I’ll be straight up here. I have a horrible GPA. I know it’s an issue. I’m not kidding myself, I know it will heavily hurt my chances to get into a ‘good’ college. After visiting in February I fell in love and would really love to go to Oberlin, but I definitely need someone to straight up tell me if I even have a shot or not. Other schools I’m interested in are Swarthmore, Rice, UMich Ann Arbor, Montana State University, CU Boulder, Colorado State University, Middlebury, George Washington, SDSU.
I’m a hispanic first-gen male from Nevada who wishes to study Environmental Studies and Anthropology. Low/low middle class.
ACT: 33 (Science, 36; Reading 36; English, 32; Math, 29; Writing, 33) I’ve only taken the ACT once so I think I will take it again to improve my english and math scores.
SAT: 2100 (CR, 680; Math, 680; Writing, 740) I’ve never tried the new SAT, but plan on taking one just to see how it goes.
PSAT: 1410/1520, in the running for National Merit Semifinalist.
AP:
- 5’s on Human Geography (self studied), US History, Environmental Science, English Lang.
- 4’s on Seminar and World History.
- Taking US Government, English Lit, Research, Stats, and self studying for Comparative Government my senior year.
GPA: 2.952/4 UW, 3.752/5 W
Rank: 207/696
EC’s:
- 4 years of Speech and Debate, VP junior year, President senior year. Top 2% ranked all around in the state, top 7% ranked all around in the nation, went top 32 in the nation at 2016 NSDA Nationals in World Schools Debate.
- 4 years of Model United Nations. Founded the club freshman year, officer position held every year. Accomplished competitor.
- 4 years of Varsity Quiz (quiz bowl). VP junior and senior year. Most winning team in state history, back to back championships.
- 2 years of Southern Nevada Water Authority Youth Advisory Council. City wide youth council that conducts research on -water use in the desert and presents findings and recommendations to the Southern Nevada Water District, open to juniors and seniors only, project head for both years.
- 2 years with Las Vegas Habitat for Humanity Youth United as an officer. (10th and 11th)
- 2 years of a part time job.
- 1 summer of field work with the UNLV Archaeology department.
- 2016 Rotary Youth Leadership Awardee
- 2016 American Legion Nevada Boys State Delegate
- AP Scholar with Distinction
- Should the pattern hold, I’ll be a National AP Scholar. I don’t see myself failing any of those AP tests this year.
I also build and compete with 30,000 year old native american spears called atlatls. It’s a huge part of my life and identity. Through my studies in archaeology and anthropology I fell in love with this piece of ancient technology and have studied it since elementary school.
So what honestly are my chances. How much will my GPA hurt me, and how much will a super unique essay on spear throwing save me. Sorry for the long post but thanks for reading!
CSU/UC GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
For SDSU, you want an EI of around 1000+ ACT to be a competitive applicant.
(CSU GPA x800) + (ACT comp x10)
Unfortunately EC’s are not considered for SDSU. You will also get no financial aid from SDSU so expect to pay $36K/year.
If I calculated this correctly, UW, 2.9; W, 3.08; Weighted and capped, 3.03. Wasn’t sure if I counted the honors courses correctly but.
Your best bet may be at LACs-- especially those with a skewed female:male ratio. They’ll eat up that you’re male, hispanic & 1st gen. The geographic diversity card might help slightly if you look at schools further away from Nevada.
Look also at these schools:
http://ctcl.org/
It’ll help, too, if your grades show an upward trend.
A little late for an upward trend, but I hope to turn things around first semester of Senior year to give my GPA a final boost. Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out.
Colleges That Change Lives (CTCL) are ideal and “forgiving” for late bloomer good students.
Your EI for SDSU calculates out as 3784 for SAT and ACT is 936. It will be a tough admit for SDSU. I agree the CTCL schools might be a better option. Hispanic/Low income will not be a hook for California public schools.
What about for all the other schools I listed?
Your GPA may be a deal breaker for Swarthmore, Rice, UMich, Middlebury. GW isn’t renowned for giving generous FA.
Again, LACs w low % males and states w low % Hispanics may get you a significant bump up.
California publics also don’t give financial aid for out of state students. In addition to figuring admissions chances, you need to run net price calculators!
You can get some idea of your admissions chances by looking up the college on the Big Future website and under admissions pick “academics and GPA” to see what the competition looks like. For example, 89% of Rice’s entering class is kids who were in the top 10% class rank.
Your transcript is the first thing adcoms scrutinize. If there is an explanation you can give that would help colleges see your GPA in a more favorable light, be sure not to leave them guessing why you had low grades.
