Chances for Georgetown, Lehigh, George Washington, UPenn?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello to anyone who is reading this!
I am a current junior who has just started looking at colleges. Georgetown is my top choice, but I am not sure I would get in. Lehigh and George Washington are safer bets for me, and UPenn is DEFINITELY a reach school. My stats are below; I would appreciate any feedback!

ACT: 32 (34 E, 35 M, 30 R, 30 S)
GPA: weighted is 4.0, my school also runs on a much harder grading scale than most of the schools around me, to get a “real” A you need above a 95
Classes: (only allowed to start taking APs junior year unless you are in advanced math)
Junior year courseload:
-AP Chem
-AP English 11
-Honors Trig/College Alg
-Honors French 4
-Honors Anatomy
-American Studies
Senior year courseload:
-AP Gov
-AP Literature
-AP Bio
-AP Calc AB (might take BC, not sure yet)
-Honors Organic Chemistry
-Honors French 5 (AP not offered in foreign languages at my school)
-Honors Accounting
Hooks: recruited athlete (each of these schools have shown interest)
EC: Student council (running for VP senior year), Varsity track (3 year state qualifier), National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society (running for office Senior year), Secretary of French Club, Lifeguard in the summer

Other info:

-I run year round, I spend about 3 hours practicing every day which takes up most of my time

-I am taking two SAT Subject tests in June, Math 1 and Chemistry, based on the practice tests I have done I am hoping to be around the 780-800 range

-I am a white female from the northeast interested in pre-med, specifically majoring in neuroscience or biochemistry

-I think my GPA is the weakest area of my application. My sophomore year grades really dragged me down, I had as many B’s as I had A’s. My mother is battling cancer and that was a really tough year for me. However, my counselor says colleges look for growth and improvement, which I have definitely shown this year. Below I have listed my weighted GPA for each of my high school years.
Freshman: 3.97
Sophomore: 3.79 (yikes)
Junior: 4.35 (I’m also top 5% in my class for just my junior year, however my school does not send ranks to colleges)

I am hoping my low GPA won’t put me at a huge disadvantage when applying to schools. Some of you may be thinking I’m crazy for applying to UPenn, but a girl in the grade above me from my school got in early action and her stats are similar to mine.

2

Definitely take Calc BC!! Penn stressed the importance of Calc when I visited! :slight_smile:
Also, in the common app, they will you a section to write about any extenuating circumstances… I would mention your school’s grading system and that is why your GPA appears lower. I’m not sure if it will help, but you might as well try it! I know if my school used a 95-A scale, my GPA wouldn’t be as pretty either :stuck_out_tongue:

I would also recommend taking the Math II subject test, as it covers most of the same material as Math I… If you don’t think you will do well, stick with Math I.

I wish you the best of luck with your applications! Have you considered doing early decision for Georgetown?

3

@skiingislife4 thank you for replying! I probably will apply ED for Georgetown, but for some reason their acceptance rate for ED is actually lower than for RD, which makes me nervous.

4

Your stats are in the zone, for a recruited athlete, at any college in the nation. Congrats. Ask your coach or AD for assistance to make sure you are taking the right steps. And contact your future coach … you should be getting a strong read by now?

Don’t want to throw you off track (pun intended); but have you thought about liberal arts colleges?

5

Have you considered ED at LU or GWU so you lock in next year?

6

The reason it is probably lower is because the people applying ED only want to go to Georgetown. Either way, if you are an applicant they want, they’ll accept you without worrying about the # of seats left in the program. RD applicants are fighting for whatever seats are left. I’m not an expert in the process so I may be off, but that is my interpretation of it! :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Recruits go ED. You need to nail down an offer from a coach. Sorry to sound pushy but my experience is with the boys lacrosse recruiting timeline. BTW my kid loves Georgetown.

8

Hey! I think you have good shot at all of those schools! UPenn is a tough school but you definitely have a chance esp bc you’re an athlete! Just have amazing LORs and Essays :slight_smile:

9

Make sure, before you do ED, that you are sure you and your family will be able to afford the school. You don’t want to end up with a really good offer from GW, but end up in a binding agreement without recieving aid from George. Just something for you to think about. Make sure to keep you gpa as high as possible next year, and you’ll hopefully get into whichever of these schools you want. Good luck.

10

Georgetown doesn’t do ED only EA. Other than that you’re app looks like the average app for kids applying to such selective schools although your act is on the lower end for penn but is around average for Georgetown. I think you’re competitive for your reaches and will get into GW and Lehigh. FWIW I got into Georgetown with a lower gpa and a higher act granted I am a URM but I never thought I’d get in so you never know. Best of luck!