If my unweighted GPA is in the lower 25th percentile, or below the range of the unweighted GPA of a certain universities unweighted GPA, but my SAT is over 100 points above their 50th percentile SAT range and my weighted GPA is above their average weighted GPA would i consider this school a good match or still a reach?
if that was confusing…basically if my unweighted GPA was much lower than the unweighted GPA at a certain university, but my weighted GPA was above and my SAT was bove their respective averages, what kinda school would i consider this?
say University of Wisconsin-Madison for example…their 50th percentile range for Unweighted GPA is 3.52-3.94 but my GPA is 3.43 or so…but their 50th percentile for SAT is 1180-1320 and my SAT is 1410…would i consider this school a match?
<p>Same EXACT problem I'm having. I have a full 100+ points over the 75% for some of my schools.</p>
<p>However, when this happens for me, I look at other factors (ECs, etc.) and make a practical decision. I usually end up with Match/Reach.</p>
<p>Colleges look first at the difficulty of curriculum that you took. If your HS has a lot of AP courses, you need to take them. Next they look at gpa/rank. However, the gpa can't be compared across all high schools since some grade easier than others. They look at how you did in your particular high school and they know about your high school since a "profile" is included with your official transcript. Next they look at standardized test scores, primarily SAT/ACT and SAT II's. The AP scores are not as important.</p>
<p>After you qualify on academic grounds within your unofficial category (URM, legacy, athlete, development case, international student, VIP's), they look at your EC's, essays and recs. They try to get a feeling for you as a person and they want the people who are unique. In the EC's, try to show "passion" and long-term committment in one or two areas instead of a laundry list of uninvolved activities. Large public schools are more numbers driven and care less about this part.</p>
<p>The gpa's are so not standard across high schools and so it is not a good measure of whether a school is a safety, match, or reach. The SAT is better, but obviously a lot more goes into their decision. The 50% SAT range is for everybody who is accepted. It is statistically lowered by URM's, legacies, athletics, and ED applicants. For a non-URM, non-legacy, you need to towards the top of the 50% range for the college to be a match during RD. If the range is 1300-1500, then you need to be in the range of 1450 for the college to be a match. You can apply if you are significantly lower, but it is more of a reach. For a non-URM, non-legacy, you basically have no chance if you are at or below the bottom 25% mark.</p>
<p>The safety, match, reach concept is useful; but it is sometimes hard to implement in practice because you can't tell where a college fits. Think of it as an ideal that can never be realized in reality.</p>
<p>so take university of wisconsin-madison for example...thats really what im looking at...like i said their 50% SAT range is 1180-1320 and im 1410, and i have legacy. and can you tell me what URM is ? but basically if liek you said that GPA is not a good standard for deciding on colleges, could i rank this a safety/match? or actually since my GPA is below their range, i would rank this a pretty good match?</p>
<p>URM is Under-Represented Minority</p>
<p>Is your gpa good for your high school because your high school grades hard? You can tell this from your high school's "profile" which is available from your GC or Registrar. You can also tell from your class rank. When a person has a high gpa and low SAT, that is interpreted to mean that the high school grades easy. When a person has a low gpa and high SAT, that is interpreted to mean that the student is lazy. This is all based on high/low being relative to the average gpa at the high school.</p>
<p>I don't like to make specific estimations on admissions. Obviously being legacy and having a SAT score significantly into the top 25% are good things. Are you a state resident? State schools are usually easier to get into for in-state applicants? Based on these factors and nothing else, Wisconsin is at least a match. There are no absolute guarantees for any selective college.</p>
<p>point taken....however I seem to fit under the smart but lazy category. I am not lazy however, a lot of my grades end up being high B's and of course that ends up being a B all the same so it looks just like an 80%. How do I convey this to colleges? I do not slack off as I take AP's honors and the toughest courses in my high school with absolutley no regular classes, excluding P.E. So would i include this is another statement? how should i convey this to colleges?</p>
<p>Lunar, i'd be wary of using the SAT averages that Madison gives. Pretty much every Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and midwest student (which will be 75% of the student body or so) has taken and submits the ACT.</p>
<p>What do you mean by development case? Do you mean overcoming adversity?</p>
<p>
[quote[What do you mean by development case?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Your family has mega bucks to donate to the school in the form of a building, an endowed chair etc.</p>
<p>At most public universities the process is more numbers driven than it is at private schools. For the University of wisconsin-madison it states:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/admission/freshmen.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/admission/freshmen.html</a></p>
