High School Class of 2020

ktong777
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 02:59:56 +0000

@AlphaDog1031 Sorry if any of this sounds harsh. This is based completely off my knowledge of the college app process, so take this with a grain of salt.

I agree with socaldad2002, you’re taking way too many APs for you to handle. It’s much better to take a little bit less APs and keep a 4.0 UWGPA imo (of course, it’s bad to go way too lightly to the point where you’re getting easy A+'s). In the end though, I can’t really give you much advice about your GPA without more information about your class rank and school rigor. Colleges look at something called the Secondary School Report, which gives information about the rigor of those classes offered at your school. They compare students across schools on their coursework based on the Secondary School Report. Also, I’m not sure about the schools you’re applying to, but some schools, like the UCs, require 3 years of foreign language, which was brought up by socaldad2002. Make sure to check the course requirements of the schools you’re applying to. Lastly, an advice I’d give is to drop AP Physics next year. Taking two science APs is usually pretty difficult because they’d both have labs, which may conflict with each other.

Your SAT score and attempts may raise concerns in the college application process. Typically if you take it 3 or more times, it starts to look bad. Considering you’re going to take it 4 times, and your highest score is a 1440 so far, colleges might look down upon that. You might want to consider dropping SAT completely and just doing ACT now. If I remember correctly, you can choose to send only your ACT scores but not your SAT scores if you wish, so if you can get a 34 or 35 on the ACT, you can send colleges that only, and not your SAT scores/attempts.

As for extracurriculars, your volunteer work is pretty extraordinary, and clearly you have commitment to that. I think that’ll definitely positively affect your chances, especially since you’re applying to premed. Founding FBLA is also a pretty big plus, it shows that you look beyond what’s offered and try to add new things to the school. A slight concern I have about your extracurriculars is that you don’t seem to have much of a commitment or focus. Have you gotten any awards in any of the honor societies you’re in? How often do you participate in those, and what is your involvement? I know you might be committed to those, but as you might expect, a lot of students participate in those events just to look good on college applications, and colleges are well-aware of that. Because of this, if you don’t have any major achievements or commitments to those listed on the college apps, they’re likely to be of little use.

Nonetheless, you still have a pretty high chance at getting into those colleges. I’d say with your grades and extracurriculars, you can definitely get into at least half of those schools. Keep up the good work, and try not to stress yourself out too much, especially next year since you’re going to be doing college applications first semester on top of your courseload!