Hi I’m a junior in high school and I have noticed that my high school profile is very flawed, I was wondering if anyone could offer me suggestions to make my profile stand out more?
SAT I (breakdown): 1240 (570 Reading 670 math)
Weighted GPA: 3.99 (end of soph year)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 20%
AP (place score in parentheses): APES (this year) taking more next year
Extracurriculars:
-Girls Learn International
-Community Service Club
-Volunteer at Public Library
Accomplishments:
-Published in a poetry anthology
Majors of Interest: Education (primary/english) Journalism or Social Work
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Female
Resident of NJ
Try to increase your SAT scores.
Make a list of instate universities that you could attend.
Most OOS state public schools would not provide funding to OOS students.
In addition to improving your standardized test scores like the poster indicated above, try to differentiate yourself with more unique ECs. If you’re interested in education/social work and english, start a club, or even better, a nonprofit that provides English-related resources to the less fortunate in your area. Try to make your passions shine through in your application.
For starters, adcoms are good at what they do. They can spot a nonprofit/ new club whose only real purpose is resume building a mile away. It makes it look like you have nothing of real value to offer, and need to scramble to find something-- anything-- to beef up your application. At this point, if you’re looking for people to help, there are already ample nonprofits in NJ that you could become a part of.
In addition, I think your ECs correlate pretty nicely with the path you’ve chosen: You’ve published a poetry book, and you’re working with both Girl Learn and doing volunteer work at the library. If you’re leaning towards journalism, you might consider joining either your school newspaper or yearbook-- NOT to beef up your application, but for what you could learn and possibly apply towards your future ambitions. Consider doing either again in college.
Your reading score is the lower of your SAT scores, so I would start by focusing there---- particularly given your possible interest in teaching English.
Consider taking a summer SAT prep class. Or, if that doesn’t appeal, work on your own. My approach is pretty old school. I suggest getting a prep book, but make sure that at the end of each practice test it has a grid that shows you what types of question corresponds to each number (EX: Math “geometry # 2, 6, 10”) Take a few tests, then go back and see which types of questions are consistently giving you a problem-- that will tell you where your points are going.
But to get to the focus of your post: There are plenty of schools that would be more than happy to have you exactly as you are. Why not spend a little time researching them… you could, at a minimum, find some safeties and matches. Then start to worry about reaches.
Also, both my son and daughter–with stats lower than yours-- found a number of schools in the NY/NJ/CT area that would probably be more than happy to have you exactly as you are. I’m sure there are more, but take a look at:
PA: Cabrini, Neumann, Holy Family, Keystone, East Stroudsburg
NJ: Centenary, Montclair
NY: SUNY Delhi, Morrisville, Buffalo, Alfred, Plattsburgh, St Thomas Acquinas, Mount St. Mary
CT: Southern Conn State,
MA: MA College of Liberal Arts, Framingham, Salem State
You’re so welcome. Those were just the schools that occurred to me; there are plenty more. PA in particular seems to have a billion smallish not well known colleges that are the perfect fit for the right group of kids.
Have you take one of those college match surveys, here or on any of the other sites that offer them? Try a few; you’ll be able to put together a nice list of schools to consider.
“But to get to the focus of your post: There are plenty of schools that would be more than happy to have you exactly as you are.”
That is my reaction as well. I don’t see anything about your post that would be even close to counting as “flawed”. If you were in Massachusetts I would put you as being solidly on-track for the in-state #2 public university (U.Mass Lowell), or if you were in NH I would suggest UNH (the in-state flagship). I am pretty sure that there will be comparable in-state public schools in NJ that would be a great fit for you, although I am not familiar enough with NJ schools to know which ones.
I am wondering if you have a shot at Rutgers as is, but I don’t know the school well enough to know.
Given your potential majors of interest I agree with other’s that you might want to see if you can pull up your SAT reading score. SAT preparation can be quite helpful.