Chances for college in general...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everybody. I have a dilemma that I could really use some help with. I’m a junior in HS and I’ve started looking at colleges with my guidance counselor. Many of the schools he recommended me were solid schools, but I was curious if I should apply to any higher tier schools. I’ll list my stats below:

GPA: 3.5/4.0
35 ACT
School doesn’t rank
Math 2 SAT: 800
AP Physics 1: 4
AP Comp Sci: 5
AP Physics 2: 5
AP Euro: 3
Coding job experience
Captain of Model UN, member of various STEM related clubs
Lots of community service, LOTS of work experience

The obvious downfall is the GPA. The GPA of only my core classes is probably even lower, maybe between a 3.3 and 3.4. However, I’ve had some personal struggles over the last couple years, and my grades have seen an upward trend. I’ve been working 2-3 jobs since freshman year. I was selected as a questbridge scholar a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure if it’s worth putting in the money for applications, which I would have to pay for myself. I do have enough money, I just rather save as much as possible, and I don’t want to stress over doing a lot of essays during a tough time in the year. It’s been very discouraging morale wise to see school friends of mine that applied with 4.0s and 36s and got denied from every single ivy league. Some of the schools I’ve been considering that are big reaches are:

UPenn, Stanford, Duke, Colombia, Rice, CMU, Johns Hopkins, etc.

I plan on applying as a computer science major in fall of 2019. I would appreciate any honest feedback. Thank you!

2

With a 3.3-3.5 GPA, UPenn, Stanford, Duke, Colombia, Rice, CMU, Johns Hopkins, etc. will be high to unrealistic reaches (and CS often makes admission more difficult at many schools, due to the popularity relative to department capacity).

If you are in Questbridge, you presumably need a lot of financial aid or scholarships to afford college. Please run the net price calculator on each college’s web site to see if it will offer enough financial aid to make it affordable. What are the colleges that your counselor suggested, and what is your state of residency?

3

I agree with @ucbalumnus it’s hard looking at those kind of schools with your kind of GPA. Talk to your counselor for the best fit for your needs possible.