<p>Hey guys, I'm a rising senior from New Jersey interested in studying business or economics and was wondering how I stand based off my stats.</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<p>3.3/4 UW, 4/5 W
2200 SAT (770 math, 790 writing, 640 CR)
Varsity Track 4 years
JV Basketball 2 years
Lots of clubs w/leadership positions and community service
Wrote regularly on several sites like Bleacher Report</p>
<p>College Choices: </p>
<p>Rutgers
Northeastern
Boston Unviersity
Lehigh University
Villanova University
Illinois- Urbana Champaign
Indiana- Kelley
Emory
Wake Forest
Boston College
Michigan</p>
<p>Any other college suggestions that I might be able to get into? Thank you!</p>
<p>Tulane? Fordham? Notre Dame? Holy Cross? George Washington? </p>
<p>What schools would be your safeties? it looks like you have a good list of matches and reaches, but because of your low GPA (they’re not going to look at the weighted GPA, they’ll unweight it) most of your matches wouldn’t qualify as safeties. </p>
<p>@woogzmama I was looking at George Washington, but do you think I have a realistic shot at Notre Dame? I left it off my list because I didn’t think so</p>
<p>@maymay56 on that list, my safeties would be rutgers, northeastern and bu. I was thinking about throwing penn state in there too</p>
<p>You may want to aim slightly lower for your safeties, because of your unweighted GPA. Rutgers may be fine but I wouldn’t count on Northeastern, BU or Penn State as safeties. </p>
<p>the penn state bubble chart shows that this student would likely be offered admission to a campus OTHER THAN university park. </p>
<p>Thanks for the help guys. Any idea if I can get into my reach schools towards the bottom of the list? (Emory, Wake Forest, BC, Michigan)</p>
<p>If the OP is applying to Rutgers Arts & Sciences, he or she should have no difficulty as an in-state applicant. My older son was accepted with a GPA below 3.0 and a 2060 SAT. </p>
<p>You’ve this ambiguous resumé. You have a 3.3 GPA but a 4.0 wtd. Does that disparity suggest rigor? In combination with the ECs does that disparity suggest you wanted rigor AND to play sports and get involved in leadership? You have a 770M and 790W but a 640CR. How does someone with a 640CR get a 790W? Usually there’s a stronger correlation between the two. You’re interested in a school of business and a school of arts & sciences (econ).</p>
<p>You require a holistic reading for the AOs to see what you have to offer their college. So I’d lower my expectations about acceptance at large state schools except in your home state. The Big Ten schools (other than Rutgers) just have too many apps to read, and yours is going to get put in the Ambiguous Basket and may or may not get the tea reading it requires. So that may push them into the low reach category, particularly in business. Put Villanova, Wake, Emory, and BC in the reach category.</p>
<p>matches: northeastern, BU (low), Lehigh.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 thank you for the advice! And to answer some of your questions, yes the disparity in my gpa is due to rigor- I will have taken 9 AP classes by the time I graduate. I can’t explain the disparity in writing and critical reading; I honestly don’t think those two sections are similar. </p>
<p>The schools you mentioned (nova, wake, emory, bc) were actually all reaches on my list as well. Thanks again!</p>
<p>Are you looking at any more schools outside the northeast? You might be able to get into a higher ranked Uni or LAC if you look at more Southern or West Coast schools such as Santa Clara U or San Francisco. Londondad</p>
<p>@londondad i was thinking about UT-Austin and USC, but that’s about it for the west coast</p>
<p>Just so you know where my comments are coming from, I’m a Northwestern University graduate, and I currently help students get into colleges.</p>
<p>Colleges commonly look for at GPA and curriculum strength. A number of the top universities do not post average accepted GPAs for this reason. They know it varies by school, and it varies by difficulty. They want to see successful students, but they also want to see students that have challenged themselves. A second thought, if applicable, is that universities often overlook a low GPA if the low grades were in your Freshman year and your grades are stronger near graduation.</p>
<p>What you need now is dominate your first semester senior year. You also need to write an amazing essay proving that you are indeed a talented, unique person they need to pay attention to. If you have not taken SAT Subject Tests, you still have time before applications are due. Keep a good list of safeties and matches, but don’t count yourself out of anywhere.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of top universities you have not listed, take a look at Dartmouth and down. <a href=“http://collegeqb.com/Top20.html”>http://collegeqb.com/Top20.html</a></p>
<p>You have about their average SAT scores. Half of them don’t report GPAs because they know a single number does not tell the whole story, but you will have to make up for it by showing them something else.</p>
<p>Surely there is more to getting into these top schools, @nuey2007, than a 2200 and an excellent essay when the student has a 3.4 and ordinary ECs for the ivies. Like a hook.</p>
<p>The 3.4 is reflective of something, and cannot so easily be dismissed. The 3.4 says more than that the student took rigorous courses. It says that he is weak in some areas. The AOs would discover those weaknesses in math or writing or, as seems likely, reading, and find it very hard to get past those weaknesses when there are so many other candidates with less weakness and an excellent essay. If the one essay is excellent and the others are mediocre, the question of who wrote the excellent essay arises.</p>
<p>The 2200 is the average of all the students who were accepted, including the hooks and legacies with 1900s, early decision. The non-hook/non-ED students probably had much higher SATs.</p>
<p>I would not encourage this student to apply to ivies or near-ivies such as appear on your list. The GPA is too much of a weakness. </p>
<p>My kids both did very well on W but struggle with CR. The W is rule-based grammar type stuff that math types can get easily and study into a good score by reviewing key concepts. CR is much different and harder. </p>
<p>@celesteroberts yes, that’s how I view it as well. Writing and grammar rules just come naturally to me, but CR is more abstract</p>
<p>Thank you for the encouragement @nuey2007; I’ll definitely give it my all on the essays and first semester of senior year. However, as @jkeil911 said, my GPA is too weak for ivy/near-ivies, so I’ve never given most of those schools any thought besides Notre Dame, which is still a really far reach </p>