<p>Satman1111—sorry to come off sounding like that. I just wanted to clarify that I am not coming from a regular school but a private prep school because I know that strength of school also plays into college admissions. For instance a 3.7 from a regular public high school from an ok school district is probably not as impressive as a 3.7 from somewhere like Philip Exeter. Just saying.</p>
<p>Again, it’s hard to chance when all there is is a GPA and test score projections, which seem somewhat optimistic (though a lot can change as far as tests go). If you keep an upward trend, and do as well as you think you will on the standardized tests, you’ll have a decent chance at all the schools listed. The unweighted GPA being low, however, will hurt.</p>
<p>Evanh14:</p>
<p>Thanks for chancing–my school does not do weighted or unweighted gpa. they let the colleges calculate the gpa however they wish because we have a rigorous academic curriculum. I have heard from others at school that a 3.8 puts you in very good contention to any school. Obviously if you take any honors (only allowed for math and science) it is even better.</p>
<p>Oh and just a question, How much do URM, financial circumstance, and being first generation to attend college (I am from Africa and nobody in my immediate family that I know of – going back to great grandparents (from mom and dad side)-- went to college)?</p>
<p>Thx</p>
<p>Assuming you accomplish what you’re talking about:</p>
<p>Harvard - No
Princeton - No
Yale - No
Brown - Probably yes
U.Penn - Not sure
Stanford - Very unlikely
Columbia - Probably not
Cornell - Probably yes
Dartmouth - Probably yes
U Chicago - Probably yes
Cal. Berkeley - Yes
Duke - Probably yes
Washington University in St. Louis - Yes, you’re just their type
Johns Hopkins - don’t know enough about JHU, but I would say you’re in</p>
<p>But that 1990 SAT makes me seriously skeptical of your predictions, so you should probably treat everything up there as a “probably not” or a “no”, cut out 3/4 of it, throw some matches on, and 1 or 2 safeties, then apply.</p>
<p>Also, have a look at the Questbridge program and determine if you would be eligible to apply through it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/[/url]”>http://www.questbridge.org/</a></p>
<p>My predictions:</p>
<p>Harvard - No
Princeton - No
Yale - No
Brown - Most likely no
U.Penn - No
Stanford - No
Columbia - No
Cornell - Probably no
Dartmouth - Possible
U Chicago - No
Cal. Berkeley - Possible
Duke - Probably Possible
Washington University in St. Louis - Possible
Johns Hopkins - Possible</p>
<p>Your school isn’t any harder than anyone else’s here. If you scored that low on the SAT math section, you would be getting B’s at my old Canadian high school.</p>
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<p>It will give you a decent boost. Not enough to compensate for the 1950 SAT score.</p>
<p>You do know that I still havent taken the SAT right? Im just finishing my sophomore year and I’m spending most of the summer doing SAT stuff. I took a practice test the other day to see where I am (just for this thread…lol) in READING and MATH (didnt have time for writing section) and I scored pretty well–730 on math and 700 on reading. I mean I didnt miss that many questions in math this time and all the ones I missed were on little mistakes like a miscalculation or I wrote something down wrong and put it into the calculator wrong, etc. but I still have, I dont know, at least 6 months before I take the test. Im not too worried about the SAT as I know that I will score pretty high. </p>
<p>Oh and how much do teacher recommendations play into this? So far I have both of the assistant heads of school, advisor, history teacher and latin teacher who I can count on to write very very good recommendations. And I probably can get the head of school as well to do the same for me.</p>
<p>Everyone’s just dumping on you because you’re predicting a 400 point jump in your sat score without having taken it for real yet. Your ECs are solid, nothing crazy spectacular. Assuming you do get that 2350, you honestly might get HYP, Brown, etc. Without it… Brown/Cornell lol. You don’t have anything super sciency for MIT, Stanford, Caltech, etc but I mean if you apply as a liberal arts major to there maybe. Those schools tend not to focus too heavily on URMs.</p>
<p>Let’s be real here, you might get in based solely off the whole inner city African kid thing. It’s kind of a huge freaking deal to them. I may not feel you deserve it, but I’ve yet to see a black kid with a 2350 get rejected from Princeton. </p>
<p>Oh and random word of advice, if you’re going to mention your high school like that, just say its name. Unless you’re top of your class at TJ, Stuy, HTHS, PE/PA, whatever, nobody really cares and it just makes you look like a big fish in a small pond. Saying “honors math” as opposed to multivar or linear algebra is just asking for skepticism. </p>
