Im a rising male senior in NY. Hispanic background. My parents moved to the U.S. 10 years before I was born and have since then become US citizens. They didn’t go to college. I plan on majoring into Economics or Mechanical/Civil/Electrical Engineering.
Im curious about my chances to some schools with my stats.
Schools include:
-University at Buffalo
-SUNY Stony Brook
-SUNY Geneseo
-Penn State, Main Campus
-U of Maryland
-U of Pittsburgh
-SUNY New Paltz
-Drexel University
-Boston U (far far reach lol)
Academics:
-UW gpa is 3.3-3.5
UW High school average after junior year is 88-89.5
-SAT is horrible, taken only once, 600M, 470CR, 490W, expected to retake and get a ~1700+
-Same with ACT, 23, studying to get around a 26-28
-Have no APs but will have 4 after senior year
-Only 1 honors class so far
EC:
-4 years of varsity indoor and outdoor track, 2 years of captain for each season
-Spring track all-league award soph and junior year
-Winter Track Coaches Award
-Spring Track M.V.P.
-2 years varsity soccer, 1 year of JV, regional champions and state finalists my junior year
-World Languages Honor Society for Spanish
-1 Year of Key Club
Misc:
-CPR Certified
-Had two jobs, one at a summer camp and the other at a health store
-anticipated ~50 hours of community service
If you have any realistic school suggestions for me and would like to post them then I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for reading!
I would do the recruiting questionnaires for St. Lawrence and Muhlenberg. Both are test optional and have exceptional facilities. St. Lawrence has an new 8 lane indoor track.
Poke around in Centennial Conference and Liberty for other schools.
@BatesParents2019 those times are taken during duel meets. Running track in college isn’t really a priority to me, but if I have a chance to do so at a good school then I will very much welcome that
I encourage you to do your best and study but statistically test scores don’t improve by as much as you need.
On average the improvement is 1 point on the ACT. At a 23, you have a 58% chance of improving, a 21% chance of staying the same and 21% chance of dropping.
You could do better but you should know the odds.
You have a solid GPA. Many great schools including top schools don’t require tests. Use them.
You haven’t taken any APs but you plan to take 4 senior year? That sounds like suicide! You might not need that tough of a schedule.
Definitely study to try and raise your SAT/ACT, but I will second the suggestion of applying to a test optional school. Your GPA is very solid, and those schools could be a safer option in case you don’t raise your scores as much as you want.
@fireonmytoast it might be 3 now, AP Calc, Spanish and Economics. All subjects that I have done well in and enjoy! Have decided to drop AP bio before the school year starts.
My top school right now is either UPitt or Stony Brook. If I get my desired scores on the ACT/SAT do you think I may have a chance?
If you pull a 1700, it’d be a bit of a reach for either, I’d give you a 60/40 shot of getting in at least one, maybe a little better.
3 APs still seems excessive, I tanked my GPA going from 0 to 2 sophomore year. To be brutally honest, with a 3.3-3.5 it doesn’t look like you glide through your non-AP classes. I don’t know how rigorous your classes are, but make sure you understand the workload.
@fireonmytoast the reason for my gpa is because I was a slacker freshman year. My average from freshman and soph year was around a high 87 and my junior year average was around high 89s to low 90s. But atleast i show and upward trend in grades
I disagree that retaking the SAT/ACT doesn’t improve the score, but maybe I’m an anomaly. I took the SAT and ACT the first time both without studying and did okay but not as well as I wanted. I got 2 SAT study books for $1 at a library book sale, read through them, took a few practice tests from the back, and took both tests again. For ACT my science score jumped way up because I wasn’t prepared for it the first time, and that boosted my entire score. My SAT score improved 140 points, ACT improved 4 points. If you didn’t study the first time around and are studying now (but you really have to apply yourself, study at least a half hour a day and go over as many practice questions as you can) then I believe you could do a lot better the second time. But if you studied hard the first time and still got that score, you might need a tutor or something.
A few years ago most colleges didn’t really look at the writing score, not sure if it is the same now. I would say focus heavily on improving your CR score, try getting it up to high 500’s, and get math up a little higher. Math is easiest to study for (for me at least) because you only need to learn how to do like 50 problems to get a decent score, then just check over your answers carefully for the actual test. You also should get writing to at least low 500’s. Anything in the 400’s just doesn’t look good imo.
My recommendation would be to go to a community college, get your gen eds out of the way and keep up your GPA, take a few math courses, then transfer to a good 4 year college for the real courses once you figure out what you want to do (engineering or economics.) It’s also cheaper this way.
If you don’t want to do that, look at RIT. It might be easier to get in if you can keep Math in 600’s and get CR and Writing up into the 500’s. They’re a great engineering school so I’ve heard.
FYI Geneseo does not have engineering (it does have economics, I got my econ degree there), but if you’re applying to Geneseo might as well also apply to SUNY Binghamton. They’re comparable schools.
No offense intended, but regarding track times, those times won’t get even most Division III coaches to go to bat for you as far as helping you get into a college. You could probably hook on to a team, especially if they don’t have a very good program, but just to keep things realistic here, in my opinion those times won’t help you get admitted at all. But, it doesn’t sound like you are interested in that anyway, so that’s good.
Your test scores need to come up. You have a shot at some of the lower ones…Drexel, New Paltz, Buffalo have 23 ACT at their 25% line, so that COULD happen, but you could still be denied to all. Good luck.