Chances at top colleges? Lowish GPA, high ACT

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi CC!

Like the majority of posters on this forum, I’m a (very stressed) rising high school senior trying to get an idea of where I stand in the college app process. I’m applying to Northwestern WCAS ED1 and Vanderbilt ED2. Other schools: William and Mary, BU, BC, CMU, Wesleyan, Emory, WashU, USC, Michigan, Tufts

Objective:
School Type: public
Location: New York
Race/Gender: Asian female
Income: Upper middle (350K+)
Prospective Major: CS and Psychology or Cognitive Science (I want to explore the intersection of education and technology. ex. How can we harness technology to give underprivileged students access to individualized learning? And I don’t want to go to an education-focused school (like SESP or Peabody).)

Unweighted GPA: 3.78 out of 4
Weighted GPA: 4.33 out of 5
Class rank: probably top 10-15%
I’ve taken the hardest classes (honors and AP) throughout high school. Next year, I’ll be taking BC calculus, AP physics, AP Java, AP lang, AP psych
I have a strong upward trend from 3.6ish freshman year to 3.9high junior year.

ACT: 36 C (36M 36S 36E 35R)
SAT II Math 2: 800
(retaking chem)
AP Biology: 4
AP Stats: 5
AP USH: 5
AP Chinese: 5

ECs:
Varsity sport - 4 years, captain senior year

  • state and regional awards for academic and athletic excellence
  • team MVP 2 seasons

Debate - 4 years

  • advanced to elimination rounds at national-level tournaments
  • national qualifier in a competitive district
  • NSDA degree of distinction
  • coached middle school students

Research assistant - 2 months, summer after sophomore year

  • researched novel treatment for ischemic stroke with well-known professor

Organized community-wide event

  • over 300 participants (organizations and individuals)
  • led digitization of the event (in previous years they did everything by hand)

Teaching assistant at local organization

Summer intern at non-profit that focuses on immigrant empowerment through education and employment

  • built a curriculum and taught computer/technology class
  • helped them improve their website and social media presence
  • office work (filing, shredding, etc.)

Intern at engineering firm (paid)

  • set up international shipping channel to facilitate sales to a new market
  • updated website (graphics, content)

Awards: (nothing special, pretty much all are test-based)

  • AP scholar with honor
  • National Honor Society
  • Honor roll all terms
  • Predicted National Merit semi-finalist (1500 on PSAT)
  • National Latin Exam gold medal x2
  • gold president’s volunteer award x3
  • Debate and sports awards

Recs will probably be average, like 7 or 8/10. My counselor has over 50 students she has to write recs for, but I think she knows me decently well.
I’m working on my essay, but I think it’ll be pretty decent if I can figure out how to stop procrastinating the writing process.

Wow, that was super long! Any advice is appreciated, and link your “chance me” threads below; I’ll chance you back.

2

I can’t speak for each school because I’m only a college sophomore. Your academics and EC’s definitely qualify you for the schools you listed, but yes, your GPA is low. There’s nothing bad about it because it is pretty good (well, to me at least, maybe not to other posters).

Just curious, why not NYU? CUNY? SUNY? Cornell? You are in-state for those schools so you should definitely go for at least one of those.

You can definitely make it into one of the schools you just listed, but I won’t give a definite response for any of them because I honestly don’t know and each applicant is different. I can’t go by the acceptance rate and give you an accurate response. Why so? Two students from my high school well before I went to HS got perfect SAT scores and GPAs yet they got rejected from every school they applied to, even Rutgers. This is because they never had any extracurriculars in their entire high school career. I stopped giving definite responses because anything can happen.

That being said, keep a few safety schools in mind. Find schools that you’ll definitely get into, but also appeal to you. Do some exploring. Visit the schools you’d like to go to. Imagine what it’d be like to be a student there. Ask some questions. Make yourself known to admissions and faculty. That might play favorably for you.

Hope this helps and best of luck! You can do it :slight_smile:

3

UMich considers GPA as most important while test score is just important. GPA 3.78 is near 0.1 below admission average which would be close to their 25th percentile.

4

@johnjayluvr
Northwestern WCAS ED1- High Match/ Low Reach
Vanderbilt ED2- High Match
William and Mary- Match
BU- Match
BC- Low Match
CMU- Low Reach
Wesleyan- Match
Emory- Low Reach
WashU- Low Reach
USC- High Match
Michigan- Match/ High Match
Tufts- High Match
You’ll probably get into several. I’ll be surprised if Vandy rejects you.

5

You are too worried. If colleges have any pause for concern regarding your GPA, one glance at your scores will elevate that concern.

I think you are qualified for any school in america, be it harvard or tufts. I’d be wary of tufts syndrome though. Make sure to show all these schools plenty of interest. It’s going to come down to your essays, your interview, and other soft factors. Good luck.

6

Thank you for your insight, everyone!

7

I think @VANDEMORY1342 has pretty good guidance, but BC and BU might be reversed. Of course, I have difficulty keeping all these gradations clear. . .