3.43 GPA, 1920 on the SAT's, 29 on the ACT's, etc... Which colleges would accept me?

Question

I know not unless you are a college admission administrator most people have to "guess" what their chances are for certain colleges. Many people says a 3.43 GPA is average.

To give you some background info, most of my classes were Honors and AP classes, and just a few reg. courses here and there throughout my 3 years of high school so far. I took one SAT so far and got a 1920, I'm going to take it again in October and maybe for the third time in November. I ended up taking the ACT's and got a 29. If it helps I live in NJ, Volunteered 100+ hours, joined several clubs and were dedicated to them. I won a couple of Best Poetry awards during high school, and one of my poems was published in a poetry book called Tracing the infinite. I am sure that I got the best recommendation my teachers and counselor could give me, and I will work hard to write a great essay.

Now that I'm going to be a senior in HS this year with many other people, I'm looking for which colleges to apply to, and trying to determine which is a reach safety and match. Sometimes I feel so down whenever I hear people with 3.7+ GPA, which they earned no doubt about it. Still after I hear those GPA's it makes me wonder what kind of college would accept me.

I was wondering if these colleges would be a reach, safety, or match for me. Before some of you answer I do not want to go to community college and transfer.

Rutgers

Villanova

Boston University

Lehigh

Montclair

TCNJ

I know most of them are great schools and tough to get into. Out of all of them Villanova is my first choice.

Answer 1

This looks like a reasonable list for you -- a couple reach schools, several that are probably a good fit and one that is a sure thing. Montclair is the only school on the list that I would advise against.

I don't know how derdaktari got the idea that Villanova is an urban school.  It is on a spacious campus in the wealthy Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia.  I rank it up with Duke and Princeton in terms of beautiful campuses (I attended both Villanova and Duke an d used to live in Princeton).

Princeton Review has a tool where you can enter information about your interests and background.  It then gives you a list of appropriate schools.  The link is below

Answer 2

I'm a graduate of Boston University, and I'm pretty certain you'll be accepted there. I would try to get that GPA up to at least a 3.5 or 3.6 (I had a 3.8 unweighted) if you want to have any kind of academic scholarship. I think sometimes students are so concerned with just getting accepted into a certain university, they forget to consider how they'll finance going to those schools if they do get accepted. Boston University's tuition skyrockets ever year (I think cost of attendace is around $47,000 a year). If you don't get an academic scholarship--and if you aren't rich--then just how do you plan on financing that education?

This is basically the only reason I tell you to get your GPA up. BU will consider you for their scholarships if you have at least a 3.5 or 3.6, but if you're just concerned about getting in, then I don't think you'll have a problem with that.

Your hard factors (i.e. test scores, GPA, class rank) look pretty good, and I'd say your soft factors (i.e. volunteer work, extracurriculars, essay) are looking great as well. While I don't think you'll get into any Ivy League schools with those stats (although you never know), I'd definitely say you're on par with the schools you're looking to apply to.

Break a leg!

Answer 3

Rutgers is part of the NJ state system...... advantage

Villanova is an urban school........

BU is HIGHLY competitive.......

Lehigh is a great school and you easily could sell your resume to them..

Montclair state is a lower tier NJ state school...... <buzzer>

Take a look at Gettysburg and Lafayette.....

Answer 4

Make a list of schools you want to go to.  Then  go online and find out their requirements to get in unless you want someone to do all of the work for you of which is something you should want to do.  If you can't find the information on your own then you should not being going to college.  Sorry, that's what I think about it.