<p>UW GPA: 3.1; ACT: 33 [36 eng, 30 math, 33 read, 32 sci]</p>
<p>somewhat of an upward trend, had a 2.7 freshman year and moved up slowly over sophomore and junior years to around a 3.3</p>
<p>extracurriculars: been doing theater tech work for my school all four years, in an a capella group, a lot of outside work with computers, fair amount of community service </p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>Discouraging. Ability shown by ACT but mediocre grades may indicate that you haven’t learned good study habits. You need to concentrate on academics more than the extras. Learn how to learn the material. It could be you haven’t learned to spend enough time or your foundation is weak and needs strength. UW does not want to admit students who haven’t figured out how to do the work- that just sets the student up for failure. Try to discuss this with teachers and/or your guidance counselor. No matter where you end up for college you will need good study habits.</p>
<p>33 will get you in alot of places… I don’t think an ACT score determines how good your GPA should be either. Some people are better test takers than others, but I think it depends on your essays. If your essays are good, the worst you should be is waitlisted. If you finish strong you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Regarding the ACT. It is true some otherwise intelligent people are not good test takers and have high gpa’s relative to their test scores. However, those who do well on standardized tests but have lower grades than one would expect are likely underachieving. Gifted/highly intelligent students should be able to get mostly A’s, even in Honors/AP classes. Those who don’t are not doing the work. Some have not learned good study habits and can easily do poorly in college when they finally need to have good habits. Therefore colleges may reject them in favor of those who show they can succeed in college. When son was in HS several years ago the UW rep stated this. It makes sense. There will be some gifted kids who are bored in HS and underachieve- might have a 35 or 36 ACT and only a 3.5- 3.7 gpa. This student does not have the extremely high ACT and has barely a B average, his improvement has not been impressive.</p>
<p>OP- you can apply to UW and see what happens. If you get in you will have to study or you will not succeed. If you are rejected you can prove your ability to do college work elsewhere and transfer. There are far too many students with better credentials who have proven they can (and will) do UW work than can be accommodated. Those students deserve the spot at UW more than you do. </p>
<p>Warning to HS juniors- this is the year to pull up those grades as this will be the last full year seen by admissions committees. Do what it takes to make up for knowledge deficits from past years.</p>