Chance Me!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Worcester Polytechnic Institute
1

Female, applying Early Action (caucasian)
GPA: 3.41 unweighted, 4.17 weighted
SAT: 2150 superscore (710 reading, 710 math, 730 writing)
APs: took Statistics but did not do well so I am not sending the score in, currently taking AP Spanish, Language & Composition, AB Calculus, and Physics Mechanics

EC:
violin (have been playing for 12 years and 4 years in a top level city-wide orchestra, traveled to 5 different European countries this past Summer to perform) - I am sending in supplement for this
running (trained with a program and ran a marathon… currently training for my second one)
founder and president of school’s UNICEF club (since sophomore year)
write for the school newspaper (since sophomore year)

Work/Volunteer:
volunteer 2 Summers ago at Cardiology department at well known Boston hospital (BIDMC)
worked this past Summer as a technician at a privately-owned Optometry practice (work on Saturdays during the school year)
volunteer at a lot of 5k and 10k races in my town

Common app essay: very strong (wrote about journey to run a marathon)
Recommendations: strong from counselor (have known him for 7 years), average from 2 teachers (Spanish and statistics)

I am worried that my GPA is too low, but I my school is very competitive and I take mostly Honors and AP classes. Also I am hoping to get a scholarship.
What are my chances of getting in/receiving scholarship?

2

I think are very likely to get in, as your SAT is close to the 75th percentile and your grades are decent, though not excellent. I’m not sure if WPI internally super scores SAT scores. I also think you have a good shot at getting a scholarship, though I’m not sure how much you’d receive.

Your violin performance is quite impressive; I think you have a chance at more competitive schools like Cornell or Michigan, though they would be a reach. WPI does have an orchestra though so you should be able to continue playing music.

But I think 3.41 is low at high school (or even at WPI) and I think you have the potential to do better in college.

3

One more thing I’d add is that in college especially, it is very helpful to adopt a “growth mentality”.

Rather than seeing your capabilities as fixed and yourself as an average student, look at every class, every homework and exam, every interaction with a student or faculty as an opportunity to grow your capabilities and to become closer to excellent.

Ultimately you are measured by what you’ve shown you can do, not how smart you are.

4

Thanks! :slight_smile:

5

@violinfar98 Based on your score and being a female you have a good change of getting in and may get some merit money. With 70% men you should have no problem getting in.