I see a LOT of people on these boards posting that kids have little to no chance of being accepted into Clemson based on GPAs but I have a VERY hard time believing that EVERY SINGLE student who gets accepted into Clemson has a GPA of 4.0 or better. And, if that is the case, I call shenanigans on their high schools!
I have kids who attend different high schools. At school #1, an A is 94-100. At school #2, an A is 93-97. Both A’s are credited as 4.0 but, at school #2, 98-100 is an A+ and credited a 4.3. At school #1, an A in an honors course is credited as a 4.3 and an AP A gets a 4.7. At school #2, an honors A gets 4.5 and an AP A gets a 5.0. I have a friend whose school considers anything 90-100 as an A and credits that as a 4.0, their honors A gets 5.0 and their AP A gets 6.0. So, simply looking at a GPA without considering the schools grading scale, one cannot fairly compare students. In order to fairly compare apples to apples, you must take into consideration each school’s individual grading scale and I’m really curious as to how colleges do that. I have heard that if your child goes to XYZ Academy, the colleges simply add 0.3 or 0.5 to your overall GPA because they understand the rigor and grading scale inequities.
I’m just putting this out there because I feel like a lot of kids are being discouraged because their GPA isn’t super-high (even if they have very strong SAT or ACT scores). Honestly, I have seen more than a few snarky comments and I don’t think it’s very nice. If a kid has a 1480 SAT score, I don’t care what his/her GPA is… I think he/she has a pretty darn good chance at being accepted. Even if you do think a student doesn’t have a good chance at being accepted into Clemson, you can still be honest without being snotty and dismissive. I don’t understand this “looking down your nose” at some poor kid who has a dream to go to Clemson. Can we all just be a little kinder and more gentle with these teens who are already under so much pressure?
@4n2yrs I agree with you! I see so many posted 4.0+ GPA’s. My D’s school it is very very difficult to have that kind of GPA I have to wonder where all the kids with non 4.0 GPA’s go. My daughter’s is mid 3’s UW, Challenging course load, 2 languages, super competitive college prep school. Clemson is her dream (I have twins but they want to go to different schools). I have to believe that colleges will give a good amount of weight to the high school profile. Fingers crossed for D19 and your kids too!
@2019stu - I have triplets who are all DREAMING of Clemson! We are in exactly the same boat as you are - super competitive private college prep schools, no rank, nearly impossible to have GPA of 4.0 or above. Hoping good SAT scores (1210, 1250 & 1360) will get them in with GPAs below 4.0 (2.57, 3.15 and 3.74). According to literature, Clemson’s middle 50% SATs are 1230-1390 so that means 25% below 1230 and 25% above 1390 so I think my guys SATs are in the range but who knows? We all absolutely LOVE Clemson but we are from PA so I know it will be harder. Fingers crossed for my kids and yours!!! Please reach out and let me know!!! Sending postive vibes to you guys!!!
We have a recent Clemson grad and have kids that attended a non-ranking OOS high-school. From experience, GPAs are very difficult to compare across schools, across states. It has been our experience that non-ranking high-schools will include a school profile to help colleges put the student’s GPA in context of the graduating class, without ranking. This will allow the student’s performance to be compared to their peers, for better or worse. In the case of DS, he was awarded a Clemson scholarship where the known cutoff was top 10%, even though his rank was not reported. Colleges are good at figuring out where the OOS students stand even with different GPA scales.
If you look at the Clemson Common Data Set it lists Rigor, GPA, and class rank and test Scores as “very important”
So obviously when they look at the application they do consider how hard or easy the HS may be or the courses the applicant took. That said 91.1% of the incoming freshman in 2017 had a GPA of 3.75 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
Also the average SAT was 1302. However the 25% percentile was 1220 so there clearly are kids with SATs in the 1200 range that are getting in.
If the school is a dream school you just put the best application together that you can let the chips fall where they may. Just be prepared with good back ups if the “dream” is not realized.
When I posted how passionate I was to attend Clemson and how much I wanted to attend, everyone on this website said there was absolutely no way I would be able to go. I had all these people telling me how low my GPA was and how my SAT score wasn’t great (3.33 UW and 1300 SAT). But I was accepted into my first choice major in the fall. My point is, don’t take these things to heart, half of these people simply don’t know because they aren’t in charge of the admissions, they don’t really know how this works. Every year admissions change. Different factors combined can make huge differences, there really is no definite way of knowing. I am asian and I emailed Clemson many times mentioning my interest in the school and how it was my dream to go. I’m not sure if this helped but it definitely didn’t hurt. My point is Clemson is not an impossible school to go to. If you can’t get in regularly, try to get into the Bridge. If you can’t get into the Bridge, you can always transfer. There are so many options and I think people don’t realize that it isn’t the end of the world if they don’t get in directly to the school first shot. Just because you don’t get in doesn’t mean you are any less or more than others.
kudos to you @amxn15 for not giving up, and congratulations! The advice I gave to my daughter was this: “You only hurt yourself by not applying.” She did apply, had a 1260 SAT and a 3.4 GPA, along with AP courses taken & Honors. She also got into Clemson and is super ecstatic. We will be visiting soon since we are OOS, but I am just as excited.
That is amazing, I’m so happy for her! I still haven’t gotten my packet but all the “hacks” worked for me and I’ve gotten emails after registering saying that I was accepted. So hopefully, that means I’m Tigertown Bound!
Yeah! I still haven’t gotten my packet because the mail is slow but all the “hacks” worked and I got emails saying Congratulations on your acceptance so I hope that it is good news.
Update: I got my packet today and I was accepted for the summer of 2019. I would have to start early to be accepted into the school. This is a hard decision
@amxn15 that is an interesting development. My son did “summer experience” before he went to college … taking classes for a session of summer school. How long is summer session? A friend of mine told me her daughter last year was accepted for Spring session for Tulane instead of Fall. Seems like they are mixing things up in terms of options for some students.
that’s fine, but it’s $11,000 extra. this is ridiculous. i don’t know why clemson does this. i simply cannot pay that. absolutely awful my dream school ripped away from me over something this stupid
is it indeed extra or just early? Is the fee higher for the credit hours than in a regular semester? Or will you just likely end up graduating earlier?
