Where do I stand?? Please help!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi All,
I've been looking over my stats, and I'm really not certain where I stand. I'm a sophomore at a prestigious public high school in New Jersey, and I'm worried that I won't qualify for the schools I want to apply to. </p>

<p>By the way, I'm interested in Boston College, Georgetown, William and Mary, Wellesley, Barnard, Vassar, Middlebury, Bryn Mawr, maybe the UCs, the U. of Chicago, Oberlin, etc.... I have legacy status at Cornell, Bryn Mawr, and the University of Michigan. I would also like to apply to universities in the UK, such as LSE, UCL, St. Andrews, the European School of Economics in London, and my dream school (a significant reach), the University of Oxford.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:
(GPA approx. 4.1 right now weighted, 3.4-3.5 unweighted)</p>

<p>Exams so far:
I'm waiting on my Euro scores...
SAT World History: 650 (I probably won't send to colleges, as I was foolish in taking it when my class only taught about half of the material covered on the exam). </p>

<p>I will take SATs for Math I and US History on June 5th.</p>

<p>PSAT Sophomore year: CR 69, W 69, M 55, giving an overall score of 193
*I had only covered 3 very basic units in Algebra II by October, so I'd never been exposed to a lot of the material. No studying was done then, but my recent practice tests indicate that next year my performance will improve significantly.</p>

<p>Freshman year:
I didn't do too terribly; my GPA came out to being a 4.1 weighted.
Honors Biology B<br>
Honors English 9 A-<br>
Geometry B+<br>
Int Italian 1st Yr Hon A+<br>
Hon World Hist A- </p>

<p>Summer b/w F&S Years: (first AP) AP US History: 88% @ Princeton via JSA. I didn't take the exam this year, though, because it interfered with my taking the Euro exam. </p>

<p>I'm worried about my sophomore grades, however (still a 4.03-4.09 weighted:( )
AP European History B+
Algebra II B+
Honors American History A
Honors American Literature B+/A-
Honors Chemistry.... (worst grade ever).... B-
Honors 2nd year Intermediate Italian A-</p>

<p>I think that I was not as successful as I hoped this year because:
-My Chemistry teacher was really difficult, and I really did not like her class. Our textbook (which she followed closely) was poorly written and very confusing, which caused me to use all of my time trying to study for Chemistry when I should have focused more on my other classes.
-My Italian teacher this year was much harder than my teacher last year; we also did not learn very much last year.
-I started a terrible habit of staying up late and not taking many breaks from my work; I intend to completely rework my entire approach to studying over the summer.</p>

<p>However, I do have some plans for next year:</p>

<p>I am taking Honors Physics (teaching myself the first half over the summer), Precalculus (teaching myself the full course before school starts), AP Macroeconomics, AP US Government, AP English Lang & Comp., AP Psychology, Honors pre-advanced Italian, and if I can manage to do it, I'll also take AP Microeconomics.</p>

<p>With any luck, I'll bring myself up to a 4.3 or higher next year, maybe a 4.4 or so by the end of 1st semester senior year.</p>

<p>My extracurriculars are/ will be:
1 year of field hockey
School newspaper next year & senior year (hopefully will gain editor position)
Will be in Choral program for 4 years
Ridge A Cappella ultimately for 3 years
NJ Region II Chorus 2-3 years (if I audition senior year)
Volunteer at the NJ Audubon~ so far, I have 35 hours, but I'll have probably 100+ by the time the summer ends.
Rowing (just starting out this summer)
Economics club next year
Will start a JSA chapter Senior year
Photography (I have quite a large portfolio so far...)
Maybe student gov't next year (senatorial position is most likely)</p>

<p>I know my stats aren't great so far, and I'm really concerned about how I can improve them. Because I'm planning to spend a great deal of the summer studying and otherwise expanding my portfolio, I expect to do much better next year.</p>

<p>I would really appreciate it if you could give me insight into what sorts of schools would be good for econ./business/ poli-sci majors with the stats I'll ultimately have.
Constructive criticism/ study tips would be much appreciated as well.
Thank You!</p>

2

<p>Unfortunately, Oxford (and most, if not all, of the European schools you listed) is more concerned with grades than ECs, and even says on their website how many Bs you can have if you still hope to get into their school. Unlike here in America, ECs don’t really mean crap (as they shouldn’t), because the colleges in Europe focus on the right thing when looking for kids to admit: academics.</p>

<p>That being said, I don’t think your chances there are all that great, but I don’r know about the US schools. Even at those, your GPA could hurt you, but you definitely have a better shot at those than at Oxford & the other Euros.</p>

3

<p>I know that for Oxford and my schools in the UK, ECs don’t matter at all. I’ve been aware of it since the summer before freshman year, and I’m only doing the EC stuff for the US schools I’m hoping to apply to.
My grades aren’t great right now, but I am hoping that I can significantly improve my record by doing extremely well next year in my courses (I’ll be doing extra preparation for my classes, whereas this year I did very little) and performing exceptionally on the SATs (extra studying as well).
I am not sure exactly how much that will help, but I’m hoping that I can show a general upward trend even though this year’s science course made everything tougher. I’ve heard that at Oxford they don’t really look at GPA, but instead consider how a prospective applicant did in his or her classes.
Also, some of the schools I’m considering in the UK seem (at least from Naviance) to take applicants who have much lower stats than I do: e.g. St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and maybe York…
Thanks for your speedy and detailed reply!</p>

