I am a junior in high school. I go to a small school with few AP courses available, but I have taken every single AP course I can. I have a 4.0, and just got my PSAT score back - a 1200 out of 1600. I do think I will improve significantly on my math score, because I didn’t have a calculator when I took the test (which will NEVER happen again!), which should boost my composite score to a 1300 or higher. I am a cross country runner, and did volleyball for six years prior to that. I participate in FBLA, and I have won state for several computer competitions. I am looking for colleges anywhere in the country, but preferably the east coast, to apply for college… but I don’t know what would be realistic for me to even aim for. I don’t have any degreee or major that I am pursuing, and would be going for a generic undergrad program until I could figure out what I liked. What types of colleges should I be looking at? Do you have any specific recommendations?
1200/1600 or 1200/1520?
You have isolated the east coast. There are a ton more variables such as price/aid, research U/LAC, size, surroundings, campus culture, Greek presence, academic strengths, etc. And little preferences that might matter to you like an odd language you’ve wanted to study or a boxing club, whatever. Avoid rankings and the thrall of prestige. There are resources where you can learn about the college that is right for you rather than just aiming for some spot on someone else’s cliched list. Good luck!
Doesn’t the new PSAT range from a 320-1520?
Would you prefer:
A smaller or larger school?
An urban, suburban or rural location?
Oh, I’m very sorry if my total number was off. I don’t really know much about the new PSAT/SAT, and I had thought it was out of 1600, but yes, I did get a 1200 for sure. Thank you so much for clarifying that! I also do think I would prefer a larger school in an urban or suburban area. Thank you so much!
Well, 1200/1520 is higher than 1200/1600, so that’s good. These online Newsweek articles might be OK for generating ideas that match your location preferences: “The 25 Most Desirable Urban Schools”; “The 25 Most Desirable Suburban Schools.” Most of these schools are very selective, but a few are more moderately so.
Like @snarlatron said, you need to ask yourself all those questions.
If you have no idea what you might want to study, choose a school that offers a very wide range of majors.
Thank you all very much! I appreciate the help!
You’re focused entirely on admission. You need to give equal consideration to what your family can AFFORD.
You need to have a financial talk w your parents and get them to be HONEST about what they can and are willing to pay.
Affordability is a big, big issue for most families.
So you might want to focus first on public institutions in your home state.
If you do want to look farther afield, you can try using a college match tool like the one CC offers.
It is easy to misuse college rankings but I wouldn’t completely ignore them especially if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want. It could be very laborious to have to research all the individual variables that might matter to you, when instead you could just pull out an initial list of 20-30 schools from US News or Forbes that seem to fit your selectivity range. If you’re realistically expecting an SAT M+CR of around 1300, with a 4.0 GPA, top 10%, and a few strong ECs, then you might want to focus on the US News T30-60 universities, or LACs in about the same range, or else some of the top ~10 “regional” universities in the East.
A few specific suggestions:
Research Universities
George Washington U.
American University
Fordham University
Boston University
Northeastern University
LACs
St. Mary’s College of MD (a public LAC)
Dickinson College
Muhlenberg College
Juniata College
Connecticut College
“Regional” Universities
Loyola University MD
Villanova University
Providence College
Muhlenberg College–should be on everyone’s list IMO…
also hendrix college too!
Try using the supermatch function to the left (under find a college).
Consider the type of school you prefer (size, location etc.)
Then run net price calculator to see which schools are affordable.
If your HS has Naviance that is an excellent tool as well.
Using the SAT conversion chart, 1200 on the new SAT is equal to a 1800 on the old test.
-Boston University
-Drexel University
-Syracuse University
-Temple University
-University of Pittsburgh
Consider University of Miami with higher scores.
@newjerseygirl98: The OP has only taken the PSAT so far. Any conversion must be done with that as the basis.