GPA is of utmost importance at elite schools. Holistic admissions are practiced to find kids who are unique and fit the personality of the school. “Holistic” does not translate to “easier”. To be quite honest, your SAT isn’t up to par with the average scores at the schools you have listed. Make sure you have some safeties on your list that you will be willing to attend. Good luck.
Brutal breakdown: Your SAT is decent but it does not completely make up for the lower GPA. Your extracurriculars aren’t outstanding either.
Your chances of Georgetown, UNC Chapel Hill are very low- Georgetown tends towards ECs a lot and they do waitlist/reject many applicants with tremendously high scores. Chapel Hill is less selective in terms of EC but from what I’ve seen you really need to be at that top academic level to have a decent chance of admission.
NYU, BC, BU are within your reach- the chance is there, and it’s not big, but it’s something. If you can get your SAT past 1500 you could really up your chances because it shows the colleges that your potential is much higher than your GPA scores.
@Achoo42 so would you say that raising it to 1500 (my plan as I’m taking the October SAT) and getting straight A’s this semester could give me a slight chance at GU or UNC?
@Aneem00 Would bringing my gpa to a 3.5 and breaking 1500 this sat, would I have a better chance at unc/gu? My brother is an alumni of Georgetown, would that also help?
If your senior transcript shows improvement from before, then yes. Otherwise it looks like you capped out for potential. A 1500+ SAT is pretty beneficial but I think your grades will matter more.
Legacy is different for every college- itll probably help for GT, if only a little bit. Not too sure on the extent of raising your chances.
Usually alumni are parents, not siblings. You can call the school and ask them on their specific policy. Yes, I think that will help, especially the 1500+ SAT, but a GPA of 3.5 is still low compared to the average GPAs of these schools (check those out!)