<p>I’m a junior in high school. I just got my ACT score back. I got a 35. I took the SAT in winter for a possible national merit scholarship thing (You’re supposed to take the PSAT for that, but the school told my father, not me, and he forgot about it). I got a 2200.
The thing is, my other areas aren’t so hot. My weighted GPA’s a 3.06. That doesn’t sound bad but at my school it’s just barely in the bottom half. I’ve never done any extracurricular activities. Freshman and sophomore years I wasn’t interested, and now I work 20-30 hours a week so I couldn’t if I wanted to. I don’t take a ton of hard classes and I don’t do a lot of my homework.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t care if I get into a good college or any college for that matter. I don’t like school very much. It’s boring. But that ACT score got me wondering: Could I get into a top school? Or could I get a really good scholarship at a state school? I don’t know anything about college admissions so any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>The GPA will really hurt you. I dont think you’ll get into HYPS, but maybe a lower IVY like Dartmouth or Cornell.</p>
<p>If you want to go, apply
If you dont, dont.</p>
<p>The problem with scholarships at state schools is most have criterias for getting the scholarhsip. Youd make the SAT/ACT cutoff, but not the GPA one. </p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. I’m a pretty indecisive person. At this point I’m considering working full time for a while rather than getting into a “good” college, changing my mind about it and then dropping out because of boredom. I guess if I go right after high school, I still have a whole half year or so to decide, but I feel like that’s not gonna be enough.</p>
<p>I’d say you’d be able to get into Cornell, but you’d need to make one hell of an appeal in your essays. Dartmouth, I’m not so sure about, or not sure at all.</p>
<p>You could look into some good state schools. You could get in. Try looking at some that have an emphasis on test scores.</p>
<p>Working a lot while you are in high school could help your application a lot, if you are working because you really need the money. If you fit the profile of a lower-income student, and for elite colleges “lower income” means anywhere from the United States median family income on down, you have a definite shot. Apply to the colleges you are interested in. Visit college information meetings in the fall to find out more about colleges. </p>
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<p>But that is a problem for getting into the most selective colleges. The high test scores–alone–will give you a shot at some decent colleges that might even have merit scholarships keyed more to test scores than to high school grades. You should finish up your high school years with more engagement in harder classes, and involvement in some kind of extracurricular activity.</p>
<p>I disagree with those who say you have a chance at the lower ivies – your WEIGHTED gpa is 3.06, which tells me that your unweighted gpa is probably less than 3.00 and that is what schools look at. combine a gpa of less than 3.00 with a class rank in the bottom 50%, and no EC’s and even a perfect test score isn’t going to help you get into top schools.</p>
<p>It sounds to me like you have some solid natural intelligence but you don’t enjoy learning, especially in a high school setting. You don’t spend time constructively adding to either your school community or your local community (no ECs or volunteering). It doesn’t make you a bad person – just not what top schools are looking for.</p>
<p>If you don’t think you are motivated to attend college right away, you probably aren’t. I would suggest you not attend college unless you find one that really interests you – but I also don’t suggest you take a dead-end job and work for a year or two. Do something different that will take you somewhere new with new people.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to be offensive but what everyone is saying is really not to true. Out of everything your GPA counts for ALOT because it sums up your attitude/performance towards schoolwork (you are primarily not at college to perform community service or to take standardized tests) so your GPA is the best barometer of how you performed academically in highschool from which they can predict how you will do in college. However, it seems you have intelligent ability and interest in the communisty. </p>
<p>My brother had an (unweighted) GPA of 3.30 taking the hardest courses, witht one or two exceptions, , a few random extra-curriculars, and a serious devotion to politics (he did alot of work for political organizations) and scored around 2300 on the SAT and in the upper 750’s on the two subject tests he took.</p>
<p>He applied to a wide range of schools and ended up at Alleghany (sorry I don’t know how to spell that) with minimal scholarship, although we didn’t need financial aid. Alleghany was the highest college he got into, and his essays were amazing. </p>
<p>Of course, your school could be a really intense private school or something, or you have other factors i don’t know about. Don’t get caught up on how “good” your school is, there is not as huge of a difference in the quality of education as people make it out to be.
