First off I’m new here so if someone has asked this question before I apologize. Anyways, I’m currently a high school senior with a 4.57 weighted GPA and 3.77 unweighted gpa. I will have taken 10 of the 11 AP exams my school offers and have scored an average of 3 on them. I also am in NHS and play baseball. I also have taken the act without writing through my school and got a 28 but I plan to retake at least 2 more times. Overall, I’m trying my hardest to get into the elite schools like ivy league and stanford. My school is ranked pretty competitively and we have had students get accepted to these schools in the previous schools, but my question is, do I have a shot at getting into these schools or not? Any responses would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
You have an uphill climb:
- Your 3.77 UW GPA is on the lowest side
- An average of 3 on AP's suggests poor preparation / possible grade inflation
- An ACT of 28 is not competitive for the schools you list
- Your ECs are weak
Right now, based on the limited information given, you would be an extreme longshot to make it past even a first read by an adcom.
Okay thanks. That really put things in perspective.
Apply to all of them and you will probably get into one at least
You have a huge gap of 0.8 between your unweighted and weighted GPAs which is unrealistic even with as many as 10 APs (in my opinion)! May be you need to recalculate your GPSs?
Don’t listen to cappex. That is by no means assured.
@Crystal9ucla why do you feel the OP gap is too large between GPA and HPA?
Many schools have a 1.5 point difference between honors and AP. 10 classes can be about half of his course load. That’s the 0.8.
Yeah I plan to, I just wanted to get an idea of where I currently stand
My school has a ton of honors/ap courses and through the 24 classes I have taken in high school, only 5 were weighted out of a 4.0. The rest were out of 5.
Neither you GPA nor your test score is competitive enough for elite schools. ACT 28 is at least 2-3 points below the 25th percentile. Unless you are recruited, your chance is slim. You should aim much lower.
If the OP took so many honors/APs, then certainly he can have that much gap in his GPAs. But as I said before “in my opinion” that is rather extreme. I have seldom seen that much gap in the posts here. But it is not impossible.
It’s probably not worth the time or money to apply
Are you lower income and attending your high-performing school on a scholarship or “out of district” opportunity? Are you a recruitable athlete? Do top students at your school routinely get ACT scores in the 24-28 range, or do they score in the 30-32 range?
You’re competitive for your state flagship (and perhaps its honors college depending on major), for LACs ranked 40-75, for regional universities.
wait and see what your next ACT score is.
Even a surprising increase in the ACT score isn’t going to solve the problem.
I agree that your unweighted GPA and your ACT scores are not competitive for the Elites.
Average AP scores indicate that you may have difficulty with the grueling coursework typically assigned at the elites.
It depends on which state is OP from. Not every state flagship OP is competitive enough. Do you know what is OP’s home state?
^No, but OP’s stats would be sufficient to make OP competitive for all state flagships (UCs, UMich, UVA, UNC-CH, wouldn’t immediately cut OP based on those stats and OP wouldn’t have trouble with UWyoming or UWV.) It doesn’t mean OP is a shoo-in at all flagships but definitely “competitive” for flagships.
GPA3.77 ACT 28 would not be competitive for UMich. The mid 50 this year is 30-34. UMich would be a low reach at best unless he has legacy and/or recruited.
Op: wait and see what your next test comes back with. If it was a bad day and you now score a 35, things will be very different. And you may have some better choices. I do agree your GPA is a bit of a hinderence, but wait for the next test and the plot where you should be applying.
I don’t know why people keep insisting an AP 3 indicates kids may have trouble with college. An AP 3 is passing. You even get credit at some schools. Please stop telling kids that!!! The AP test is not made by their teacher. So they may not have even learned everything on it! It does not indicate anything other than how you did on that test on that day with the info your teacher taught you! This is why it is not a big factor in applications!