<p>Given my low GPA and pretty good test scores, I have no idea where I should be looking at schools. My GPA is 3.2UW/3.54W, my SAT is 2200 (780M, 720V, 700W), my PSAT is 226, my SATIIs are 800 chem and 790 math IIC, and I have 5s on AP chem, calc bc, macroecon, microecon, and compsci AB. If this makes any difference, my grades all are very high in math, sciences, etc. but what brings my GPA down are my lower grades in classes like history and english. I don’t have very many ECs, because I spend almost 100% of my time on track and XC. By the time I graduate I’ll have 11 varsity letters, and I’m captain this year (my senior year). It seems like no one really knows much about sports recruiting on here, but running will probably help me, especially at smaller schools with weaker track programs. Basically I just need some ideas as where I should be looking for reaches/matches/safeties and I’d like to know if my GPA is really going to kill me. Also I go to very good public high school in NJ and we are not ranked.</p>
<p>edit: forget to add, I’m mostly interested in computer science/math/engineering, so I’m looking for schools where I can major in one of those.</p>
<p>Case Western certainly has those majors, I don’t know exactly where they are ranked but I believe they have overlooked academics a little for students such as yourself who are strong academically. It might even be a match for you.</p>
<p>Case looks good, i’ll look into it more. Are there any other pretty good schools where my GPA won’t hurt me as much, and where my running might help me?</p>
<p>If you are going to run in college, I would contact the coach of any school you are interested in attending and see what happens. Go to the schools’ web sites, click on athletics, click on track, e-mail the coaches.</p>
<p>With your test scores, great track times trump grades.</p>
<p>Those are pretty good track times, same as mine. I dont know what to make of your 5k time considering the variety of courses. It seems like it was done on a faster course. Anyways, me and you are remarkably similar. Instead of the 1600, the 3200 is my specialty. I would suggest Cornell as a good school if you want to run in college. They got a new coach that is really turning the program around. Dartmouth and Princeton are other choices.</p>
<p>I would more than love to go to Cornell, Dartmouth, or Princeton but I’m seeing people with 4.0s and 2400s getting rejected from those schools so I don’t see how I would have a chance with a 3.2 and very few ECs.</p>
<p>You get into the top schools because there aren’t many high school juniors that can run a mile around 4:25. </p>
<p>So stop dwelling on what you can’t do and start dwelling on what you can do. Your ECs are fantastic. </p>
<p>I know a couple of runners that are going to top schools and they didn’t have perfect grades. I’m sure their test scores aren’t as good as yours.</p>
<p>So start contacting coaches. The worst thing that happens is the coaches say no.</p>
<p>Hah ok… thanks for the advice… I was just skeptical because it’s not too often you see optimistic responses on CC. I’ve been in contact with some coaches and I’ll keep looking. thanks everyone for the advice.</p>
<p>is there a reason that your GPA is low, like the curve at your school is high or something, or because your school is super competitive, or because the teachers and classes there are unusually hard? because if thats the case, colleges will definitely know that (because when your councelors send them your transcripts and letters, there will be a school record included explaining the courses and teachers and difficulty level) and also if you’re taking the most most rigorous schedule then all these are good reasons that competitive colleges will take into consideration when they look at your GPA, which means it might not hurt you as badly as you think it will. And with such high scores, and such fast times (i used to run xc and track as well-- and yea those are pretty good times, I ran the mile in roughly 6 minutes, 800 at 2:50, and 3 mile races for xc at 21:00 haha, i did the same exact events)-- you certainly can look to more competitive schools. So yes, contact the coaches, it’ll help (my friend who had your times, or probably a little slower, got into Pomona College, highly highly selective, on athletics, but again her academics arent too bad). </p>
<p>So with that in mind, your situation is pretty general and applies to all schools-- so i dont know where to start to tell you which schools because it doesnt matter. They all kind of judge and admit people using the same system-- so now its up to other factors such as location, size, etc. You’ve got to narrow it down</p>
<p>I only briefly mentioned this in my first post but my GPA is low because I don’t do very well in history and english classes. To be honest, it’s not that I really struggle in those classes but I’m just not interested in english and history and find it hard to motivate myself. I do very well in my math and science classes but that can only balance my GPA out so much. My school is very competitive and offers many difficult courses, but there are also plenty of kids with 4.0s, high 3.xs, etc, so it’s not necessarily that the curve is ridiculously high.</p>
<p>Running sub 430 in the mile is gold for those colleges, and your backed by excellent scores. Work on bringing up your grades this year as colleges will see that in your mid-year report. Also coaches can put you on a list at the admissions office that tells them to please admit these athletes.</p>