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4
a year ago
Admissions Advice

As a junior, what are the biggest ways I can improve my admissions choices?

4.0 unweighted gpa

4.167 weighted gpa

1470/1520 PSAT/NMQST (98th percentile in country)... planning on taking SAT in April

Coursework this year: Two AP classes, one IB HL class (college level), one IB SL class (not college level but considered advanced by my school and raises my GPA)

Coursework next year: Two AP classes, two IB HLs, and one IB SL.

I also took one AP class sophomore year.

My ECs:

Piano (I've been playing since second grade) - recitals and a few competitions

Voice lessons

Drama club tech crew

Junior chair for the NHS local government committee at my school

Model UN

Member of my school's mock trial team

Student Advisory Board at my school

Student Representative on a local government committee

Part-time summer job

Based on my stats, what should I focus on? Studying for the SAT? Improving my extracurriculars? Essays? I feel like it's a little to late to improve certain things.

confusedjunior
4
2

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2 answers

1
a year ago

I agree with @facilityburton; increase involvement in ECs and study for SAT. However, you are already doing VERY well in PSAT and will likely do awesome at the SAT.

Also, start thinking about college essays. It's not too early to start brainstorming ideas and creating structure. I wrote an extensive post about college essays you may find helpful: collegevine.com/c/junior/49537/make-your-essay-stand-out

As far as ECs, increasing your involvement would be beneficial BUT maintain a balance- you need time to rest, eat, and breathe! Don't scramble around trying to pick up as many ECs as you can; instead, find ways to explore your interests/hobbies further. Sometimes these things become our careers (mine are becoming for me!) and it's important to do things you enjoy.

If you have any other questions, lmk. Happy to help :)

1
0
a year ago

Your extracurriculars are quite good. If you want to improve them, you can get deeper with them, maybe take higher leadership positions or participate in more competitions. As long as your ecs align with the things you're passionate about and you're able to bring out that passion to admission officers, you should be fine.

I would advise studying for the SAT even though most schools have gone test-optional because it's another advantage to have in your application. For your essays, you can start brainstorming different aspects of your identity (i.e race, culture, ethnicity) that shape who you are and jotting down the experiences you've had in your life that have influenced you so that when senior year comes, you wouldn't spend ages trying to wrack your brain to come up with something unique.

Dont be like me who is trying to rush supplemental essays, and hopelessly looking for who to review my essays before the Jan 1 and Jan 2 deadline. Learn from my mistakes and do better. You can do this :) !!

0
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Your chance of acceptance
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UCLA
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Your chancing factors
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
1.0
4.0
SAT: 720 math
200
800
| 800 verbal
200
800

Extracurriculars

Low accuracy (4 of 18 factors)

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