I am a rising senior and am currently looking at colleges to apply to. I currently have a 3.52 unweighted GPA and a 4.78 Weighted. 34 on my ACT. I am in the top 10% for weighted GPA and top 15% for unweighted. Iv taken 10 AP classes from freshman to senior year. I took AP Calculus BC as a junior even tho it is a senior class. I’m varsity tennis captain and a state champion. I have many Extra Circulars which include Junior Achievement, Student Council, Debate, Math Team, Science Team, Tae Kwon Do leadership team, and Robotics club. I was looking to apply to schools such as UMich, UNC, UT Austin, UC Berkley, Wake Forrest, BU, BC, Harvard, UPenn, and Duke. I want to major in Economics and double minor in CS and Global Buisness. My GPA has gone uphill since Freshman year. 3.28 freshman year, 3.5 Sophomore year, 3.7 Junior year. My freshman year GPA was very low due to me being unable to concentrate due to the death of my close uncle. What are my chances of getting into the schools I have listed?
Very sorry for your loss
Your list is too lopsided towards the reaches. Schools like Harvard, Upenn, and Duke simply will not accept a student with a gpa around yours despite any upward trend. Despite your high ACT, the problem lies in the fact that these schools reject those with perfect stats every admissions cycle. If you are Hispanic or African American, these stats will work in your favor. However, if you are Asian like me, the chances of your admission into these schools are practically null. As for UC Berkeley, if you have Cs on your transcript, they will work against you in the calculation of your UC gpa, which removes all + and - from the letter grade.
I am not sure which APs you have taken, but if they mostly consist of art History, Physics 1, History Classes, or language classes, your chances of admission into a strong economics program are minimal due to the fact that economics is mostly math based. Good grades and scores in classes like Calc BC (which you have taken), Physics C, and Computer Science A will definitely help a lot more as colleges look intensively into your couse selections.
As for your extra curriculars, they seem too widespread with leadership/intensity only in towards tennis. The state champion label will definitely help you above all the other accomplishments as it serves as a good comparison for colleges with the general tennis crowd. Im not sure about the Science and Math teams, but expect to send it scores in regional competions. High scores in competitions such as the AMC or qualification for the AIME and USAMO are all extremely strong awards in the field of mathematics. In fact some of the economics programs that you are applying to have a specific spot for these scores in their application.
My suggestion to you apply to 3 reaches such as Umich, UNC, and Duke in case somehow you get in. However, the rest of your apps should go to matches such as UIUC, Penn State, Georgia Tech, Brandeis, and Wake Forest. Your safeties should be state schools in your area.
My other suggestion to you would be to focus on doing well the first two quarters of senior year, which will only help you. Good luck with your application process, hope I helped!
UC GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Home State? Are all these schools affordable?
Yes, the most important question here is what can your folks pay? With a 34 ACT and those APs you will be certainly able to get into great schools, if not Harvard and Penn. Full pay with give the best options. If you need fin aid you will need some other schools, deeper into the Top 100. And you might consider liberal arts colleges, especially if need much fin aid.
UMich, UT Austin, UNC are matches. Berkeley, the Ivies, and Duke are reaches. I don’t really know much about the other colleges lol. Could you chance me on my thread? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1913631-chance-me-for-some-schools-mit-stanford-etc-and-ill-chance-back.html#latest
Thanks for the response! I have taken AP Human Geography, AP World, AP Calc BC, AP English lang, AP Physics 2, AP Stat, AP Computer Science, AP English Lit, AP Physics 1, AP Microeconomics. I have taken the AMC exams. I did average on them. I didnt qualify for aime. I have done an internship as well. It involved programing an app for tourism in my hometown and a plan for bringing autonomus vehicles here as well. Do you have any schools that you think I should look at?
Lol. My folks can pay full tuition. Thanks for your input!
Wake Forest likes full-pay students, as their endowment per student is less than most of the schools of their caliber. And being full-pay, you may want to take a shot with ED, if you have one school you really want to attend. Penn fills about half of its freshman class in the early round, but as post #1 pointed out, it still may be beyond reach. UNC may be a reach even with your stats, as over 80% of space is guaranteed to in-state students, with lower requirements. You sound like you want a big school. I’d look at others similar to Wake, like Brandeis or Carnegie Mellon, and other top 50 universities.
4.26 UC Gpa. Out of state (Connecticut). All are affordable.