Hi, my son is a junior in a good public school in CA. His unweighted GPA is 3.6 and UC weighted is 4. His superscored SAT is 2160 and single sitting is 2070 (will take again). He has a 780 in math II and 650 in chemistry. He has great ECs (piano, sports, community service, math tutoring, etc) but is not a star athlete so won’t be a recruit. He is taking 5 APs this year and 3 next year. He is interested in studying applied math or EE. So, ideally a school which has both. Cost is not an issue, nor is the distance from home. He would love to attend Michigan, NW, Brown, or ND. Advise appreciated! Thank you,
He will need a higher GPA and test scores for these top schools.
Thank you. What do you think are more realistic choices?
GPA is definitely too low for Michigan.
Ill try to say this in the nicest way possible.
Having an underweighted gpa of 3.6 is fine in Freshman year, but quite “low” for Junior year. (Im a Freshman in high school and my gpa is 3.7 underweighted).
A friend of mine (currently at Brown University, ivy league) told me that you should aim for at least a 2200 on the SAT to get into a top university.
On more thing-
I just want to mention that even though he is taking lots of AP courses to impress the “admission team”, his scores on AP exams must be extremely high or else he would have the same chance as everyone else applying who is not in AP.
with those grades, a “realistic choice” …
- Georgia Institute of technology
- University of Illinois
- University of Wisconsin
I see you say cost is not an issue. That’s great. We have lots of parents who say that without any realistic idea of what college costs now. Have you run the net price calculators on those schools? In other words, is there over $200k available?
Thank you all. He is wavering between Applied Math and Engineering. Would getting into ND or Michigan be possible
in Applied math?
Northwestern (who’s abbreviation is NU by the way not NW) and Brown will be impossible especially for engineering with that GPA and SAT unfortunately unless your son gets perfect end of year grades, improves the SAT, applies ED/EA with a flawless application. Applied math might improve odds at ND or Michigan with good grades, but it would still probably be a reach. Also if your son decides he prefers engineering later at some schools it could be hard to switch majors. Apply ED/EA with good essays might make one of those a possibility. A few state schools like mentioned above would be good choices for other possibilities. I’d still apply to all these schools because no matter how slim there’s always a chance to be accepted, but realistically this list needs a few more safeties.
Thank you, we did some reading and think this is a more reasonable list? (He plans to apply to up to 15 schools)
target: Wisconsin, UIUC, Purdue, OSU, UCSB/UCI/UCD, maybe BU, NE, Case
low reach (assuming improved GPA and SAT of 2200): Michigan, ND
high reach: NU, Brown
Did we overlook anything?
Thanks,
@Aisince @Abbylawi UIUC engineering is not any easier than UMich CoE. They have almost identical mid 50 ACT (31-34) and admission average GPA (3.9) although UIUC has higher admission rate. These two would be reach schools. GATech is also not too far behind. That would be a low reach due to the GPA although the superscored SAT is near their admission average.
Purdue and Wisc are good target in the match to high match range.
That looks like a really good list. As long as you apply to enough schools to at least get in one safety (so you have at least one place to go to college if all else fails) and likely get in one or two reaches, it’ll work.
I would hesitate applying to 15 schools with his GPA. Maybe target ~6-7 schools, in addition to the UCs, so he can really concentrate on the applications/supplements to put his best foot forward. The idea is to show that he’s a better applicant than what his 3.6 might otherwise indicate. You accomplish that by getting the list right regarding academic fit, social fit, value/cost, admission chances, then spending enough time to nail the apps.
Consider throwing in an application to UCSD. It’s good for both math and EE. It might be a reach re GPA, but opting for an in-state public reach is never a bad idea because of the advantage you have with residence, the huge benefit you have with cost, and the obvious academic quality benefits. It’s the same idea with UCLA versus, say, Michigan. I’d question whether Michigan would be any easier for admission than UCLA, plus the strengths of the two schools are similar in both math and EE, the cost difference favors UCLA by a bundle, and a UCLA app doesn’t chew up extra time. If he likes U Mich, though, then go for it, it’s a great school.
I have an impression that UCSB is particularly strong for EE, so check that out. UCD/UCI are sensible picks for math, but EE too. It’s also not a bad idea applying to UCSC for EE, as a safety.
For private schools, NU and Brown might be overly optimistic reaches with a 3.6 GPA. Look very closely at USC for applied math, based on the proximity tactic. Other good options are Case Western, especially for EE, and Rensselaer, U Rochester, and Boston U for either math or EE.
For out-of-state publics – bearing in mind that cost/value is an issue versus the UCs – Georgia Tech is excellent for EE, Wisconsin is solid for either math or EE, and have a look at UT Austin for applied math.
Thank you. His UC GPA will hopefully be 4.1 or 4.2 by the time he applies in the Fall. I hope that will be competitive
for the UC schools you mentioned.
Don’t worry about the gpa because it’s not that bad. Gpa varies according to the difficulty of the school. I would go into naviance to see the stats of past students at your son’s school, and then you’ll actually see how he stands academic-wise.
Thank you. The problem with Naviance is that the statistics are not separated by year. Given how much the acceptance rate has gone down in some universities (some have halved in only 5 years), I don’t know
how reliable it is. In our case, the school’s data are averaged sometimes over 10 years. Any idea how I could mine the data further?
A few updates: W GPA is now 4.2 and ACT is 34. Worked at a startup during the summer. Calc AB score of 5 and
English at 4. Better chances? Thanks
^ That is a very good point that many people overlooked. Nevertheless, even the admission rate went down a lot for some schools like UMich, their admission stat only increase slightly (like a point in ACT). So you may still use the Naviance data as a reference but with some adjustment.