<p>Hey, I'm sure a lot of people do this, but could GW students or accepted seniors give me some idea of my chances of getting into GW next year? I'm a junior and it's one of my top choices right now.</p>
<p>My GPA is by far the worst part of my application: 3.1. It's on an unweighted scale, with all honors courses and 5 APs (2 this year and 3 next). My SAT was a 2150 on the new scale and 1510 on the old. I might take it again, I'm not sure. I'm planning to take 2 or 3 SAT-IIs in June and the ACT in the fall. I will be a National Merit semi-finalist (my PSAT was 220) but not a finalist because of my grades.</p>
<p>I was editor-in-chief of the school paper this year and will be again next year. I won the english merit award and have placed in several poetry contests over the years. I'm writing a novel for our required thesis over the summer. I will have 40 hours required of community service this year and next, and will have worked a 35-hour-per-week summer job for two summers in a row. I got a first place score on the American Mathematics Competition in sophomore year, and a "Gold" score on the National Latin Exam in 9th. I have no doubt that I could write an impressive essay and get a pair of stellar recommendations.</p>
<p>Basically, I feel very confident about my test scores and extracurriculars, but (obviously) not my GPA. My question to those who have gone through the process is, in your understanding, will a below-average GPA overshadow an otherwise strong application? Are there any other factors that might tip the scales?</p>
<p>Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this.</p>
<p>I think the adcoms will want to know why you are underperforming the ability implied by your high test scores. What's behind the 3.1? Is there some explanation?</p>
<p>that is weird... you have my EXACT GPA/SATs. I had a few more extracurriculars, though. I also went to a highly competitive high school. I was admitted to GW (I'm a current studdent now). If you have split numbers like that, your essays are going to have to be really important, as well as your interest in the school.</p>
<p>believe me GW will reject someone with a test score as high as yours for the sake of yield protection. don't worry to much about GPA. try to get allA's your senior year (its pretty easy to do). make sure when writing your why GW essay that you get the point across that you LOVE GW and are crazy about goign there (this in my opinion is one of the post important parts of the application- esp. for students like you who GW could possibly lose to higher ranked schools). make sure you visit campus and interview if you are good at this, because the amount of interest shown (visit, interviews, times to DC) is factor in during the admissions process as well. if you do the above, depending on your rank, you could also be in the running for one of GW's prestigious presidential scholarships (1/2 tuition). although, you may need to raise that new SAT score to around a 2250 to be completely safe here- assuming you can trick GW in making them think you will most definitely go to GW when you get in (haha). there yield isn't 34% for nothing. Good luck! GW is a SUPER school.</p>
<p>Anna, that's good to know, my high school is also the very competitive type: private, all-guys, Benedictine/Catholic, 60 students per class. The Ivy-Leage-output type.</p>
<p>What sort of additional extracurriculars did you have?</p>
<p>staff reporter on the student newspaper, student government treasurer, sophomore class president, honors literary journal, math league, varsity debate team, mock trial, junior class vice-president, co-captain of varsity cheerleading squad (placed 2nd in state one year, 1st in state another), NCA (cheerleading stuff), orchestra, prom committee, freshman mentor, lots of volunteer stuff... worked 15+ hours a week during school year every year and 40+ every summer...</p>
<p>like the other guy said, make sure you stress how much you want to go to GW on your apps.</p>
<p>also, i think it was pretty obvious why my gpa was crap (way too many extracurriculars; bad priorities)... so make sure you figure out how you want to play that before applying. I applied to 12 schools and was only accepted to BU, NYU, and GW. Most schools are not very forgiving of low GPAs...</p>
<p>I was a low GPA, high test score (ACT) person, too. I worked at the admissions office as a work-study student; GW's admissions staff really looks at the whole application. You may be able make up for the low GPA with significant leadership experience in your junior/senior years and strong essays and recommendations. Really focus on the extracurriculars during your last year of high school -- the word is that GW focuses on them a lot more than other schools.</p>
<p>I would recommend applying to GW as an early decision candidate, if you are serious about GW. That is truly the only way I was admitted under more or less the same circumstances as you. As armcp says, GW is VERY weary of people with high test scores because of a history of being turned down for other insitutions. Otherwise highlight that fact you do have high test scores, but try and give some sort of substantal reason for how you ended up with that GPA. I would also like to point out that GW has a 'slacker' clause in it's admissions section of the GW Bulletin and that is "relationship between grades and test scores." So you can use that for the good or bad, but good luck and I hope to see you on campus!</p>