<p>GWU is my son's #1 choice. He will be applying this fall. We are not sure whether he should aim for ED 1 or ED 2. </p>
<p>His SAT (taken in June) is 2040 (V 750, M 590, W 700). He will be taking Oct SAT hoping to increase the math score. He took one SAT II subject test (US history) and got 780. 3 AP tests: two 4's and one 5. His ECs are very strong and very interesting (all military related stuff: he is an ROTC scholarship candidate). </p>
<p>The problem is his GPA. weighted 3.85 out of 4.5 scale is a bit of a problem. To make it worse, it's the junior grade that slipped. His class rank is outside the 20% range. His high school is giving us an option of not reporting class rank. We will chose NOT to include that in his transcript. Math and science have never been his strong suite and C's in these course lowered the overall GPA significantly. Even so, he will have full 4 years of math and 4 years of science. Course rigor is good. 3 APs already taken. 3 more in senior year (couldn't take more due to the schedule conflict). Honors in english and social studies all throughout. </p>
<p>The question is, will he be better off to apply ED II, if senior fall semester is progressing well? Applying ED II will allow him to submit the mid year report, and hopefully that will go some way to compensate for the lower GPA thus far. </p>
<p>Or, is there an inherent advantage of ED I over ED II, so that he is still better off just going for the ED I. Of course, if the fall semester is going too well, we will definitely just do ED I.</p>
<p>I would very much appreciate any input/feedback from students/parents who applied ED I or ED II last fall/winter.</p>
<p>Even though my “S” applied RD last year and was accepted I have a few comments - a few things you should clarify. Providing your “S” does very well Fall of his senior year, will these transcripts be available to the admissions committee for EDII?? I’d personally verify this with your regional GW Admissions Rep.</p>
<p>Also, did he take some kind of SAT Math review before his Oct SAT? This was also my “S”'s weakness. He did Huntington and strictly focused on MATH - he went from 560 to 720. It may be an of N=1, but we were impressed. They taught him how to approach the test questions. Lets face it - there’s only so many ways they can ask the Math questions and I think he had seen most of them after the course.</p>
<p>I’d also interview on campus - it’s a good time to explain any junior year transcript issues/grades.</p>
<p>Lizmane, I see you have been following the GW threads for a while. Either you have older children who looked in the area or your son has been interested in GW for some time!
Our son had some of that EDI/EDII angst last year and in the end was very glad he applied EDI. Our experience was that the application was reviewed “holistically” and that grades/scores were evaluated in context.
While neither EDI nor EDII offers the large advantage that it used to, (at least it was true in the just completed admissions cycle) it still did confer some advantage, and is worth pursuing if GW really is his top choice. I’m not sure it is worth the effort to try to “game” the ED I vs ED II decision. At any rate, the ED I deadline of November 10th or so it will give you the time to figure out how 7th semester is going. I can PM you with more specific information if you like.</p>
<p>ED II, so the first semester can be taken into account.</p>
<p>3.8 WEIGHTED is LOW. 3.8 unweighted isn’t even that impressive, let alone weighted. Only 3 APs? Were there some honors, at least? Is it a top private/public school?
Had the low GPA been earlier in high school, that of course would change things. But, he tanked the year before he wants to apply to top tier schools. And, is competing with thousands of people who have higher GPAs, better test scores, above-average ECs, etc.</p>
<p>Not saying he shouldn’t apply, but he should be realistic about his chances.
ECs are good, and his test scores are ok. He better write one hell of a college essay, and get a 4.0 (unweighted… weighted is #@(*).</p>