Agree with above posters - check out CTCL, and LACs may be your best chance. Congrats on your awesome ACT scores!
Oberlin - high reach
Swarthmore - high reach
Rice - very high reach, gpa might disqualify you 
UMich Ann Arbor - reach
Montana State University - match
CU Boulder - match
Colorado State University - low reach or high match
Middlebury - high reach
George Washington - low reach
SDSU - reach
Just my opinions, of course - anyway, you seem like a very realistic and caring students and I wish you luck!
You’re not a musician applying to the conservatory so Oberlin should be a match not reach. Coming from a WUE state Montana State and Colorado State are great options financially. Look at Humboldt instead of San Diego. I don’t think Rice or Michigan are realistic.
Thank you all so much! I have a friend who received wonderful FA from GWU so I’ll take my chances there. That’s the second time someone’s mentioned Humboldt to me on here, I’ll definitely check it out. I’m not too broken up about Rice. It’s a phenomenal school, but full disclosure, it’s only on my radar because my GF goes there :P. I knew I had zero chance of getting in. She picked Rice over Georgetown in a decision I may never understand but to each their own. She’ll likely make me still throw an application out there for Rice for the heck of it haha.
So as you can tell I have a hard time judging what are some good match schools for me. Any suggestions on places I could look at that have good programs in what I want to do and that I have a chance of getting in, because off that list I have like 3 match schools which is bad. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Just Googling ‘atlatls’ I learned something new! There are colleges with teams that compete, and according to Wikipedia Grinnell is one although the citation is from 2010. Wiki also indicates this skill gets some attention in Vermont too, and UVM is a public Ivy that shares with Midd an environmental sustainability focus.
Again, WUE schools offer you an opportunity to go outside of Nevada to public schools and not pay full OOS tuition, and this includes some Cali publics. Washington State is WUE too.
If you are looking to be near your GF but not necessarily at Rice then consider Tulane maybe?
Humboldt is on wue and is a possibility. Run the NPC to make sure it’s affordable. Same thing for other we colleges.
Beloit would love your EC’s and may well overlook your GPA for that, and throw in plenty of merit money for your scores.
Definitely check out ctcl colleges.
Montana state, Colorado state = perhaps, but probably unaffordable.
Oberlin… For the heck of it and for their financial aid.
The others are unrealistic due to our GPA.
What’s your explanation? Lazy? Cut school? Illness? Addicted to late night video games? Family tragedy?
Perhaps the OP had to work many hours to help support his family? Take care of siblings or a relative? Had a learning disability that is now diagnosed?
If you have a heartfelt story to tell, go for it. If you can crush it first semester weave in how you overcame failure.
No heartfelt story - see his other thread where he explains that he just doesn’t do the assigned work because he doesn’t want to.
Kenyon is open about favoring males.
Yeah no glamorous story. I simply didn’t do the work there for a couple of years. Showed up to class every day. Was attentive. Took notes, participated, passed every test, usually with an A. Just didn’t do the homework. I know it’s a horrible way to go through school and obviously it’s hurting my now but I had some backwards justification haha. Check out the book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher. Genius critique of the American education system and shows how 80% of assignments assigned by English and history teachers contribute to a misinformed or uninformed adult citizenry later on.
I am very aware of the schools that have atlatling teams such as Grinnell and Vermont. In fact, one of the professors of archaeology at Grinnell, John Whittaker, is the Vice President of the World Atlatl Association or something like that, and is considered one of the leading experts in the weapon. He wrote his MA and PhD thesis on atlatls. Grinnell is way too small and rural for me. I considered it for a long time because of John Whittaker and the atlatl thing but couldn’t spring for 1500 students in the middle of Iowa.
Also you don’t know how happy it makes me that you actually went and researched the atlatl haha. I love spreading awareness for this amazing tool that truly helped shape the rest of human innovation.
Sorry for the double post but I’ll also add that I wasn’t just screwing around when not doing homework. I have been heavily involved in 5 or more clubs since freshman year. I didn’t include everything in the original post. I didn’t want to bore you with details on how I revitalized ping pong club 
My point is I kept myself busy. From debate tournaments and MUN conferences to presentations to the water district and atlatl tournaments. Throughout all of winter I spend around 1-2 hours a night carving atlatls and working on my darts getting them ready for competitions in the spring. I’m not twiddling my thumbs, I’ve never touched a video game console. I teach myself a new skill every month. Small stuff that will probably never help me in life. Life rolling a coin across my knuckles or lock picking or advanced card shuffling. Keeps my brain stimulate usually in ways homework doesn’t. I have trouble zeroing in on homework but I want to make it clear that I’m not just putzing around at home from 5-10 every night.