<p>What top schools tend to accept more students with so-so GPAs (3.5-3.7) but with higher test scores (ACT 34, SAT 2200+)?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Geez. What kind of schools are you looking for? Don’t just look at schools based on gpa/scores. Look at other criteria. (east/west/north/south, urban/suburban/rural, large/med/small, public/private, FA?, specializes in any major? </p>
<p>Then, what about you: your ECs? clubs, awards, sports, leadership, passions?</p>
<p>Miss Emily, you’ll have to do a little homework and tell us what looks interesting.</p>
<p>High test scores and low gpa tend to make the applicant look lazy…</p>
<p>I agree with limabeans. If you took challenging courses (many APs) than it kind of fills up for your low gpa but it really ends up depending on your ECs, community service, and other hooks!</p>
<p>Also, schools tend to pick people who don’t need FA.</p>
<p>Is that your weighted GPA?</p>
<p>Your stats aren’t bad. You should definitely aim for those schools with higher rep.</p>
<p>@thatiscool: where did you get the fact about schools tend to pick people who don’t need FA?? So you are basically saying that a student who has low stats but doesn’t need FA gets picked over a student with stellar grades and test scores with FA?? The schools have money, and I want to believe that they use their endowment wisely.</p>
<p>*The schools have money, and I want to believe that they use their endowment wisely. *</p>
<p>Only a small number of colleges have a lot of money. Most have small endowments that can’t provide much help.</p>
<p>While it’s true that many elite schools are need blind, and nearly all (if not all) state schools are need blind, there are some top schools that are “need aware.”</p>
<p>I already have a few schools in mind that I think would be a good fit for me, I’m just wondering if there are any that maybe don’t assume “lazy” when they see a 3.6 (my current gpa, hopefully going up to closer to a 3.7), and high test scores. I’ve heard that Washington U in St. Louis tends to look a little kinder (more kindly?) on students like me.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>mom2college - it’s my unweighted. My weighted (cumulative) is around a 4.1.</p>
<p>study this CC thread, especially in the next 2 weeks-
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/869995-3-3-3-6-gpa-parents-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/869995-3-3-3-6-gpa-parents-thread.html</a></p>
<p>USC is aggressively and successfully attracting smart students who have achieved hi test scores. NMF’s automatically receive 1/2 tuition scholarships for all 4 years at USC. As a result, USC has more NMF’s than any college except Harvard.</p>
<p>^It’s your UW that really matters, since weighting mechanisms vary by school. WUSTL may be a bit of a reach, but I’d definitely have it on your list. Perhaps UChic and Tufts as well–still on the reachy end though.</p>
<p>Top 20 and maybe even top 30 Privates don’t care about unweighted OR weighted GPA – they convert your grades into their OWN weighted gpa. The elites look at every class on your transcript, and create their own internal score on your class performance … it helps if they know your school in particular.</p>
<p>3.6 unweighted, 4.1 weighted does not automatically disqualify you for any top school, depending on the rigor of the coursework.</p>
<p>glassesarechec wrote: “its your unweighted that rally matters, …”</p>
<p>OK, our local HS has three levels of classes: regular, Honors, and AP. A regular A is approximately equivalent to an Honors B and an AP C.</p>
<p>Are you suggesting that a student at this school described above, who took Regular English, Algebra II, US Government, Biology, and Spanish with all As has achieved more than a student who took Honors English, Honors Algebra ii, AP Bio, AP Spanish, and AP US all for B grades?</p>
<p>The student who achieved mostly As in the most rigorous curriculum offered is the better one. All grades are evaluated in the context of the opportunities offered and the rigor of your curriculum.</p>