<p>I used to go to a really good public school in the suburbs of Seattle, WA. With lots of AP options and really good teachers. My family had to relocate for my mom’s job so now i live in Missouri and I go to a really small private catholic school with hardly any AP classes. At my old school i had a 3.6 gpa which i struggled to achieve. Here, i have a 4.0 while taking two “ACC” classes and advanced math. </p>
<p>Most of the girls here only go to really small colleges that no one has ever heard of or they stay close to home. I’m just afraid that going here has disadvantaged me. I looked at the colleges that last years seniors got into, only 1 girl got into a college i’d ever heard of–UCLA. </p>
<p>Why do you think that is? Are girls here just not applying to bigger schools? Or are they not getting accepted because of what school we go to? Does what school one goes to affect admissions? Will it stop me from getting into somewhere like Boston University or NYU?</p>
<p>The only schools that reliably send somebody to top-ten schools are big public ones in wealthy ZIP codes – like your old school – and pricey prep schools, mainly in New England or California. </p>
<p>You’ll be fine. Keep your grades as high as possible, take the hardest courses possible, and convince your teachers you’re the most eager and capable student they’ve seen in years. </p>
<p>If you make the most of your current school, and score well enough on the standardized tests that you don’t seem like a gamble, your chances are just fine, especially for schools like BU and NYU that are very good but not so selective that they regularly turn down huge numbers of valedictorians.</p>
<p>What’s more, switching schools makes you more interesting. The Common App has space for you to explain your reasons for moving; you can also add a bit there about how it has changed you as a person.</p>
<p>Washington university is in missouri and its top notched. You could boost your ap classes by taking some online. Mu high school offers ap online high school classes for instance. Are you close to kc or St. Louis?</p>
<p>Wash U is a great school but not the school for me because i really dislike STL.
Have you ever taken an online AP class? I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do well without in class instruction/guidance. </p>
<p>But yes i am a junior. these are my stats</p>
<p>African American/Female </p>
<p>GPA: UW 3.8 / W 4.3</p>
<p>SAT: ~2000 </p>
<p>2 Honors classes Freshman year
1 Honors/2 ap Sophomore year
2 ap Junior year
Probably 5 ap classes senior year </p>
<p>Curriculars:
Model UN Club President
National Honor Society
Class Council Rep Sophomore year
Youth in Government
JV Tennis for 2 years
V Tennis for 2 years
Junior Statesman of America for 2 years </p>
<p>+80 Volunteer hours</p>
<p>Also i was wondering, do colleges see a difference in AP classes and “Advanced College Credit” Class? If so, if i took the AP tests at the end, would they still see me as someone who had a rigorous courseload?</p>
<p>You could try an ap class on your own, and drop it if you don’t like it. Money lost may be an issue but I know what you mean. You have good stats. I found the summer after junior year a great time to add internships, awards, etc. look for summer opportunities. You can look at the threads for Boston u or NYU and see how you compare. Your test score probably needs to go up. I’m not a fan of Stl either. Yes I’ve taken 10 ap classes, and am taking two more online right now.</p>
<p>Take this advice to heart - playing the role of victim will not help you in college preparation or college admissions.
Talk to your parent(s), talk to your guidance counselor, do your best and make it work.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I will correct this to:</p>
<p>“The only students that reliably get admitted to “top-ten” schools are usually the ones who work hard and offer something that a particular school is looking for.</p>
<p>Just because you’ve never heard of the schools doesn’t mean they’re not any good - I could rattle off a list of 10 top LACs that most HS students have never heard of and they are all better than most of the “famous” schools, if not the elite ones everybody knows about. And I’ll admit before I started helping my D with her college search process, most of them were obscure to me as well.</p>
<p>Wow, yes thank you GF! Great advise. Students all across this nation stand out, excel, find unique ways to go above and beyond without handlers. These students are generally very successful at the schools they choose to apply to. The perceived popularity, even value, of universities varies dramatically by region. In the northeast LACs such a Swathmore, Colgate, and Middlebury are well respected and top choices for many students. In the Midwest there are people who have never heard of them. Many valedictorians want nothing more to attend a school in the Big 10. </p>
<p>I reject the myth of ‘feeder’ high schools, and that a student will do well just by virtue of the school attending that school. Correlation does not imply causation.</p>
<p>I’ve taken three AP classes online, and I am, admittedly, not a good student in the slightest. They aren’t that difficult as long as you set aside time to work.</p>
<p>Most universities & colleges that I know of, when reviewing your application, will also take a close look at your school. Does your school not offer very many AP courses? They will note that. It’s not necessarily all about quantity - they want to know if you took the most rigorous courseload that was offered to you, even if that courseload only consisted of a few honors classes.</p>
<p>9 AP courses total seems to be a good amount (assuming that they are of decent quality, where students doing well in the courses do well on the AP tests).</p>
<p>Is “advanced college credit” another way of saying dual enrollment, where the course is counted for both high school credit and college credit at a nearby college?</p>
<p>Anyway, with your GPA and test scores, you should have many options, including large merit scholarship options if cost is a big issue (see the sticky threads at the top of the financial aid and scholarships forum for these). Run net price calculators on various colleges if you want to see need-based financial aid estimates (beware that NYU and BU mentioned above are known for poor financial aid).</p>
<p>You may also want to try the ACT this year, since some students do better on the ACT than the SAT (and vice-versa). Higher test scores can collect more and better large merit scholarships.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: Yes, advanced college credit is like dual enrollment, in this case it’s enrollment at Saint Louis University. Do you think the admissions officers will recognize this as more rigorous? i mean obviously but will it be looked at in the same light as “AP” courses?
also, i’ve tried the ACT and got a 24 so…i’ll definitely be sticking with the SAT haha </p>
<p>@Charoulotte: i’m so happy to hear that colleges looked into high schools! that makes me so happy. i mean i figured since comparing me to someone who went a school with a lot of course options wouldn’t be exactly fair but, i wasn’t completely sure about it. thank you so much!</p>
<p>Depends on what the courses are. If they are typical college frosh level courses (like what AP courses try to emulate), then they should be looked at similarly. If they are more advanced than college frosh level courses (e.g. multivariable calculus), then they should be looked at even more favorably.</p>
<p>However, note that grades earned in college courses taken while in high school do count to your pre-med or pre-law GPA, if you have any intentions of going those directions. That can be good if all of those grades are A grades, but not so good if they are B+ or worse.</p>