tmat91

Male
Live in a very rural area

GPA Unweighted: 3.8, top 10%
SAT: Math(720), Reading(740), Writing(690)

Extracurriculars:
DECA (10)
Spanish Club (10,11,12)
Classical Piano
-Private lessons since 1st grade
-I have placed high in statewide competitions
-Solo/Ensemble (x7) Superior or above rating
Athletics
-JV Tennis (9)
-Varsity Tennis (10,11,12)
-JV Basketball (9)
-Varsity Basketball (10,11,12)

Honors and Awards:
Academic
-Honor Roll (9,10,11,12)
-National Honor Society (11,12)
-DECA Regional Champion (10)
-DECA State Competition Qualifier (10)
Athletic
-Basketball
Varsity Starter (11,12)
Second Team All League (11)
-Tennis
2nd Place State Doubles (11)
1st Team All League (11)
2nd Team All League (10)
State Qualifier (10,11)

Leadership positions:
-Class Officer (9,12)

Will take SAT IIs...

enkephalon

Not bad, tmat!

If you could up your GPA as close as possible to 4 and get your writing SAT up into the mid-700s you'd go from borderline to a solid contender.

Good luck!

Little Mother

Work on improving your Writing score. Also, if your grades show an upward progression/improvement, i.e., mostly As during your senior year, then you shouldn't be too worried about your GPA.

Good luck!

tmat91

Really? I need to improve my Writing score? I thought colleges didn't really weight that too much...

Little Mother

Think about how much coursework depends on being able to write, and write well at that.

tmat91

Well I think they will look into the essay more than the SAT Writing score...

twomules

Personally, if you were my kid, I would tell you to not retake. We come from an area where people don't do prep courses for the SAT/ACT so we didn't know there is a formula to follow for writing these test essays. I am one of those people who questions how much a 30 minute off the cuff essay infers the ability to write a cohesive 10 page research paper.

However, the common data set gives the ranges of scores for the enrolled freshmen:
Percent of first-time, first-year (freshman) students with scores in each range:
SAT Critical Reading SAT Math SAT Writing
700-800 75.50% 74.03% 68.95%
600-699 19.40% 21.79% 26.57%
500-599 4.80% 4.18% 4.48%
400-499 0.30% 0.00% 0.00%
300-399 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
200-299 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
Totals should = 100% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

I think being from a rural area is more unusual at Pomona. Good luck with your application.

tmat91

Thank you twomules...