<p>I’m a rising senior interested in University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Amherst and UVA, among some state schools. Current stats are 3.7 GPA, 4.5 WGPA and 2320 SAT. I know that my GPA is well below the average accepted GPA for Penn, Amherst and Georgetown, at least for my high school. I also know that I could, with some work, get my SAT up to a 2400. I took the SAT in November, and was consistently scoring 2350-2400 on my practices. So, do you think its worth it to put in the extra effort to get a high 2300 or even 2400 score? Will it make a large difference in my application to these more selective schools? Or do you think its possible that a good essay alone would push me in despite a below-average GPA?</p>
<p>I have good volunteer (500hrs), internship, and several solid ECs, but not anything incredible. No hooks, and asian male. Feel free to ask me for any other information.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>You seem like a pretty average candidate for UPenn. But since you’re unhooked, you should put in plenty of effort into strengthening your application. This can indeed be for increasing you’re 2320, but if you honestly feel there is another part of you application that you can make a difference with, go for that. </p>
<p>FYI: I’m similar to you, and I’m putting forth my effort to increase a 2330. This is only because I can’t find anything else to improve greatly for my application at this point.</p>
<p>Ethereality3- Nice to know someone’s in the same boat as me! Seems that most applicants are the other way around - strong GPA with decent SATs. How are you trying to raise your score? Before, I studied just by doing tests, but I’ve almost run out of official tests (I think I may have a couple left, though).</p>
<p>Same here. It’s easy for me to study since I lost all my points in Writing, so I just got a Writing workbook and am working with that. It’s a shame I finished my BB tests though :(</p>