Hi guys currently i’m a junior and I want to attend one of the top Universities for Engineering. I’m thinking of Berkeley but Ivy League might be an option. But I did HORRIBLE in freshman year and since then I have been improving. I take all honors/AP and IB classes.
And in my High School if you take Honors or IB/AP an A would count as a 5.0 and B+ as 4.33 and a B as a 4.0.
9th grade
2.3UW 2.66W (Not sure about by UW GPA for 9th grade)
10th grade
???UW 3.90W
Cumulative GPA (9th+10th grade)
2.88UW 3.33W
11th grade
4.1-4.2 Weighted GPA
Cumulative GPA (9th+10th+11th)
3.6+ Weighted GPA
12th grade (My Goal)
4.6+ Weighted GPA
Cumulative GPA (9th+10th+11th+12th)
At least a 4.1 Weighted
I also do a few extracurricular activities and I’m going for the IB diploma. I’m hoping to score AT LEAST a 2100 on my SAT and I plan to take the Physics,World History and the Math SAT II subjects. I might score a 780+ on my Sat II world History based on my AP test score for World History from 10th grade.
So how does my trend look? Rising from a 2.66 in freshmen year to 4.1 by the end of my senior year. Would this be a major trend that get a Universities admission office? I know that the average grade for an Ivy league school or any good university is like an A- or around it, but what are my chances? Especially if I have strong passions that I might reflect on my essay? I aspire to pursue something in Science and Engineering. I also moved to the US at the age of 10 from another country. So I don’t know if I will have any diversity advantage.
Upward trends are always good but the thing is, will it last? That’s what a college has to wonder when observing an application such as yours. Why did you do horrible freshman year? What made you decide to get everything together? Do you have an intent to continue this trend? These are all important questions that a college may consider.
Diversity advantage/URM status depends on what country you came from. What was your PSAT score?
Definitely look into building a hospital and Nairobi for the Ivy League admissions criteria
Just kidding, but really, you’ll like everyone else with those stats. I think you have a really great shot at a really great school, but everything up around top 20 tends to be a “let’s all throw our four years of hard work into a hat and draw straws; and by the way, johnny throws a good hail mary so he’s taking the first spot.”
^^^^ So your saying that their is a possibility that I might get selected or rejected but their is a POSSIBILITY I might make it?
It’s honestly pretty doubtful that you will be admitted to an Ivy or other top 20 type university with that GPA absent some kind of awe-inspiring hook, presuming the unweighted version is quite a bit lower. These colleges don’t really care how your school treats honors or AP grades; they have their own processes for comparing them against others. I agree that it looks like you have a shot at a really great school, but you are going to have to realistically redefine your search criteria to apply to those where you actually have a fighting chance of admission. For example, if you are a California resident, Berkeley might be a realistic reach. Stanford will not. It doesn’t hurt to throw a couple of dream schools on your list and to hope for the best, but it is very unwise to hitch all your hopes and dreams to a “possibility” with a less than 1% chance of becoming reality.
I’m a pessimistic person so I’m going to say you need to take a very hard look at your grades, the Common Date Set of Berkeley, Stanford and whatever “elite” school you’re thinking. See where your grades and test scores fall. I will say if you have a 3.0-3.25 unweighted GPA, let go of the elite dream.
Like all students, it is more important for you to search for and find satiety and match schools. This is much more difficult than looking at high reach schools. Concentrate your efforts on creating a realistic list of good schools - look outside the usual suspects of top 26 schools - there are some hidden gems out there.
Remember when you apply, colleges will only have your grades through junior year, maybe first semester senior year. The projected final senior weighted GPA is meaningless.
Well, Berkeley uses the UC GPA which doesn’t include Freshman year grades but also won’t include any senior grades. They also cap honors classes. You should go to the UC site and calculate your UC GPA.
You need to broaden your idea of a “top” school… particularly for engineering. The Ivy’s, Stanford… these are long shots for kids with absolutely perfect stats. While it’s great that you’ve been improving yourself, you should continue to see them as real long shots for yourself.
If you are in California, you should be looking at some of your other options like UCSB, UCSD, CSUSLO, CSUP, SCUSJ, SDSU… these are schools you have a better shot at and offer good science and engineering.
UC GPA calculator: http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
It is still a good idea to google common datasets for the all your schools of interest. The GPA listed on the CDS is unweighted. It will also breakout the 25th and 75th percentile for SAT/ACT scores which is also helpful to target your safety and match schools.