I’m starting my junior year this upcoming school year and I was just wondering about my chances.
UW GPA- 95.00
Weighted GPA- 100.83
AP’s: I took AP World my sophomore year. I’m taking AP Chem, AP US, and AP Language this upcoming year. Senior year I’ll be taking AP Calculus, AP Lit, AP Euro, AP Bio.
I haven’t taken the SAT or ACT yet but on the PSAT I got in the 95th percentile.
ExtraCurriculurs- Tennis team for my school for 3 years, tennis outside of my school for 5 years. Drama club/stagecrew for 4 years. Ive been in a chorus for 4 years. We have performed at Yankees games and other sporting events and also smaller events. I’m an editor for my school newspaper. I’m also a tutor at my school. I’m also a part of an aspiring medical professionals club.
Volunteer Work- I’ve completed about 160 hours of community service at the same two places.
Work Experience- I have worked at a pool for 2 summers and an animal shelter for 2 years.
Also, just a side note, I wanted to let anyone who responds know I’m Latino. I’ve heard that this may have an impact on my admissions so I just wanted to include that.
Thanks for any feedback
Ok mate. I’ve seen you post multiple threads in the past few days so I figure I’ll throw in my two cents. Frankly, we can’t determine much without SAT/ACT scores but College Board says the 95th percentile for the PSAT is a 1250, for the SAT it is a 1360 and for the ACT it is a 30. This is just a wild guess at what your SAT would be without studying. Using this information, I recommend that you spend the summer studying and take the SAT in August and the ACT in September. In terms of studying, I recommend you use the Khan Academy feature on College Board and take plenty of practice tests. My biggest regret as a rising senior is not studying for the SAT the summer before my junior year. Try to aim for 98th/99th percentile scores.
I can’t say much about your course load nor grades because I’m not sure how they compare to other students in your school but they look good to me. Try to stay in the top 5% of your class.
Being Latino will definitely help you.
Your ECs look good. Best tip is I can give you is to focus on something. Something I’ve heard is that colleges don’t want well-rounded students, they want well-rounded classes. This means that you need to make one category the focus of your application, preferably something that relates to the area you want to study in college (though you’re 15/16, it’s fine if you don’t know what you want to do yet), or something that benefits the school (such as being a recruited athlete or a future school newspaper journalist). Colleges want to be able to picture you as a certain type of student at that school. Find what that is for you and focus on it.
Another tip is not to apply to all eight Ivies. They are all very different. Penn is urban, very competitive/cut-throat, with prominent Greek life and an excellent business school. Dartmouth is small, located in a small town and has a quarter system. Brown is laidback (still really hard though) and liberal with a famous open curriculum. Columbia is in NYC and has strict requirements. Cornell is much larger and isolated from prominent cities. I’m not going to talk about HYP because this post is already too long and you can do your own research. You have a limited number of schools that you can apply to (I suggest fewer than 15) so only apply to schools that you think would fit you well. Also, don’t get too hung up on going to an Ivy. There are plenty of other great schools. Consider Stanford, MIT, Duke, Cal Tech, Rice, Northwestern, WUSTL, University of Chicago, Georgetown, Vanderbilt or Tufts. In addition, there are a lot of really good liberal arts schools and public schools.
To sum up, use the summer to focus on studying for the SAT/ACT so you don’t have to worry about them during junior year, keep your grades up, find a focus for your ECs, and do more thinking about what kind of school you want.
Totally agree with @justdreaming . Try to focus more on yourself than on colleges. Be you, showcase your genuine interests in your ECs and essays and own who you are. Find colleges that meet you right where you are, and avoid bending yourself to fit a certain college (or Ivy league).
Your stats look fine, you might want to look into bringing up your SAT but it’s not bad at all. Take a look at your PSAT again- If you were best in math, stick with the SAT. If you did great in reading/writing but math dragged you down, consider the ACT. If your scores are about the same in both, take a couple practice tests and get more familiar with the test before taking the actual SAT (or ACT).
best of luck!
Just read back through this and realized my post might have come off as a little harsh. All I’m trying to say is that it’s too early to be chanced. Another thing I forgot to mention is that you should go visit schools. Try to get a sense of what you like (size, location, type of campus, social atmosphere, etc).
I recommend getting off college confidential until you’ve finished your junior year. CC just adds to junior year stress. Try to enjoy yourself as much as possible. Hang out with friends and pursue your interests. Good luck! 