[swymg25]

What are the general requirements to get into a good school??? When i say good school i dont necessarily mean the ivy league schools. I'm curious about colleges such as Boston College, and other colleges that are similary ranked. How good does your SAT I and SAT II scores have to be? Also, how good does my GPA and how many hours do i need? What are some other things colleges look at besides the application it self

[michellek]

have you tried looking for a freshman admission profile for schools you're interested in attending? it's usually under their Undergrad Admissions pages, or if you can't find it, just try to google for it. they're very helpful, tells you the mid range of accepted students' SAT scores, the percentage of each GPA range of students. there is never a minimum score required for a school, because i don't think that's really allowed. but of course, high caliber schools have higher averages.

as for the hours, there's not really a set average for that, or schools just don't really show you. the best you can do is to community service/volunteer in only one or two particular areas so that schools can see you're dedicated to a one certain field.

other things they look at... probably your essays. some schools really take the essay into factor so make sure it's strong regardless of how well your numerical stats may be. good personality, which you should also reflect in your essay(s) too.

[alicimoo]

Search for your colleges at Collegeboard.com. Then click "SAT, AP, CLEP" for the middle 50% SAT scores. I believe you can get the percentage for each GPA range if you sign into your own account, input your data, and click How do I stack up? It's on the same page as SAT, AP, CLEP.

For BC middle 50% of first year students:
SAT Critical Reading: 610 - 700
SAT Math: 640 - 730
SAT Writing: 620 - 710
ACT Composite: 28 - 32

Colleges also look at your extracurricular activities, leadership positions, teacher recommendations, and your essays.

[swymg25]

thaink you lots but then wat does "middle 50% mean"???? also wats the diff between weigted and unweighted gpa and which one do colleges look at?

[eternal_bliss]

For Boston College and the likes, it's recommended you take four years of every core unit. So four years of english, math, science, foreign language, and social studies would be good. At least 90%+ were in the top half of their school (but some applicants may not have sent that in). I think an average GPA for Brandeis Uni is around 3.8. That's pretty similar for the schools with similar ranks. Unweighted of course.

You should have at least one role showing your leadership (ex: Editor of yearbook), good volunteer work, experience, class rank, essays, school record, etc. They'll also consider your minority status and alumni relationship.

What I'd recommend is getting a book on colleges if you don't already have one as they will most likely answer all you questions on requirements. They'll have full profiles on all the requirements, campus life, financial aid, and such.
(Princeton Review, US News, etc)

And Boston College is Roman Catholic, right? So I guess your religious commitment is important too.

thaink you lots but then wat does "middle 50% mean"???? also wats the diff between weigted and unweighted gpa and which one do colleges look at?

Middle 50% is basically the middle range and that 50% of the admitted students scored within those numbers. A weighted grade adds an extra point to the class making it five points out of four.

So in a regular class:

A=4.0
B=3.0
C=2.0 etc.

But in an AP class:

A=5.0
B=4.0
C=3.0 etc.

It might differ in each state/school since some will add only .5 for an honors class but 1.0 for an AP class. Colleges will consider both and high school usually send both. I've heard that a lot of colleges use the unweighted more but there are several different theories on this one. But like I said before, high schools can calculate this differently so they'll probably care more for your unweighted when comparing you to the other applicants. In the end, I think both matter since colleges care if you take courses to challenge yourself and whatnot.

[WannaBTutor]

Each school is different.

Generally, you need to break minimum of 2000 for competitive colleges. Higher if you go for programs within these competitive colleges.

Preferably minimum of 700 on SAT IIs if your institution requires/recommends them. Take Mathematics Level II if you do math. Mathematics Level I doesn't count for many places.

High GPA. I say, at least 3.7.

Volunteer. Honestly, it depends. I didn't have tremendous number of volunteer, but I played three sports so...