grade deflation if you’re counted among the top 10% for this elite program you are in. I’d find out how other kids at your school with similar stats have done. That’s going to be your best benchmark.</p>
<p>Have you spoken with your parents about your college budget? Now that they are in the middle of filing their taxes, they should have all the numbers handy to run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of some of the colleges and universities on your list. The sooner you know which places might or might not be affordable, the better. If you find out that the money just isn’t there, take a long hard look at the threads on guaranteed merit-based scholarships in the financial aid forum.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to be considered a “brilliant slacker” then stop acting like one. Come back when you have actual SAT results; practice and projected scores have no real value. How is it you can move your GPA from 3.0 (today) to 3.4 by the end of this year? That seems statistically difficult.</p>
<p>Regardless, with a 3.4/2100 most of the schools on your list will be reaches (Miami is probably in the match category). Some of the private schools will take more time to consider the upward trend but the state publics tend to be highly stats driven. Informative has given you some good advice for where to start looking.</p>
<p>Usually Econ majors score high on the LSAT.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for all your opinions and suggestions, they really do help me out! I think the best thing for me now would be to focus on getting and keeping my grades up in order to improve my GPA. I have spoken with my counselor and she basically told me not to worry about it because there are a lot of kids with worse stats than mine, but I think she was just trying to be nice. My school does have Naviance, and in fact encourages juniors to start using it now. I’ve somewhat discussed the financial aspects of college with my parents before, but not in great detail. They just really want me to focus on getting into the best school possible. </p>
<p>I still do have a few more questions.
Can work experience be considered a factor in college admissions? Surely they wouldn’t want to accept students with little to no experience in the real working world.
If private schools do pay more attention to trends in grades, would I be better off applying to more private schools than public schools or should I still keep it fairly balanced like I was planning to?
My AP Psych teacher told me that while private schools do come with a higher “price tag”, they tend to give out more money to students in the form of financial aid. Is this true?
Are you suggesting schools ranked in the 45s- 60s would be match schools or reach schools? Or does it really just depend on the school?
Also, do graduate schools really give value to where you went for college? I mean, how much highly could they rank an average Harvard student than a student at a state or lesser known school who is at the top of his/her class?</p>
<p>"My AP Psych teacher told me that while private schools do come with a higher “price tag”, they tend to give out more money to students in the form of financial aid. Is this true? "</p>
<p>Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It truly depends on the college, and on the applicant. But if the Cost of Attendance is 55k, the college throws in 35k, and all your family can scrape together is 10k, that big scholarship is still going to come up short.</p>
<p>Find out what your family can afford. Run the Net Price Calculators at each college/university website. Make sure your list includes at least one place that you know for certain will be affordable without any aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid, and that you know you are guaranteed admission to because you meet the minimum standards they post right on their website (many public Us do this for in-state candidates). Once you have your safeties, build your list upwards.</p>
<p>Working is like any other extra curricular activity. Be sure to report it when you apply. for some majors, work experience in the professional field is almost a requirement of admission.</p>
<p>What is a match or reach depends on the individual institution. You need to look at their admissions stats and see where you fall.</p>
<p>Grad school admission is based on undergrad GPA, GPA in coursework related to the projected field of graduate study, letters of recommendation, GRE/MCAT/LSAT/etc. exam scores, statement of purpose, research/work/publications related to the projected field of study. The name on your undergrad diploma barely matters at all.</p>
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<p>While the last sentence is generally regarded as being the case for medical and law schools, it may not be the case for many PhD programs, where past experience with PhD students from various undergraduate schools may bias the department for or against future applicants from those schools. Unfortunately, a high school senior selecting an undergraduate school does not have any visibility into these “rankings” of undergraduate schools at each individual PhD program.</p>
<p>So basically right now all I can do is get into the best college possible and hope most graduate programs don’t have an issue with that school. Wow, that’s insane. And I think I’m going to try to sit down and talk to my parents about the costs of school because it would probably help me narrow down my list. Also, how many schools do most high school seniors apply to on average? I’ve heard of students applying to only a handful to some that apply to around 10 to some that apply to around 20 and I’m not quite sure what the general consensus on this is. How long should my list be?</p>
<p>*best case scenario, I have perfect test scores and a 3.4.</p>
<p>Will that put me in the middle or closer to the bottom of most applicants to schools like Emory, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Wake Forest, University of Michigan- Ann Arbor, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Brandeis, Oberlin, University of Miami, etc.? Am I still aiming too high? I could always go to U of I at Urbana-Champaign, which I’ve always assumed was a safety school but I’m not sure now. (I live in IL btw so that’s my state school)*</p>
<p>That GPA will keep you out of many/most/all of those schools. You’re not instate for the UCs, and the UCs count GPA heavily…especially for OOS students.</p>
<p>Imagine this is how Top Schools look at applicants: They don’t distinquish much between a 2200-2400 SAT student…because those are top scores nationally. So, once top school applicants have a score within that range, GPA then gives insight into the work habits of each student. There are enough high test score students who ALSO have a high GPA that these schools don’t need to bother with you unless you have some other hook…URM, from a disadvantaged household, etc. </p>
<p>The above is why most/all top schools won’t likely accept you without some other hook…and I’m not talking about a great essay unless it’s about how you spent 18 months in traction after a tragic accident that killed your family and that’s why your grades suffered. </p>
<p>Do not consider UIUC as a given. They might reject you as well. Or, your family may not be willing/able to pay the $35k per year to go there. </p>
<p>You need to ask your parents how much they’ll spend each year. That will likely determine where you should apply.</p>
<p>About 3000 college in the US, and all but maybe 30-60 of them would gladly take you. Pretty good pickings. But of course though you are not in the top of the top in terms of students, you probably want the those few colleges where you are not competitive for admissions. Take a look at some schools on your School’s Naviance and you’ll see where the numbers for admissions start becoming positive. Be aware that any outlier stats are probably hooked students so don’t get too focused on those.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, let’s imagine money wasn’t an issue at all- what schools would you suggest I apply to that I could reasonably get accepted into? What would be some matches, reaches, and safeties that I should consider?</p>
<p>UCB is right about law or med school, cost, and other related matters.</p>
<p>If you want a major that gives you options (law or med), you might consider engineering if that interests you and you can get a good GPA. </p>
<p>Eng’g is good for pre-law since Patent Law is one of the few remaining areas that still needs lawyers. lol Otherwise there is a glut of lawyers.</p>
<p>Eng’g can be good for med school since many of the pre-med pre-reqs are already req’d, plus eng’g offers a “fall back” career in case med school (or law school) falls by the wayside. </p>
<p>However, if you don’t have what it takes to get a high GPA in eng’g, then that wouldn’t be best for med or law.</p>