Context: I’m a South - Asian junior at a top public high school in Pennsylvania.
Statistics:
UW GPA: 2.1 (ughh)
W: 2.9 (ughx2)
ACT: 35
AP’s: AP Biology, AP US History, AP Computer Science A, AP Calculus AB
EC’s:
President - Technology Student Association (2015 - 2017)
I started the club in my freshman year. After establishing the club, I raised $2500+ in stipends from the School District and companies and grew the club to over 30 members. Stepped down to focus on junior year and ACT.
Coding Summer Program (2016 - Present)
I founded a coding summer program that is empowering kids in Philadelphia to code. Our organization has been featured in local news, sponsored by Google and Khan Academy, and endorsed by Code.org for our work.
Since June of 2017, we’ve been hosting code workshops in the summer, serving hundreds of students. Each workshop teaches design - thinking skills through prototyping and building. The workshops are based on anything from HTML, CSS to building hardware projects with Raspberry Pi. We’ve received support from numerous community partners.
Computer Science Club
Invited on various all-expense paid trips to PennApps, MHacks, Cal Hacks and various other hackathons.
DECA
Placed nationally in Entrepreneurship and Finance.
Working on various apps
Monte Carlo Financial Modeling
Sensor Fusion
Okay, so the UW and Weighted GPA are due to lack of time - management skills. I spent time on wayy too much time on my program, and fell for attention residue effect. As a junior, I’m maintaining near A’s in all my classes (only AP Calc that’s lower).
Some of the schools I’m looking at is:
Michigan (Reach)
NYU (Reach)
San Jose …State? (Good idea??)
UC’s (…I don’t think I meet the min. requirement?)
Penn State (in-state school, I have no clue)
It’s great to attend such institutions but there are a lot of qualified applications and I have to be self - aware.
I’ll apply but I’m looking for your guys opinion for schools that are more forgiving of a horrible gpa and a higher ACT and goodish EC’s.
Can you guys recommend schools? I know I got a horrible GPA, but I’m looking at schools that are have a good Computer Science department, are hidden gems, and have students working in the tech startup scene in San Francisco are plus.
That GPA is abysmal. Your ECs are great but I doubt schools like Stanford And NYU will be forgiving. You are well below the 25th percentile by GPA and your act score goal is way too low. Couple all that with being asian and the chances are low. Sorry but I doubt you’ll get in.
Can you account why your GPA is so low but your ACT is high? If there is no good reason for this (medical issue, homelessness, death in the family, etc.), you may want to think about community college or a branch of Penn State, work hard, and transfer to a better school.
@Deaston My GPA is so low because I came home, spent 2 - 3 hours working on my program, and not doing my homework. (Yikes) It wasn’t due to external circumstances! I spent time making the curriculum and frankly, being a bit naive. If I could’ve done it over again, I would put my school work first. I know my GPA is very very low, but is there a strand of hope of making it to schools like Penn State, U of Maryland, University of Michigan with my ACT and EC’s and holistic admissions?
i think there are schools out there that will loolk more at the standardised tests and less on GPA if the time that you spent on wrking on programs amounted to something, like a award in programming etc. state schools will be a great choice maybe goin as an undecided major and after 1 yr in school with great results move to the major you would like to work … also do great in junior and senior years the gpa will be close to 3.4 with aps and weighted honors classes… you still have a year to work at it as long as the grades are on an uphill you show growth, you will be good… if not NYU def penn state…
good luck , dont fret just work hard this year , you
will be good to go…
What’re some ways that I can demonstrate academic achievement to make up for my lackluster grades? I’m going to take the SAT Math 2 and Physics, anything else that I can possibly do?
