how far will a 35 act score carry me? if all my other stats are also pretty good 3.9 weighted GPA, plently of good ec’s, would i have a very high/good chance at top UC’S (Berkeley, UCLA), USC and lower ivies like Cornell and Brown? And yes, ik that admissions are random but based purely on my stats alone, would they be good enough?
Thanks in advance
You can put your stats into “p a r c h m e n t” and add the colleges. It will spill out your chances of admission to each college. Very high precision predicted percentage, such as 22.19317075%. Post back once you find out.
parchment is SCARY
but it seems to be missing things- namely financial aid
If you are not admitted with a 35 ACT and a 3.9 GPA then there is something lacking in the rest of your application, which is quite common for applicants to the “lesser elites”.
Adcoms would admit that above a certain threshold, the admissions seem random. But the triage that precedes that is hardly random. And as TomSrOfBoston notes, “something lacking” can stand out. A kid with a high GPA can end up with lukewarm LORs or an awkward essay and that can put them out of the running.
It looks like the 3.9 is the WEIGHTED GPA.
What is your unweighted GPA?
Of course it will vary by college, but here’s my unscientific take on how test scores and grades play into admissions…
Public colleges are generally more metric driven. There are firm cutoffs for GPAs and test scores and that is the majority of the decision - are you above that cutoff? ECs, LORs, essays play a small role and can’t boost you enough to overcome grades or scores outside the cutoffs.
Private colleges often use the GPA and scores as one of the first passes but instead of being a firm cutoff it’s more of a question of “does this applicant have the capacity and skills to benefit from our college and to do the work?” If they believe you have the skills and could survive, then they go on to look at your ECs, LORs and essays to see if you’re a good fit. So grades and scores aren’t as important or absolute, are only used as a first indicator in the process.
To get back to your original question, your high scores and grades would probably be enough to get you admitted to most of the public colleges (other than the ultra-highly competitive programs like CS, which have different and more stringent criteria.) Those high scores and grades will also probably get your application placed in the “yes, qualified - read further to see if this is a fit” pile at most private schools but without knowing a lot more there is no way to know if you’d be admitted.
Sorry, re-read and realized the 3.9 GPA was weighted. That’s not a good indicator since most colleges use unweighted or calculate their own weighting system.
@suzy100 lol, that is unweighted gpa, weighted is about 4.3
sorry lol, i meant 3.9 was unweighted gpa, 4.3 is weighted
Yes obviously a 3.9 GPA and a 35 ACT are good enough. Look at the common data sets.
hi, do u mind sending the link to the data sets?
Google a college name and common data set. Like: Cornell common data set