Can a high standardized test score (1520+ SAT or 34/35+ ACT) make up for a relatively low GPA (3.6 UW / 4.15 W)?
This is targeted for top 25-50 schools like UMich, UNC, NYU, etc.
it could but it also depends on your extracurriculars, essays, class rigor, etc.
if all of those are above average, I would say you have a good shot at all of these schools
Different schools have different priorities. Do you have access to Naviance? If so you can look at the scatterplots from your high school’s previous applicants to the schools you are interested in. If not, it’s more work but you can look at the data in the common data set for the school and see if they reported what percentage of students enrolled had GPAs over 3.75 (if this number is really high, you probably don’t have much of a shot with a 3.6), and whether GPA is in the category of ‘very important’ or just ‘important’ for admissions vs test scores.