<p>Hello everyone.
I am confused and taken aback that my son was denied admission to the Ohio State University. His CGPA is 3.966, he is ranked at 87 in a class of 536, his ACT score was not that great at 21 but his SAT was 1681, he is in orchestra and on orchestra council, (he is in fact the VP of Orchestra council), he is VP of GSA (Gay Straight Alliance), a member of the National Society of High School Scholars, and he was accepted on academics to U of Alabama and Ohio University. I am confused on what else we could have done… we’ve visited, my husband is alum… am I missing something? Is it because we are coming from Georgia? Any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>It probably depends on the major he applied for. Some are highly sought after and have a low acceptance rate.</p>
<p>test scores are pretty low. I’ve found often that OSU takes relatively low gpa such as a 3.3 with a high ACT/SAT but they won’t take a high GPA with a low ACT/SAT. This is with most of the schools i applied to in general as well.</p>
<p>The average ACT score for admitted freshmen is around a 28 now, so your son’s test scores are significantly below average for OSU students as a whole.</p>
<p>OSU has been more and more selective with time, and has become one of the more selective public universities in the country. Ohio University is less selective, with an average ACT range for admitted freshmen of 21-26, and Alabama’s reported average ACT score is also lower, at 25.4.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry your son was denied admission to OSU. That has to hurt. His ACT and SAT scores are fairly low. They had a lot more applicants this year due to using the Common Ap for the first time, so they could be much more selective.</p>
<p>Because of the huge variance in high schools, universities that are trying to be public ivies have to rely more heavily on test scores as these have less variance.</p>
<p>OSU is super-conscious of the numbers because higher numbers help them to achieve a better “student selectivity” rating. Activities, essay–these things are just not going to overcome low test scores. OSU doesn’t need more well-rounded students; they need students who test well and who can therefore bump them up to another tier. The school still has a fairly lax acceptance rate–almost 70%–but a number-conscious school is going to easily slash those who just don’t have the quantitative data.</p>
<p>If he reapplies as a transfer student, he will have a much easier time.</p>
<p>Actually I was denied with a 27 act and 3.7 gpa and was told it was because of my gpa and some of my friends with much lower acts and higher gpas were accepted so who knows why he was denied. You can email and ask but they’ll give you a standard answer of why.</p>
<p>I think all state universities have an instate bias. No I think the 21 ACT was the killer. That’s well below the average.</p>