<p>I am going into my senior year of high school with a 3.9 weighted gpa and 3.4 unweighted gpa. I have taken 3 ap classes so far and I’m taking 3 more this year. I have played varsity ice hockey for 3 years and will have played for 4 by the end of this year and I have also run track for what will be my third year. I got a 700 on SAT math, 650 on writing and 660 on CR. I am in a few clubs and I have done some volunteering. I am also a 2 year member of NHS. The one problem is that my class rank is 100/365 but I go to a school with many very smart kids and I have taken some of the hardest classes that my school offers.</p>
<p>In most states, those are very promising for your flagship university. Outside of that, you’ll most likely be looking at universities ranked below 30 on USNWR and LACs ranked below 20. You have weak ECs and GPA, so you’ll want to look at schools where your test scores are at least on par with the 75th percentile of admitted applicants. There are definitely some gems to be discovered, especially among the LACs, but the intersection of schools you’re competitive for and schools that meet full financial need is narrow.</p>
<p>On the other hand, you can cast a pretty wide net if money is no object for you.</p>
<p>There are a lot of colleges out there. Can you develop some criteria for what you want in a college large/med/small, geographic location, urban/suburban/rural, major? Are there financial considerations? Also does your school have naviance so you can do some investigation of which colleges students like you at your school get into? Did you pick your safety yet?</p>
<p>How good are you at ice hockey? That might also help tilt the scales in your favor.</p>
<p>I was thinking about schools from a range of Boston College-Rutgers (safety school)</p>
<p>If you are interested in playing hockey and/or running track at the D3 level, you might want to look at the teams in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (most are LAC’s plus Milwaukee School of Engineering). Several are known for high standards of academics and you may get a very good academic scholarship with your 2000 SAT plus continue to place sports at the collegiate level.</p>
<p>Your stats are similar to my younger son’s, although he had a more rigorous (full-IB, plus some APs) courseload, slightly higher test scores (2060 SAT/31 ACT) after second seating, and leadership ECs. You could certainly consider many of the same colleges he applied to. You are academically competitive at almost every college other than the most elite tier. That’s the good news. Will you need financial assistance? What state do you live in?Your options will be considerably greater if your family can pay the full price at any college. With that in mind, do you have a geographical preference? Do you want to remain in an area where you can play hockey year-round? Do you want large or small? Any specific academic interests? </p>
<p>I live in NJ and my parents are willing to pay for whatever school I go to but they want me </p>
<p>Ignore Old Nassau. You have the stats and credentials to be admitted into any school. Despite what many members on CC think, colleges look at students holistically and don’t just eliminate you because you don’t have a 2300 SAT score. Even those who are ranked in the top 30. If you try to get recruited, that will help you even more. Have you checked out Union? Also, I’m glad you have BC on your list. That is a good option for you, but getting recruited by their Hockey coach may be hard seeing that they have a respected hockey team.</p>
<p>Run the SuperMatch engine on the left of this page.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats is right that the most elite tier of colleges evaluate applicants holistically, but she betrays a poor understanding of these colleges’ selectivity when she says that you have the qualifications “to be admitted into any school.” Princeton releases their admission statistics annually, and you can see that only 5% of applicants with your test scores are accepted. Those who are have extraordinary recognition in extracurricular fields, usually on the national level.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/</a></p>
<p>I agree completely, however, that you possess very good qualifications for most colleges in America. Like I said in my first post, you can cast a wide net. Even among America’s top 50 schools (the top 30 universities and 20 LACs), you may find you can make it into a few low reaches. Below that you become a viable candidate for the remaining 98% of the country’s 2474 four-year institutions.</p>
<p>However, going to an OOS or private school is probably not financially wise when you have such great options within your state. You’re an exceptional candidate for Rutgers.</p>
