<p>Stats:
GPA: 3.4 UW
Low GPA but I go to a really competitive school with 30% of students attending Ivy League schools and 70% attending top 30 schools
SAT: 2350
ACT: 35
APs: Microeconomics (5) Macroeconomics (5) Calculus AB (5) US History (5) Chinese (5) Comparative Government <a href="4">Self Study</a> Physics B (3)
SAT Subject Tests: Chinese (780) Math II (740) US History (720) Biology M <a href="660">won't send</a> </p>
<p>ECs:
Debate Captain (4 years): Won numerous awards and competitions regionally and nationally
Boy Scout (4 years): Life Scout
Varsity Swimming (4 years)
DECA (3 years)
President of Link Crew (2 years): Help freshmen enter into high school
Volunteer at charity which provides scholarships to students in rural China to attend high school/university in China (3 years)
Hutchinson Cancer Institute Research Assistant (2 years): associated with University of Washington </p>
<p>Summer Activities:
Freshman - Sophomore: Summer Classes
Sophomore - Junior: Hutchinson Cancer Institute Research Institute, Harvard Debate Council Workshops
Junior-Senior: Columbia High School Summer Program (Globalization/Ethics of War) [6 weeks], Volunteer in China to help families who were affected by the 2008 Szechuan Earthquake, Intern at a human resources startup</p>
<p>Intended Major: Political Science/International Relations </p>
<p>I understand I have a low GPA but I was wondering if my test scores could help my situation. Also, if my senior year grades were phenomenal (4.0 UW), would it help my case?</p>
<p>My teacher recs and counselor rec should be really good
Would it help my case if I talked about a hook/something really different in my personal statement?</p>
<p>Colleges:
Columbia ED
Tufts ED II or NYU Stern ED II
UCLA
UCSD
USC Marshall School of Business or College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service
Northeastern</p>
<p>Thanks! Chance me and I'll chance you back! :)</p>
<p>The UC’s look good except that UCLA will be tough because it is so competitive. But since you will be full fee, it should help that you will be full pay. USC might be a reach.</p>
<p>I feel like you’re pretty competitive, but probably not for Columbia ED.
I’ve got to say, that’s a smart move with your ED and ED II usages. Perhaps Tufts and NYU Stern…</p>
<p>I’ve got to disagree with @auntbea, I think UCLA is a good possibility for you. Even UC Berkeley. The UCs tend to look less at your school results, so your high standardized test scores might help.</p>
<p>Columbia ED: High Reach (not likely just because of GPA)
Tufts ED II or NYU Stern ED II: Low Reach
UCLA: Match
UCSD: Low Match
USC Marshall School of Business or College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences: Low Reach
Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service: Reach / Low Reach
Northeastern: Safety</p>
<p>I agree with Roise96 pretty much. I think NYU would be a high matc as well as Tufts and I’m not familiar with the UCs to comment on that. Georgetown, i would say is reach. That GPA is going to hurt. SFS at GT maybe a high reach. I don’t know anyone from sons’ highly comp school who got in there even with high test scores without a 3.5+</p>
<p>@Mangiafuoco I would like to point out that this year’s UC application stats are a little offbeat and weird, but did you really write good essays and had ok recommendations? Because 2300 should’ve gotten you in a lot of the UCs really…</p>
<p>@alafae
My GPA was too low and my majors (computer science / civil engineering) are impacted. In addition, Parchment.com’s scatterplots suggest that most UCs place a greater emphasis on GPA than on standardized test scores. Only UCSB (which accepted me) seems to commonly accept both high GPA / low SAT students and high SAT / low GPA students (ironically, UCSB’s leniency towards students with a high SAT score and a low GPA resulted in UCSB being considered more selective than UCI because its leniency allowed its average SAT score to be higher than the average SAT scores of UCD and UCI; however, the truth is that UCSB is significantly less selective than UCD and UCI).</p>
<p>I think my essays were okay, and the UCs do not require recommendations.</p>