Hi, I am junior. I am in highly selective high school in NJ, asian boy with UW 3.62, W4.29. I have couple of B’s so far. I have taken good AP rigor. I am currently taking AP English lang, AP math AB(taking BC exam),AP physics,AP comp. I have taken all computer science courses possible in my school. I am planning to take in senior AP literature, multivar, AP chem, AP USH, AP Spanish. I think my GPA after 11th would go to UW3.7, 4.4W My SAT is 1500 and planning to take another in Aug. I am doing hackathon in comp club, Takewondo black belt and community service. I am planning to do research project in science in summer.
It’s not stellar GPA I know. Now as many others asked, what are my chances in high selective colleges? With my background stated, I want to know what is possible., I can dream all I want but good to know what I can shoot at.
Thanks for your guidance.
hi, any one could give feedback?
What schools are you thinking of? My kid had a very slightly better GPA and a SAT of 1540 and still got shut out of a lot of the elite schools, but did get accepted/waitlisted to a few elites as well. He did have a couple of very compelling hooks that hardly anyone else has, which probably made a difference.
There are definitely elite schools out there that value high math accomplishments and test scores more than grades. I think you would want to push the SAT up at least another 40 to 50 points, if possible. Or maybe take the ACT and see if you can get a 35+. The AP schedule that you have is good. Make sure you have Math II and a hard science for your subject tests. My kid did it the same weekend as the AP tests, so I’m not sure if you’ve signed up already or not. And most importantly, ED at a couple of schools, that will help your chances a lot.
Thank you. I finished SAT 2 math and scored 800. I signed up for SAT physics subject test along with AP schedule. I am trying hard to improve SAT, probably I will do ACT also in summer.
I am interested in Engineering/CS schools like typical top 10 schools. I am ruling out top grade ivy. CMU is in my sights. My home state is NJ, so fees will be hefty.
CMU has one of the top rated CS programs in the country and is super competitive for that major. If I recall, the CS admit rate was 6% last year for CS.
yeah, that’s I am worried about too. I may have to forget it or choose engineering in CMU if my SAT is high enough. I am banking on my next SAT test to get higher score. I got essay 22 now. UIUC could be reachable.
“And most importantly, ED at a couple of schools, that will help your chances a lot.”
Do not ED at a couple of schools. That would be dishonest. Under the terms of ED, you agree to only apply ED to one school. If schools find out you applied ED to more than one school, your app will be rejected. You can apply EA to more than one school, though, or you could apply ED to one school and also EA to some others. But don’t apply ED to more than one school (unless it’s ED at the first school then if your app is rejected/deferred, then you apply ED 2 to another school.)