<p>I am a white female from a suburb of New York applying Early Decision II.</p>
<p>GPA (unweighted): 3.26 (upward trend, bad freshmen year)
ACT: 30
SAT: CR (640) W (730) M (680) combined 2050</p>
<p>ECs: Lots of community service, two summer jobs since freshmen year, captain of the varsity softball team, yearbook staff, school newspaper staff, took a college level course for credit last summer.
Good recommendations and essays.</p>
<p>I know GPA is very important to GWU, do you think I still have a shot?</p>
<p>GW is a paper lion, it easier to get in than their deflated 37% admit rate suggests. i'd say by applying ED II you stand a good a chance despite the GPA.</p>
<p>19426 applied, 7342 were admitted. That's 37%. Maybe ED has somewhat better odds, but overall, the admission rate is 37%. How is that "deflated"?</p>
<p><strong><em>Regarding your chances</em></strong></p>
<p>I would put your chance of admission at 25%. </p>
<p>GPA is the most important factor in admissions, and your GPA is on the low end. Not helping is the fact that you do not seem to have taken many, if any, APs or Honors courses that would help justify your low GPA.</p>
<p>To overcome this poor GPA, you need a lot of other factors working in your advantage, and I do not see them. Your test scores are average when you take into consideration that the writing portion has very little importance. Your ECs are good, but not exceptional enough to make much of a difference. Coming from NY is not going to help either.</p>
<p>ED II does help quite a bit, as I believe the acceptance rate is around 50%. It gives you a shot, but it is still a reach. If you really want to go to GW, I would advise you to visit and interview, as genuine interest is important to GW. </p>
<p>By paper lion I believe he means that GW is not as tough to get into as other schools with similar acceptance rates. For example, the University of Chicago has a similar acceptance rate, but it is much more difficult to get in there than GW.</p>
<p>I think the key is what your weighted GPA is. This can make up for a low unweighted GPA, especially since your test scores are good for GW. Doesn't your school use naviance? You can tell a lot from that. According to the naviance charts at our school, everyone accepted to GW has had a 3.6 UW or above, except for 2 students who had a 3.3, with strong weighted GPAs.</p>
<p>According to Naviance, the average GPA (from my school) accepted at GWU is 3.56 for regular, and 3.31 for early. </p>
<p>fatosme- regarding your comment that "Not helping is the fact that you do not seem to have taken many, if any, APs or Honors courses that would help justify your low GPA."
- I don't understand why you would say this, as I have not indicated the level of my courses. Every single course I have taken has been an honors course and I have taken 4 APs...nonetheless, thank you for your response I greatly appreciate it.</p>
<p>^
The fact that you did not indicate the level of your courses is why I said it. Most people who post chance threads here make it a point of mentioning the number of APs that they are taking, so I assumed that as you mentioned none, that you had taken none.</p>
<p>As you have taken difficult courses, your odds improve. Also, ED II applicants dropped 15% this year, so that is going to help you. It is still a reach, but with this new information I would increase your chances to about 40%. A great interview may be the difference, so again, if you have not done one, I would strongly advise you to do one.</p>
<p>Thank you for taking the time to respond...I just received an email saying I will be able to check my application status tomorrow at 5. I'll be sure to post the decision in the thread or someone on the GW forum. Thanks again!</p>
<p>You'll likely get in: the ED II according to their newspaper, the Hatchet, has dropped 15 percent, and the regular decision has increased by a whole 1000 students or so. The ED I has dropped 6 percent.
Thus, it is likely you'll get in since you applied ED, and the RD will be faced with fiercer competition.</p>