Chances with below average SAT scores

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Didn’t study for SAT. How much can I bring it up if I study half the summer? (The other half I have other business to take care of and vacations =)</p>

<p>Anyhow, I’m trying to apply to:</p>

<li>Carnegie Mellon University</li>
<li>Rice University</li>
<li>University of Notre Dame</li>
<li>Vanderbilt University</li>
<li>Cornell University (I really want to go to this one, but I’m not sure how well I’ll fare with my low SAT)</li>
</ol>

<p>SAT: 570 Verbal/630 Math/590 Writing</p>

<p>GPA: 3.64/4.00 (School does not weight GPA)</p>

<h1>EC’s</h1>

<ul>
<li>Director and Head Programmer of an MMORPG
(Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). Most
difficult type of video game to design and manage. Over
3 years of work thus far. Even more time if you count
how much time it takes to get the experience and
knowledge to even begin this type of project. </li>
<li>Breakdance Club - Founder & President </li>
<li>Performed at schools and talent shows for 4 years </li>
<li>Designing web sites since age 7. 10 years of web
design and management experience. </li>
<li>Webmaster (owner) of a 3000+ member website about
breakdancing. </li>
<li>Previously webmaster of 5 other websites pertaining to
some childhood interests. One fansite contained 1000+
members. </li>
<li>National Junior Honor Society </li>
<li>Designer of several other applications including various
pieces of commercial software, a file
security/organization tool, encryption algorithm, and
more. </li>
<li>Volunteer Work at Papertree Book Store - 10 hrs </li>
<li>Freelance Programmer - 200+ hrs </li>
<li>Progamming/Scripting Language Knowledge: Visual
Basic, HTML/XHTML, XML, Visual C#, Java, PHP/MySQL,
CSS, Javascript, SSI. </li>
<li>Expertise in networking, Winsock, multiplayer theory
and design, encryption/security, and .NET Framework </li>
<li>MMORPG Director/Head Programmer takes up over
2000+ hours. Dancing in spare time over the years adds
up to over 1000+ hours.
==============</li>
</ul>

<h1>Awards</h1>

<p>Honor Roll Student
Student of the Quarter 03
President’s Award for Educational Excellence 04
National Junior Honor Society Inductee 04 </p>

<p>Nominated for National Student Leadership Conference </p>

<h1>(Going this summer)</h1>

<p>I’m Asian. 1st generation (first in family to be born in America). English is my second language (although it isn’t much of a disadvantage considering I was born in America). Can speak my native language semi-fluently.</p>

<p>2 college classes, 5 AP’s by end of senior year. School only offers about 10-11 AP’s. Took all honors courses available.</p>

<p>So how do I fare? I think I’m doing well academically since I have all the AP’s and honors courses to back me up. I also have pretty good EC’s. But my SAT scores are really low, and I’m not sure how much I can improve them. What are my chances at the schools listed above? Any tips?</p>

2

<p>lmao those are some interesting ECs…you should catch someone’s attention, which is good.</p>

<p>Your GPA is too low for Cornell and your SATs are way too low…when you retake, I would aim for 700+ to offset your GPA and then hope like hell that you get in. I don’t know much about Vanderbilt and CM, but Rice and ND will also be reaches. Your grades and SATs are holding you back, so try to fix what you can (SATs!).</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

3

<p>Hmm…how much do grades really matter though considering the fact that I took a ton of AP/honors/college classes? I’m at a pretty competitive high school as well.</p>

4

<p>well to be honest…at a state university, they would matter more, but nearly everyone that has their heart set on cornell, rice, or ND will have taken as many AP courses as you. I don’t know how competitive your high school is but the admissions committee gets a report from the school so they’ll go off of that. </p>

<p>That really sucks that your school doesn’t weight GPA.</p>

5

<p>You can bring your SAT’s up to 2000 if you really put your mind into it… Take an SAT class - a strict one (like the one I go to) could help by over 300 points easily.</p>

