<p>In summary: I am a rising Senior. My grades are not amazing, and I am not ready to pay $50,000 a year for college. My ACT scores seem to be above Binghamton’s (my current top school) middle 50% range, while being at the top of MIT’s (reach?). Should I look into more elite schools, or are my ACT scores basically worthless?</p>
<p>In a little more detail: I wouldn’t call myself an overachiever, but I guess I am. I go to a competitive public High School and although I have not received my rank, I expect to only be in the top 100/450 due to UW grade ranking (AP course grades are counted the same as regular classes). I have raised my GPA every year while taking even harder courses. My one exception to the hardest courses I can take is Social Studies, which I am not very good at. My GPA is currently a 93.8. My parents have never pushed me to study and have always left it to me to hand things in on time and do well. We are middle class, and are not expecting a lot of money in the form of Financial Aid from colleges. I pretty much decided on SUNY Binghamton because it’s the best SUNY school (other than Geneseo, but they have a poor Computer Science program). I do want to go to a good school, because I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do after I graduate. Most likely it will either be going on to Graduate school in Computer Science or Philosophy or going to Law school. I had settled on Binghamton, but now my Mom is saying that since my recent ACT scores were so good (Composite 34), I should aim higher, for a school with a better Computer Science department. The schools that seem better to me are CMU, MIT, RPI, and Princeton. I’m not sure exactly how good these programs are, but I hear that they are superior. Other Ivies are possibilities too.</p>
<p>Related to my question, here is my information</p>
<p>GPA: 93.8 (Unweighted)
ACT: 34 (Composite)
SAT: CR:650 M:700 W:670 (No studying, but probably won’t take again)
SAT II: 720 Bio, plan to take Math II in the fall.
AP: AB Comp Sci:4, English Language in May
EC (short): Cross Country 4 years, Track (9-10, currently injured), Musical 10-12, School Newpaper 10-12 Copyeditor, Gay-Straight Alliance 9-12, VP Last Chance for Animals 9-11, National Honor Society 12</p>
<p>ACT is good, but it definitely wouldn’t be something that would bring up your chances at a place like MIT. You’d probably need a 35 or 36 for your score to be considered a hook.</p>
<p>Your GPA is good but not great when converted to 4.0 scale.</p>
<p>No offense, but I wouldn’t call you an overachiever either. An overachiever would have 10 APs done by the end of their junior year. Does your school not let you take most APs until 11th grade?</p>
<p>As far as EC’s go, they’re good but nothing stands out. If I were you, I’d do the USACO since you want to do computer science. Maybe also contribute to a programming project and mention that in your essays. Also, you could self-study a programming language or take a computer class at your local community college. These are typical computer science activities, but I think joining some programming project could set you apart from tons of applicants.</p>
<p>SAT II score could be better for MIT. Just aim for 750+ for everything but Math II (aim for 800 on this one).</p>
<p>Nowadays, it’s tough to get into MIT for males. The only person who got into MIT this year from our school was a female double-legacy. Our school is on newsweek’s top 100 HS list and is uber-competitive. MIT rejected all of our USAPhO winners!!!</p>
<p>you would be foolish to go to bing. I mean it is a good school, but nowhere near as good a schools as ones you should be applying to.</p>
<p>Definitely apply to some top schools like JHU, NU, U of Chicago, Ivys etc. Top publics and privates.</p>
<p>Your GPA will hurt a little bit at maybe MIT, but not too much really.</p>
<p>Go to the best school you can get into for your intended major. Get the best education that you possibly can.</p>
<p>Oh, and im here at the U of Chicago right now for the summer program for highschoolers, and the dean of admissions said that they just recently got this crazy 100 million dollar donation from some guy that died. The money was given to the school to guarantee that anyone who made less than 70k a year would get half tuition paid for by grant, and anyone who makes under 60k a year will get full tuition paid for loan free.</p>
<p>Yup, thats crazy. So if you make money somewhere around there, then U of Chicago may be a great fit (although i dont know what your intended major is).</p>
<p>Your GPA might be better than you think. A GPA is calculated from the letter grades you earn in a class, not by the percent grade. So if you have all A’s, your GPA is a 4.0. I’m not sure how colleges recalculate GPA, but I’m sure you can find a thread about that somewhere. Your ACT will get you in pretty much anywhere, but your SAT’s might hurt. You do realize that you have to send the SAT I with the SAT II scores.</p>
