Rachel Said:

What are my chances of getting into Emory?

We Answered:

3.5 is a bit low for Emory. If your low grades were in your freshman year courses though and you have had a very rigorous schedule then those two factors might be enough to compensate for your (relatively) low GPA. Your SAT/ACT scores are also important and you haven't listed those. You're going to want at least 1300 on your SAT (not including the essay section which Emory doesn't care about) or a 29 on your ACT.

While extracurriculars are nice, colleges don't really care about them unless you've shown a lot of participation/leadership in them. Community service is also nice, but it's more like icing on the cake rather than something that will truly help you get accepted. And your minority status isn't going to help you much if at all.

Go ahead and give it a shot if your SAT/ACT test scores are good enough. Make sure to have a back-up though. If you're deadset on Emory, however, you'll be happy to know that there is a backdoor into the university. Emory has a junior college, Oxford, that has much less demanding admissions requirements (you would have no trouble getting accepted there). What happens is that you attend Oxford for two years, graduate with an associate's degree in liberal arts, and then automatically continue on to Emory College for your last two years to work on your bachelor's degree.