I’m currently a junior, and my SAT is 2320 (740M, 780CR, 800W). My unweighted GPA is a 3.85, but I’m only in the top 20% of my class. My extracurricular activities include club and varsity soccer for first 2 years (I quit to focus more on my community service this year), volunteering with humane society since end of freshman year, volunteering Special Olympics and mentoring at middle school starting this year, and I established a free drum class for elementary school children that I teach this year. Would schools like NYU, Carnegie Mellon,Berkeley and Vassar be realistic expectations for me? What caliber schools should I expect to get in with these stats?
I got into NYU with a 30 on the ACT, and an unweighted of 3.91 but I applied ED and applied specifically to film production
My friend, your 3.85 GPA is NOT mediocre. If your courses have been rigorous, I think you can apply to those schools with fairly realistic expectations. Your ECs sound good. Not everyone is going to win an Intel Science prize and write a screenplay by the time they apply to college. The truly spectacular kids are actually few. I once heard an interview with Harvard’s D of A. He said the bread and butter of the college is still the good, well-rounded student.
Your stats are very good. Hardly any colleges care about class rank anymore, except Texas apparently. It’s the rigor of classes that matter. As long as you keep up the rigor, you should be fine. But that doesn’t mean killing yourself with APs. My D was just accepted to U of Rochester, very comparable to the colleges you listed. Her GPA is 3.7, she has taken 6 APs and her ECs are not spectacular. Her SAT is good, but not as high as yours. And BTW, do not take those tests again. Your score is amazing. Any slight improvement will not give you any advantage at all. They don’t just want numbers, they want the person that goes with the numbers. I think for some of your colleges, you may need to take SAT subject tests, so check each college’s website.