36 ACT but low class rank...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Please help me.

I have no clue what I want to do, and have no idea if I’ll be able to get into these high tier colleges with my poor class rank and UW GPA.

Tryna get chanced for U Michigan, Case Western, UCLA, Cornell, Carnegie, Ohio State, all OOS. Just chance me for the ones you know

Intro
Grade: 11th
Race: Asian
Sex: Male
Income Bracket:

Stats
SAT I: bad, not submitting
ACT: 36 (English 35, Math 35, Reading 36, Science 36)
AP Exams: 4 Bio, 4 US, Guessing a 5 Gov, 5 Stats, 5 Calc AB, 4 Chem
GPA: 3.7 uw
Class Rank: 13% ish out of 350

Schedule: hardest course rigor possible at my school, 10 AP classes by the end of senior year and 13 AP tests

Extracurriculars
All State Violinist (4th chair in competitive state)
hopeful/probable Concertmaster of a popular youth orchestra (play with big names like Fall Out Boy, Ben Folds, twentyonepilots, etc)
All Region first chair concertmaster
I’m in a gigging band with some friends which is a massive commitment

dunno if this means anything but I use a forum and call suicidal at risk kids and try to help them out

Clubs:
NHS (co-prez)
School Orchestra (prez)
Newspaper (writer)
Student council
Model UN (founder/prez)
French Club
Math Club
Science Olympiad
(Probably won’t put the last 3 on)

Awards: lol… AP Scholar with distinction probably? Nothing too big

Volunteering:
Volunteer at a hospital, and I’ve put in hours at a non-profit geared to help disabled children play adapted sports, 200+ hours

Hooks: n/a

Other
Possible Major: Literally no clue, kinda need help/suggestions. Engineering or medical probably, but I haven’t gone in depth.
High school: Public, mid-size
State: midwest
Strength: ACT, that’s about it
Weaknesses: Gpa, class rank, nothing huge for extracurriculars

Also: Dumb question, but does freshman year gpa factor into the uw gpa that colleges consider? Freshman year was rough and I had to deal with a lot of things; my uw would be significantly boosted without it.

Thank you very much!

2

Regarding the freshman year grades, I don’t know about the other schools, but for the UCs GPA is based on 10-11th grades only. So you many want to add more UC’s to your list. If you like beaches (since you listed UCLA), maybe add San Diego and Santa Barbara also.

If you have no idea what you want to study, then large schools (like you have on your list) will give you the most opportunity to try different subjects.

Good luck and congratulations on your ACT score!

3

@Yomama12 Thank you! Could you possibly chance me for some of those?

4

I’ve never chanced anyone - but here goes:

High Reaches: UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD
Why: GPA trumps everything

Low Reaches: Davis, UCSB
Why: Good GPA, great score, good EC’s

Match: Irvine, Santa Cruz

Safety: Riverside

I’d suggest working on your personal statement (which will mostly be important to UCLA, Berkeley and San Diego) and making it as compelling as possible.

I am concerned that you are OOS - you know that California colleges are very expensive to OOS?

If you are interested in California, I’d suggest you also apply to San Diego State University and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. They are excellent schools with some majors that are better than the lower tier UC’s. Getting into Cal Poly is strictly a numbers game (GPA/test scores are the big factors - no essay required) and your ACT score will help you a lot.

Good luck!

5

Ohio State - match
Carnegie - match, my brother got in with much worse stats
Cornell - probably a reach but I wouldn’t say it’s that big of a reach
UCLA - reach

I don’t know about UM or Case Western. Also, a 3.7 UW GPA is NOT bad. It’s well above “average,” and your ECs are just fine. Don’t judge yourself based off kids you see here on CC–they are certainly the exception, not the majority of applicants to these schools.

6

UMich also put high value on GPA. They do count freshmen grades now but they recalculate GPA without subgrades, If you do not have many Bs but A-, your recalculated GPA would be higher. uwGPA 3.7 is rather low for UMich as their admission average is 3.85 (3.9 for engineering). Last year, they have 21% enrolled freshmen with 4.0 GPA from high school. You know ACT is just a single test that may take a few months of effort to achieve great score. GPA shows your cumulated effort in high school. Nevertheless, it has to be viewed in the context of your school and your course rigor.

7

@Yomama12 UCLA is mostly because my mom loves the school haha. Yeah OOS tuition sounds a bit heavy. Thank you for the feedback; I will definitely work on that.

8

@BabylonBabylon Interesting, carnegie’s acceptance rate scared the heck out of me. Do you think applying ED Cornell would improve my chances?

9

@billcsho wow, this actually helps out a lot. I get a considerable amount of A-'s, and have only gotten maybe a couple B’s. Do you think the ACT score would make up for the class rank though?

10

Class rank is also viewed in the context of your school. If it is a very competitive school, 15% is actually not that bad.

11

@billcsho how do colleges base competitiveness of a school? my school is not too large but it is pretty cutthroat for a public. how do colleges see that?

12

@taishi If you are not the only student or the first year from your school applying to that college, they know the quality of the students from your school. Also, they will see average course rigor from the school profile.

13

@billcsho I’d say that yes, ED Cornell would definitely improve your chances if that’s your absolute dream school.

14

They will look at your school profile. If average ACTs at your school are say 26 or even 28, it’s a clear sign that your school is competitive. My D had only slightly higher GPA and a 36 and CWRU offered Her a 100k scholarship. ED will help a lot at Cornell

15

@billcsho Oh shoot. It’s probably not good, then, that the current salutorian got rejected from deferral with a 4.0 and 35

16

@BabylonBabylon @Wje9164be do you guys it’d be worth applying ED Cornell compared to the other options I have/other places I’d get accepted to?

17

U Michigan - High Match
Case Western - High Match
UCLA - Low Reach
Cornell - Reach
Carnegie - Match
Ohio State - Safety

Chance me back ----> http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1771637-hypsm-chance-a-junior.html#latest

18

I wouldn’t worry too much about ranking. Harvard has even released a chart stating that they put “no importance” on class ranking. And most schools hardly consider freshman year grades.

I was in somewhat of a similar position as you. When I applied everywhere I wasn’t in the top 10 at my school. And it isn’t a competitive school (no one had ever gotten into a school better than Berkeley in my schools history) so that says something. I had a high ACT score (35) and ended up getting into 3 ivies (Cornell and Penn with likely letters, and Columbia) and waitlisted at Harvard. No one in the top ten–not even the valedictorian–got into a school better than NYU. Not saying correlation = causation, but the next highest ACT score of the top ten was only a 32. I’m sure there’s a multitude of other factors that played into what happened, but class rank sure didn’t help me, and obviously didn’t help the kids higher ranked than me.

19

It is definitely not “most schools hardly consider freshman year grades”, but many schools don’t. Whether class rank is considered, you just need to look up the CDS of each school. Just google CDS with the school name.
@taishi It is nothing uncommon that someone got rejected at UMich with GPA3.0/ACT35 from OOS.

20

Your grades aren’t perfect but they are hardly bad. You have chosen pretty expensive schools. Check out the OOS tuition for the publics. Do you have a college budget worked out with your parents? If you expect a lowish EFC, then add some meet full need schools. Otherwise, look for some possible merit money schools unless your parents can pay the full fare.

If you make your college list up correctly, I believe you should have some great options.