Considering I am a korean who lived in US for about 3 years… I think I did pretty welll.(well not satisfied yet though)
I original goal was…
dream: Yale MIT Princeton
middle: Univ of chicago, Northwestern, Wa. univ in St. Louis
safe: Colorado, UC Berk. …
I looked around their HPs and discovered that, compared to SAT score, ACT avg is tend to be low.
I mean MIT’s ACT Avg was just 32! Although it was higher than my score, but I thought it would be wayyyyy up there!
So my question is this…1. Do I have a shot at those schools?
(ps: my GPA is 4.21 and without premium it’s 3.85
I am a vasity Cross country and trek and field runner( cocaptain for 1yr)
I am from a catholic school ‘in’ Chicago with pretty decent club works
2. why is ACT avg so low?
<p>ACT avg is not low per se because scores from 32-36 are in the 99th percentile. It just so happens that it is hard to the grades on the upper end of the ACT scale, thus why you see a “low” average.</p>
<p>fewer people (mostly from the midwest) submit ACT scores, and i think midwest states tend to be less competitive score-wise.
if you live in chicago, i would think twice about making berkeley your safety. it is quite hard for out-of-state applicants to get in (the admit rate is about half that of in-state applicants: 12% vs 23%) and even many very qualified people i know in-state are getting rejected now, with the increase in applications every year.</p>
<p>Berkeley is not a safety with your numbers. A 31 ACT is equivalent to a 1380 SAT I for University of California. Their average accepted numbers for Fall 2005 were 4.2 GPA and 1350 SAT I, but it is much harder for out-of-state applicants.</p>