I really am stressed about my college chances?

Question

I am a junior in a New Jersey high school. My weighted GPA is 3.4 and my rank is 35 out of 110. I only took one honors class my freshman and sophomore year combined. This year I have AP US 2, and Advanced Chemistry. I am working my tail off this year. I am involved in Spanish Club, Math Club, Science League, and Future Teachers. I got a 160 on my PSAT, have not yet taken the SAT. I did community service volunteering at a nearby hospital. I am going to work over the summer once I get my license. I signed up for Cornell University High School Student Summer Program. I also won awards which was Perfect Attendance, and Principals List (2 out of 3 marking periods were straight A's)

What are my chances of going to Rutgers New Brunswick, St.Johns, Temple University, NYU, Boston University, or Penn State???? Please help me, I am pretty stressed out

Answer 1

Sounds like you're on a good track, but you need to keep/get the GPA up higher (with a more rigorous course load, as you say you'll be taking.) And you need to do much better on your SATs than you did on the PSAT. If you can afford it, get an SAT tutor or attend a prep class. Otherwise, at a minimum, get the Princeton Review and Barron's prep books/CD-ROMs (if available) and devote the necessary time to prepping. Make sure you "get" the tips on how to approach the test...when to guess, how to pace yourself, etc. Take many practice tests so that you are wholly familiar with the rules and types of questions...it'll save you time during the actual test. Be sure to check that your "bubbling" of the circles is correct every few questions. If you get "off" one line, you could inadvertently reduce your score by quite a bit. My son, in reviewing his SAT, noticed he was "off" for about 10 rows, fixed it and no doubt it helped save an excellent test score.

Some of the schools you mention are harder to get into than others. Consider other schools as well, consider early decision or early action if you know one school is your top-top choice, and keep working hard. Good idea to do the summer program.

BEST of luck!

Answer 2

All of your extra curricular activities look great, but you really need to take the SAT and fall within atleast the middle 50th percentile range of SAT scores.

I would suggest taking practice tests as well as taking the SAT multiple times in the upcoming year.

Answer 3

Don't worry so much. Keep up the good grades. Take the SAT, then compare your SAT scores to the averages of those colleges. You should apply to several of them next year, and I'm sure you'll get in more than one.