<p>Every counselor I speak to tells me different things because apparently my SAT score and GPA are not very consistent with each other. I have a cumulative GPA of 3.7 with an upward trend, and an SAT score of 2390. I'm afraid schools will think I'm just a testing machine who sucks in class. What kind of schools (engineering/computer science schools specifically) are realistically in my reach? Thanks for any help! :)
Subject tests of:
800 Math II
790 Biology
790 Chemistry
760 Chinese</p>
<p>AP tests:
Physics C E/M: 5, 5
English Language: 4
French: 4
BC Calc: 5
Chinese: 5
Computer Science: 5
Environmental Science: 5</p>
<p>What about EC’s, home state plus what can you and your family afford?</p>
<p>I don’t have many EC’s; I’ve played tennis all four years in high school, the past two years as a varsity captain, and I’ve volunteered coaching tennis for underprivileged young kids I’ve also worked (with the guidance of a few graduate students and a Stanford professor) on a computer program/algorithm which tracks tennis players’ movements from video footage. </p>
<p>I live in California, so naturally I’ll be applying to UC’s. I guess for now I’d like not to worry about money, I haven’t really talked with my parents much about it.</p>
<p>Have you calculated your UC GPA? See link to better chance you: <a href=“http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/”>http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/</a>
Your SAT score is great and your EC’s decent.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt weighs HEAVILY on standardized tests. In addition, lots of huge universities accept kids with the highest sat scores without relying heavily on gpa, ec’s, or personal traits because they get soo many applicants. Chance me please?</p>
<p>UCs only look at your grades from sophomore and junior years- you can recalculate your GPA into a UC GPA and hopefully it’ll be higher. Also, do you have some sort of extenuating circumstance to explain why your GPA doesn’t exactly match up with how high your test scores are? If you do, get your guidance counselor to explain that in your rec. Be sure to aim for straight A’s your 1st semester of senior year to show you’re much more capable than what your GPA shows. Also, your ECs are a little scarce… maybe you can try being recruited for tennis?</p>
<p>As for possible schools to target:
- Cal Poly SLO
- VTech
- Lafayette (although it’s a LAC, it has a great engineering program)</p>
<p>That’s about all I can help with. Good luck!</p>
<p>You got a 5 on the BC calc exam so I think it’s obvious you’re a good student. Your GPA is lower cause your classes are harder so I think you’ll be good for a lot of schools. The only schools you’ll be rejected from are the ivy’s because not enough EC’s and GPA isn’t high enough. But it’s def still good enough for most top schools</p>
<p>I’d add Washington U (St. Louis) to your list, as another school that values high test scores. Maybe Rice, also. I know that the UC Engineering schools are more selective than the regular colleges, but your weighted GPA is probably competitive - I suspect your UC-weighted GPA is over 4.0, considering the number of APs you’ve taken. My son’s UC-weighted GPA was over 4.0, and he had only a 3.3-3.4 unweighted. With so many strong schools in your state, I don’t think you have to go very far afield. You might as well give CalTech and Harvey Mudd a try, also.</p>
