Does the U of M prefer GPA over ACT or vise versa?
For example,
Would they prefer a 3.4 candidate with a 28 on their ACT over a 3.9 candidate with a 26 on their ACT?
Obviously they’re both important, but which one do they look at more when admitting students
Good question, but there isn’t a clear answer. UMN is heavy on the numbers, but it’s not simply math (like, for example, some Iowa or California schools can be).
GPA’s importance can vary based on your high school and curriculum. A 3.4 in a challenging school and heavy college prep curriculum could be viewed as positively as a 3.9 with a lighter load.
This is where the ‘holistic’ part of UMN’s review comes in. The admissions folks would look at EC’s… curriculum… high school rankings (they track how former admissions from schools perform, for example).
Were I advising a student, I’d recommend working on the GPA first. It’s a lot easier to bump up an ACT score 2 points on a retake than it is to bump up a GPA half a point in a year or less.
My D is applying to UMN-TC from a school that doesn’t provide a class rank. I have not been able to find GPA ranges anywhere (not even in the common data set) and they seem to use class rank in place of GPA when publishing their admissions stats.
Her ACT and subscores are all at or above 75% for CFANS (30C/33E/33R/28S/27M/31W) but her GPA is only 3.5(ish). Since the only reportable data they would collect from her is her favorable ACT score, I’m hopeful that she’ll get in.
@eh1234 she’ll probably be fine (assuming rigorous course load and meeting the college prep requirements, etc.). My D scored above 30 on her ACT but her GPA was only 3.4 (uw) and she still got into CLA last year. The HS counsellor told me that more and more schools are NOT ranking and Admissions doesn’t penalize for that trend.
@eh1234 I agree with Mamelot. She’s a near lock (IMHO) for CFANS. She’d be do great here!