Racial minority junior in an affluent neighborhood in a great school of Northern Illinois
Progressed to get into honors classes and AP classes.
Junior year: all honors classes except for math, and AP French (highest level in my school)
Senior year: AP Bio, AP AB Calc, AP Literature, and AP Psych (then gym/free period/etc)
Last semester’s unweighted GPA was 3.2, weighted 4.0. I plan on bringing that up absolutely as much as I can this semester. So far this semester I have unweighted 3.4 and weighted 4.2
31 ACT
ECs
Editor on my school’s nationally recognized newspaper (2 years)
Student leader in one of those “get-to-know-yourself” retreats sponsored by the school this year (was accepted to be one next year as well) (2 years)
Medical Club member
After School All Stars member (tutoring kids in less fortunate areas)
Tutor for kids in a writing program at my school
French Nat’l Honors Society + Nat’l Honors Society
Extras
Work at a juice bar
After School All Stars’ volunteering counts in my hours, however I plan on volunteering in a hospital soon
Played lacrosse fresh/soph year, not anymore.
What are my chances of getting into UW Madison, Michigan State, UCLA, or Mizzou (are they reaches/matches/safety)? What should I improve? Please please let me know!! Thanks!
High match, low reach? UW-Madison I know puts a huge weight on GPA and tests, so try retaking your ACT and give the SAT a shot to boost yourself a little and compensate some more for your previous GPA.
I only really know about UCLA, so I’ll chance you on that.
UCLA is a reach for you currently. As an OOS applicant, you’re being judged harsher. Your major might affect your admissions, but really you’re under UCLA’s stats. They might look at your GPA and see that it’s inflated if your UW is that low, but if you explained in your essays why that happened then that might alleviate it a bit. ECs are good. Standardized test score is within the range of UCLA, but just a little bit below the OOS applicant’s. Overall, I’d say your acceptance will depend on the strength of your essays and which major you applied to. Your race probably won’t help that much since Universities of California (UCs) don’t factor that in really, which is why most UCs are predominantly Asians.
Final verdict: It’s a reach school, but there is hope! Never give up because admissions is always really weird and nothing should deter you from succeeding.
I only know about UW Madison and UCLA, and as of now, due to your unweighted GPA, they are reaches. You would have to really try to bring it up to stand a higher change. Of course, not an automatic rejection or anything, but it would significantly help to have an unweighted GPA of at least around 3.7 for those schools to have serious consideration, especially since you’re out of state for those. Your ACT would be fine, if your GPA were higher, but in order to make up for the lack of GPA for those schools, it’d actually be much easier to try and get those test scores higher. Now, if you get the GPA and test scores higher, then you have an even better chance, of course.
I think you might make it into UW Madison though. Your extracurriculars, however are fine for most schools. I’m sure you’ll get into a decent university. Best of luck to you.