I have an 88 UW GPA, am in the top 20% (unofficially) of the class at a school with dozens of students getting into Ivy+ schools per year, and have a 34 ACT (35/33/35/33, 8 Essay). I have a 730 SAT II Literature and a 700 on US History. I am a white male with no hooks as well. Am I at the point where it would come down to EC’s/essays, etc.?
Your GPA and class rank are low for a T20. Unless you have some amazing ECs, I think it would be a big reach.
An 88 would be a B+? That would be a 3.4 GPA which is way too low for top 20 schools. Not being anywhere near the top 10% of your class makes top 20 schools even more of a reach.
You need matches and safeties.
Is this a private school or a public school with admissions requirements? The rank maybe OK if the school is hard enough.
The SAT IIs also look a little weak for T20, but fine for T50.
Without a hook, an 88 GPA is probably an automatic ding at super elite schools (i.e., top 20). Nevertheless, with your stats, you should have plenty of excellent options a little further down the food chain.
Do you mean ‘academically qualified’ or ‘academically competitive’? You look qualified, but you are coming from a competitive pool. When you say ‘dozens’ get into top-tier schools every year- what is your class size? If you are in the top 20% of a class of 100 people, and ‘dozens’ of the class get in every year, that would imply that you are competitive (100 people x 20% = 20 people; ‘dozens’ = 24+). If you are in the top 20% of a class of 1000 people, it would have to be a lot more dozens (1000 people x top 20% = 200 people, or 16+ dozen people).
If your school is that competitive, you probably have better tools available to you than CC- your GC, Naviance, your own knowledge of who has been accepted to which schools in previous years. At this point it comes down to essays/LoRs/ECs- and how well you stack up against your peers in your school & region. T20 is a pretty small group.
Out of a class of 350, 40+ kids a year get into T20’s. Not all of them attend due to financial circumstances, but we generally do well. My guidance counselor said that Gtown/Emory are “slight reaches”, and he worked in admissions for several years before working at my school. He specifically mentioned that I am in the top 10-20%. Our average ACT is 25.5, if that matters.
Without a hook, an 88 GPA is probably an automatic ding at super elite schools (i.e., top 20). Nevertheless, with your stats, you should have plenty of excellent options a little further down the food chain.
Where would that be? I would be over the moon if I could get into a Tulane/Lehigh/NESCAC.
Unlikely.
Don’t get down from these comments. If your grades suffered in freshman year, then look into UC’s as an out of state applicant. Because, they don’t factor freshman year grades into gpa calculation and the acceptance rates tend to be higher.
Also, another word of advice. If top 20 is actually your dream, then apply for a less selective major. Applying for a joke major like Gender Studies or Philosophy can do you wonders because they may be underclasses and looking for slots to be filled. Case in point: Cornell ILR, Columbia GS, Notre Dame Books Major, etc
However, I am strongly against this because admissions officers will know you’re trying to game the system if your essays don’t correspond to your selected major and if your extracurriculars are on the opposite end of spectrum.
Take my word with a grain of salt because I’m just a senior but two of my siblings have gone through the admissions process. One at Wake Forest, and the other at Rice
That seems pretty do-able.
I am curious about your class though! At least 40+ have really strong stats (they are getting into super top-tier schools), and your ACT is 34. If your class average = 25.5 something like 90% of your class must be getting ACT scores of less than 24? That’s a really big difference / range. Doesn’t matter- just found it curious.
@UNCCharlotte2023 Top colleges generally admit to the university, not by major.
California UC’s do not offer financial aid to OOS students so if you are looking into applying to UC Berkeley and UCLA, your costs will be around $65K/year to attend. $260K for 4 years is a pretty hefty price to pay unless you have an unlimited budget.
Even though the UC’s do not use Freshman grades in their GPA calculation, you still need to pass all a-g courses Freshman year and you need at least a 4.1+ UC GPA (capped weighted) to be competitive.
I am sure they are far better options that would be affordable with possible merit aid for the ACT score of 34 of yours.
Best of luck.
Exactly. Columbia GS is not for traditional students.
OP’s GPA is top 20% (not competitive for T20s), but with high test scores, which may show the OP is a slacker in high school.
ehhhh…I know that the received wisdom is that low-ish GPA and high test scores = ‘slacker’, but I know a fair few kids who just weren’t great at continuing assessment (interestingly, several of them got ADD diagnoses in college), bt weren’t slackers.
OP, how are finances? do you have a subject that you (genuinely) love? You might take a look at Ireland and the UK: test scores matter; GPA, not so much.
I think bulk of high school grades are attributed to homework and contribution in class. Some very smart students tend not to do their homework because they do not think they have to or pay attention in class. Unfortunately for those students, there are other students who continue to challenge themselves outside of school and are also able to keep up their schoolwork to get high GPAs.
Don’t let anyone keep you down. If you think you have what it takes to succeed in a T20 university, go ahead and apply and make sure to write convincing essays.
Does your school have Naviance? The competativeness of an 88 UW GPA really depends on the school. I know of some top selective high schools with such tough grading that an 88 really is enough to be competitive for the IVY league. I suggest taking a look at the Naviance results from your school, if you have access to them. That will give you some idea of the kind of grades needed to get into the schools you are targetting.
Is there a reason that you are stuck on top 20? Thare are many excellent schools that fall outside that range.
Yeah I cannot afford UC’s. Our FAFSA EFC is $23k, but we make $200k/yr. (I have a twin). I got diagnosed with ADHD in the end of junior year, so that is relevant. I don’t know what I want to major in, but something in the social sciences most likely.
I am by no means fixated on T20s, but I wanted some guidance on if it was worth it to apply. I already got into Alabama and received a $26,000 a year scholarship yesterday, so I could hypothetically apply to HYPSM and still go to college next year (I hated Yale and MIT isn’t for me so it would never happen lol).