I am a senior who really wants to get into Swarthmore, Cornell, Williams, UC Berkeley, Middlebury, Wash U St. Louis, or Brown as an english major. However, I feel like my GPA is kind of killing my chances, so I was wondering if anyone had insight to see if i even stand a chance?
GPA: UW-3.7 W-4.2
ACT: 34 (36 reading, 35 writing, 35 science, 31 math)
EC’s: -Published in my schools Lit Mag
-Water Polo 4 years, Team captain this year
-Winner of a Local writing contest
-Swim Team 3 years
-Worked at a winery every summer since I was 14
-Volunteer at a wildlife sanctuary
-Assistant researcher for a study of barn owl distribution
Essay: This is definitely one of the stronger parts of my application, I think it is well written and reveals who I really am
Letters of Rec: All of them are very strong, from my APES and APUSH teachers, counselor is really good too
Hooks: I’m not sure if this is a hook, but I can pay full tuition, no need for financial aid
APs: Lang, Lit, Environmental, US History, World History, Macro and Micro Economics, Biology, Art History
Subject Tests: 650 on Biology, 780 on Literature
If you need any other info, let me know, and Thank You!
At all your schools, your grades will be an issue. No chance at Swat, esp. Being full pay is not any kind of hook. I hope you applied to match and safety schools.
Swarthmore: High reach. Less than 15% chance.
Cornell: Reach. 15 to 25% chance.
Williams: High reach. Less than 15% chance.
UC Berkeley: You haven’t provided your UC GPA. Low reach? 20 to 30% chance?
Middlebury: Low reach. 20 to 30% chance.
WUSTL: Low reach. 20 to 30% chance.
Brown: Low reach. 20 to 30% chance.
Yeah, you’d better have some matches and safeties.
@KingBibi , sorry, but your percentage calculations are just not correct at all. This person has a GPA below the 50th percentile for every single one of those schools, except Mid, which doesn’t publish. Grades are always the single most important criteria. Each of those schools has an acceptance rate of 15% or less. Maybe for a student with top stats across the board, your chance calculations would be more accurate, but not for this student.
Average UW GPA at Swat is 4.06. The school with the lowest average UW GPA is maybe Berkeley, at 3.86. One of OP’s SAT2 scores is not competitive for any of those colleges. The best realistic shot OP has at any of these colleges is if he is hooked. Are you hooked, OP? Then you have a better chance.
Sorry to be brutal, but I can’t say nothing and let you have false hopes. And actually, I know you are a CA resident, so that might in fact be a boost. I will say maybe Berkeley, as a low reach. Mid is a dark horse, as they don’t publish their GPA averages, but I suspect it is very high. Rumor has it that the average GPA is 3.8 there. Good luck, and I hope you had match and safety schools.
Your odds of acceptance might increase significantly after ~40 here (irrespective of the title, simply a statistical analysis that relates to selectivity):
While I agree with @Lindagaf 's overall assessment, I do take issue with one sentence.
AFAIK, Swarthmore does not report GPA on the CDS (at least not in the last couple of years. I believe that this statistic came from prepscholar. I, for one, only go with firsthand info. Since their is no standard rubric for weighting, and most high schools UW is on a 4.0 max, I can’t imagine that Swarthmore would ever make that claim. YMMV.
@skieurope thanks. I did get that from the site you mentioned. Aside from that though, Swat is definitely well-known for taking students with very high GPAs. I remember a discussion about this issue at their info session. One of the reasons they look for a very high GPA is because it has an intense academic environment. Students are expected to be able to handle the work, and while this poster of course has good grades, I am not sure they are at the level they need to be for many of these colleges. Then again, I am not an admissions officer.
@Lindagaf As I said when I started out my earlier post, I agree with your overall assessment. Almost all those schools will be a challenge with a 3.7 GPA.
It’s common that kids and parents want to get into the “best” school that their stats allow, forgetting that they may be at the bottom of the GPA heap when it comes to exam time. They may need a lot more help with tutoring. They may not be able to read and digest material as quickly or as thoroughly as their peers.
Swarthmore is known for not just being pressure cooker academically but socially. I’ve heard that peers take pride in their smartness with each other. This is not a criticism. It’s worth noting in case this scene is not for you. If it is, then go for it. OP should definitely visit the schools, if at all possible, to figure out if the fit is right.
Is the objective to write, as an English major? Great writers have come from poughdunket schools in the middle of nowhere. And no schooling at all. Connections etc. don’t necessarily make for a great writer. Writing makes a great writer. Practice practice practice plus having something to say. OP may want to consider U of Iowa. Pricey for OOS but maybe in the budget. OP’s local state colleges and Us probably also have writing programs. With OPs stats they may offer a deal.
