Hello parents! I’m a junior in high school at the moment. I was just wondering if it’s possible to get into low-tier Ivy League schools with a WEIGHTED 3.5 GPA (top 10% - 75/754), and an ACT score of a 35. I will have taken 17 AP courses by the end of senior year. I’ve taken early college courses at a community college and my GPA was a 4.0; I don’t think it will help a great deal though.
*By “low-tier” I mean schools such as, CMU, Cornell, etc.
So parents, I was wondering if any of your kids were in a similar situation as me and ended up going to better than average schools?
The Ivy League is a sports conference and CMU is not part of it. I don’t think you get any extra brownie points for AP courses beyond 10 or so. They’d rather see you took courses that interested you, than just taking a whole bunch of APs just to take APs. Selective colleges are interested in what else you bring to the table. Your scores and rank are good enough that your application will be considered.
Thank you for your reply. Ivy League schools are “a group of long-established colleges and universities in the eastern US having high academic and social prestige.” I am aware that CMU is not an Ivy League, that is why I mentioned “low-tier” colleges; Not Ivy schools but on par with them.
But… CMU is neither low-tier nor an Ivy.
Your stats are better than average and you will get into a “better than average” school. What is it about CMU and Cornell that attract you? Simply their ranking?
@romanigypsyeyes I know that CMU is not an Ivy, but it’s better than most other schools, just not as good as an Ivy school. I want to major in computer science and they both have exceptional computer science schools. Their rankings are also quite appealing
Here is what I know about Cornell Engineering from my experience:
Get a 4 or 5 on Calc BC, and also have above mid 700s for math 2 or near perfect score on the math 1 SAT II. It looks like you’re plenty capable of doing this much from what I see. Math is extremely important.
Also, what extracurriculars do you have? Remember that that’s what good colleges will look for in an applicant, ability to be liked, leadership, variety of interests. If you are in clubs, I recommend that you apply for leadership positions. Be president or captain of at least one, and then a minor position in some other, also maybe an internship outside of school. Of course, the more you have, the better.
National awards aren’t looked at that much because that really has to do with where you live and some students simply do not have easy access to award winning research or may not have the time to invest in applying.
If you are sure, apply early! And if you do this and have all of these, you are in great shape to apply to Cornell. Also check out Columbia Engineering. Although Cornell Engineering is more rigorous, Columbia is also well known for engineering among other ivies.
With a 3.5 weighted GPA I think Ivy and equivalent schools will be huge reaches. CMU and Cornell are certainly not low tier schools. Unfortunately for you the top schools have more applicants with top GPA and standardized testing than they have room to accept. Sure, apply to a couple of reaches like CMU or Cornell,but have choices that are more realistic as well. Look into colleges that are more in line with your GPA. Some ideas might be Union, Lehigh, Stony Brook etc. You can try using the SuperMatch function to the left under Find A college.
There are 8 Ivy league schools, NoEffort, and from Business Insider rankings, and University Review rankings, Brown and Dartmouth are the lowest ranked of the Ivies. So those 2 would be considered the “low-tier Ivy league schools” the OP asked about.
Those colleges are going to look at how competitive you are, how ready you are for their very real academic bar during the four years. A 3.5 weighted doesn’t really put you in the running, not when they’re overloaded with applicants at 3.8+, unweighted, plus other experiences and savvy, kids who mastered their own high school time.
It’s ridiculous to speak of any elite school as “lower tier.” Sorry, but it always sounds uninformed, as if there is some slower zebra in the elite herd and you can catch him with little effort. Go find the right matches, where you can thrive. Don’t set yourself up to be the slowest zebra, the kid struggling.
I woke up to a text from my kid telling me how nervous she is about classes. She is at a competitive non Ivy school and got a 4.0 last semester ( her first semester there). She graduated at the very very top of her HS class ( all AP classes, all 5’s on the exams) with high scores and still lacks confidence that she belongs where she is- and she is not at an Ivy.