Those who are saying that you have a chance at the lower ivies are, no offense, very wrong.</p>
<p>but I bet you could get an amazing scholarship at a state school because they care alot about test scores since they hae large applicant pools and large student bodies and not as many resources to meticulously overview every essay and GPA, they place more weight on your test score…</p>
<p>Great job on those tests!
I’m not saying that you’re lazy, but exceptional test scores and a low GPA can make you look like a “lazy genius”, and as far as I know, colleges may question your work ethic. But try for some Ivies and see what happens, I’m sure that there’s always “outliers” in the acceptance pools (substandard grades, excellent scores)
Good luck!</p>
<p>Interesting that a high-school junior has sufficient awareness to self-diagnose as above. </p>
<p>Ambitions and needs that aren’t foreseeable now may arise later. You might want to raise children (or be forced to pay child support), start a business, finance a harem, or whatever. Three years of wasted high school can shut down options that are better left undestroyed. Mobilize in the present to conserve the future. Good luck.</p>
<p>Could you have inattentive type ADHD? (Go online and take a look at symptoms) The missing homework and lack of enthusiasm about school, along with the test score/GPA discrepency may fit the profile of an undiagnosed learning disability, rather than a “lazy genuis”. If that is the case, and you get it documented, two things could happen: one, you might discover why getting good grades eludes you, and two, you might get in to a good school if you have a good reason (i.e. a disability that can be helped with meds or other methods or accommodations) to explain your low GPA.</p>
<p>I suggest taking a (summer) college class at your local State University. Pick something you really like and see if you find that you like school more than you think when you are required to work at a higher, more independent level. The high school format isn’t right for everybody. A lot of busy/home- work that some find unbearable. Good luck.</p>
<p>siserune you are very profound. “mobilize in the present to conserve the future”… what a good point! anyway, I never realized you were a junior OP! if you work hard senior year and show improvement that could mean alot to colleges. They love it when people improve.</p>
<p>clichusername is probably correct. Top schools will not look solely at a score earned on a one-time test. Some people lare good test-takers but not good students. Colleges will look at your performance across your school career. As for the National Merit, the SAT will have nothing to do with that. If you didn’t take the PSAT you will not be considered for National Merit. And, please don’t take this wrong, but if you aren’t motivated to work hard in HS, schools will assume that that may continue on into college. They do not want to take the chance accepting someone who cant, or won’t keep up with the schoolwork, and may drop out.</p>
<p>That’s a good bet. You should have yourself diagnosed by a child psychologist–if it’s diagnosed as a learning disability, it’ll be much easier for you to get into top colleges.</p>
<p>Don’t even think about any of the Ivies though–you have little to no chance. Instead, think about schools like UVa and UMichigan–two of the best colleges in the country–public and private included. </p>
<p>BTW, a 2200 is decent, but it’s not an amazing or especially remarkable SAT score when applying to top-tier schools. You’ll want to place more emphasis on your excellent ACT score.</p>
<p>There is a lot that goes into a diagnsis of AHDH- Inattentive type, and even if such diagnosis is warranted, theis is not likely, at this stage of the OPs game, to make a huge difference to the top tier schools. It is not going ot be “much easier to get into the top tier schools”. And diagnosis alone, if one is appropriate, is only half the story. It goes without say that a LOT would have to change for a studnet to (1) get into a top tier school and (2) be successful. As a rising sr,its a little late to start getting extracurriculars gfoing and to pull up the GPA. Better to start at a smaller school, experience success, and perhaps transfer later.</p>
<p>It could also help your application if you don’t happen to need the money. According to the admissions tell-all book by Michele Hernandez (A is for Admission), at Dartmouth and elsewhere the responsibility of having a job was taken seriously in the admissions process. This makes some sense, as college is in many ways like an easy version of a job.</p>
<p>Sure working is important, and is seen, in many cases, as equally valuable as some extracurriculars. But this alone isn’t going to make up for the other holes in the whole package. And again, even with a possible DX of ADHD (sorry for my typo above), I think it we are doing a disservice to the OP by suggesting that he/she has a good chance of getting into the top schools. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>Maybe you are reading a different thread; I see a chorus of “chances are slim to none at the best schools, but otherwise improvable with effort”. The OP may have bigger things to worry about (down the line) than not getting into a top school; the implied question seems to be more about getting out of a holding pattern than getting into Princeton.</p>