Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I received the golden gopher application from the university of Minnesota and i filled it out but i am retaking the sat this Saturday to raise my scores. Previous sores were
Math-580 Reading-550 Writing-530. My gpa is a 3.56 out of 4 and i live in new jersey. What is the chance I will be accepted? Should I wait for my new scores or just send them my transcript? I am nervous because i need financial aid does being from out of state help?

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i’m also planning to major in biology

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You should move this thread over to the University of MN forum. A bit more traffic specific to the admissions process at U of MN :smiley:

Your scores and GPA are simply too low for College of Biological Sciences. However, the College of Liberal Arts also offers the Biology major (you’d get a BA rather than a BS) and there you stand a better chance of being accepted. In either case you will need to improve that SAT significantly. That might be difficult to do so have a backup school in mind in case you are waitlisted or rejected outright.

If you have a special hook of some sort (URM, first generation in college, athletics) that might help as well.

Here is the current academic profile of those accepted to the University of MN just so you know what sort of score you need for CLA:

https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/academics/profile.html

Good luck to you!

4

@Yellowladybug to answer your question about whether to hold back on sending your SAT score, here are some things to think about:

  1. Your previous SAT looks like it was the old test - is that correct? If so, then hopefully you know that you will be taking the new version this Saturday. College Board totally overhauled the SAT and currently administers only the revised version. So hopefully you’ve prepped for that. They are very different tests but maybe that’s an advantage for you.

  2. Scores have been taking longer for College Board to release because they are still determining the curve for the new test. You can call UMN Admissions to find out whether it makes sense to have your scores sent directly from College Board in time to meet the Nov. 1st Priority Deadline (which I assume is what you are shooting for). The advantage of that is that UMN will likely receive them in time (confirm this with them but pretty sure that the October administration will be accepted if sent directly from College Board). The disadvantage is that you have no clue what that score will look like before it’s sent to them!

Here are a couple strategies to consider:

  1. If you aren’t sure whether your new scores will definitely be an improvement then arrange to have your current scores sent now just to make sure the application is marked “complete” prior to the Nov. 1 deadline. You will not get an admission decision early; however, they don’t send out waitlists and rejections till January so you have a little time. Have your Oct. scores sent to you directly in order to see if they are, indeed, better. If so, then send them to UMN post haste and notify Admissions that you have a better set of scores to send them. Many times, applicants who are appealing a “waitlist” will retake an exam and send along those scores as part of the appeals process and then get accepted. So UMN will consider additional scores even if sent after the Priority Deadline.

  2. If you are highly confident that your scores are indeed going to be better, then arrange to have them sent to UMN directly from College Board.

You asked about financial aid and unfortunately your stats are not going to qualify you for merit scholarships. You might receive need-based federal grant aid depending on your family’s EFC. Also, there are a variety of specialized scholarships available on the UMN scholarship website so you can check those out as well.

Good luck!