<p>Students with the strongest grade point average, class rank, course preparation, and test scores will have the greatest chance of admission. We will also take into consideration personal characteristics that will contribute to the strength and diversity of the university community. To estimate your chances for admission, compare your course preparation and class rank with those in the tables below. </p>
<p>You can see pretty much where you fit in and your chances of being admitted.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/admission/Frosh%20Expect%202005-06.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/admission/Frosh%20Expect%202005-06.pdf</a></p>
<p>3.43 gpa and a 1410 gives you a 70% likelihood. A 3.6 would boost that to 90%</p>
<p>hmm ic...yea i kno how a lotta ppl take and submit the ACT for wisconsin but it says their 50 percentile range is 26-30....i took the ACT and am planning to take it again in september, but i got a 28 on first try so im smack dab in the middle so that could be good for me?</p>
<p>With that id just submit the 1410. I think it's def. a match for you. You'll get in if you apply early. Honestly, I'd worry more about your reaches. I still think you're fine for Michigan too. Just apply VERY EARLY. At the worst, Madison would defer you (which might happen because of the GPA) and re-evaluate your transcript in the Spring. That gives you time to raise the GPA. </p>
<p>edit- one thing about that chart showing the % odds of admission is that if the class rank/unweighted GPA totals don't match up, then the chart is kinda useless. For the 3.4 example, that chart assumes you're in a certain percentile of your class. If not, that changes the way they'd view that GPA in light of your HS.</p>
<p>dunno about Wisc but some publics are dropping legacy preferences...</p>
<p>i kno that like a 3.6 ish is like top ten % in my school so mebe im like top fifteen or top twenty %? yea around there....and i think that wisconsin is still taking legacy cause their website said they consider legacy as well....dunno about michigan tho....i dont have any legacy there neway :-P</p>
<p>oh yea btw...my school doesnt rank ppl.....they just do like percentiles like oh this person is in top 10% this person is top 20% etc etc...so then wisconsin said they would consider other factors? i think usually then they take into account the difficulty of ur courseload? i mean my weighted GPA is much higher than the average weighted GPA of the accepted students there that graduated from my high school last year (we had a accepted students chart thingy) so that'll give me an edge? i think i read somewhere how a 3.4 in honors/AP would look a whole lot better and more impressive than a 3.9 in almost no honors/AP.....what do u guys think?</p>
<p>Not taking the most rigorous curriculum in high school looks bad no matter what your gpa is. </p>
<p>Get a copy of your high school's profile. The profile is sent to the colleges along with your transcript. The format of the profiles varies a lot between school districts. Since your school doesn't rank, look at the gpa distribution on the profile if it has one. What you see is what the adcom will see. You are hoping to be in the top 10%.</p>
<p>a good match doesn't guarantee your a shoe in..all it means is that you fit the profile for the average student let into that specific school</p>
<p>is it still ok for me to be in top 20%? i mean isnt that kinda unfair still? the top 10% at sum random school could be the bottom 10% in another school. colleges are always boasting about how most of their students are in the top ten % but these students wont always be from good schools. So if I went to a bad school, still took a lotta honors/AP's and got a bad GPA but was in the top ten % that would really good for me, but i went to a competitive school didnt got top ten % but was still higher than another schools top ten % say, then how is that fair?</p>
<p>however ive heard sum rumors about how if u go to a competitive high school then the colleges will add .2 to ur GPA? is this true at all?</p>
<p>The idea of the "top 10%" isn't so much how much you have learned, but rather how competitive you are among your peers. </p>
<p>The rules about "being a URM is the same as adding 200 points to your SAT score" and things like that don't strike me as the way it works. I think the process is more holistic. </p>
<p>People from competitive high schools have higher stats either because of their socioeconomic advantages or because they had to compete to get into the school. Competitive high schools also have better teachers and facilities. Actually, going to a competitive high school can hurt you because a large number of students from the small high school will apply to the same extremely selective college. The college can't take a very large number of students from the same high school, and so the applicants compete among themselves and the class rank is important. For example, 40 may apply to Harvard and Harvard may take 5, but if they were spread out across more high schools, Harvard might have taken 10.</p>
<p>hmm so how do u guys think i should convey that i work hard, get high B's but that ends up being the same as someone who gets an 80% and i dont really slack off cause im taking all AP/honors and im challenging myself. I mean if im challenging myself with all these hard courses and AP's, including the fact that my senior courseload is 5 AP's and one honors, shouldnt that indicate that im not really lazy as the low GPA, high SAT theory suggests?</p>
<p>Who counts as a URM?</p>