Sometimes I sit back and wonder how my kid thinks she can’t do the work and should not apply, yet other students like you ( you are a good student by the way- just not for an Ivy- sorry) think they can. Weird. You are a good student but one with unrealistic expectations about acceptances.
I’ll be blunt. No. You most likely will be rejected but any Ivy and certainly by CMU (which for CS is probably harder to be admitted than several Ivies). A weighted 3.5 with potentially 17 AP courses means you have several C’s on your transcript. If you are struggling in high school, you will likely flounder at schools that challenge too notch accomplished students. Keep in mind, getting accepted to college is not the end goal. You still need to get through four years of college.
Recalibrate your list. Your ACT is a double-edged sword. At some schools, it may offset your GPA a bit, at others it may raise questions about your commitment to studying. There are many schools that will gladly have you as a student but you need to find them. Do not just go for name recognition or ranking.
I wonder why you are focused on “low tier Ivy League” schools or super selective schools in the first place. Remember, once you get in, these schools can be difficult and involve a lot of hard work with very competitive peers. I think twogirls brings up a really good point about stress.
Others raise the issue of the mismatch between your ACT and high school GPA. Do you want to give us more information on this?
You can get into some great schools with your GPA, even if your ACT was lower (and even if you applied to schools that didn’t require testing). It’s not like the 3.5 is a terrible GPA. And with an ACT of 35 you have lots of choices, possibly with merit aid.
However, the most selective schools are “holistic” in their admissions practices. They want you to contribute to the mix of the assembled class. We don’t know anything about you beyond these stats and your interest in CS. And “character” can be important: does the 3.5 reflect your best work and best work ethic?
There is a thread here on best schools for computer science. You can look at that, and also know many state schools have great CS departments, as do some liberal arts colleges.
And check out WPI, U. of Rochester. Otherwise, yes, try for CMU, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell. You may meet benchmarks for consideration, but make sure you have other choices you like, and think about your reasons for applying to certain schools.
Prestige is not always a measure of quality, or, put another way, you can get excellence in education regardless of prestige level, especially if you work hard.
What @SlackerMomMD said. CMU CS is probably harder to get into than Harvard for most perfect score kids! It is their most impacted major our GC says!
When you speak of tiers, generally after HYP (which ironically is “hype”), the tier is essentially just a block of really great schools all the way down to, say Michigan. After that are “just” great schools, followed by really really good schools…if you follow my meaning, there are many many really really good schools out there that you could possibly get into.
I don’t think Cornell or CMU tho. 3.5 weighted is going to be tough to overcome. Kids with 12 APs are applying with 4.0 unweighted. That is the reality. Doesn’t mean you are not “good enough”, just not presenting a “competitive enough” package for them.
OP is top 10% of his/her class even though the GPA is 3.5. I think with top 10% ranking and 35 ACT he would have a pretty good shot at Cornell, especially if he should decide to do ED. If OP is female then she would have a better chance by applying to the engineering school for CS, otherwise apply to CAS.
@SlackerMomMD, a kid who graduates in the top 10% of the class is unlikely to be “Struggling with high school”. If there are C’s perhaps they are all freshman year and many colleges (Stanford for example) don’t even look at freshman grades. It also may just be a high school where they don’t give out A’s like candy.
CMU for SCS is a stretch for anyone. The shape of the transcript could make a big difference in how the OP is judged. Back when my son applied they would accept young women at least with 800 scores in math even without a lot of computer science experience, but I don’t think young men can count on getting as much of a break. My son had extensive computer programming experience and a letter from a med school prof for whom he’d written a program to help analyze proteins and another letter from a firm for whom he’d done some work on projects with the WHO, the Encyclopedia Brittanica and Space and Telescope. He had a 4.0 and nearly perfect SAT scores, and top 2% of his class. Not nearly as many APs since he only took ones that interested him, or that everyone in his cohort took.
My son chose CMU over Harvard because he was certain he would major in SCS. I don’t consider it a lower tier school at all.
