I am a high school senior applying to schools now. I am very aware that my test scores and GPA are very low for the competitive schools I am applying to. However, my ethnicity will help with schools that offer affirmative action.
I’m applying to:
Columbia (their multicultural recruitment committee is emailing me)
USC
San Diego State University
University of San Francisco
Chapman University
University of Texas at Austin
University of Washington
Cal Poly SLO
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Santa Cruz
UC Santa Barbara
UC San Diego
Intended major: Public Relations
Location: southern california
ethnicity: white and Cherokee Indian (registered)
My stats are:
GPA: 3.58 (weighted high school), 3.5 CSU GPA, and with the classes I’ve completed at a community college, my overall GPA is a 3.85
ACT: 24, but 25 superscored
3 AP classes: AP english language & composition (3 on ap test), AP environmental (2 on ap test), and I’m taking AP literature now
5 college courses at a community college: history of film and cinema (A), sociology (A), psychology (B), real estate (current), biological anthropology (current)
3 years of a foreign language
2 years of writing for the high school newspaper
Co-founder of the hugely successful, award-winning iPad academy at my high school. My school is now projected to become dominantly iPad in years to come.
Co-founder of the Salarrué chapter at Aliso Niguel High School of the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (Spanish National Honor Society) and I am the Treasurer and Head of Committee for Spanish National Honors’ Society (nationally recognized)
100+ hours of volunteer work
2015 Esprit de Wolverine award for excellence in the field of Spanish
Nationally ranked figure skater in All Year Figure Skating Club - competitively figure skated for 10 years
6th place at the 2010 Midwestern & Pacific Coast Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships
Columbia is out of reach with that ACT/GPA – remember, they email a LOT of students. It doesn’t mean they’re taking a personal interest in you usually. Almost all your other schools are also going to be out of reach as well, and California outlawed affirmative action, so that can’t help you there.
Honestly it looks like you need to build a more realistic college list based around your stats. You have no matches and no safeties. Try to raise your ACT a little bit – a 27+ single-sitting will open up many more doors.
No chance at columbia, UC Berkeley, UCSD, and USC. The test scores and GPA are the main determining factors for college admissions and your statistics are not in the lowest 25th percentile of these colleges.
@BabylonBabylon Actually I think you’re wrong. Only the UC’s and CSU’s outlawed affirmative action. USC, USF, and Chapman all have affirmative action. I do have matches and safeties. SDSU, Chapman, USF, and UT Austin are very much in my range, and I just might surprise you and get into Columbia and USC.
Your GPA and test scores are too low for most of the colleges on your list. UT Austin is a reach for you, because of your low stats, and the extremely low OOS acceptance rate. Your test scores are below the middle 50% for USF. Your CSU GPA/test scores are below the average for SDSU as well. For Chapman, you are also below average. Therefore, those four schools that you listed are not matches/safeties. They are all either low reaches or reaches for you. And the chances of you getting into USC and Columbia with those stats are close to none.
Your extracurriculars will help, but I’m not sure if they can overcome your low stats. (Though they are good ECs)
I might seem really harsh, but your pretentious/entitled attitude really showed with your response to @BabylonBabylon. I agree with him, and I think you should build a more realistic college list.
Between your low ACT and low AP test scores, I am assuming (and admissions officers probably will too) that your relatively high GPA is a product of grade inflation. In addition, while affirmative action will help you, a college isn’t going to accept a student with scores drastically under their range solely based on the student’s race. If I were you, I would add more safeties to your list and remove a few of the higher reaches. Also, addressing the schools you listed as very much in your range, SDSU will probably accept you and perhaps USF because of affirmative action, but Chapman is a low reach and UT is a high reach.
ACT low for most of the schools. UT Austin is extremely difficult OOS so I wouldn’t say that it’s in your range. Most of your schools are reaches or high reaches and you need more matches and some safeties.
By the way-I don’t know much about synchro (I only do singles), but how did you compete both Midwestern and Pacific sectionals? If you’re in All Year, why did you compete Midwestern?
@collegequartz I don’t think relying on affirmative action is a good strategy since you hardly qualify as a URM. I’m going to chance you based on your gpa and test scores:
Columbia (their multicultural recruitment committee is emailing me): Your ACT score and gpa are way too low not even the 25th percentile. It’s going to be near impossible getting in even with URM status. I have to be honest your chances don’t look too good. I would give you a 1% to 2% chance of admission and consider that generous.
USC- A selective school, I would say has similar admission stats to UCLA. I would give you a 5% to 12% admit rate.
San Diego State University- Your gpa and ACT score match the average so I would give you the average chance of 34.5%.
University of San Francisco- You have a good chance here I would say +50%.
Chapman University- Your ACT score is in the 25th percentile and your gpa is slightly above the 25th percentile. I would give you a 20%-30% chance of admission.
University of Texas at Austin- Out of state admit rate is lower than that of texas residents. I would say 20%-30% chance but it could be lower.
University of Washington-I suppose you mean the one in seattle I would give you a 25%-35% chance of admission.
Cal Poly SLO- I would say 20%-30% based on gpa and test scores that are mostly in the mean and the fact that your a california resident.
UC Berkeley- Similar to USC 5%-12%.
UC Davis- 20% to 30% based on test scores and gpa.
UC Irvine-30% to 40% based on test scores and gpa.
UC Santa Cruz to 40% to 50% based on test scores and gpa.
UC Santa Barbara-20% to 30% based on test scores and gpa.
UC San Diego- 15% to 20% based on test scores and gpa.
I pretty much agree with everyone else on this forum but would like to focus on UT. 91% of each freshman class is made up of solely students from Texas most of whom are in the top 8% of their class. I would be astonished if you were in the top 8% and would call UT a high reach for you. Some of the other California schools may be in range but I honestly think it doesn’t make sense for you to apply to Columbia, usc, and Berkeley. They are highly selective and with your stats I would say your chances are less than 1% at all of them. You are going to do great wherever you go and it’s not all about the pretentiousness of a school. I would suggest finding more safety schools with enviornments you know you will enjoy.
@99gray I’d agree with you there, the issue is would a lot of out of state residents apply in the first place? If the applicant pool is small enough then OP could have a chance of admission.
@Ali1302 Even if there is a smaller pool of OOS students, OP is applying to PR, which is in one of the most competitive schools within UT (Communications). It is also one of the highest ranking PR programs in the country. Additionally, OP has scores substantially lower than UT’s average for OOS students.
Come up with some more matches and safeties. Just by typing in your GPA and ACT scores into SuperMatch, I got Baylor, Texas A+M, Dayton, Belmont, etc. You will find a school out there that is right for you.
By looking at you profile tbh your scores seem very low for univs like UC Berkeley
Heres a fact: Although colleges do say that your scores don’t matter, they do. They say that because they want to draw as many applicants as they can. Improve your scores (ACT especially) and you’ll have a shot at some of the top tier universities in your list!
I’m gonna have to agree with many others on here and say that your chance of admission at any top tier schools is compromised by our ACT and GPA. You just need to get those raised in order to have a shot at Columbia, USC etc. But also good on you because your EC’s and such give you a good shot at many of the other schools you specified!
I’m also applying to Columbia and USC. Care to chance me back please?