<p>Hey, I have a 31 ACT, a 3.325 GPA, (3.4 weighted). I've taken mostly Honors core classes in fresh and soph year, one Honors and 2 AP in Junior year, and 1 AP in Senior year (maybe 2 if I change my schedule). I got a 5 on the AP Psych test and 4 on AP Gov.</p>
<p>Question is, how can I not look like an underachiever when applying to colleges? To be honest, I really didn't think about college until halfway though Junior year. Looking back, that was very stupid.</p>
<p>For EC's, I was vice president of Robotics club Junior year, and member Soph year. Tennis JV team Freshman year and will join again Senior year. Not much community service but I plan to get maybe 30 hours or by the end of Summer.</p>
<p>Any help appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>Your ACT seems pretty consistent with your grades, so I doubt you would be viewed as an underachiever. It would be different if you had a 34 ACT…</p>
<p>^ The difference between a 31 and a 34 is a matter of a few questions</p>
<p>^ It depends on the school. My school is pretty inflated and we have kids with 3.9+ that have scored like a 22 on the ACT.</p>
<p>At OP: Are you worried your GPA is too low? If you have a really high rank, your lower GPA won’t be as big of a deal. Also, if your junior year GPA is really good, it’ll help. It won’t completely make up for it, but the upward trend shows that you’ve improved and really started to care about your grades.</p>
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<p>Assuming a 1pt/question scale, the difference between a 31 and a 34 is 9-10 questions. That is pretty substantial. Regardless, both are great scores.</p>
<p>OP, it comes down to where your applying to. If you’re noticing how your ACT score fits in the 25th percentile of some elite colleges (e.g. HYP), your GPA is way too low to bother applying.</p>
<p>However, if your looking at schools where you’re ABOVE the middle 50%, your GPA will probably be sufficient.</p>
<p>As others have mentioned, a 31 roughly corresponds with a 3.3 as long as there is no grade inflation at your school.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m worried about my GPA. My class rank is at 35%, which I am assuming is bad? I know a bunch of people who have 3.7s and like 26 ACTs. I blame it on all the Honors classes I took, but whatever. I took a non Honors English class Junior year and it was so incredibly easy I wanted to walk out of the class. At least it raised my GPA, although I didn’t learn anything. Makes me wish I had taken easy classes.</p>
<p>My first semester Junior year was 3.0 GPA but second semester was like a 3.8. Not sure why first semester was so low.</p>
<p>So, both semesters averaged:
Freshman was 3.42
Soph was 3.21
Junior was ~3.4</p>
<p>So, overall, its not really an improvement, but it is an improvement from sophmore year, so I guess that’s something.</p>
<p>So what colleges do you want to apply to?</p>
<p>cc123sb - I’m going to apply to Colorado State University, University of Denver, and CU Boulder, and see what financial aid is given. At CSU my GPA is jussst under average but ACT is way over average (26 I think). Both DU and CU Boulder will be reach schools but if I get accepted and get substantial financial aid, I will be happy. </p>
<p>For both CU Boulder and DU my GPA is under the average (3.56 and 3.7 respectively) but according to Naviance, people with my stats have gotten accepted numerous times.</p>
<p>I applied to CU and got in. I had a 3.5 gpa and a 24 ACT. My friend got into DU with a 20 on the ACT and a relatively high (but not 4.0) gpa. Sounds like you’re good.</p>
<p>Despite my limited knowledge of CSU and U of Denver, you seem competitive for all three schools. Your ACT score will definitely be above average, which may open you up to merit, but it really comes down to how much the schools weight your GPA in admissions and scholarships. However, since your course load is above average for applicants to these schools, all three should be able to “forgive” if your GPA is lower than average.</p>
<p>Do you need to stay in CO? You definitely can find schools of equal rigor elsewhere, and the more applications you get out = the more schools you can compare FA at.</p>
<p>That’s a bit of a relief 
While I’m not yet decided on a major I was considering CIS/IT, and since, no, I don’t have to stay in CO, are there any similar level, good computer schools that you know of? I was also thinking of electrical engineering, which is why CSU and CU Boulder where at the top of my list.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the help, I don’t want to start yet another thread for what may be an easy question/</p>
<p>If you took so many honors and APs, how come there is such little difference between weighted and unweighted? Your weighted GPA should be over 3.5 unless the school gives very minimal weighting.</p>
<p>What if we have a 2350 and a 3.1 GPA (with an upward trend)? Is there any way to make it clear that we’re no longer lazy?</p>
<p>I think University of Wisconsin – Madison is a high match. Your ACT places you in the 75th+ Percentile, but your GPA is closer to the 25th. </p>
<p>Maybe try RPI as well?</p>
<p>Both schools have great engineering/comp sci programs.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids - I took lots of core honors classes, but our school doesn’t weigh those. I’ve only taken 2 AP classes. </p>
<p>(Speaking of which, my AP psych grade should increase soon, since I got a 5 on the AP exam and our teacher promised to edit our grades to an A if we did. So my weighted GPA should go up a bit, since I got B’s both semesters if I recall).</p>
<p>cc123sb - Thanks, I’ll take a look at those.</p>