I am a junior this year, and I have only taken 1 AP class.
Senior year I am planning on taking 2-3…
I’ve taken a couple honors classes.
My GPA is about 3.65.
Do you think I just ruined my shot at the more selective schools?
Short answer - it depends. If your school only offers 5 AP’s, it’s not an issue. However, if they offer 20, colleges might question if you were challenging yourself. Additionally, the GPA might be a challenge unless you go to a highly competitive HS with grade deflation.
Your challenge will be to find match and safety schools where your grades and test scores put you well above the 50th and ideally into the 25th percentile. As long as you have several of,those schools on your list, by all means put in a few reaches. I agree with the above post. You should find yourself admitted to some good schools.
Which AP classes?
Which selective universities?
What type of high school do you attend (low-performing - rural, inner-city- or high-performing)?
Easy to find out. Ask your guidance counselor if previous admits to “selective schools” have had similar nos. of APs and GPA as you.
We don’t know if your GPA puts you at the tippy top of your grade due to tough grading policies. Or if you’re truly in the middle of the pack. Is your 3.65 average and you’re not superior or do only the top students have 3.6s and 3.7s?
We don’t know if 3-4 APs in total puts you among the biggest strivers in your school or if your school only offers 4-5 APs. Or if that puts you in the middle of the pack.
If the answer to either of those is the latter (i.e. you’re in the middle of the pack), then you shouldn’t magically think you’ll be competitive for the very selective colleges which are all top dogs, academically.
I am not thinking extremely competitive schools-on my list are several UC’s(Davis, SB, SD, Irvine, LA(reach school), Syracuse, NYU, BU, U of Miami… those “medium” level schools I suppose.This year, I took AP physics B. Next year, I’m planning on AP Calc BC, AP Chem, and AP macroeconomics. My school offers a pretty fair amount of AP’s, so I would say sadly I’m about the middle of the pack. Do you think I have a fair chance of getting into those schools, or should I aim a little lower?
Also, the GPA issue would be mainly from freshman and sophomore year. So far this semester I have a 4.0. Hoping next year will continue the same. Hoping the positive grade trend will help me out a little…
Most of them would be reaches but reachable. Not because of your number of AP 's but because of their selectivity.
You need to work on your matches and safeties. Safeties would be two affordable schools you like and know for sure you’ll get into.
Make sure to discuss costs with your parents right away, run npc’s on some public and private universities (a UC, nyu, umiami) so that they know the range of costs and so that you have an idea of your budget ahead of time.
well UC’s don’t use freshmen grades in their GPA Calculation.use this to calculate your UC GPA
only some honors count like Chem H spanish 3 honors Pre calc honors etc some dont count like Algebra 2 honors and english 2 honors talk to your counselor about which honors classes count
NYU is not known for generous aid so if cost is an issue
Thank you guys for the help!! Also, do you know if not having the SAT subject tests is a huge disadvantage for these schools? Should I start test preparation for the SAT subj. tests, or is it even worth it at this point? Would it make that big of a difference?
If a school does not require subject tests, it is not a disadvantage not to submit any. Obviously, if the school requires subject tests, then you need to submit them.
Most of the schools I researched do not require them, but will accept them if submitted. Would it be THAT much of a difference if I submitted them or not? Would it be worth all the effort, extra test prep classes, additional stress etc.
If a school accepts optional SAT subject tests and you do well, submitting them is helpful. You can always take them and not submit them, if you don’t do well. If you need a bit of a boost academically for the colleges you are applying to, and think you can do well, then you should really consider it.
Thank you guys! Looks like I’ll be taking the SAT subject tests (Math Level 2, Spanish, Physics) to hopefully give my self a little boost.
Thanks again.
Not kidding about NYU being stingy! A very good friend, a widow, has a D who was accpeted to NYU. Her husband worked there for many years. They gave her 0. I am actually a little disgusted with NYU because of that.
A general warning about SAT lls, if you take them and do not do well there are a limited number of schools that require all tests, such as UPenn and Cornell.
Haha well Penn and Cornell are a little too “reach” for me-I don’t think I’ll even apply there.