Hi I’ll be a rising senior in the fall and am currently looking at colleges for the coming year. I screwed up big time on my GPA but I have pretty ok test scores and ecs and was wondering how that dynamic would turn out. Thanks in advance for going through my stuff and I would appreciate any feedback/advice for college.
Intended Major : Applied Math / Education (big difference in majors lol)
GPA: 3.806 (UW) / 4.256 (W)
ACT: 35
SAT: 1570
SAT II: Biology 710, Math II 800, Chemistry 760
PSAT : 1500 (225 index so will probably get at least semifinalist)
9 APs by graduation : AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, AP Biology, AP Physics I, AP Physics II, AP English Lang, AP British Literature, AP US History, AP Government
ECs
Competitive chess player rated 1809
top 10% nationally, top 3% under 18 y/o
won ~ $5,000 prize money from tournaments
volunteer tournament director for 1 year
school’s chess club president
summer job working for NM Randall Hough (title in chess given to those above 2200 rating (top 2% of players)
helped teach at Pasadena Chess Club
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts)
over 100 hours of service
eagle project reinstalled and renovated benches at a local Arboretum
Bronze Palm award (working towards Gold and Silver Palms)
High School Chamber Choir
part of Regional Honor Choir and State Honor Choir for past 2 years
Math Team Captain
one of three 4 year members
AIME qualifier
past treasurer
Soccer
JV freshman year, Varsity starter 10-12
-volunteer at Midnight Mission (serving food to homeless) 2 years
Awards and Achievments
Eagle Scout w/ bronze palm award and venturing award
won lots of tournaments, biggest is probably 1st place at the 52nd Annual American Open
anticipating at least National Merit Semifinalist
2nd place freshman at Pepperdine High School Math Trials
3rd place junior in Bay Math League
Demographics
Asian (chinese) male
California competitive public school
Schools
WashU St. Louis
Northwestern
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Boston College
CMU
USC
Swarthmore
Brown
I know all of these schools are probably reaches but thanks for reading this far! I would appreciate any advice given and I’ll be sure to chance back any of you who wish to be! Thanks so much
First of all, an UW 3.8 GPA is not low. Also some rather interesting ECs (chess and the Eagle Scout w/Bronze Palm).
WashU is within target, especially if it’s a school that you plan to ED. This is coming from a parent of a student who got into WashU ED this year.
My son got in with a lower GPA (~3.7 UW) and a 4.2 weighted. You have a better SAT 1 (he took old SAT with a 2290). I think he had a higher SAT 2 subject score for Bio but the other scores are roughly the same. He’s also an Eagle Scout (has 3 Palms) and we’re of Chinese descent. I would say WashU is a low reach, especially for ED. I have heard that the math major at WashU has some issues with spotty instructors though.
Are you recruitable for soccer? A kid from my son’s school got into CMU for soccer and your grades and standardized test scores are way better.
Here’s what I think your chances are-take my advice with a grain of salt.
Low reach: CMU, WashU
Reach: Brown, Northwestern
High Match: Swarthmore
Low Match: Cal, UCLA
Match: BC, USC
Add more matches and a safety. UC Irvine and UCSB can be near safeties. Better safe than sorry given that the Chinese male with high GPA/SAT is in the worst possible demographic for college acceptances.
I’m not sure about undergraduate education programs though. That is really atypical of an Asian.
@Hamurtle thank you for the response and thanks for the information on WashU! I would doubt that I am recruitable since I play in a D6 league. Congrats to your son; what did he major in? Thanks again!
From my knowledge, many of these schools are actually matches for you. You have strong EC’s in math and great test scores. Your GPA is slightly low, but not low enough to the point where those colleges won’t look at everything else you’ve got. It all depends on how you portray yourself in your essays.
WashU- match
St. Louis - match
Northwestern-reach
UCLA-match
UC Berkeley-match
Boston College-reach
CMU-reach
USC-high match
Swarthmore- unsure
Brown- reach
@exilion my son is going to double major in History/Biology as a potential pre-med.
Since WashU doesn’t have supplementary essays, make your Common App essay as best as possible if that is your first choice. The sons’s essay was about a Boy Scout camp that had a situation resembling Lord of the Flies, which was unique enough to get him accepted. Make your essay interesting, but don’t make it too much out of the box.
If you are planning to apply to a school ED, make sure you express interest in it.
You have some great EC’s and some great stats, so you could get into a couple of your top schools. I would ED to the college you know you want to go to. Good Luck!!
Your test scores and ECs make you a competitive candidate at UCB, UCLA, USC, and even WashU–though none of these can really be considered a “match” for anyone these days.
I think you can feel confident about admission to BC.
Northwestern is a higher reach, and Brown higher still.
Swarthmore is a school where “social consciousness” is valued; it would probably love an essay in which explained why you were committed to majoring in Education as well as in Math. (In fact, this dual interest might prove a bit “hooky” at the other schools you are applying to, especially Brown.)
I would guess that CMU falls into the first category (i.e., you are competitive), though I know less about it than about the others on your list.
@buckets927 thanks for the chance! yea i probably won’t ed anywhere and am hoping to bump up that UW gpa at least a little bit first semester of senior year.
@MrSamford2014 yay for every school being hard to get into now. thanks for the “hooky” insight that’ll probably be something i look to emphasize in my essays.
I think for your situation your essays will defintely make or break your application, maybe write about how you go into chess since you’re pretty involved with chess other than that everything is definitely good enough for top colleges but again it’s a crapshoot at all top colleges.
No one can give you odds but your GPA will not rule you out at those schools given your test scores and ECs. I think if you apply to 4 from the list, you will probably get in to one but you have to have a safety.
And please look at Net Price Calculators and your family budget. What is your state of residence? UCs are going to be $60,000+/year if you are OOS and no financial aid to out of state regardless of financial circumstance. Drop UCLA an Berkley from the list and pick 4-5 of the others based on where you would best fit.
@Sportsman88 as hamurtle noted, I am from California so i can pay in-state tuition for UCB and UCLA. How would you approach finding colleges that “best fit” someone?
Fit can be several things but one big one is size of the school and size of classes. They are not necessarily going to align but generally a small school will have smaller classes. Curriculum is another factor. Columbia isn’t on your list but Brown and Columbia are a good comparison. Brown is open curriculum and Columbia has a core curriculum in six disciplines that every Columbia student takes regardless of major.
Berkley has a reputation of having impacted majors and difficulty scheduling courses for certain majors. I have no inside knowledge but worth investigating.
What is a school’s AP policy? Some give generous credit, some give credit for 5’s only, and others do little to no credit. If you want to double major or graduate early, schools with more generous credit will be bettter. If you don’t care about advanced credit, it’s not an issue.
Does that help get you started on comparing schools?
If you apply ED to any of your top choices, you’re chances will be significantly improved, however I would not apply ED because you will get into a UC (are you ELC?) and you don’t want to be locked in to a school. Here’s my view
WashU - accept
UCLA, Berkeley - accept into one if not both
Northwestern - wait list, could be accept if you apply early
USC- accept
Brown - reject (I'd actually apply to Vanderbilt over Brown for edu major), you'll have a better chance there
BC - accept
CMU - accept
Swarthmore - wait list (again, chances higher with ED)
@theloniusmonk my counselor told me that at some schools applying ED means they look more towards grades than extracurriculars and I am more ec focused. what do you think about how they weigh things between ED and RD?
In ED they won’t have first semester senior year grades so yes having higher GPA helps. I’m not a big advocate of ED, but if you have a clear first choice, you should do it. If the colleges wants to see those grades, they most likely will defer you.