Applying To Colleges

[Foucaulf]

A few questions...assuming SAT is an examination when do you sit it and can you make further attempts in order to improve your results?
Is your GPA an ongoing score through your high school career?
What are average scores and really good scores?
What is "weighting"?

The SAT is a privately run examination that tests one's "reasoning" ability. While the company (College Board) offers watered-down versions of it to younger grades, the actual test is taken between the middle of 11th grade to early 12th. You can take it multiple times, and since it's made up of three sections you can combine the best score in each section for a "superscore".
American GPA is an average of your grades from 9th grade, the first year of high school. Almost all involves assigning points to a grade or a range of percentages, hence "Grade Point Average". GPA is all relative, though to apply for top private schools a GPA of at least 3.8 out of 4.0 is necessary.
So far I have only described the unweighted GPA, but because many high schools have advanced "honours" or university-level Advanced Placement courses, taking those means you're graded on a higher scale. For an AP course, the highest point possible could be a 5.0 while a C grade is still worth 3.0. The bonuses you gain for taking these courses account into the weighted GPA, which can exceed the 4.0 barrier of the unweighted one.

Our universities are competing for students so they'll accept anyone (as long as they can pay or get a student loan).It can difficult to get into individual programmes e.g. medicine but they'll accept any undergraduates.
Of course all our universities are government-funded and not privately run.

Don't think that most private schools aren't competing for students either! The problem is that Americans can apply to many, many schools with the advent of technology, and as you can see all of these kids try for the top 20 in the country. These schools have low admission rates, but outside this bubble there are many people who are willing to go to a public state school.

[Foucaulf]

Congratulations to all! It seems like everyone in this thread has gotten into one school they wanted, and that's what really matters.

Was surprised Ben didn't get into Northwestern and Simfan didn't get into every school to which he applied, considering how much more impressive their resumes were. But they seem like they didn't set their hearts on one school in the first place, which is a very good attitude to have.

Too bad no one here got accepted to my school, but that also means there won't be the awkward moment when I bump into said person. There's a silver lining to everything.

[Foucaulf]

Cut UC-Boulder (it will go on as a good school without you) and Harvard/Princeton (since you really need to apply to Yale SCEA). Get a list of 7-8 schools you will apply to. The five in your top list plus Brown and UVA sounds like a decent spread. I guess you can add back Princeton and Duke for 10.

I don't think you were the one complaining about too many admissions essays, but the way I see it the only legitimate excuse for limiting your applications is not being able to afford the fees. Think of the essays as practice for college.

[Foucaulf]

To clarify, I think everyone with their mind in the right place ought to apply to a state school or two. Surely UC-Boulder is worth applying to more than University of Denver...

Really, in this era of college admissions chaos to compete for the best brand-names one ought to apply to 20 of them. More reason to apply for publics, I think.

(And, to be coy, everyone who applies to Dartmouth should read this article.)