<p>3.7 unweighted GPA, which has gone down this year, 4.8 weighted. </p>
<p>58/570, I'm not even in the top 10% of my class.</p>
<p>My PSAT was in the 97th percentile, but 205 is nothing to be proud of. </p>
<p>The reason why I'm asking is because I'm taking the SAT for the first time this coming month for the first time, and I need to know if I need to go hard core on it or not, or just wing it and play league of legends like I did for the PSAT. </p>
<p>Affirmative action is on my side because I'm hispanic, but the emails are just giving me false hope at this point. They didn't pay attention to the fact that I put down music as my preference of study either, I guess. </p>
<p>Any insights? </p>
<p>Thanks for any and all information people can help me out with. It's really appreciated. </p>
You just insulted 97% of people who took the PSAT.</p>
<p>Anyway, without knowing more about you, I cannot say whether or not you have a chance at these colleges. I can tell you that overanalyzing the e-mails they send you is a waste of time. Also, studying for the SAT will be significantly more productive than playing league of legends.</p>
<p>Don’t count on affirmative action. Don’t pay attention to the e-mails. You have a shot, but you’ll have to work towards it.</p>
<p>Okay, so it’s not that it’s nothing to be proud of. I’m sorry for that remark. My derisiveness comes from the fact that the few kids at my school who were national merit scholars were obviously a few dozen points above me and they aren’t exactly rolling in the acceptance letters. </p>
<p>I try not to over analyze their emails, but as I’m going through clearing these out I’m curious as to how they work. Do they take their acceptance rates for scores and then subtract a standard deviation, then blanket send out emails to everyone that applies, meaning it’s nothing to base anything off of? Or do I actually have a chance? </p>
<p>I’m not sure who they send the e-mails to, but I suspect they are trying to get as many applications as possible to lower their acceptance rate (for rankings).</p>
<p>They send emails to many people for advertising. This boosts application numbers. Of course, they don’t email horrible candidates (ie test scores might need to be above a certain benchmark), but yeah they send mass emails. Any sort of application pre-screening process when you have yet to demonstrate interest would be near impossible.</p>
<p>They want to get more students to apply. If they get more applications, they can reject more students, thus making them look prestigious, elite, and exclusive.</p>
<p>You answered your own question.
Also, you might find this hard to beleve, but given your URM status, you are a competitive candidate for those schools.</p>
<p>Are they emails inviting you to visit +/or interview? </p>
<p>I know that Yale sends one out at this time of the year encouraging students to schedule an on campus interview. There is also an email that they send in late summer to invite you to their multicultural open house, which is in October.</p>
<p>Harvard also sent DD emails throughout her junior & senior years. I can’t remember if UPENN did. These schools are looking to admit more diverse classes. You will have to be a strong candidate in every way. Apply & see how things turn out next March. If you don’t apply, the answer will be no. Good luck!</p>
<p>205 is nothing to be proud of? Is that a joke? I got a 190 and was thrilled. I even qualify for a few scholarships now because I achieved highly among my ethnicity. You sound like you’re begging to be pat on the back because I’m sure if you tried hard enough you might be a strong candidate (although of course it couldn’t have hurt to have been in the top 10%). Obviously if you’re still in high school and haven’t applied to anything yet their emails mean nothing. They don’t exactly have a copy of your transcript.</p>
<p>Sorry, all my friends at my school all scored more than me. These are people that are striving for over 2300 on the SAT by going to classes and everything they can do. And yet half of them end up going to UT Austin anyway (which isn’t BAD, but it’s not out of state / private either). It just seems like 205 isn’t enough to cut it in the environment I’m in, and I’m sorry if that comes across the wrong way.</p>
<p>NewHavenCTMom, I’ll check. Thanks for your advice. </p>
<p>“the few kids at my school who were national merit scholars… aren’t exactly rolling in the acceptance letters.”</p>
<p>Did they only apply to elite schools? only Harvard and Yale? (if so, then they are not as smart as they seem). If they are seniors and applied to plenty of excellent, but not elite, colleges then they would actually be rolling in acceptance letters from non-elite schools. Maybe they are embarrassed to admit that they did not get into Harvard but did get into UT-Austin, because maybe they only applied to like three or four colleges. Or maybe they could not afford to attend some of the schools they got accepted into, and did not want to admit that either.</p>
<p>By the way, you are NOT competing against fellow classmates for getting into college. You are competing with other students trying to get into whatever colleges you apply to. Plus, good colleges are well aware of the rigor at high schools in America. They know if your high school is demanding or not.</p>
<p>You will get accepted into excellent colleges, but you have to apply to several and not put all your eggs into the “Ivy League” basket. Being from Texas, you to might want to apply to Tulane and also Washington University in St. Louis. Aim to apply to between 7 and 10 colleges. One of the biggest mistakes I see is when students only apply to about three colleges. If those are Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, then they will definitely be disappointed.</p>
<p>@NROTCgrad, we have our graduating rank 6 going to harvard (she is a first generation immigrant, she was accepted into yale, standford, a few others) and 8 going to u of chicago, so I guess they made it pretty well. (How good is university of chicago?). I definitely do not plan on only applying to elite schools. I want to go out of state, but I’m not sure what good schools are between UT A and harvard. I just don’t know where to begin researching this stuff. </p>
<p>I took the SAT this morning and I think I aced it (maybe not 2400 aced it, but…), so I I’ll see how that works into my plans. </p>
<p>Thanks for your response and let me know if you have anymore advice, it really helps me out!</p>
<p>University of Chicago is definitely an elite college. Probably the most difficult and demanding school in America. Very hard to get admitted. Less than 10% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Again, I recommend Tulane and Washington University in St. Louis. University of Rochester and Boston University are good choices if you are okay with frigid winters. Might add Vanderbilt too. Also worth considering are small liberal arts colleges such as Rhodes College in Memphis, Denison University in Ohio, and Bates College in Maine.</p>
<p>One reason people end up going to UT-Austin anyhow is because they cannot financially afford Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc… Or at least parents don’t want to pay. Those schools do not give out merit scholarships, only need based aid. For Texas residents UT-Austin is huge bargain, and one of the top public universities in the country.</p>
<p>Chicago has been hard to get into recently primarily because the number of applicants has increased as a result of a massive marketing campaign. Whether or not the number of qualified applicants has increased is up for debate but at least the statistics look good. </p>
<p>My hispanic son and National Merit winner applied to those ivies, as well as to instate schools. He didn’t get into any ivies-Stanford, Harvard, MIT (waitlisted then rejected) even though he had EC’s and great grades/scores. He did get into most of his instate choices and ended up choosing Cal Tech. So don’t presume the Ivies. Apply everywhere.</p>
<p>@NRTOCgrad, thanks for the explanation. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for those institutions you listed; and my motivation to possibly stick to UT is along the same reasoning, so that makes sense. </p>