2150 SAT (700/780/670, all second try, did not submit ND,NW,DUKE)
34 ACT (32E/35M/34R/36S + 36(12/12/12/12)W)
3.6 uw (4 scale)
4.8 w (6 scale)
rank ~100/600 (top 50 is 5.3 w)
11 AP courses + 1 IB
Good-strong recs from Comp Sci/Econ teacher
3+ minor Comp Sci EC’s (including 6 year presence at particular charity)
Standard volunteer EC’s + summer volunteer
Midyear report will be a positive increase for all GPA/rank related stats. Very upward from disastrous sophomore year!
Intended major:
Economics
Schools (my reaches):
Duke
UChicago
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Awesome in-state engineering school already lined up for Computer Science.
Chances at my reaches?
I’m a little more optimistic. I think you’ve got a shot at Notre Dame with that ACT score. In fact, a quarter of Notre Dames students are not encompassed by the top 5%. Your GPA is not low for some asinine lazy reason, you took 11 AP classes. Although on this forum it may seem like a curse and a death sentence, a 3.6 unweighted is still indicative of an “A” student. It also seems like you most likely attend a pretty rigorous/prestigious high school to have those level GPAs floating in the top 100. Don’t rule anything out with a 34 on the ACT, very few kids can achieve something like that. Northwestern, Duke, and UChicago maybe not, but I have a feeling Notre Dame just may be where you end up. Best of luck darling.
Like gatorgirl mentioned you Notre Dame seems like a plausibility for you. I had around the same specs as you last year with the ACT and low GPA, I’m sure it definetly hurt my chances for the top 10 colleges but as long as you write solid essays I wouldn’t be surprised if you got into numerous top 20 schools.
@gatorgirllala Thanks, I really appreciate the positivity. I do go to a public high school, we just happen to be extremely competitive. I do wish that I had been more focused throughout high school to obtain a 4.0, but it’s out of my hands now.
@gatorgirllala I would agree with that OP displays a lot of potential, and I can empathize with OP about attending a really competitive private school, but the fact is that while 11 AP classes were taken, that rank is indicative of where everyone else stands, and that is going to hurt him for these schools.
@jarrett211 No doubt, but not nearly as much if OP was coming from some low ranked “We-Only-Offer-AP Psych” public school with 850 kids in a class. That ACT score speaks for itself, and so does the rigor. I really do think they’ll be okay.
I’m probably not going to articulate this very well, but I think, based on the info you have provided, ND will be a tough one for you. (I have two daughters currently attending, so am pretty familiar with their admissions.) Yes, your ACT is at the top of their mid-range, but everything else looks somewhat ordinary. Yes, you have taken a ton of AP’s, but your GPA is well below those that I have seen gain admission. Those can be overcome, however. If you have some kind of hook, that will help. What is most important at ND, though, is fit. ND is a unique place, and when looking to build a class, Admissions looks to see that applicants understand and embrace the mission of the University and can articulate how they will contribute to the community they will be a part of. They look to your supplemental essays to gauge this. Part could also depend on where you are applying from. If you go to a school well known to ND, that might help, particularly if they are familiar with your school’s relative competitiveness. This could alleviate the concern about your low GPA. The flip side to this is if there are several applicants from your school that have relatively better GPAs with similar rigor, you won’t be as competitive in comparison. As someone already said, though, without the full picture it is very hard to chance you, particularly for schools where subjectivity is so important.
Sorry this is so long, but the only other one I can speak to from personal experience is U of C. For them, the essays are everything. If you knocked those out of the park, you stand a chance. If you look at the CDS for the schools you listed, ND, Duke, and NW all list GPA as being either important or very important and at least 90% of students were in the top decile of their high school class. U of C does not publish their CDS, but the only data I could see said that number was 75%, so, as I said, perhaps your essays could overcome your class rank/GPA.
I don’t mean to discourage you, and I am not saying you won’t be admitted to one or all of these schools. I am just saying, particularly with regards to ND, it will be tough. Good luck!
@ejcclc I can add on to what you said about UChicago, since I was admitted EA and will be attending there in the fall. Yes, essays are everything there, but you still need a reasonable GPA to supplement that. They tend to be lighter on test scores, but since your grades are the problem and not your test scores, nothing really makes up for the grades. No school, not even Chicago, will take you on essays alone. You would have to have some truly stellar essays to overcome that GPA and rank (which, to me, is more indicative of rigor than GPA is.) It is clear you go a rigorous school, but it will be extremely tough to get in to UChicago. It is possible, though, if that makes it any different. I know people who got in with that GPA.
@jarrett211 I would agree with you 100%, but what I was saying is that of all the places OP listed, U of C is the one, in my experience, where a slightly subpar GPA could be overcome with essays that hit a particular mark. This, though, is only what I have seen from applicants I know, and is in no way meant to be taken as applying to every single applicant. (And congrats! My niece was also admitted EA and will be attending.)
@ejcclc I would agree with that. OP, out of all the schools you have listed, Chicago is the one most likely to happen in the sense that if your essays are phenomenal, the GPA can be overcome.
Son was a Restrictive Early Action - Early Admit this past December. Only one other from his high school and that is a football signing.
I will definitely agree with they are looking for the perfect fit. Not only what you have accomplished, but what it looks like you will be involved in on campus, what your major will be (they will not over a book a major so they will not have to tell someone that while they were admitted to Engineering, they will have to settle for a different major. (have found this to be a problem elsewhere)
Service is key, and they type you have done. Did you help clean up or set up for many community events? or did you work in an inner city after school program tutoring kids, run by a Church? Definitely-- do they know your school? Is it common for students to go to Notre Dame from your high school? Were you involved in any prayer groups or campus crusade for Christ groups? NHS? Any national awards like National Merit Scholar? or National Latin Exam medalist?
Sports? Boy Scouts?
ACT 34
AP classes 10 all 4’s and 5’s so far
Dual College credit coursework 2
Rest are Honors classes
Rank 10/240
SAT were just a little lower 2170 one sitting or 2180 superscored
Applied 11/1
Have not visited
Sons essays are always top notch.
All of this said, we know several of his great classmates who are even above him class rank that have not been admitted yet. So it is a puzzle. I do know one in particular struggles with a great essay.
As a Northwestern student who got in with a higher GPA and lower SAT scores I would encourage you to ignore that negativity and give it your best shot. NU was a reach for me and meeting a lot of people here, it was a reach for them as well and yet, here we are. Good luck!