<p>If you are not willing to pay the Ivy price, then go for a merit scholarship somewhere else. Not only are other colleges cheaper, but they’ll give you more money and you can end up paying half for your education as what you would have at an Ivy. A SUNY will probably give you more merit money than you know what to do with, so that’s a very good option. And if you’d be happy there, it’s all the better. An ACT score isn’t a good enough reason to apply to a higher reach when your other stats really aren’t stellar.</p>
<p>But his rank is 100/450. So his GPA is in a little bit of trouble. But I agree with an above poster saying it would be foolish to go to Bing. And whoever said the OP isn’t an overachiever is wrong. He isn’t an “overachiever” by CC standards (you have to be 2400, 4.5, 10+ APs) but my most other standards the OP is an overacheiver.</p>
<p>As FredBurger said, your class rank and SATs are too low for the Ivys and similar caliber schools. Bing is a good choice though. It has solid academics and a good reputation in the region.</p>
<p>Binghamton was my secret love, too, and I’d be extremely surprised if they didn’t take you. I’ll probably end up at Bing for grad school.</p>
<p>Anyway, a few questions/comments:</p>
<p>– Are you taking the hardest course load available? Your class rank isn’t sparkling, but maybe in the context of the classes you’re taking, it is.
– If your goals thus far are uncertain and even blending into humanities (philosophy grad school, law school) I would stay away from RPI, which I think is lacking in non-engineering studies but is terrific for brilliant kids who never did well in school for one reason or another. CMU is a little bit more balanced, I think, but I might even find Bing preferable to CMU for all-around quality. CMU has stellar CS, though.
– If you are intellectually inclined, even though your profile may not scream it, I would say you have a better shot at a school like Chicago than many other posters may think. Chicago has a CS major, no idea about how others see it.</p>
<p>The other idea would be to apply to schools with both strong liberal arts and strong engineering/CS programs so you can choose later. These schools, not surprisingly, are among the most difficult to get into, so your chances are really a crapshoot.</p>
<p>I’ll be taking the hardest course load available for my senior year, and I have been taking it for the most part. Both Sophomore and Junior years I did not take AP Euro and US, but that’s the only subject that I am behind in. Most kids in my school choose to take easy courses and get a good GPA, but I’d rather take harder courses and have my GPA suffer a little bit. That, and I can’t pay attention in easy classes.</p>
<p>Thanks to all. I have a better idea now of what I should be looking for.</p>
<p>I would shoot higher than Binghampton. Your GPA and ACT are fine, and class rank doesn’t matter that much. However, MIT would almost certainly reject you. Shoot for schools generally higher tham Binghampton but lower than MIT, and participate in a computer science related project.</p>
<p>It may be pretty hard to get 800 on Math 2 because even 1 wrong question could bring you down to 770. Aim for an 800 in Bio; at least you’ll fall into the 760-780 range if you don’t make it. Any more SAT2’s?</p>
<p>Ivies may not be too far, too. No one here knows how your app is going to look like. But then Ivy ≠ best education for you, at least, not always.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I omitted four in Physics, got 0-2 questions wrong, and got an 800. My point is, it’s always easier to score a perfect on anything else but Math.</p>
<p>Class rank certainly matters, probably more than your GPA. It shows where you are relative to other students. With a ranking of 100/450, you need to ask yourself - does your school send 100 kids to those top schools each year? Of course, ranking isn’t everything, but what is it about your profile that would make you stand out against those 100 students to help you to get into those top schools. Sorry to be so blunt, but after what I went through with my D this year, I think it’s better to be realistic rather than be disappointed later.</p>
<p>Well then, you obviously made some careless errors and don’t remember them or the subject tests were harder back when you were in high school.</p>
<p>If by perfect, you mean 100%, then yes that is quite hard due to careless errors. If you mean 800, then you are wrong. An 800 is 90th percentile on Math II for June. Not very high at all. A 790 in Chem was 94th and a 770 in bio was 93rd.</p>