Chance Me for Special Education Programs

Chance Me / Match Me
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Hello, I am an incoming senior and wanted to know what my chances are of getting into the Special Education program at these specific schools; Boston University. University of Maryland College Park, University of Georgia, Elon University, and The College of New Jersey. I live in RI and go to a charter high school for the arts (major in theater)

Extra Activities/Leadership: Unpaid camp counselor every summer + other volunteer work (700 hours, aim to get 300 more done by graduation)
SADD participant freshman, vice president sophomore and junior year, president senior
Grade’s Representative in Student Council 9th +10th grade, will try again this year either way will be apart.
Glee club 9th and 12th grade
At least 2 theater productions per year
National Honor Society!
Only Youth Member on Anti-Drug Task Force for city.
Occasional volunteer work at a home for the severely mentally disabled. Trying to get an internship mentoring under class men in special education department at my school.

Have fan-fiction published on copy righted website (Wattpad), at least 50,000 views in the past two and a half years

Grades: Boosted my GPA from a 3.54 at the end of my sophomore year to a 3.68 by the end of junior!
My school doesn’t offer honor/AP until this year. Taking every opportunity provided academically (Honors Advanced American Literature, Spanish 3, AP European History, Pre-Cal first semester and Calculas second semester, possibly an online science course if school requires it.) 13 out of 60 in my class, top 25% if I can knock one person out that’s above me it would be top 20%.

SATs are my downside : 380 in writing, 550 in math and 470 in reading (1400 in total) plan on taking another time to get to a 1600 and also will take ACTs twice.

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BU is going to be a reach, even if you can bring up your SAT to 1600 – their average SAT is around 1900. The other thing is that your stats likely wouldn’t bring in too much merit aid there, and their need-based aid isn’t great. You might have a better shot at Emmanuel, Lesley, or Suffolk, if you want to be near Boston. I’m not sure if they offer special education, but I believe they all have education in general. You can always get (actually, you’ll probably need) your Master’s in special education, if it comes to that.

I’m not too familiar with your other schools, but based on your scores and a few Google searches, the other schools look like reaches as well – your SAT scores are below the average. There’s nothing wrong with reach schools (I applied to quite a few myself), and my predictions are largely number driven. Your essays and your letters of recommendation will help round out your application, as will your extracurriculars. And it looks like your GPA has an upward trend; maintaining that your first semester will help.

That being said, I would try to find more safety and match schools. It’s not impossible for someone to get into a reach, but it’s very, very unwise to have a list comprised of all reaches. I’d suggest using the SuperMatch tool to find some schools were your scores are either closer to average or above average. Try to also run the price calculators for those schools; as you’ll likely need a Master’s, you don’t want to go into too much debt as an undergrad.

Good luck on the rest of your tests, and on your application in general.