4

<p>I would also appreciate it if someone could tell me if my B+ in Euro this year will hurt me a lot. I took it this year as a sophomore, and was one of about 25 kids out of the 400+ in my grade to qualify to take it.
Would college admissions officers understand or could I explain that I found it difficult to balance everything this year with Euro?
If it helps, Euro was also hard to take care of given the fact that my family’s had a lot of issues this year. I’ve had to sit through rows between my parents (they were threatening to divorce from Sept-Nov, but did not) and we had to go to a family counsellor about it.
I’m not sure whether that’s moot or not, but please let me know.</p>

5

<p>I, too, ended up with a B+ in AP Euro last year when I was a sophomore. It was the first B+ I ever got, and I was absolutely terrified that I had blown my chances for college (I was such a little drama queen :stuck_out_tongue: lol). But then my math teacher saw I was upset and told me about a student she’d had the year before who had gotten a B+ in honors math and was then accepted to Harvard to study math. He was Asian and unhooked but had great grades overall. It made me see that someone who had one non-perfect grade in the area he wished to study was able to get into an incredible college, so me not doing amazingly in an area in which I had no interest to study in college wouldn’t really hurt me. Hopefully you can take the same thing from this.</p>

6

<p>My freshman and sophomore years I had about 50% B’s and 50% A’s and I still got into WUSTL :stuck_out_tongue: Don’t freak out. Rank/percentile counts for more than grades do, and top 10% is the normal for top teir (and top 15%, like me, can still get lucky :D). </p>

<p>Personally, I think you are applying to a LOT of schools, and none of them really seem to be safeties. I would throw in ONE safety, just in case (your local state school, for instance) and then apply to the rest. I would think you’d get into at least one of your favorites, but don’t shoot yourself in the foot by only applying to match/reach schools.</p>

7

<p>Thanks so much! That’s really reassuring! I don’t know about Harvard (probably a ridiculously high reach), but I’m sure that rule will apply to most of the schools on my list. </p>

<p>Where safety schools are concerned, I think I might consider Maryland, Bucknell, Bryn Mawr, etc… Hopefully those will be good, and I expect that they won’t be too difficult (if at all) to get into. In the UK, I’ve found that the average GPA of applicants to the University of Edinburgh is 3.71, and the average SAT scores are about 2090, so I think that may be a safety as well.
Any thoughts?</p>

8

<p>Updates:
Sophomore year wasn’t quite as awful as I thought it would end up, although my marks aren’t nearly as great as I would have liked them to be.
AP Euro, as I predicted, was a B+
Algebra II, likewise, was B+
Honors American History was a very high A
Honors American Lit was a B+
Honors Italian II was a high A-
Honors Chemistry was a B</p>

<p>So, my GPA turned out to be a 4.08 weighted, which I’m assuming will round up to a 4.1.
Since I’m taking 4 (or maybe 5) APs next year, I should be able to bring it up to a 4.36 or 4.4 if I prepare well enough ahead of time (which I’m doing now).</p>

<p>I also just took the SAT for US History & got a 730 (I was sick on test day, but did okay).
I’m probably going to retake my other SAT IIs, and my AP score has yet to come in.</p>

<p>Do you think this improvement helps my chances at all (bear in mind that I only had the opportunity to take 1 AP)?</p>

9

<p>:::::UPDATE:::::
I received a “5” on my AP European History exam, making me one of the 10.7% in the country to perform at the top this year.</p>

<p>I’m hoping that this will look very good considering I took it as a sophomore.</p>

<p>I did have a B+ in the class, but I was one of the few sophs who didn’t cheat (those who did had tests, essay questions, and quizzes or exam answers ahead of time).
Does this make any difference to my stats?</p>

10

<p>I don’t think it matters when you take the AP as long as you score a 3-5. If you would’ve taken Euro junior year and gotten a 5 it would still look the same. Plus that B+ is weighted! That’s a fantastic grade for your first AP class! Don’t focus on why you didn’t do well, instead focus on what you’ve accomplished so far and what goals you have set for the following years! </p>

<p>As far as your study method, if you really want to rework it I’d say try it out, but on the other hand you need to find a study method that works for you and gives you the best results. </p>

<p>I’m assuming your school sends the weighted GPA.
Keep up with your ECs. The mixture of athletics anf fine arts is nice. With your projected SAT score you should be in good shape with the American schools!</p>

<p>Boston College - match
Georgetown - low reach
William and Mary - match
Wellesley - low reach
Barnard - match/low reach
Vassar - low reach
Middlebury - reach
Bryn Mawr - match/in
maybe the UCs - i’d narrow down which UCs because they accept a broad range depending on the campus
U Chicago - reach. it depends. if you write a quirky essay then maybe
Oberlin - low reach
Cornell - reach (legacy status you’re in with a good SAT)
Michigan - match esp. with legacy status </p>

<p>I don’t know anything about the UK schools except for Oxford will be a reach for anybody.</p>

<p>(:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1178130-my-first-post-chance-me-oos.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1178130-my-first-post-chance-me-oos.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>Thanks!
I guess I was a little bit uncertain about how Euro would look, but now I feel better about it.
I’m also glad that a lot of these schools I’ve listed are probably matches/low reaches- now I just need to find some safeties!</p>