<p>Next year senior looking for some good schools involving possibly medicine or nursing or Physician assistant or something with math leaning more towards the medicine side (nursing).</p>
<p>my stats </p>
<p>i take aps and honors
i have a 101 weighted gpa prolly top 20 out of 730 students
involved in 2 sports for past 3 years going to continue in them senior year big on sports
band 2 years
really good activities and clubs basically alot key club etc all that
myb going to volunteer at a hospital to see what i like</p>
<p>sat math 700
sat reading 520
sat writing 540</p>
<p>ethnicity: white boy</p>
<p>home state: New Jersey
I like big state universities that are big on sports</p>
<p>Could you please suggest some schools that might be good for me?</p>
<p>schools I’m possibly looking at:</p>
<p>university of pittsburg
university of maryland
rutgers
villanova
UNC chapel hill (??? some1 here said got in with 1750 out of state enormous reach i know)
Providence
Wake Forest</p>
<p>I don’t know enough about sports to advise you, but I wouldn’t waste money applying to UNC. I don’t think any of the schools on your list are clearly safeties, and you should have at least a couple of those. The problem is that safeties aren’t usually the flagship state universities, and big sports aren’t usually at the non flagship state schools. Do you have geographical limitations? There are some big sports universities in the deep south, and they tend to be a bit more forgiving with test scores.</p>
<p>I agree with dntw8up, try looking at some schools in the south that have big time sports that you should get into like LSU, Alabama, Auburn etc. Basically a lot of the schools in the SEC, except like Georgia, Florida, and Vanderbilt would probably be safeties for you. Good luck.</p>
<p>The low (500s) SAT scores will keep you out of Nova, Vandy, WF, UNC-CH, and other top schools. Get a copy of Ruggs Recommendations on the Colleges and look at the nursing programs he recommends. Pay attention to their selectivity ratings and see what scores they typically admit. You want to be in the upper 25% of admitted students to have the best chances, and even then it’s not guaranteed you’d get admitted. Thankfully he also identifies colleges that are not that selective. Bradley University, for example, has a very strong nursing program. Bradley isn’t that hard to be admitted to, but their nursing program is harder…but maybe not too hard for you!! </p>
<p>But Bradley wouldn’t have the sports he wants. If you are unwilling to consider the deep south, would you settle for a school that is near a university with big sports? You don’t mention your GPA, but big sports schools in the northeast tend to require higher SAT scores.</p>
<p>Your averages are within your own school, and you probably know that all high schools are not the same. A 95.1 at my high school wouldn’t get you in the top 25% and there are certainly schools harder, more rigorous, than mine. Of course, on the other side of the coin are the schools where that average makes you valedictorian. As you can see, your averages don’t show how you would compare with applicants from other schools.</p>
<p>Colleges rely on standardized test scores for that. Your standardized test scores compare you with applicants across the country and around the world. So, while Wake does have testing optional, usually if a kid scores well he will send the scores to them because he wants to get admitted and his scores are good. </p>
<p>Try taking the ACT instead of SAT. You might do better. Look at the range of admitted students’ scores and see where yours fall. If you’re toward the low side of the mid-range or lower, your chances of admission drop considerably. Yeah, you have a chance, but unless you can raise your scores a lot, your chances are slim and fat. I’d pick other schools if I were you. </p>
<p>BTW…I was rejected by Wake. I had a 30 on the ACT, with a 32 in science (a science is my intended major), 31 in math, 30 in reading, and a 26 (ouch) in English. I had an ongoing email correspondence with one of their band directors (I’m a huge band geek.), and visited their gorgeous campus for an interview. My GPA was a 3.76 at graduation, and I’m a 2-time cancer survivor who missed more than 25% of school the first two years of high school. My family’s EFC was fairly large, so they wouldn’t have needed to give me much financial aid. I was told that my letters of recommendation were wonderful; my counselor admitted she’d been thinking of my letter since the first time we met (I was bald due to chemo and took my wig off b/c it was hot.) Super ECs and community service including a pop tab collection program that I organized and ran for 4 years, President of one club and officer of another. That wasn’t good enough. Wake rejected me. </p>
<p>Bottom line: Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. And focus on schools where you have a GOOD chance at admission based on your test scores. </p>