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, or Mizzou (are they reaches/matches/safety)? What should I improve? Please please let me know!! Thanks!
You will get into Mizzou and probably qualify for a very generous Diversity Scholarship that effectively makes you an in-state student. You should also apply for the Brooks Scholarship, which I believe is a full tuition award. For safeties where you might receive good aid, you might also want to look into Iowa.
Wisconsin-High Match
Michigan State-Low Match/Safety
Mizzou-safety.
UW-High match
MSU- Match
Mizzou- Safety
Just be sure to try hard in all of your classes and get your GPA up a bit to ensure admission. Your ACT is very good for the schools you’re looking at. Just write good essays and maintain your grades and you’ll be fine!
@wis75 I’ve seen your replies to these threads and was interested in your input. Could you please let me know? I would really appreciate it!
UW High Match
Mizzou safety
MSU safety
Wouldn’t know about the other schools. Your high ACT with relatively low grades suggests you do not study/do the work to get the grades you could get. Being an UNDERREPRESENTED minority could help. Regardless of any chances you will do yourself a favor if you concentrate on learning the material and developing good study habits no matter where you attend college.
@wis75 Just an FYI, I do learn the material to the best ability of mine. Sometimes my hardest isn’t good enough, it’s as simple as that. I study all day.
UW Madison - Match
MSU - Match
Mizzou - Safety
Another UW parent here – a comfortable ACT score, the challenge will be the unweighted gpa, which is on the low side for OOS even if it comes up to a 3.4.
Keep looking for safeties and matches – University of Iowa is a terrific school, and admissions is based on a formula which you can use to calculate whether you will be accepted – my kid was thrilled to discover as an OOS student that he would be admitted with $5000. merit (though that was in 2011, so don’t know if the numbers have changed) Another possible match is Minnesota- Twin Cities, as long as you are not a STEM kid – Arts and Letters admission there would be slightly easier OOS than at UW.
Good luck, and hang in there, ask for help in your classes, assess whether your study skills/habits or time management skills are holding you back. Do you need to study a different way? Try doing studying without music, if you have music on. Try studying out loud, by repeating things out loud, if you ordinarily just read your notes over. Or if you think best with a pen in your hand, then take notes on your notes, to help you retain information.
@Midwestmomofboys Thanks for the input! One big mistake I wrote, it turns out my GPA was wrong in this post, I made another one. My unweighted is actually a 3.54/4.0 and weighted is 3.87/5.0. What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear!
As said previously by many of the people who commented, your ACT score is quite high/reasonable for these colleges, yet your GPA is a bit lackluster. Try as much as possible to improve your GPA, as it can assure your acceptance into many of these colleges. Stick with those EC’s, because they look good. From what you wrote, I’d say:
UW Madison - High Match
MSU - Low Match
Mizzou - Safety
Stick with EC’s because you enjoy them, not just to improve your resume.
To the OP – a 3.54 unweighted is in the ballpark for OOS at UW. Having watched admissions there for a few years, I would say, likely postpone, with a good chance of admission in the spring. Find the safeties where you can be happy, check out Iowa and MN Twin Cities.
@Midwestmomofboys Minnesota is not a safety school anymore, at least not for OOS applicants in the STEM disciplines. Take a look at the Minnesota discussion forum showing how many students with good stats like the OP (including my kid) have been waitlisted this year. The same thing is happening at Ohio State and will probably get worse next year with the success of their football team.
@sltxdad you are right, I should have been clearer, that was sloppy on my part.
Applying to Arts & Letters (or the equivalent, I forget what it is called at MN) is not quite as tough, but science and engineering, would take much much more and I wouldn’t dream of calling that an easy admit.
I meant to suggest that, for a humanities type kid from OOS with a 3.4 and a 31, MN and Iowa could be a better shot than UW, closer to matches than reaches, but definitely not safeties.
Iowa can be a safety, as they have automatic admission for anyone obtaining a minimum score on their Regent Admissions Index. The same thing applies to Iowa State. There is a calculator on their website; if your score meets or exceeds the minimum, you are in. Iowa does rolling admissions, so you could theoretically have this one in your back pocket by Labor Day and not have to stress quite as hard about your other applications.