<p>Running the SuperMatch engine is a very good suggestion too.</p>
<p>I do not have a poor understanding of college admissions. But to exclude from simply applying based on their SAT score, which is in the top few percentiles of the COUNTRY, is asinine. So what Princeton accepts 5% of applicants in the low 2000s. That accept basically 8% of their applicants in GENERAL. With your logic, no one should apply to Stanford or Harvard because they accept 5% of their applicants. So 2000 applicants shouldn’t avoid applying. I would not limit your public school to Rutgers. Idk why so many here rave about it. It really isn’t that great of a school. But that is aside from the point. Your logic is flawed Old Nassau.</p>
<p>Sorry to step on your toes @AnnieBeats. My wording was unjustly critical of you. Sorry for that.</p>
<p>I saw you post on Dream0n’s thread where you implied she would probably not get into Stanford despite extremely high qualifications. Clearly then you do understand admissions well, my mistake. I had interpreted your statement here to mean that you thought the OP had a solid chance at elite schools, but I see now you were just accounting for intangibles and randomness.</p>
<p>Randomness is definitely there, but acceptance letters are (usually) not the product of monkeys at typewriters. Admissions officers combine SAT scores and extracurricular achievement in their decisions. Both are very important. That higher SAT scores result in better admission success is undeniable, and if your SAT is below what it needs to be, you generally need extraordinary ECs to make up for it. In my opinion the OP’s extracurriculars will not stand out among applicants for top schools. His chances at Princeton would be less than 5% because his ECs are not in the top 5% of students in his test score bracket. </p>
<p>Conversely, students with higher SAT scores can expect better odds than the 7% general acceptance rate. A student with a 2300+ SAT should expect a 15% chance of acceptance based on Princeton’s data. Extracurricular strength is harder to quantify, but acceptance rates definitely go up with EC strength. Someone like the national student poet laureate may have a 75%+ chance with those scores. (The NSPL from 2013 is now a rising sophomore at Princeton actually.)</p>
<p>My own chances weren’t nearly that high. Although my ECs were better than average, they never surpassed the state level. I’d say I had about a 25% shot at HYP. Low, but clearly worth applying at that point. Assuming a 75% of rejection at each school, the chance of rejection at all three was .75^3 = 42%. In other words, a 58% chance of acceptance from at least one. This is how kids get in: luck and statistics turn great scores and great ECs into acceptance letters.</p>
<p>Statistics are heavily stacked against OP if he’s applying to the Ivies. Elsewhere, not so much. Sprinkle on some luck and he’s good to go. I try not to deal too much in luck, which is why I gave the range of colleges where his stats would do most of the work. Doesn’t mean he won’t get in to some top 30 universities if he applies.</p>
<p>Regarding Rutgers’ popularity, its reputation as a colonial college will follow it forever. Agreed that it’s not too special though. Better than my state flagship at any rate, and I liked my flagship. It may get more love than it deserves but there’s no denying it’s a good school.</p>
<p>@OldNassau It’s okay 
I try not to inflate students’ chances. But I would never deter a student from applying unless they are extremely unqualified (i.e. 1.89 GPA applying to Harvard).</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats I try to be conscious that some kids’ application budgets are limited, and it’s best for them to have a mix of fits and low reaches. My best friend started applying to Yale last year and as much as I respect him, I told him to stop. His mom only granted him enough money to apply to six schools, and his shot at Yale was minuscule enough that it just wasn’t worth it. His rejection from Cornell and his wait list at Vanderbilt pretty well confirm that he would not have made it to Yale. He made the wiser choice of applying to an extra fit school, and it worked well for him. He’s just started his first semester at Vassar.</p>
<p>Your method of letting kids dream on is a good way to go about it though. I know a senior this year who’s applying to UCB with a 24 ACT… No chance. She asked me for advice filling out the Common App and I gave it to her. I didn’t tell her not to apply because I knew she wouldn’t miss the money. Don’t know about the OP’s financial status, so I’m erring on the side of financial responsibility rather than wild dream-chasing.</p>