Find me some safeties, targets and reaches please!

College Search & Lists
1
  • Hispanic male high school senior in New Jersey
  • 1460 SAT; 720 R&W, 740 M
  • 23 out of 24 essay; 8-7-8
  • 3.16 weighted GPA; top 75% (only better than 1/4 of students at my school; I know it's bad!)
  • Pretty good extra-curriculars; studied abroad for a year in New Zealand, did an exchange program in Japan for a summer, taught myself Japanese, interned at an art gallery in Japan, worked part-time etc.
  • Essay is very good. It is about my struggles with my Tourette's Syndrome in New Zealand, and how I was bullied by my host mother there. I then talk about how my friends there helped me get over her, and how I took those experiences into my life back in the US.
  • Teacher recommendations are mediocre and are from senior year as I was in New Zealand during my junior year
  • I have taken 7 AP-level courses, but only 2 were official AP classes, the rest being high-honors (weighted equally)

I know that my GPA is bad, but I was hoping my test scores and upwards grade trend as well as my year abroad would help my cause.

2

What’s your budget?

3

You should state your UW gpa.

4

@newjerseygirl98 I don’t really have one, but I guess I’d prefer cheaper schools.

5

@Sybylla My school doesn’t do that, unfortunately.

6

What do you want to study? Do you want a large school or a smaller school? Urban, suburban or rural?

7

@silverlady Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

I want to study economics or international economics

I want a relatively large school, but if it’s smaller but in a big city that’s okay

It absolutely needs to be in a city of over 500,000. Preferably larger; the biggest metropolitan cities are the best.

8

You should be able to calculate your unweighted GPA yourself. Add up the grades with A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0, then divide by the number of grades.

9

Arizona State is in a large metro area and will admit you if you have the specified requirements:
https://students.asu.edu/freshman/requirements
However, some majors may have higher standards to be admitted to the major. It may also be expensive as a non-Arizona resident.

10

If you’re open to Canadian universities, they won’t care about your freshman or sophomore grades at all or your references. They will pretty much care only for your senior grades. McGill, University of Toronto and UBC are in excellent cities.

11

@bouders McGill looks at grades 10, 11 and 12 grades, for Americans.