I’m 17 and a rising Senior. Life has been sorta crazy, I was born and raised in South Texas. Parents divorced when I was almost 14, and my mother being Mexican decided it was time I learn Spanish and Mexican Culture so I spent 3 years in Mexico. Most of my highschool I spent at one of the countries most prestigious schools on an academic scholarship (Tec de Monterrey) . Just moved back to the US in January. Now live in rural Tennessee (very different).
Quick Stats:
ACT:
Comp: 30
Math:27
Science: 27
English:31
Reading: 35
(Taking it again this Saturday with the writing portion)
GPA: 4.00 UW
(Didn’t have APs or Honors in Mexico and my new school only has 2 APs. Any tips on how to strengthen this are gladly accepted!)
Spike: I have an article in spanish about being an American living in Mexico published in a Mexican newspaper, I have a non-profit to help low income families in Mexico (don’t want to get too into detail, long story)
Im a First Gen and while my family supports me 100% I know they think my dream of getting accepted to an Ivy is just that, a dream. Just wanted someone else’s input maybe, should I just go to my safety school (UT Tennessee) or is there really any chance?
Edit: I would like to major in International Business and I’m ranked within the top 10% of my class
Wanted to add some insight into your safety school, University of Tennessee @ Knoxville. I just came back from touring it a couple of week’s ago. It will be one of my daughter’s safeties, as well. Not sure if you had the chance to go to see it yet, but I must admit I was quite impressed on the tremendous level of school pride and the stellar condition of the campus and buildings. As an fyi, they are building the largest school community center (in the works now) in the country that will be able to hold every student on campus in it and UT has a very large student population.
Sorry I can’t give you any advice about the Ivys at this time. If you haven’t had a chance to visit UT yet, I would encourage you to go see it. I truly believe it is a GREAT safety school. Best of luck to you in your college endeavors. I am sure you will end up where you are supposed to go and you will be happy:)
You have a shot but it would be beneficial to improve the math and science scores, also you should look at schools that superstore the ACT if your composite doesn’t go up but your math/science does. Your lack of APs will be taken in context of what was available.
Can’t really tell how strong your spike is on the info provided. Getting published in a newspaper isn’t strong enough of a spike IMO, but the non-profit could be depending on how much money raised. $10,000+ is a great spike, 5-10k is strong spike, 1-5k is kinda average, less isn’t really good.