Hi all, my son is a Texas high school junior who just received his latest SAT test scores (Jan SAT). He previously took the exam the first time in November and received a 1970 and this is likely the last time he’ll take the SAT exam. He is going to apply for out of state admission to UM as a history major. Can you guys honestly tell me what you think of his chances for admission are based on his current profile?
GPA: 3.7 (w)
Rank: Probably top 30%
SAT: 2070 as follows 790 Critical Reading; 590 Math; and 690 Writing (He plans on taking ACT for the first time in April)
SAT II World History Subject Test: 680 (He will take the US History Subject Test in June 2015)
AP World History: 5/5 (he plans on taking the US History & English AP Exam)
Hook: African-American Male
EC: Track freshmen year; Basketball manager sophomore year; and Cross Country junior year.
Part-Time Employment: Since June 2014, he has worked a part-time job working 10-12 hours a week at a fast-food establishment.
Thanks in advance for any advice or input that I receive.
I think your son is in
Im an asian and I just got into Carlson School of Management with 1900 SAT Reading 600, Math 800, Writing 500 and 101 TOEFL, GPA 3.85
didn’t send my SAT Subject tests
No worries, your son will get in, I’m an asian, I still get in with low scores.
@fatheroftwoboys, the average SAT scores for College of Liberal Arts is 1905 so your son is well above that. In addition to good stats, your son has three additional advantages applying to CLA: 1) he’s male; 2) he’s AA; 3) he’s from out of state (UMTC’s tuition difference IS/OS is much lower than other flagship institutions in the Midwest - or in Texas for that matter! In my opinion that actually reveals quite a lot about the desire to attract and enroll more students from outside the state).
Thanks @Mamelot for your response above. My son is really interested in UM. We have a diverse list of schools amongst our list and UM is amongst his favorites. A Big 10 school is a great out of state alternative to our in-state option.
We also noticed the low premium for OOS tuition at UM, which is obviously attractive to us; on the other hand I noticed that the in-state tuition is for Minnesota residents is not as low for the in-state tuition cost for us here in Tx at our flagship school - UT Austin. In this instance it works to my son’s advantage as an OOS applicants but I was always curious about the why UM charged so more for its own in-state tuition and so little for OOS. In comparison, one of our safety schools the University of Alabama does not have nearly as good an academic reputation; however, they charge almost $4,000 a more for OOS tuition.
I recommend to have your son send the latest SAT score as soon as possible (rush) especially he made 790 on critical reading section, which Colleges value the most.
Well, that’s good to know. He scored a 720 on the Critical Reading section the first time he took the test and then he scored a 790 this last Jan. Of course, he was intending to raise his math score which he did, but only by 10 points from 580 to 590. I wish he you @mapleccc as a math tutor with you 800 Math subscore.
My son is a high school junior so he can’t actually apply for admission to UM until this fall but once the app goes live for the freshman class entering for the Fall of 2016, he’ll be amongst the first applicants to submit his app.
Wow, I thought he’s a senior now. So, no worries, your son has done a good job especially in his SAT. The only thing he has to do is to bring up his GPA as much as he can. About the Math, I mean it’s natural thing (maybe Im an asian? …just kidding!) he scored 590, and I believe that your son will bring it up to at least 650 ultimately if he does some SAT math practices. But make your son try hard in school to bring up his GPA, in that case he’s guaranteed in, and most likely with scholarship!
@fatherof2boys, to answer the question as to why UMTC charges relatively more to it’s in-state students and relatively less to it’s out-of-staters, my guess is because U of MN is known for being a “local” school. Some may disagree with that assessment but I’ve heard this anecdotally from several who are pretty familiar with the institution.
In-state tuition is obviously going to be determined in part by the grant from the state. But in general, if it’s charging “more” relative to other flagship schools, that’s most likely because . . . it can. In other words, it needn’t compete for those kids like it has to for the OOS kids.
A similarly ranked school, University of Iowa, charges a nearly $20,000 less for it’s in-staters than the OOS’ers. Knowing nothing about the school’s finances other than the fact that a LOT of Illinois kids go there, I’m not surprised by the large tuition difference.
@fatherof2boys a 3.5 UW GPA is not a bad GPA to begin with, and he still has a semester to improve his GPA further. Just make sure he does three things: 1) explain the reasons why grades were lower in freshman year - admissions offices love a success story esp. if the trend is very positive. There will be space on the application to add any information you choose or write a personal statement; 2) send a teacher recommend letter if you think it’s necessary validating the strong current academic performance - it WILL be read; 3) if he has applied early but hasn’t heard back by end of 1st semester Senior year be sure to send an updated transcript ASAP with the new (hopefully higher) grades, thus further validating his academic ability.
I wouldn’t worry too much, though. My D had a horrific sophomore year but turned it around. Her UW GPA was a 3.43 (weighted was 3.56). She also got a 33 on the ACT which really helped her. She is neither male, nor African American, nor OOS. She applied to CLA in September and was accepted by end of October. Maybe I’m overoptimistic on these things but I think UMTC would be happy to accept your son if he keeps up with his current stats.