<p>You get 2 rec letters for most schools, they don’t actually want to see more than that. Basically, there are 3 types. Ones that make you sound like the second coming, ones that are just good, and ones that subtly insinuate you shouldn’t be going to college. Only the 1st and the 3rd ones really make a difference.</p>
<p>I don’t really care about whether you’ve actually taken the test at an official administration, because I don’t understand how anyone who claims to go to a highly ranked rigorous prep school could possibly be scoring below a 2000 just one year out.</p>
<p>I get that you plan to do a lot of prep, but your starting point makes your goal dubious.</p>
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<p>If you were at a place like Phillips Exeter Academy, surely you would not be worried about getting into most of these schools. And surely you would be scoring higher.</p>
<p>Is it a big deal that I dont take a class like advanced multivariable calc or something? Like I take honors math classes (geometry, pre calc) but I am more of a humanities/social science person. I plan on studying Humanities/social science as well as possibly some Political science (or international affairs) in college as I plan to go to either law school or business school. The electives I am taking display as I am taking comparative government&politics and macroeconomics next year. Senior year i plan to take micro-economics and possibly entrepreneurship. Will colleges (any colleges) like that I have a plan and I am working toward what I enjoy or will they still want to see the advanced multi variable calc class?</p>
<p>No, you don’t need to take multivariable calculus if you are a humanities student. That’s silly.</p>
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<p>Thank you all for your responses, please keep ‘em commin’ !!!</p>
<p>Another question: How important is job experience or some sort of internship for these colleges? My mom went to a college forum (I was away) and she asked about job experience and the people on the panel told her that the top schools do not require or expect any sort of job experience. What do you guys think/know from your experiences?</p>
<p>Well, you’re not a junior yet, so it’s hard to say exactly. If your GPA improves highly, and your scores get high then it’s definitely possible. You’re shooting for the moon here. My bet is if you get the GPA better, ace the test above a 2100 and show real passion in ECs, you should get accepted by at least a couple of these schools. But what do I know.
Give it all you got and good luck! :)</p>
<p>Class rigor is definitely a major factor in admissions decisions, having said that though I think you’re GPA will be fine for several “tier 2” schools so maybe schools ranked below 14 or so … If you can manage straight A’s for the next 3 semesters, I think you’ll be fine for some of the higher ranked schools. Colleges factor in class rigor but they want to see you thrive and have as close to a 4.0 as possible, because college won’t be easier than high school. I think without sports next year this should be attainable.</p>
<p>I am not quitting all of my sports. I am playing football and that is it for me next year. But I have started to worry less about this actually because I know I will make it to the schools I want to go to. I fell like I am am well rounded and honestly its not only grades that get you into college. Grades are the most important but they also look at who you are. Oh and about getting a 4.0, there are only about 5 kids who have straight A’s every year per grade (if even that many) and there are only like 2 kids who actually graduate with straight A’s all through high school.</p>
<p>This is the exact same with my high school we have on average 1 kid who makes a 4.0 and several others who make 3.9 and above all of those kids got accepted into the ivy league and other top 20 schools. My high school is known for this prestige internationally and guessing by what you’ve told me yours is at least a well known school nationally. I think you have things in place to help and a high SAT score will balance any grade disputes that arise.</p>
<p>How much do these top colleges take into account leadership or things that you have done with your leadership roles? I have some leadership roles and I have been able to accomplish important things for our school with the leadership roles (mainly student government) that I have. Is going to help me a lot, medium or little?</p>
<p>This is a tremendous plus all leadership positions with a significant impact are key</p>
<p>What would you see as some safeties? Some matches?</p>
<p>Give me a brief run down of your stats again …
Interests , Hobbies, potential majors, ethnicity …</p>