OP may want to look at Muhlenberg, Sarah Lawrence, and many of the CTCLs. Muhlenberg offers good merit to high-stats people.
You know what, I wouldn’t listen to any of these people.
Do yourself a favor and don’t ask random strangers to chance you. None of these people have any way of knowing where you will get in or not. If you want to go somewhere (I get the sense that you’ve already applied) then just see what happens when admissions decisions come out! You never know! I’m a senior who is applying to some pretty tough schools with a less than perfect GPA…but you know what? I’ve worked really hard and done some pretty cool things during my time in high school, and I think that counts for something. Both of us will get rejections from schools…but we will also get into lots of great places as well.
A month or so ago I asked for some feedback from people on if they thought I had chances at schools, and I got tons of random strangers who told me that I have no shot. No matter who you are on here, there will always be people that tell you can’t do it. Many on CC are predisposed to be negative and seem to have a “if it’s not perfect, it won’t work at all” type of mentality. What they don’t understand is that colleges don’t want kids who just have perfect grades and test scores…and if they did, then the system would work differently- everyone would just send in their numbers and the highest would be selected. Most of the “harsh commenters” on here seem to be parents who don’t understand that while it’s great if their son or daughter has a 4.0 and a 2400, that counts for nothing if their kid isn’t a real person, with real experiences and passions and dreams that don’t just involve perfect numbers on a test. If you’ve spent all your time just trying to be perfect, you usually don’t have time to do anything else…and colleges know that. I’d argue that they would much rather have someone interesting with a 3.8 and a 2100 than a perfect robot.
I’m going on and on, but basically- don’t listen to the people on here who sit behind their keyboard and type messages about how you have no chance and you should have worked harder. You CAN do it. I’m in the same boat as you, and both of us just need to trust that everything will work out how it is supposed to.
Good luck, @California10
Don’t let the haters get you down.
-M
@meggieistall55 , if you think this is about being cruel, you are sadly mistaken. Posters such as @skieurope and @merc81 have been here long enough to see what happens when students apply only to reach schools. This is nothing to do with hate, and everything to do with being sensible. Seriously, do you think we give up our free time so we can come here to hate on people? No. We are trying to be helpful.
Read this for a dose of reality. This is how diffcult it really can be. And to paraphrase, this student had literally world-class stats and was shut out of all colleges he applied to except one, his instate. At least he had a school to go to. We have all seen threads from kids who did not get in to a college. We don’t want that to happen to anyone.
Fwiw, USNWR recently profiled a student accepted at one of these colleges with a 3.2 GPA (ACT 26). Based on statistical factors, you might be in a better range than might be initially apparent.
I don’t know, @Lindagaf. The profile focused mostly on the student’s multi-lingual abilities. That said, my statistical point only relates to the figures posted. If a 3.2 can work in some circumstances, a 3.7 can work in others.
That’s true, because of holistic admissions. And no one here says OP should not apply to reach schools. Rather, that OP should apply to some match and safety schools. Anyway, OP seems to have left the building.
Hi everyone, thanks for all the comments and advice, I do have quite a few matches and safeties, I just wanted to get some opinions on my top reach schools.
@Lindagaf
Didn’t mean to strike a nerve. Plenty of people (you included) have seen it all and just want to look out for our best interests, which I certainly understand. Please don’t take my comment as direct criticism, because it’s not. You’re not being cruel, you’re being realistic, and we very much appreciate having experienced people give us feedback.
I also wasn’t unrealistic in what I said either…nowhere did I say that I thought @California10 could or could not get into the aforementioned schools- because I’m not qualified to give that kind of feedback. The advice I feel like people should always hear (apart from being realistic about where you apply) is to trust that things will work out well for you, and to be proud of the things you have accomplished, even if they aren’t perfect. Sometimes on CC it can be hard to be proud of what you’ve done when you look around and see all these kids with perfect stats being rejected or told they probably can’t get in here or there. I always figure it’s worth reminding people to be realistic, but also to be okay/proud of being an imperfect applicant. In life, stats aren’t everything. Certainly California10 and I have less of a chance than some others, and I don’t want to give anyone false hope. But, I also think that sometimes it’s good to hear a “you can do it! Something will work!” in conjunction with advice like yours.
Though it can be tough to hear that your dreams may not be realistic, kids like California10 and I certainly do appreciate people like you on here. My sincerest apologies if I’ve offended you. Perhaps I should have worded my comment differently, and I’ll think about that next time.