Hi! I’m a rising junior and I’m pretty lost on college searches. If you guys could leave suggestions based on my academic description that would be awesome! Also any tips or internships or anything you want to comment on my academics is great too!
-GPA weighted: 3.875 unweighted: 5.12
-SAT: taking in October and January (possibly taking new one, unsure) last practice exam I scored a 1800-2080 (the range was given in the test book not sure why) but it was a test I had already taken. My most recent score that is completely pure is a 1770 but I finished SAT classes a few days ago so I plan to raise my score to above 2000.
-Class: rank not distributed until senior year
-Extracurriculars: nominee for Fellowship award (winner not announced yet), varsity golf, volunteer at senior living center as well as library, French club, community service club, student council, swim team manager (all I can think of at the moment)
-Hopes and plans: national honors society next year (only juniors and seniors can), French national honors society (only juniors and seniors), hope to find an internship, hope to score as close to 2400 as possible
Additional info: prefer colleges within NY PA NJ area… MA VA ML are okay too
Cousin works somewhere with the admissions office at Cornell
Like to play collegiate golf, not sure if possible though because stats aren’t that good
Top school is UPenn, I have a connection with an alumni if that accounts to anything… Also have been looking into Carnegie Mellon, Boston College, Cornell, and may be visiting University of Virginia.
No a connection with an alumni doesn’t count unless it is your parent and you ED to Penn. Either does the cousin at Cornell unless you are implying each person who works in the admissions office gets one in for free.
If your golf numbers are not that good, you can probably give up on the thought of playing in college. Realistically you will have to get in the top 10% of your class (with the most rigorous course load offered) & significantly raise your test scores to have a chance for admission.
There is a typo regarding your GPA. Unweighted cannot be higher than weighted or your school has a twisted weighting system.
You have plenty of time. Put aside the search for dream or reach schools. Work hard first on finding matches using your current scores. Hopefully your test scores will rise this year and those matches will become low matches, maybe safeties. Try taking a practice ACT exam. Some people do better on that than the SAT.
What is your home state? Is finance aid necessary, put another way - what can your parents pay? Run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on the schools you listed to get a sense of affordability. What do you want to study?
For someone who is at the very beginning, look at The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College. It has a painless chapter describing different schools.