OOS Minnesota
Unweighted GPA 3.565
Top 25% of relatively good school
ACT 34
APs: US history (4), chemistry (4), lang and comp (4), world history (5), stats (5)
Course load has been all honors/aps
Senior year I am taking AP calc BC, AP econ, AP Lit and comp, AP psych, AP physics, AP comp sci, CIS Chinese V
ECs: robotics (12)
national Chinese honors society (11-12)
Tutoring ESL (English as a second language) students for about 5 hrs a week (11-12)
Work: 30 hours a week as a server (11-12)
Volunteered at feed my starving children for a total of ~30 hrs
Planning to major in stats or econ if that makes any difference
I know my gpa and extracurriculars are pretty weak, but can I make up for that with strong test scores and essays? Pls be brutally honest
With that test score you are expected to have better grades. UW may wonder if you have the necessary study skills to succeed. It does matter if that gpa reflects much better junior year grades than prior years- that would show you got your act together and now know how to get the work done. Your AP exam scores look good. You are expected to take the most rigorous curriculum and do well per what UW has stated in the past. This means no figuring a lower grade in an Honors/AP class is better than an A in the regular version.
Your proposed major will not influence your admission. UW now requests a major on the application form I hear but that major is not binding. You get admitted to the university as a whole.
Your gpa could be the problem depending on whether it is due to rising or falling grades each year. Worth applying. Get strong recommendations and write your best on the essays. Do remember that academics are more important than activities- can you handle the course load and the time you spend doing the other things? If not, you need to prioritize.
I have students with lower stats admitted, but that’s not taking into account their course rigor or essays, so while it looks like you have a shot it’s hard to say without seeing the whole picture.
Both majors you are interested in are housed in Letters & Science, so if you are admitted, that would be your home college, which is the home college to the vast majority of students on campus.