I am a high school junior in Massachussetts and I was curious as to what colleges I could possibly get admissions into. I know my gpa is very weak, but would it balance out with my other activities and SAT scores?
GPA: weighted: 3.8/5.0 unweighted: 3.2/4.0
SAT: 2200
Extracarriculars: velleyball 5 years (jv during freshman year and varsity during sophomore and junior years), club volleyball during the school’s off seasons, worked in a Cheshire home in India for a whole summer, robotics in 9th grade, harbinger club in 10th grade, key club in 8th and 9th grade
Passions: writing, volleyball, art
Also, I moved during my sophomore year of high school and the move really hurt my grades and gpa.
I was wondering if I have what it takes to get into a solid school like penn state, UMass Amherst, or UCONN. Are there any other similar schools that I could get into.
GPA might be a little bit low for PSU main campus – grades are one of the things they consider most heavily – but if you get your app in early you’ll probably have a shot. Do you have an upward trend that is likely to improve your GPA senior year as well?
Get the GPA up as quickly as possible. You want that to be a minimum of 3.5 in order to be considered for OOS publics like Penn State or UConn. UMass Amherst, you are fine.
Your UW GPA is a bit low but the rest of your profile looks very good. Your SAT score is actually probably high enough to offset your GPA. Use your senior year to improve your GPA! I think that as of now you have a great shot at these three schools, especially UMass since you are instate.
Thanks for the feedback. I got a 3.8 unweighted my freshman year but sophomore and junior years were lower. Also, how much would it benifit me if I improved my gpa drastically during my senior year? As in, how much would colleges consider those grades when looking at the rest of the transcript. My course load for senior year is just like junior year. 2 AP’s and all honors classes.
For Penn State, only grades 9-11 are considered, so your GPA is too low (they will reweight it and your SAT will offset some of it, but it’ll hurt your application in any case). Your best bet is to apply on September first, indicating DUS as a major, and check “summer session” if you really want University Park. If you’re in the College of Liberal Arts, try to do Paterno Fellows, which is an entryway into the Honors College.
You should be fine for UMass, it’s a good match, but make sure to apply as soon as the app is up; and if you attend a high-performing school, they’ll be more likely to know it. You can always try for Commonwealth Honors.
There’s no “easier way” into UConn that I know of (like the DUS/Summer session for Penn State).
As a safety, look into Wheaton (MA), Goucher, Dickinson, Muhlenberg, St Lawrence, SUNY New Paltz, UMass Lowell Honors, Ohio Wesleyan, Wooster, Pitt (depending on the type of environment you like).
We are instate for Mass. My son got into uconn for engineering 2 yrs ago with a 3.3 uw, 1980 SAT (1380 cr and math). However he only got accepted undeclared to umass Amherst.
What are you planning on studying?
My daughter is going to umass Amherst in the fall. The avg gpa for admitted students for the business school was a 3.9 this year. At the admitted students open house the dean of the business school was saying that they can’t believe it but they are rejecting kids with 3.5, 3.6 GPAs.
My understanding is that umass is very difficult to get in to for engineering, business and computer science.
Thank you. I plan to study either business or communications, but I’m still unsure as of now. I may end up going in undecided.
Is the accepted gpa for the Amherst business school an UW gpa of 3.8 or a weighted gpa of 3.8?
Also, I’m coming from one of the higher end public schools in Massachusetts and was wondering if that would have any impact.
As mentioned earlier, I did well my freshman year in California, but the move from California to Massachusetts gave me a rough time and I didn’t do so well in tenth and 11 grade as I would have liked. How much would colleges, especially the ones I want to go to, factor in those “setbacks”?
3.8 as the average quoted is weighted (but reweighted by the university and still impressive.)
Yes, MA colleges (and probably New England colleges) would know how rigorous your new school is. Your GC would include a “brag sheet” for the school anyway, the SSR, so don’t worry, even colleges that don’t know your school will know it graduates x% students, x% go on to a 4-year college, etc.
I’m a graduating senior and it seems like we are into the same kinds of schools (big state schools.) I had a 3.7 GPA on a 5 scale and a 29 (not SS) on the ACT. The big state schools I applied to were Penn State, University of Maryland, University of Delaware, Uconn, University of South Carolina, MSU, and Syracuse (not a state school but has the same vibe in my opinion) and was admitted to every school I applied to. I also got merit scholarships from MSU and USC. Just because your GPA is a little low don’t be discouraged! I didn’t think that I would get into a lot of these schools. I did get into Penn State as a summer admit but hey I still got in! Make sure you maximize your chances for all the schools like Penn State and select summer start if it makes it a little easier to get in.
Also, since these are big state schools they mostly look at GPA/test scores and I’m not sure that they would look into your application enough to see that you struggled because of a move. I would encourage you to work hard senior year because although some of these schools don’t look at your grades others will and you always want to give it your best shot!
On more thing, for some schools it’s easier to get in undecided. I know that at Penn State you can apply to their undecided major (DUS) and are still able to take classes for your intended major. As long as you have the grades at the end of your sophomore year of college you will be admitted to your major no problem. It’s a lot easier to get in DUS than business and probably engineering.
Scohen99 is right: large state schools are mostly about GPA X ACT/SAT score. Your story won’t really matter to them - so, to ensure admission “somewhere good”, make sure you apply to “holistic” schools too, such as Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Goucher, Ohio Wesleyan, Wooster… The last three would basically be safeties for you (your GPA is low for them but they’d consider it’s offset by your SAT score) and students are these schools tend to be quite smart At all of these, the teaching/learning is excellent. If you want D1 football, look into American U, Loyola-Maryland, perhaps Fordham.
At all of these, the teaching/learning is excellent. If you want D1 football, look into American U, Loyola-Maryland, perhaps Fordham.