<p>I went from 1840 to 2140 in 2 weeks during winter break (although I have to admit, my first practice test for the summer was 2040; my score went down after 6 months of doing nothing to keep it high).</p>

<p>I’m hoping to improve my score about 250 points (2040 to about 2300) by the end of this summer.</p>

6

<p>What do you go to? Any recommendations? How do I know if they’re “strict”? And wouldn’t it be better to take a crash course right before the SAT? Or would it be better to take one during the summer?</p>

7

<p>You’ll know if they’re strict if you hear other kids talking about how strict they are XD.</p>

<p>I got to this place called Elite (9 branches in Southern California). </p>

<p>To improve 300 points, I’d say you’d have to take a full practice test under testing settings at least 7-8 times (Yes, 24 to 30 hours of testing).</p>

<p>During the winter, I had a practice test everday and 5 hours of review after + 100 vocab words a day and lots of other homework.</p>

<p>Summer it’s a bit easier. It’s a test every week (from yesterday to the week before the PSAT, which is a week before the Oct. SAT) and 8 hours of review/lessons the next day. Plus about 10-12 hours of homework a week (which includes 250 words a week, an essay, 3 looong packets…).</p>

8

<p>Are you doing these 7-8 practice tests on your own or is your SAT class providing them?</p>

9

<p>How the hell did you respond so quickly…</p>

<p>SAT class providing - of course. They even gave us a bag, couple binders, and a shirt.</p>

<p>Oh, and I was taught by a Harvard graduate. Writing score went up 100 points and that class was pretty chill too, ahhahaha. He works at Elite as a part time job while he works on movie scripts.</p>

10

<p>Oh, forgot to mention that I also hit 135 WPM/0 errors when I was 11 lol. Started typing in 1st or 2nd grade. I turned out to be quite the computer nerd :D. Not sure if I should include that in a college application though?</p>

11

<p>You Are A Queer</p>

12

<p>Insane…</p>

<p>I’m a computer nerd breakdancer too, but not to the extremes like you.</p>

13

<p>My own view is that if you tried you could do much better on your SATs. As you said, you are working all the time and haven’t taken the time to really study. Test scores are just like school–or programming a video game–if you want to do well, you have to take the time to improve your skills–which in this case is your test-taking ability.</p>

<p>My question is–what’s your priority? Do you want to go to one of these schools, or do you want to spend all your time working on your games?</p>

<p>If it’s the games–that’s fine. There are a lot of well-known people (Bill Gates ring a bell?) that left school to start a business. But if you plan to go to college, you will have to tone down the time on the games, or you won’t be able to get into or complete your college education successfully.</p>

<p>As far as your chances–if you take the time to study the SATs and get the scores up, you have a chance at Carnegie Mellon and Notre Dame. But you have little chance at Vanderbilt, Rice or Cornell.</p>

<p>Still there are lots of other great schools out there–but you will have to work the test scores, or set your expectations lower–because to be blunt, the schools have lots of candidates to choose from–and they aren’t going to offer you a spot if they think you don’t really want to go there–or will be dropping out to work on your company instead. </p>

<p>So make up your mind–and good luck with success in whatever choice you make.</p>

14

<p>“I’m Asian. 1st generation (first in family to be born in America). English is my second language (although it isn’t much of a disadvantage considering I was born in America). Can speak my native language semi-fluently.”
not what first generation means…
english would obviously not be your second language if you were born in america unless you lived in asia for most of your life, which i presume you did not since you cannot speak your native language with fluency
stupid twinkie</p>

15

<p>lmao karkaputto is evidently bored and alone on a saturday night…and his boyfriend is out with someone else.</p>

16

<p>naw brother, he is at bible study</p>

17

<p>lmao nice response…welcome to CC.</p>

18

<p>Umm…back on topic please…</p>

19

<p>lol aer you serious </p>

<p>National Junior Honor Society ??!?!</p>

<p>i was wondering if i should put that on the application but thats like 7th/8th grade</p>

<p>it snot about how much time you got
i think its more of how much you are willing to really study</p>